GPS District Digest (v5, i18)

With so much going on in our schools this month, maybe you forgot to fill out your annual Greenwich Public Schools Family Survey. We forgive you, but the deadline is tomorrow. So, have at it! Can't find the email? Search “Greenwich Public Schools Family Survey'' and we are sure it will show up.

When you are scrolling through all of your social media feeds, be sure to follow the Western Middle School teachers on Instagram at @wmsdc2024. Get an insider's look at their trip to the nation's capital. You will be glad you did.

In the meantime, get a load of what the GPS District Digest has to offer in issue No. 18. We always warn you that it is packed with amazing staff recognitions, fantastic student accomplishments, and more. But this time we really mean it! So, have at it!

Enjoy Issue No. 18 and thank you for your support.

GPS District Digest

Earlier this month, GPS celebrated the six 2024 Distinguished Teachers Award winners at Central Middle School.

Nominations for GPS Distinguished Teachers are submitted by students, parents, and colleagues in early March each year. Each member of the Distinguished Teachers Awards Committee (DTAC) reviews every nomination packet. At the annual “vote meeting” in April, DTAC members submit their ballots anonymously and without discussion. The ballots are tallied and the six teachers with the most votes are selected to receive the Distinguished Teacher Award. The Distinguished Teachers Awards Committee includes no more than 20 members, with representatives from the Board of Education, the Greenwich Education Association (GEA), the Greenwich Organization of School Administrators (GOSA), the PTA Council, members of community organizations, parents, and many previously named Greenwich Distinguished Teachers.

It is never too early to start thinking about 2025, right?

Greenwich High School Social Studies teacher, Ms. Courtney Powers, will travel to Washington, D.C. this June to attend the prestigious Supreme Court Summer Institute. After a highly competitive application process, 60 teachers nationwide were selected to participate this year. The Institute, open to teachers in the fields of law-related and civic education, is co-sponsored by Street Law, Inc. and the Supreme Court Historical Society.

The Institute offers teachers the opportunity to study recent Supreme Court cases in detail and learn innovative teaching methods for conveying this information to students. Well-known Supreme Court lawyers, reporters, scholars, and educators will be among the speakers and instructors for the Institute. A recent evaluation of the Supreme Court Summer Institute found that, after the program, teachers who attended felt much more confident discussing controversial issues and Supreme Court cases in their classrooms, discussed Supreme Court cases and used interactive teaching strategies more frequently, and gained critical knowledge about the U.S. Supreme Court.

Upon returning home, teachers will be available to present workshops on teaching about the U.S. Supreme Court, and to meet with media to discuss how the new skills and information will apply in their classrooms

Recently, Julian Curtiss School first grade students visited the Greenwich Public Library as part of its assured experience. Some students got their very first library card, some of them checked out their first book, and every single student left with a book in their hands and a huge smile on their faces.

Make sure you watch the brief video montage.

Sources have alerted the Digest recently that Western Middle School's 2018 Distinguished Teacher Ms. Michele DeRosa and 2022 Distinguished Teacher Ms. Tyler Mecozzi have been selected to present at the 2024 Empowered to Lead Symposium at the Mohegan Sun Convention Center in Uncasville.

They are expected to present about interdisciplinary collaboration, using Saturday Academy and STEMinar as their primary examples, initiatives they started together at WMS a few years ago.

The Empowered to Lead Symposium, an annual event hosted by the Connecticut Teacher of the Year Council, is Connecticut’s premier educational conference. E2Lead provides opportunities for teacher-leaders, colleagues, administrators, and other educators to articulate and enhance their collective power, expertise, and experience. This transformative event includes inspiring keynote and luncheon speakers; multiple networking opportunities; and interactive sessions that promote the sharing of ideas and resources, innovative strategies and solutions, and collaborative discourse and practices geared toward elevating our profession.

GHS senior Omar Badr has been named the 2024 State of Connecticut Youth of the Year by the Boys & Girls Clubs of America. The Youth of the Year title is a prestigious honor bestowed upon an exemplary young person in recognition of leadership, service, academic excellence, and dedication to live a healthy lifestyle.

Omar was named the 2024 Youth of the Year by Boys & Girls Club of Greenwich in April and was selected from among 11 outstanding finalists. Now in its 77th year, the Youth of the Year program honors the nation’s most awe-inspiring young people on their path to great futures. As the Connecticut Youth of the Year, Omar will serve as an ambassador for all teens in the state, will receive a $2,500 college scholarship from Boys & Girls Clubs of America, and will advance to the Northeast regional Youth of the Year event.

“I moved from Brooklyn to Greenwich at the end of fourth grade, and that same week, my mother signed me up to attend the Boys & Girls Club” Badr, who is a Hamilton Avenue School and Western Middle School alum, said. “Since that first day, BGCG has shaped my life and helped make me the person I have become. The various programs I attended combined with the mentors I’ve had have shaped me and given me valuable skills. Most of all, the Club has helped me discover my passion of helping others.”

For more information, head to the Boys & Girls Club of Greenwich's website.

Old Greenwich School is going zero waste with the addition of food scrap recycling in the cafeteria. The Dolphins achieved a 79% waste reduction by separating their food waste from liquids, recycling, and trash in the lunchroom using sorting stations. Parent volunteers deliver any uneaten, unopened food - an average 11 pounds a day - to the Yerwood Center in Stamford twice weekly, in partnership with Food Rescue US, Fairfield County.

