Gianazza on Last 8 Years on Board of Ed

Departing Board of Education (BOE) Vice Chairman Rob Gianazza said that during his eight-year tenure the school district had several notable accomplishments, including removing asbestos-related materials from the schools, renovating Brookfield High School (BHS), improving instruction and enacting cost efficiencies.

Gianazza said he decided to run for a seat on the BOE partly because he was concerned about how the school district was addressing environmental issues after the four schools were closed in the late spring 2002 due to asbestos contamination.

“It was a health hazard,” he said in an interview last week. “However the magnitude of it was not as severe as was portrayed by some people in the community.”

“A lot of people were under the impression that any asbestos at all wasn’t safe,” added Gianazza, who initially was elected by winning in the 2003 primary and general election while running on the Republicans United For Brookfield ticket headed by Jerry Murphy, who would serve as first selectman for four years.

Shortly after joining the BOE, Gianazza became chairman of its Facilities Subcommittee.

“We relied on him a lot on the facilities issues, and he did an excellent job,” said former BOE Chairman Jerry Friedrich, who now serves on the Board of Finance (BOF).

A parents group first expressed concerns about the district’s asbestos management plan during a public meeting in June 2000 and a short time later, Mark Granville, who has worked for several school districts in Connecticut, was hired by the BOE as its consultant on environmental issues.

The schools were closed in June 2002 after asbestos contamination was discovered and were then cleaned by contractors so that they could reopen at the end of that summer. Immediately afterwards the district monitored random classrooms periodically for asbestos contamination until the spring 2004, when the BOE voted to discontinue the air monitoring as part of the spending revisions that it made after the municipal budget  wasn’t approved until the third referendum.

Gianazza, who is a senior software engineer at Photronics in Brookfield, said he believed it would be more effective to devote money to removing the asbestos-related materials instead of conducting the periodic testing.

The BOE started removing asbestos-related materials from one of the schools during the summer recess in 2005 and completed that project by 2009.

Regarding the BHS project, which was approved at referendum in 2003, Gianazza said that due to budget limitations, it didn’t include every item that he had hoped for, and errors were made in the initial construction of the stadium field, which had to be resurfaced.

However, he said that despite delays in completing the renovations, the project “accomplished” the primary goals of providing additional space for an enrollment that was growing to near 1,110 students, modernizing the existing structure to make it conform to building codes and providing state-of-the-art science labs.

On a separate topic, Gianazza said Superintendent Anthony Bivona, who arrived in 2007, and his administrative team have taken the school district to a higher plateau.

BHS received recognition from Newsweek last June as it was and earlier this month was lauded by the College Board as courses and tests.

Gianazza said the 83-minute periods in the block schedule at BHS, which were established in 2009, have provided for more detailed instruction and the technology initiative in which has helped to teach 21st Century skills and provided students with textbooks that can be immediately updated.

On fiscal issues, he said Bivona’s proposed budget increases have reflected the economic conditions during the recession.

“They’re not reaching for the sky,” Gianazza said. “In the past, they asked for everything,”

“They’re now focusing on specific goals and saying this is how we can accomplish it,” he said. “If people see what they’re getting for their money, they’re more willing to support it.”

Gianazza said this last January marked the first time in his eight years on the BOE that he voted for the proposed budget that was sent to the first selectman.

He said he viewed his role as being an advocate for both the school district and the taxpayers.

Gianazza said Bivona has saved money by having Art Colley, who arrived in 2006 as the district’s technology director, also serve as business manager.

“It is remarkable that he has been able to do both jobs,” he said of Colley. “However, he has good delegation skills. He values his employees, which makes them more valuable.”

Gianazza said Colley has been instrumental in negotiating better contracts with the employee bargaining units since he became the business manager in 2008.

 “We’re determining how we can provide a quality benefit at a lower cost that isn’t going to hurt the employee,” he said.

Gianazza also praised Charles Manos, who became the district’s special education director about a year ago, for explaining to the public “the value of what we’re doing and why it is important.”

“In the past, it was more of a sacred cow,” he said. “People would say that it’s required by the state legislation, don’t touch that. Charlie has put a face on the program.”

Gianazza said that John Goetz, who became superintendent in 2003, about a year after the schools had been closed due to the asbestos contamination, was able to easily interact with employees in the school district, which helped to boost morale.

However, he said Goetz concentrated “more on the status quo than taking the district forward” as Bivona has.

Gianazza acknowledged that Goetz faced several obstacles.

He said the former superintendent, who retired in August 2007, “was constantly under fire with FOI [Freedom of Information] requests and constantly under fire for asbestos issues” as the district was removing materials from the schools.

Gianazza said Goetz “also took the brunt of the criticism on the high school renovation,” which didn’t begin until April 2006, three years after the project was approved at referendum.

During the period when asbestos-related materials were being removed from the schools, Gianazza had tense exchanges with some of the parents who expressed concerns during public comment at the BOE meetings.

“There are people who hate me,” he said.

Gianazza said through the years some residents have expressed those sentiments on websites.

“Rob had no problem with people commenting at the meetings and he stood behind their right to speak to the board,” Friedrich said.

“When he challenged people it was because he thought they were spinning the information so it might be taken out of context or what they were saying wasn’t 100 percent accurate,” he added. “There was never anything flagrant in what he did in trying to correct them or offer a different perspective.”

“We have something to accomplish,” Gianazza said regarding the BOE’s objectives. “We can’t give in to the knee-jerk reaction.”

School officials have said he will be missed.

Assistant Superintendent Genie Slone has said that she was impressed with how thoroughly Gianazza reviewed the materials for the BOE meetings.

Gianazza said he decided not to run for another term this fall because he believes in term limits.

“Very few people have put in so much time on behalf of the school district,” Friedrich said.