Norwalk: Karen Lang To Resign At year End

Let’s keep an eye on this. I think her contract goes for another year or two. Is she getting a buyout??

thankfully she is leaving. she already has a 150,000 retirement pension from her ny days. her brother in law, bobbie chiappetta retired last yeaqr from his own 150,000 city job with a 150,000 ny pension. maybe the othe ny guy mac hughes leaves with his 150,000 ny pension and our 150,ooo salry. 300k a year from taxpayers, nice work if you can find it.

They’ll be swinging and swaying, guitars playing, dancing in the streets… The David Bowie version:)

number 7, doesn’t these family relations smell of nepotism when hundreds of thousands of taxpayers dollars are at stake ? BTW how MANY FULLERS ARE ON THE CITY PAYROLL ?

#9: LOL!!! She is shameless about eating the pickles!!!!!

That said, I can think of no redeeming qualities.

Let’s hope Corda and Ophel not sure on his spelling follow suit.

I found the letter that all staff members received from Corda via email a poor representation of what the Cambridge Report stated. Of course, there was no mention of the administrative problems. Oh what a tangled web we weave…

I never made the connection until now, but does Karen Lang have that sour, disapproving look on her face because she has been eating sour pickles?

Aunt Bertha, I was also unimpressed by Corda’s letter; his blew his credibility long ago. People who work in the schools know many of the problems and have been talking about them for years.

This is a superintendent who calls us “folks,” when he talks to us, as though he and we were pals. He talks about how he values and respects our work, but the truth is that he has no way to understand it because he has been in the schools very few times over the seven years he has been here.

He calls us a “learning community,” but the truth is that we are not in this together. He and Stu make all of the budgetary decisions, even when they make no educational sense, and they don’t want to hear otherwise.

Karen Lang is no better; she has nothing but disdain for us, and it shows. She is in charge of curriculum and instruction; look how curriculum and instruction fared in the Cambridge Report. Does she not bear considerable responsibility for this? She is in charge of instruction, but has she ever observed a single class in any of our schools?

She finds time to go to her many conferences, but no time to visit the schools. Does she ever share what she has learned with teachers and administrators?

She has time to go on Center for Global Studies trips (for free), even taking her husband (who, presumably pays for his airfare and food, although not for the hotel room he shares with her), but she doesn’t have time to spend in the schools. Has she ever taught teachers anything about how they might differentiate or otherwise improve their instructional delivery? No. Yet, she is in charge of instruction. Dr. Lang, we won’t miss you.

Are you saying Stu Didn’t have the credentials for his position Norwalker?

Anon 17…..Was this comment posted by Mr. Henry or Mrs. Henry?

#23 – You hit the nail on the head. These kids are so sick of the CMTs. We need to get rid of the emphasis on them ASAP. When is the last time you heard a teacher say that they enjoy teaching. Emphasis on the CMTs has taken away teachers’ originality and freedom to do things in the classroom that are fun. Principals only worry about how to raise the scores. They don’t care that it is at the expense of the teachers losing the ability to run their classrooms the way they want to. We are told what to teach and how to teach it. It’s easier to get robots to do it. And how much money has been spent on programs we have thrown out two years later? What waste!

The dislike of certain principals is due to whether or not a certain teacher is on their @&%$ list! If you are on their good side, then everthing is fine, but of course if you don’t like their leadership skills and disapprove of their “Hitleresque” style of running their building, well then, wait for their wrath. It helps in some schools if you happen to use your lips to smooch an area where one defecates! If you need to clean off the proboscis, Fantastic with bleach can help…Not talking from experience! Just observant!

Anon 13 – I would like to begin by saying that it does NOT take an educated person to pick apart the personal lives of others, such as you did w. Iziar Mikolik. Why don’t you spend some more time trying to focus on the real issues, instead of very unsuccessfully trying to be funny? I sure hope that you are not one of those religious people who goes to church weekly and uses the same tongue to recieve communion that you use to so classlessly insult others. If you have extra time, why don’t you become a volunteer, anywhere, doing something positive, instead of gossiping negatively about others? Before you point your finger, make sure your hands are clean.

You have to admit, she is a principal of an elementary school. Young students look up to her. What example as a leader of the community is she setting for these young women and men? Besides low CMT scores, what else is there to offer but a warm, friendly environment? Something has got to turn around here. Change needs to happen quickly. I’m not sure she has what it takes to turn this around.
Check out the Silvermine website it has been outdated for over 2.5 years??? How do students and parents deal with this? How is this even acceptable? Something as little as this is so outdated. If this was my child’s website I would be insulted. Many others in the district have up to date and interactive sights for parents and children.

this website was found by by accident & think it’s wonderful. Oh God….we never knew one could bitch off about such incompetent idiots in the system. Karen Lang is the ugliest woman Norwalk’s ever had. What the Hell has that woman done in Norwalk, could anyone say? Thank God she’s leaving. Does she really know how to talk to anyone? We think we’d laugh in her beady eyes if we ever had to have to look at her. She kind of looks like Linda Blair possesed in the Exorcist movie. And Bob Henry, an awful man. We think these people see this site. He’s an ass & that word could be used here because it’s in the Bible. Maybe that’s what Bob needs – a bible. Let’s bet: When he retires, Naramake’ll cheer!!!!! Hope it happens soon. Iziar was another waste. We just hope Sal won’t hire Bob the boob for Stu’s job, or for Hugh’s job. Keep him away! Let’s exorcize Bob from Norwalk and tell every teacher in Norwalk about this web site and add their comments! Of course, there are also other principals and assistant principals who need to go. There’s one who freely talks of going to a psychiatrist to teachers. Talk about unprofessional….again, assholes at the helm…and these people are respected while the teachers are being persecuted. Some principals are slithery dogs, and many know who those are. Impotent is what they really are. All the Viagra couldn’t help these people. Let them go. What ever happened to respect? They should really lead by example, wouldn’t you agree?!?!?

