They, the BOE that is, didn’t vote on any of Corda’s budget recommendations, or the overall budget itself. The Hour reports on Corda’s position and the teachers union’s position. First Corda:
For weeks, parents, students and school administrators have expressed their concern over many items included in the superintendent’s proposed recommendations such as closing the Norwalk pool, eliminating or cutting positions and slashing benefits that would reconcile the board of estimates’ requirement that the board of education eliminate an additional $2.2 million from its budget.
Corda then went through charts of savings should various unions agree to take furlough days, increase their health insurance contribution or forgo salary increases. He then exhibited how the budget could be reconciled if only the first two options were agreed upon but raises continued as scheduled.
The furlough days saved $1.2 million, the health insurance concession saved $467,112 and cutting the salary increases saved nearly $1 million for a total of $2.6 million.
“We tried to approach thinking about how it is that we could, without significantly and negatively impacting educational program, perhaps come to a place where the reconciliation might be possible,” Corda said. “That necessitates the cooperation of each of our bargaining groups.”
He said those groups have agreed to discuss concessions only after the board has reconciled the budget and knows exactly how personnel would be impacted. This means the budget could pass with many of his original recommendations but be revisited.
“We’re up against the wall,” said Corda. “We’re faced with reducing programs everyone feels are important.”
Now Bruce Mellion:
Norwalk Federation of Teachers President Bruce Mellion said the issue isn’t whether or not the unions will make concessions, it’s how much value the city puts on the Board of Education and whether or not the board has been thorough in determining where it can eliminate costs without cutting benefits, positions and programs.
He cited recent funds in transportation and with the district’s contract with Xerox.
No one is talking about the reality of the Norwalk Public School system. Enrollment is steady, it is is not increasing, and has not increased in fifteen years. What has happened is that the union has put into contracts minimum classroom sizes. What has happened is that Corda has put before and after school programs in the schools. What has happened is that special programs of the educational sort have increased, often without large student participation.
It’s time for both the unions and Corda to streamline and that means starting with a mechanism to have larger classes when temporary enrollment blips appear. I’d toss out redistricting overall, but they’d all run for the hills, because no one on the BOE or in central office has the political cajones to tackle that issue. Any program that is using school facilities that is not part of the core curriculum, that would be reading, writing and math, should have to pay to the use school facilities at a market rate. There’s an unintended consequence of that of which I’m well aware, but times are tough. Lastly, the schools should get out of the transportation business. There’s the Norwalk Transit district, use it, the busses ride empty much of the time, school busses are a huge drain. Anyone notice gas prices creeping back up?
The issues are complex, and once again Corda doesn’t see the value in getting real CFO quality financial management advice. Seeking external high caliber advice is what successful CEOs do. School superintendents should be required to spend a part of their career outside of Education Inc.
source: The Hour, Corda on budget: We’re up against the wall, By LAUREN MYLO, 06/16/2009
The BOE approves a budget that, by most accounts, they knew would be rejected and require cuts. They wait months to hear input from the public, but none of these members thinks to make any suggestions about areas that could be cut. Once again, the BOE lets Corda run the show and suggest cuts that would be entirely appalling to the public because the cuts would hurt kids. So, rather than do their homework, the BOE’s Budget Cmt. along with Corda, suggests that maybe furloughs and givebacks are the key. I guess contracts and promises don’t really mean much to them.
Of course, what the BOE fails to grasp (or maybe it’s that they just don’t care) is that the schools and the teachers need to start planning now for next year– and without a budget place, without knowing if they’ll have aides or sufficient numbers of teachers, how can they do their jobs?
Every parent needs to be outraged that Corda and his BOE have once again dropped the ball to the detriment of our kids.
This is so sad. We have a very difficult situation here. Its not without hope. there is a vacume of leadership from within the teachers union, the board and executive offices as well as the community. We dont need a captain to sound the bell and announce “abandond ship”, we may be taking on water and even listing quite a bit but all hope is not lost. But without a leader to organize efforts to S.O.S. ( Save Our Schools) most hands are panic stricken and simply dont know what to do. For those not in the know there is an enormus power struggle in full gail, while everyone is arguing who is going to be captain we take on more water and lose more hands overboard. Where are the outraged parents fed up and demanding reform? Where are the teachers rallying for more resources for there students? Where are, the students? What about the developers that rely on the public school system to raise their investments? Yes its time to ring the bell but not to abandond hope but to rally to work together and not just stay afloat but make our ship a flagship, make our schools a national example of how, when everyone comes together, it can work, we can sail.
