Norwalk: Kimmel Blasts BOE Secret Meetings Like Corda Contract Renewal
Corda, Lang and Opdahlmanaged to get a secret meeting to negotiate their contract renewals. YOu can’t make this stuff up.
When the Board
of Education’s negotiations
committee met this week,board
member Robert Polley didn’t
know about it, he said. Neither
did District Public Affairs Offi-
cer Sheri McCready, who typi-
cally notices the board’s full
meetings. Committee member
Bruce Kimmel said he did not
know who the committee’s
chairperson was until he
arrived at the meeting.
Sharon Cadden, a former
Norwalk High School PTO Co-
President who regularly attends
full board meetings, said she
didn’t know when this week’s
committee meeting ” or any
other committee meetings ”
took place.
“I’m never aware of them,”
she said.“I’d love to know when
they have committee meetings.
As far as I know they do every-
thing by phone or e-mail.”
Confusion in the aftermath
of this week’s meeting,conduct-
ed in a closed executive session
so the four committee members
could discuss the specifics of
contract renewals for Superin-
tendent Salvatore Corda, Assis-
tant Superintendent of Cur-
riculum and Instruction Karen
Lang,and Chief Operation Offi-
cer Stuart Opdahl,seems to evi-
dence the lack of information
surrounding board committee
meetings.
Here’s the first question for the BOE. Why would you renew any of these contracts? Let’s start with Mr. “Mismanagmeent” Opdahl. You have no construction or financial reports to indicate how the projects under his management are doing. You have been handed a “finished” budget without your input or oversight. Your test scores are not improving and you have schools that the State has cautioned you about.
Here’s what to do. Give Corda one year with a must improve mandate and itemize areas that must be improved. Get rid of Opdahl. Get rid of Lang.
If you bothered to talk to the teachers, you would know why you must act now to save the schools. Otherwise you are just passing the buck through negligence. You may think your stint on the BOE is doing good, but in effect you are harming a generation of school children by allowing gross incompetence to reign unchecked.
But the continue lack of commucation about committee meetings and notcing the public including your own webs site. Egads.
It is an issue Kimmel said he
has discussed with other board
members “for months.”
Kimmel said he’s also trou-
bled by the board’s lack of regu-
lar committee meetings ” the
finance committee did not meet
until after the budget was pre-
sented, and the curriculum
committee has met once in his
two years on the board,he said.
This attitude displayed about committee meetings is absurd. Kimmel is right. Cadden is right. Bishop-Pullan is wrong.
“They don’t want to have
committee meetings, they
don’t always post them,” he
said. “At best, it’s sloppy. At
worst, it’s denying the public
access to what is going on.”
Board Chairwoman Jody
Bishop-Pullan said Tuesday
that she didn’t know whether
the negotiations meeting was
noticed.
She said committee meet-
ings are called on an “as
needed”basis. Some, like the
policy committee, meet fairly
frequently, she said.
Committee meetings must
be posted 72 hours in
advance, and minutes must
be kept, said Peter Nolin, the
city’s corporation counsel.
Committee meetings are
typically noticed through
Corda’s office, Bishop-Pullan
said Wednesday.
Information about meet-
ings is posted in city hall, she
said.
Kimmel said this interpre-
tation of “posting”is not suf-
ficient.
“To conform to the letter of
the law misses the intent of
the law ” in this case, bla-
tantly misses the intent of
the law,”he said.
Kimmel said he thinks all
board meetings should be
noticed in the newspaper or
on the board’s Web site.
“The right thing to do is to
notice it so the public is fully
aware that a meeting take
place,” he said, adding that
posting in the city hall lobby
is not adequate. “If anyone
believes posting a meeting at
city hall is sufficient, they
need to have their head exam-
ined.”
Bishop-Pullan said she
would consider posting com-
mittee meeting notices
online.
“It’s sort of like, you do
whatever you’re legally sup-
posed to do, but if people feel
like their not getting enough
information we can make it
more widespread, that’s not a
problem,”she said.
Kimmel said that philoso-
phy is problematic and com-
mon on the board.
“Conforming to the mini-
mum creates a problem,”he
said. “In my opinion its the
same issue that came up
when they were considering
(eliminating) detailed secre-
tarial services at board meet-
ings.”
Cadden said more public
discussion at committee
meetings could combat mis-
information and improve the
board’s relationship with the
public.
“I often think they don’t
publicize them because
everything is controversial,
and I feel if everything was
more open, and people knew
what was going on, (it would
be less controversial),” she
said.
Bishop-Pullan said the
board doesn’t intend for com-
mittee meetings, which she
said draw few members of
the public, to be closed-door.
“We’re not hiding it,” she
said. “If people feel we need
to make it more obvious we
can certainly do that.”
Yes, Jodi, you are providing cover for the lack of oversight you provide over your staff, Corda, Opdahl and Lang. They report to you, not the other way around.
source:The Hour Board of Education having communication issues , By AMANDA PINTO , July 27 2007
