Corda Presents Budget Cuts

Eliminate the director of financial operations ? Isn’t that a new position he fought against for years ? How convenient for that job to be one of the first to go. He doesn’t want somebody who can count managing his budget.

Steward, there are places where savings can be found, but it takes work and courage to make the cuts. There are some schools that are better staffed than others, given their enrollments.

BTW, who knew that WRMS has a freaking DANCE teacher? What is THAT all about? Someone told me that the district even installed a special floor for the program.

Bruce Morris’ job has to be eliminated; he’s living proof that it isn’t necessary ’cause he’s never there to do it.
Sheri McCready is a nice person and she at least shows up, but as someone up above said – the schools and departments can do their own publicity.
And better enforcement – tracking and FINING not only the non-residents who use our schools (requiring first an admission from Corda that the problem exists), but also the local people who lie and let them use their addresses.

Bruce Morris’ job is cut to a half time position. excellent.
Lynn Moore loses 1 Ap (via quiting) and only gets a half AP. Bad for the school and the staff but at least Lynn finally gets penalized for being Lynn Moore. She also loses a dance teacher and some clerical staff.
Ponus loses an AP. Bad because that school is a mess with a leader that has no guts and tries not to rock the boat and as a result the school is a disaster.
Ponus and West Rocks will share one of the three remaining AP’s. Bad for whoever that is.

It’s possible Dr. Moore doesn’t really care about this. Doesn’t Lynne Moore have her sights set on Dr. Corda’s job after he leaves?

The Board of Education would save more money entirely eliminating the Adm. Asst. and Director of Human Relations posts than by cutting the three jobs to part-time (plus, the Public Relations Coordinator could be given many of the administrative assistant’s duties).
The Board of Ed needs to impose a strict moratorium on posts filled by interim contractors- eliminate the interim director of elementary education and apportion those duties to the Superintendent and Assistant Superintendent. Freeze the hiring of additional central office “instructional specialists” (if curriculum and textbooks weren’t being changed so rapidly, these positions would not be needed in such abudance). Consolidate the positions of finance director and budget director. Require After-the-Bell to be self-sustaining after the grants expire (there are three other after-school care providers which have track records of running programs without taxpayer assistance). Freeze approval of new courses at the high schools to reap a minor savings from textbooks and materials.

Hey old timer, operating a pool facility like NHS isn’t cheap with the cost of electicity, maintenance, chemicals and manpower. You have to run the thing 24/7 every day of every months even if it isn’t being used. The high school swim team had only 14 students participate this year and school swim classes are few. The bulk of the pool time is by Parks & Rec, Zues and all the other City programs that don’t pay the BOE a penny in rent or usage to use the facility. Let me say that again…….none of these groups pay anything to use the pool, yet they charge a fee to everyone of their members or participants to swim. Now is this fair? The BOE spend $200,000 a year to operate the pool so Parks & Rec and Zues can make money and contribute nothing in return to offset the operating costs??? If you want to keep the pool open let Parks and Rec or Zues take it over. Case closed and everyone is happy!

Townie, you are absolutely right. It isn’t a matter of the value of the pool to Norwalk; it’s a matter of which department ought to pay for it.

Townie:
No argument, the pool could well be rented out by the hour to outside groups and that would make sense. All I question is Corda’s numbers. It does not cost $200,000 for water, chemicals, and electric power to run that pool.
When he quotes a number like that, he is including manpower, as you pointed out, but he doesn’t say that. He may even be including more than one position. That is why I asked if he is counting the phys-ed teacher he wants to cut as part of the $200,000. He may even be counting part of a custodian’s job. Unless he cuts the jobs, too, closing the pool will not save that much money.

As someone who actually read Corda’s budget, I was shocked that the amount appropriated for the pool is $30,000 (the other $170,00 must be for the phys ed teacher who runs the swim classes, some portion of the custodian and some imputed amount for that part of the building). But, let’s not let facts get in the way of a good scare tactic.
And, was anyone as shocked as I was to see that they want $440,000 for legal services (have a functioning special education director and you can cut that amount by more than half). Also, over $300,000 for overtime? C’mon– most companies eliminate overtime when it’s time for cutting costs, why should Corda, Inc. be any different? It seems that, without even sharpening a pencil, over $500,000 could be cut and no kids’ education would be harmed in the least.

If they want to save money in the budget they should look inot charging families who live out of district for lying baout their residency here in Norwalk. Also, the people that write the notarized letter should be fined as well! We have so many students in Norwalk School that are not residents. If those parents are fined the per pupil allotment they would think twice about taking advantage of our tax dollars!!

#23: Many of the students who get off the train in South Norwalk attend the interdistrict magnet program at Brien McMahon, and so they are legitimately attending school in Norwalk — and they are funded by the state.
There very well may be other kids who are taking the train but who are not legitimately attending the NPS, but I want it to be clear that most of these are kids who should be doing this.