You’re thinking of Paul Krasnavage at Tracey. Big boy. Part of the good old boys club, that’s why they go out together. Who’s running THAT school now? It used to be a really happy place, now they look like the Stepford wives, all glazed over with that glassy eyed look. Is that assistant principal any better, or is that one a kook too? They all seem to have issues. Who’s seeing the shrink? They talk about this with teachers? Oh my God! What ever happen to any common sense and privacy?

Well, it could be worse. Everyone could have a Dr. Moore. Happy happy, joy joy.
You want some real juice, what you have to do is get a veteran retired person to talk and stir up trouble. Ask a recent retired teacher from any school.

Good job, Anonymous 4! Bob Henry should read these, but nothing will make him leave sooner. He thinks he does no wrong. Doesn’t anyone know that he lies? There are teachers who could tell anyone that. He lies! Aren’t there laws against bullies? Put him in a dark alley with Dr. Moore and Dr. Lang. Let’s see who comes out disfigured. You think his wife would save him? Is his life insurance current?

Dr. Corda: Go to Naramake on a whim on any given day. That man’ll probably be reaming someone out. Go see Dr. Moore, too. Or does she scare you, Too? Chicken…bring Dr. Lang with you. If anything, Dr. Moore and Dr. Lang could “duke” it out and you’d have a new reality show – “administrator makeover”! Botox and plastic surgeons would be out of business.

Comments, anyone?

#35: With regard to your “acts like she’s had one too many” comment, I truly doubt that Dr. Moore is ever under the influence of any substance. She is very much into physical fitness.

#37: I wrote posting #36. No one hit a nerve, and I won’t dispute what you wrote about her employment history; my sole concern in my earlier posting was to correct the other posting’s reference to drinking because I very much doubt that that is true.

Again, as stated once before… we need to hire administrators with a probation period. This would certainly rectify the situation if indeed Norwalk is not in the habit of hiring administrators with good leadership skills!

Administrators are subject to the same tenure law as teachers, so if the district hires an administrator from another district, that person is non-tenured for either 2 years (if he/she has already earned tenure in Connecticut) or 4 years (if he/she has never been tenured in Connecticut). During the non-tenured time, it is relatively easy to dismiss a person who isn’t working out.

There is one caution: If a person currently working for the Norwalk BOE is tenured, and he/she is promoted to an administrative position, he/she is protected by the tenured status he/she earned while teaching.

The biggest issue, as I see it, is that the people who make the final recommendations for appointment know so little about what skills are needed to be successful as administrators. They think that knowledge of educational theory and data is most important. That is not the case because education is a “people business,” and educators have to know how to work with people.

I think that #42 hit the nail right on the head when talking about the skills needed to be a successful administrator. All of these incompetent big-wigs who make administrative hiring decisions could really take a page from principal David Hay’s book on being an excellent administrator. Since taking the helm at Brookside, the school runs very happily and quite efficiently without the need to harass and belittle teachers to try to get them to work harder. Happy teachers produce much more positive results! If only all of the other administrators could learn (as David Hay has displayed) that actually treating your teachers like competent professionals and using praise instead of constant criticism actually gets better results. If teachers treated students the way many of Norwalk’s administrators treated their teachers, we’d probably be brought up on charges. David Hay should teach a class to ALL of the other administrators in Norwalk. He is a rare gem!

Good job, #44! Too bad all principals couldn’t be like Mr. Hay. Do you think he goes out drinking with the “boys” on Friday? Nah….he doesn’t wear a “rug”! I also think he’s probably happily married and wants to go home to his wife. Isn’t that nice?

Dr. Moore…..she’s probably a racist, but I don’t like the term “reverse” racist. She is bi-racial though, but for some reason doesn’t admit her mother’s white. Dr. Moore…..are you getting all this? The best part is, you have no idea who we are! Trust us, we don’t work for you, and we wouldn’t want to. Why aren’t you a happy woman? There is the employees assistance program.

Hey #44, You go anonymous one!

#47, do you know about the “Stu Opdahl resigns” site on Google? Go to it and post your comments there as well. It was an eye opener for us. We never looked at what you said in that way. Very good! There are very few principals who are good – David Hay’s one and he really is good. Trust what the teachers say about him. If only the others could follow his example. You know what his basic premise is? It’s called kindness and listening. Wow, what a novel idea! How much does that cost in the grand scheme of things?

Go to the other site, Townie. You’ll be there a while. See you there!

“Anonymous 4″

Townie: Can’t find that site. When Googled, yourct.com comes up quite a bit in addition to the PTO Council site. Can you help further?