Lincoln's Log

Hamilton Avenue School is by far the worst performing school in Greenwich in standardized testing, ranking 387 out of 544 elementary schools in last year’s Connecticut Mastery Test. Greenwich’s best – Riverside School – came in at No. 19.

That’s quite a delta between 19 and 387. It’s Greenwich’s version of East Egg and West Egg.

Moreover, Hami Ave was recently cited by the state as failing to make adequate yearly progress on state achievement exams under the federal No Child Left Behind act.

This week, lost in the elections coverage and assorted other stories like the latest scandal at Greenwich Hospital was this article in the Greenwich Time. It was the most important story this year in my opinion.

Click here for Greenwich Time article

It shows our new superintendent Sidney Freund taking aggressive action to fix the single biggest problem in Greenwich – the troubled schools as measured by every standardized test available which are dragging down the reputation of the entire school district. From what I read in the story, Freund wants to shift $38,000 from a swimming program to fund the development of a new science lab. He also questions the wisdom of busing kids to the Boys and Girls Club in Greenwich during the school day. He’d rather have them in school boning up on their math and reading.

Now, anyone who reads my blog regularly knows my views on the schools. I am a Greenwich resident with no child currently attending the public schools. By all accounts, I should be part of the big vocal conservative voice of empty nesters in Greenwich who do not want their tax dollars increased to support the schools for which they get no direct benefit. Greenwich has an unusually small public school population (about 8900 students) for a city – sorry town – with 62,000 people, owing to the fact that 18 percent of the kids go to private schools. This year the town whacked $4 million from the school budget forcing the new superintendent to do things like shift money from one bucket to another.

Personally, I am appalled and embarrassed that I live in a community where the median price of a home is $2 million but we act like we live in some shanty town in West Virginia, forcing our head of schools to beg for pennies. But that’s another story. This is an overwhelmingly Republican town, and if I don’t like it, I suppose I can always move to Westport.

But this post isn’t my usual rant about the school budget. It’s about some of the parents at Hamilton who don’t want Freund to shift the funds. As I said earlier, I am embarrassed that we have come to the point of forcing Freund to make these choices. But he is acting in greater interest of the children of Hamilton School. He knows we are intertwined as residents of a single community whether we accept that or not. The fact is Hamilton’s low scores bring down the average scores for the entire district and places Greenwich lower and lower in state rankings – now No. 40 out of 195. Westport, by the way, is No. 1.

Headlines blaring out our failure to comply with federal minimum standards don’t do any of us any good either. The headlines say “Greenwich Schools fail.” They aren’t parsed as “Chickahominy schools” or “Riverside schools.” It’s a blot on the entire town every time it happens.

Freund also knows that the elementary students at Hamilton will grow up to be high school students someday when they will take the Connecticut Academic Performance Test which has a science component. He is smart to try to instill a love of science at the elementary level.

These moves by Freund is the first sign that we have the right guy pulling the levers, in my opinion. The parents at Hamilton have a right to be distressed about the loss of the skating and swimming programs. But they live in a town where on Tuesday it was decided overwhelmingly that those things are unnecessary and frivolous. Given the hand he has been dealt, our superintendent is doing the right thing. He deserves our support.

With Greenwich’s commercial vacancy rate at a staggering 18 percent, it’s gratifying – actually it’s exciting – to see a new business open, especially in a landmark venue that has been empty for three years. The name of the business on Sound Beach Avenue is Fred, a women’s clothing store.

The store had a soft opening on Tuesday in the historic Lockwood building (1932) that was previously occupied by Kerr’s Pharmacy, which closed in 2006. The signage out front is still awaiting Planning and Zoning approval. Owner Kelley Frey named the store after her daughter’s nickname.