The Zero Waste Schools program was initiated last year by the PTA Council Green Schools Committee and Waste Free Greenwich, in conjunction with Greenwich Public Schools' Facilities Department. Through the program, OGS students are projected to eliminate almost 12,000 lbs. of trash from the waste stream during the school year. A daily average of 36 lbs. of food scraps are eliminated from incineration to instead create energy and compost. In fact, food and liquids compose nearly 3/4 of the waste generated in the cafeteria by weight, and diverting these materials to higher and better use has significant environmental, social and budgetary impacts.

Some of the educational highlights in the cafeteria included an instructional video, a worm encounter, and an interactive video game. Training concluded with a compost challenge competition for extra recess to reduce contamination in the compost and recycling bins and promote teamwork among the classes. The students will celebrate their success with a delivery of compost for the school's gardens, bringing the process full circle.

A team from Greenwich High School was recently honored by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York when it announced the results of this year’s High School Fed Challenge, an academic paper competition in which student teams researched and analyzed an economic theme, then wrote podcast scripts reflecting their research. The theme of this year’s competition was "the Economics of Work." School teams submitted 80 papers; of those, New York Fed reviewers selected 12 to publish.

The Cardinal's podcast script entitled, Gig-a-Bite: Food Delivery and the Rise of the Gig Economy, will be published in this year’s Journal of Future Economists, to be released this summer.

To see the entire press release, head to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York's website.

Superintendent Dr. Toni Jones recently announced the appointment of Ms. Mary Dolan Collette as assistant principal of Riverside School, effective July 1. Ms. Dolan Collette has been serving as interim assistant principal since November 29, 2023.

“In a short time, Ms. Mary Dolan Collette has proven to be a committed and dedicated administrator at Riverside School,” Dr. Jones said. “The interview committee, consisting of GPS senior administrators, teachers, and parents, were not only impressed with her extensive work experience, but also her passion for the Riverside community. Ms. Dolan Collette and the newly appointed principal, Jason Martín, establish a devoted and passionate administration team. Once again, Greenwich Public Schools continues to be the premiere destination for educators in the region.”

Ms. Dolan Collette has been an educator since 1993, most recently holding the position of elementary program facilitator at Fairfield Public School’s North Stratfield Elementary School for the past six years. Additionally, she served as Fairfield’s summer school principal from 2017 through 2022, supervising staff while focusing on early literacy and summer boost programs. Ms. Dolan Collette began her career in education as a second and third grade teacher at Fairfield’s McKinley and Jennings Elementary Schools and then continuing on as a language arts specialist at those same schools.

“Since I have been at Riverside School, our students, their families, and the entire staff have been overwhelmingly welcoming,” Ms. Dolan Collette said. “There is so much eagerness to create partnerships and to collaborate for the betterment of all of our students. I am excited to start to work with Principal Martín and thrilled for the future of Riverside.”

Greenwich High School ESL teacher Ms. Jeanne-Marie McAnanly was recently awarded Connecticut Educators Association's Humanitarian Award for Leadership in Recent Immigrant Educational and Community Relationships for dedicating her professional life to teaching immigrants both language and life skills so that they can excel on whatever path they choose for their futures.

"I see Jeanne-Marie as an expert teacher,” fellow ESL teacher Ms. Kimberly Steinhorn said. “While students are learning to read, write, speak, and listen in English, they are also learning what it means to be part of a community that values education, goal-setting, integrity, and generosity. Jeanne-Marie plans her lessons with attention to the needs of our students and helps them understand their place in our world. She always accentuates what talent each student brings to the classroom and finds ways to make learning meaningful, memorable, and fun.”

In addition to Ms. McAnanly (pictured left), Bridgeport ESOL teacher Ms. Jessica Baldizon (middle) received the Katherine Dunham Award, which honors members for promoting an understanding and an appreciation of a multicultural society through the arts, and Mansfield social studies teacher Mr. Joseph Goldman (right) received the Mahatma Gandhi—Martin Luther King Jr. Peace Award for his work developing a genocide studies course for the state of Connecticut and teaching his students about the Holocaust.

For more information, you can read the CEA daily news report online.

Old Greenwich School, aka Sound Beach School, has made its triumphant return to the Digest's "Turn Back The Clock" feature.

Way back in volume 3, issue 17 of the GPS District Digest, we first shared a 1908 postcard of OG, the oldest current school building in GPS. Today, we share this amazing artifact with a 1907 postmark that landed in West Haven, 40+ miles northeast of Greenwich.

As good as the research department is, it is unlikely that we will ever know who sent this card to Beryl Olive Thomas more than 116 years ago. But what we can tell you is that Beryl was just 16 years old when this postcard ended up at her home at 63 Third Avenue. At the time, she was living with her parents, Alfonso and Isabella, and her younger brother, Clifford. Details on Beryl's life are sparse, but we do know that she was a practical nurse in Manhattan during the 1930s and was married to John Quirk.

Do you know of Beryl Quirk? Let us know!

We love sharing good news with our 2,160 closest friends on the GPS X (Twitter) account, @GPSDistrict. Can we get to 3k by the end of the school year?

Follow us, but only do it if you are a family member, student, staff, or community member that wants to see all of the good things happening around the District. No negativity from us!

At the Digest, we love to show you some of our favorite posts from around the GPS social media world, including from some new accounts on Instagram.

Do you have a favorite social media account? Let us know!

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