I’m just outraged at how we have 1 week left of school and yet we have no budget to plan with for school in September. If your child takes a test and doesn’t plan (study) he/she will most likely do poorly on that test. If they have a project and don’t plan how they will do it and what they need to do to complete it, they will not have a good project. Well, how do we expect our teachers to teach if we are not giving them adequate information to plan their next school year? I sympathize with the schools that are losing or cutting positions since we don’t want to see any person’s position cut. However, a dance teacher at WRMS has to go unless NPS plans on giving all the middle schools dance teachers. I pay thousands of dollars a year to send my daughter to dance and I don’t expect her to get these services at the public school. This should only be an afterschool, extracurricular activity. I also don’t agree with threatening to close the NPS pool….it is the only pool in all our schools so why would we close it? In addition, why would we cut AT programs? These separate class sessions for our higher achieving students is what keeps these students engaged with more stimulating and challenging instruction with their higher achieving peers. I wouldn’t think of cutting services for other special needs children so why should we cut services for kids who achieve at the top? Lastly, NHMS needs its additional teachers to properly plan for its increasing enrollment. It currently only has 5 teams of teachers which will not work for the future enrollment numbers. Let’s stop the bullying and approve a budget that allows schools to continue to teach our children!
Are you a betting person OPO? WRMS will keep its dance teacher. She always gets just what she wants.
Why didn’t the board vote on the budget last night? I have to go tomorrow and see what happens. EVERYONE should be there.
Excuse me but I am disgusted with the fact that West Rocks Middle School has a dance teacher that is not getting cut. Um Im sorry but send your child to another dance teacher in the city of Norwalk, in other words…. CUT THE WOMAN! No public school on this planet needs a dance teacher when you can send your child to a dance studio! Nathan Hale NEEDS more teachers whether you like it or not. Personally, if i went to NHMS, I would not want less teachers but neither would i want to be in a class with 40 children, thats disgusting! And again, dont waste the budget on a dance teacher. GIVE NHMS THE TEACHERS THEY DESERVE!
Why are the norwalk teachers paid so much money? Why are the norwalk teachers allowed to take after school basket weaving and earn credits that us taxpayers have to pay for. How about some accountability by the administrators and teachers? Wake up people. Do you realize we are in an economy where many of your neighbors are losing their jobs? The salaries paid in norwalk are the tops in the state and maybe even the county. What do we have to show for this? A failing district. What is wrong with this picture?
I am an NPS teacher and I am currently in an extremely demanding graduate school program that will enable me to help your child become a critical thinker and active citizen. This is in addition to reading, writing and other educational goals as outlined by the BOE. I urge you to spend a day in your child’s classroom to see what we do to earn our salaries.
AFAICT, one of the main purposes of extra-curricular activities (including sports) is to keep those borderline students from dropping out, since they otherwise might not have much of a reason to go to school. I presume (though I don’t know the details) that school districts like to keep up their numbers so they can maintain levels of funding.
School is supposed to be primarily about academics (including the arts, IMO). If you want to make cuts, cut sports and other extra-curricular extras.
And, as far as a dance teacher at a middle school — even if she’s the best dance teacher around (and I have no reason to believe she isn’t), it’s probably a position that could be cut.
Oh, one last thing — teaching is one of the toughest jobs out there. Behaviour problems need to be dealt with and kids need a lot of one-on-one. It’s nuts to increase class size. What’s the minimum class size in Norwalk? 26? 28? Let me tell you, 24 is pushing it — especially when you’ve got behaviour problems. If anything we should be in support of smaller class sizes and more aides in the lower grades.