It’s shaping up to be a beautiful autumn here on the banks of the Mianus, where the train-weary commuter population seems smaller, judging by the availability of parking spaces in the Metro North parking lots – perhaps a sign of the down-sized world of corporate Manhattan. Three recent times I pulled into the Old Greenwich station on the southbound side I found convenient spots even though it was mid-morning.
****
Hey, you don’t have to go south of the Mason Dixon line to find moronic behavior by political candidates. We have our fair share right here in good, old Yankee land, where one of the aspirants for selectmen, David Theis, thinks providing affordable housing for the elderly is “social engineering.” Wonder what he thinks of police, fire and emergency services, public schools, public libraries, road maintenance, parks and rec, etc. Wonder why someone with his views would want to be part of government? It is a contradiction that I have failed to grasp at a fundamental level about the Right – candidates who run for office and don’t believe in public service.
****
I miss Jim Lash, especially after listening to the recent selectmen “debates.” Rarely does a local municipality get the opportunity to get a first-class manager like Lash to run things. Dick Bergstresser was the Jimmy Carter of Greenwich politics who had no discernible executive skills. He only benefitted from the enmity toward Lolly Prince who was punished for allowing Stamford to successfully penetrate Greenwich Point. Peter Tesei makes me nervous. Why do I get the feeling that disaster is always right around the corner with this guy? I like Lin Lavery, who is a friend of a friend. But she has to do better than just shoot from the hip. Lash ran as a Republican, but he could just as well have been a Democrat. He was not a political ideologue. He understood, for instance, that affordable housing is not an issue to be debated in the 21st century but a challenge that required our best thinking. He had some interesting ideas for how to increase our affordable housing stock. He knew we didn’t need a federal lawsuit to force us to comply with the law – like in Westchester where they are forced to build 700 units in “white” communities. He also had strong opinions about how the Republican-run school board had no leadership and was driving our schools in the wrong direction. By the end of his second term, Lash had cashed in all his political capital. Too bad. I miss him, his wisdom and his leadership.
****
Bill Grad actually has a good chance to become the next Greenwich tax collector – the ultimate Greenwich sinecure – now that Rick Nowakowski is running despite losing the Democratic primary. The thinking among the Dems is that Nowakowski – whose politics is somewhere right of Francisco Franco – will garner all the extreme right votes leaving the Republican candidate Tod Laudonia with a Republican base that is not big enough to overcome Grad’s enthusiastic support which came out in force to snuff out the specter of Nowakowski’s frightening agenda.
****
Lord knows we need new blood on the school board – more like a major transfusion – but who wudda thunk that the brightest lights are the two Republican candidates, Peter Sherr and Theresa Stanton, both of whom came down squarely in favor of smaller classes for our children in a recent candidates forum. The two incumbents, Steve Anderson and Leslie Moriarty who are really appendages of the BET, voiced their predictable tow-the-line “fiscal responsibility” mantra: We have enough teachers so shut the hell up, you stupid know-nothing parents. The biggest disappointment is Nancy Kail, the candidate who I thought would make a difference but now sounds just like Anderson and Moriarty – more interested in her personal resume than in the interest of our schools. I say this because school board members in Greenwich under the Weissler era have made fiscal control their main goal instead of focusing on how to get our children the best education money can buy. No wonder the Greenwich school district plummeted in state rankings to be in the middle of the pack instead of standing among the elites (see my previous post on rankings). Too many studies have shown the benefits of a small teacher/student ratio. Beyond that, it just makes sense. To argue otherwise shows the true intent of these candidates as they cozy up to the small club of insiders who run the town. It’s depressing. Kail and Moriarty are automatic board members because of this cozy arrangement to keep choices out of the hands of voters. So the only real choice is between Stanton and the other two GOP candidates. Stanton, by the way, is the only candidate with real classroom experience.

This is one of the nicest family neighborhood events in Greenwich. Binney Park made a remarkable transition from a flood zone Saturday to the perfect venue on Sunday with beautiful weather and a perfect puff of wind.

When I moved to Greenwich almost 10 years ago, I marveled at the low fees for golf and boating which added to the special status the town enjoyed as a place of unparalleled value.

Nowadays though, the dramatic increase in fees the last few years is about to change that value proposition. Take boating as an example. The storage fee for Greenwich Point is going up to $24 a foot. Add to that the cost of $11 a foot for hauling and launching, and we’re now approaching and soon exceeding $46 a foot which makes some of the area’s private marinas look increasingly attractive, especially when you consider they provide additional services such as water and power. Earlier this year the town also jacked up the mooring fee to $100 from $35.

Golf has a similar trajectory in Greenwich where the local municipal course now charges $25 a round on the weekend. If you choose to ride in a cart, that will be another $29 unless you can find someone to split that cost. Total cost for one round? $54. Add to that the $140 annual membership fee and we’re starting to look more like what they get at private courses in the area.

No wonder my rounds at the Griff are down considerably this year. The good news is that I have discovered many other beautiful courses in Fairfield County such as Longshore in Westport and Richter Park in Danbury. Their gain is Greenwich’s loss. My prediction is is that the Griff will record both a decline in membership fees and number of rounds in 2009.

Two weeks ago some driver slammed into the rotary in front of Perrot Library in Old Greenwich and took down all the signs. Then earlier this week, another car came down Harding Road, crossed Laddin’s Rock, plowed through the hedges in front of the library and took out the metal rails on the front steps. The car traveled at least 25 feet past the stop sign on Harding Road.

And here is the photo from the accident two weeks ago:

The Westchester County airport waiting room was its claustrophobic self on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001. Virtually nowhere to sit, my colleague and I had to stand while waiting for our flight to Boston when his cell phone rang.
“A plane just hit the World Trade Center,” he said. The call came from Scott Meyer, general manager of NYTimes.com. I was COO of New York Times Digital at the time and had access to the latest news. At first, the reports were that a small plane had hit one of the towers. The news got worse very quickly after that. My colleague and I soon gave up on the idea we were flying anywhere that day, and both tried to get back to our office in Midtown. Since we had our cars at the airport, we took off – but in separate directions.
He went down the Hutchinson Parkway. I got as far as the Bronx on I-95 before hitting gridlock. It was a scene out of Blade Runner. EMTs and fire trucks were everywhere, blaring their sirens. Luckily, I was able to turn around and head back to Connecticut.
My first stop was Eastern Middle School in Riverside where I checked in on my sixth grader. I found him in the cafeteria and was relieved to see that the school was locked down and the students appeared safe.
Next, I drove to Greenwich Point.
There, on one of the clearest days of the year, I could see the two horizontal plumes of smoke extending from the burning towers to the end of Long Island – or as far as the eyes could see to the horizon. I was struck by how intact the plumes remained, instead of dispersing into the atmosphere as one might expect of smoke.
Finally, I went home to Riverside where I witnessed the day’s calamity on TV – the collapse of the towers, the attacks on the Pentagon and the plane which crashed in Pennsylvania.
I heard that President Bush was on a plane, and for the only time in my life, I feared for the safety of Dick Cheney.
The rest of the day was a blur. The extent of the attack was unclear. Fear of the unknown was the worst.
In the days following, I saw Rudy Giuliani at his best, the country rallying around the President and a national resolve to seek and hunt down the enemy.
That’s my story. Where were you on Sept. 11, 2001?