When I stayed for most of last night’s budget committee meeting to support the aides whose jobs are being cut, I was taken aback when the Supt. tried to push the members to make a decision about the need for a portable at Naramake and the new member of the BOE pushed back and refused to consider that that need was urgent. Maybe I’m missing something, but it seems like this school board is willing to keep kids, teachers, families and staff waiting until the summer for them to reconcile their budget. It just doesn’t seem fair– should our aides start looking for other jobs, or should they wait until the summer (when other schools have already done their hiring) and risk not finding anything else? And what about the kids at Naramake– how long do those families have to wait before the politicians make a decision?
I never thought I’d say this, but I actually feel sorry that the Supt. has to try to work with some of these people– the election isn’t until November, but some of them have already started their grandstanding. Do any of them think that we’ll be fooled?

Of course, they could always move some of the White kids to Brookside and replace them with minority kids, thereby not overcrowding Naramake. There’s no reason why only minority kids should be bussed.

Isn’t it about time the city considered redistricting?

Naramake has a mixed population of Asian-American, African-American, Hispanic and white students. The issue is not minority representation in the student body– it’s essentially what is being done to provide a proper physical environment in which ALL OF OUR children can learn. Unfortunately, Naramake has been consistently given less than the other schools– repairs that were promised in 2005 were never made when the School Improvement Funds, to which the Board of Education had committed, were diverted to other schools– even though the funds were the bare minimum needed to replace uninsulated windows, make minor repairs to the gym (which had been damaged to a leaking roof for years that was only recently patched) and provide some fundamental safety repairs (such as to broken curbing and potholes in the small parking lot).
We didn’t get a dime.
Now that we have a serious overcrowding issue, the Board of Education wants to play games and not fund a portable classroom at the time when it must be ordered so that it can be delivered and set up in time.
C’mon, Anon (#29) and Anonymous (#28)– kids have every right to attend the school that’s closest to their homes. Let’s not toss a red herring into the debate as to the inability of the Board of Education to craft a sensible and affordable budget and the lack of leadership among the majority on that Board.

32 Naramake Parent it was 27 , another Naramake parent, who through in the red herring, by bringing up a subject you’d rather ignore,. Naramake has little whine room.

Is the sentiment among the frequent posters that the children attending what they feel are less diverse schools are entitled to less?
What would you suggest we do as a city given that we have parts of our city which are strongly dominated by a single racial or cultural group? Do we abandon any semblance of neighborhood schools?

#35 – You have listed the most recent state data from the annual SSPs. Current numbers show the disparity is even greater.

Nobody wanted to hear what David Cole had to say about the imbalance being more than just housing patterns – and since that committee was dispanded, the problem has gotten bigger.

Taxpayer, it is no secret that David Cole made the superintendent and other BOE members uncomfortable. As the saying goes, “Sometimes the truth hurts.” David always told the truth, whether it was politically popular or not.

Some people don’t want to see what is really happening in the City of Norwalk. Racial polarization is very, very unhealthy.

#39: I’m glad that you mentioned Kendall’s success because too many people think that minority students are a burden that will drag any school down. Clearly, the staff at that school has enough vision and commitment to help the Kendall students make good things happen.

Let’s put the cards on the table. Most people who want neighborhood schools are trying to keep the number of minority and low income students as low as possible, and the BOE has helped them to do that for decades. I don’t have the time right now, but it would be interesting to see the economic breakdown among the schools, too. It would also be interesting to see the updated racial breakdown for the current school year.

#38: Yes, I could provide only the most recent state data, which is bad enough. However, I am sure that you are entirely correct about the current numbers, which are no doubt worse. Why is is that Norwalk doesn’t act until there is a crisis? I don’t know the current law about this, but I cannot see how there aren’t several schools out of legal compliance. Is the Norwalk Board of Ed waiting for a court to take over and redistrict in ways that will be less palatable to everyone?

Do not forget Brookside, that school has a very large minority population, 70% range, with a great leader and listed as a Success School by ConnCan. This is not an easy achievement. Why can it happen at these two schools and not some other Norwalk schools with far less excuses, it’s ridiculous.

I don’t know Karen Ockasi but Norwalk can certainly use good leadership at the schools because there is very little of that at the central office. One notable exception to that is John Keogh, who is a truly fine educator and an equally fine human being.

Anonymous 46: would you say Naramake can exist without a vice-principal next year, or do you agree with Corda’s plan for a shared vice principal at the smaller elementary schools? Love to hear your opinion.

Here is the problem with the cuts in the assistant principal positions. We have a ridiculously inefficient means of getting kids the special needs services they need– there is little guidance from the SPED director and little, if any, oversight from the Central Office. Therefore, AP’s have had to become very involved in getting special needs services when needed.
also, there is the issue with the dense paperwork that every teacher evaluation has to include and all the pre-observation and post-observation forms that have to be filled out. If you have to evaluate teachers 3 times each year, that is a lot of paperwork for one principal, or one part-time AP, to do. Maybe they need to change that system– still hold teachers accountable, but cut back on the redundant paperwork. It could certainly be accomplished.