Dean Antipas joins Groton Board of Education
Groton — The Board of Education unanimously voted this week to appoint Dean Antipas, an attorney and former Town Councilor, to the board.
Antipas was sworn in Monday to fill the Republican vacancy on the board from the resignation of Gretchen Newsome. The term runs until Dec. 2021.
Antipas, who is in private practice as an attorney, said in an email that he also maintains his professional engineering license after working for a number of years as a civil engineer on mostly public works projects.
Antipas said he was interested in joining the school board because civic involvement is important for a free society, and he is confident that he can be of service to the town as a Board of Education member given his prior experience as a town councilor.
Antipas said he served two full and two partial terms on the Town Council between 2009 and 2017, including three stints as a council liaison to the school board during its negotiation of teachers’ contracts. He also was involved with major capital projects recently completed and currently underway.
Antipas said he has been inspired by the way his family has valued education “not simply as a path to advancement, but as a matter of personal betterment.”
“In Greek we refer to one who is educated as 'μορφωμένος' (morphomenos), quite literally “formed”, by implication fully formed, a complete human being,” he wrote. “I have tried to instill these values in my three children, including two now at Fitch High School, all Groton students like the three generations before them.”
He highlighted the 2018-19 trip to the United Kingdom in which the Fitch High School marching band led the London New Year’s Day parade and many other Fitch students participated in other musical events.
“Watching our students perform in local venues is always a treat, but to see them handle themselves in grand foreign settings with grace, aplomb, and high skill revealed in a unique, almost visceral way the immense responsibility of school management and staff,” he said. “School students, notwithstanding their juvenile veneer, demand that they be challenged, and if the school makes demands, the kids will proudly deliver.”
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