The fault for this budget mess doesn’t lie with the teachers– they negotiated a multi-year deal and are entitled to rely upon it. The last time they were asked for givebacks, the Board of Education and Supt. Corda failed to fully honor their end of the bargain (the teachers had been promised that classroom aides would be restored if they paid more for health insurance). And please, let’s not talk about how much tougher teachers would have it in th private sector– we all believe in the free market and know teachers are paid what they negotiate so let’s not negate the value of their bargain.
The people we should be upset with are the Board of Ed— how they don’t just reject this bloated and unfair budget is beyond me. It’s unfair to kids, doesn’t make half of the cuts that are needed to start the school department operating efficiently and doesn’t provide any incentive for department heads to be more accountable.
How a bout the early literacy teachers. Talk about a waste. The one at Kendall is to busy trying to be an administrator. Shes paid very well and very rarely works with children. You could have 2 Aides for the price of the one literacy teacher. Wow classroom support! Imagine that!
#6 – you’re full of shit. NOBODY gets paid and/or credit for “basket weaving”.
and #11 – you’re even more full of it. The literacy coach at Kendall puts in more of her own, unreimbursed, time that you’ve probably worked in your life – working for ALL the children. Part of the idea of a “coach” is to help the teachers know the strategies for working with the students. If Rose Bernheim ever submitted a bill to the city for her overtime – they’d REALLY know what a budget crisis was! And, much as I hate to say it, many of the aides are barely literate themselves.
Now – Tuesday night was a fiasco. Jack C. wanted to put everything on hold while he learned more about the “mac & cheese incident”!!! And the others all looked like deer caught in the headlights – UNPREPARED! It isn’t just the people who are waiting to hear if they have jobs – or the same jobs – in this “difficult” economic time – it’s the CHILDREN who are suffering becuase of all this crap!
Anon- That’s a joke shes paid for every minute shes there and then some! She was even paid for an after school program and did that job while she was suppose to be, as you say training teachers!!! NOW if she got paid for wining then you can says she’s worth it!
What was the “mac and cheese incident”?
#11 I’m not a fan of most Norwalk literacy coaches since they don’t seem to have a clue and the results, or lack thereof, are there to prove it (RTI, what’s RTI?). A literacy coach in Norwalk doesn’t need any literacy background, it’s just tenure, go figure. But, Kendall is doing great things, in spite of its demographics, better than other district elementary schools with 1/2 the issues. I hear the principal is great which is huge but what they’re doing takes a team, teachers & literacy coach. Brookside too is doing great things, great leadership, great team.
Did anyone see the announcement in The Hour today on the location of the meeting? The obituary page….how appropriate. And the BOE is going to hell upon its death!!
#14- The “mac and cheese incident” was a widespread case where on April 30th children got sick at a number of elementary schools after eating the mac and cheese lunch that Whitsons (Norwalk’s cafeteria vendor) had served. Over 30 kids at Naramake had gotten sick that day.
Although Supt. Corda sent a short note home, no one from Whitsons has ever reported to the parents what made all these kids sick on the same day after eating the same meal. In fact, they haven’t even had the courtesy (or the direction from the Central Office) to refund the couple of bucks that the kids paid for the meal that made them sick.
The other problem with Whitsons (that, for some reason, hadn’t been disclosed to the Board of Ed even though they are public records) is the less-than-stellar Board of Health ratings that some of our school cafeterias have received since they’ve taken over.
Clearly, they are a company whose contract should NOT be renewed– yet, somehow, they’ve been recommended for renewal.
And Whitson’s was hired under Dr. Corda’s watch, probably on the recommendation of his former associate, Mr. Opdahl. Where is the accountability?
If you want to know why Whitsons was reccomended to be renewed, follow the money, and find out who in the city, or the bored of ed, stands to gain from the reappointment. Clearly, those who are members of this less than stellar body, need a reality check, some cognitive understanding of what they are supposed to do, and some balls.
I was at the meetings where Whitson’s was discussed before being awarded the contract in the first place – and I still can’t understand why it’s “cheaper” to contract out for food service when we had a perfectly good food service already in place.
Rose, are you suggesting that a contract that gives a vendor reimbursement for labor and food, allows it to keep bulk savings it can obtain and still has the City pay a portion of its overhead wouldn’t be cheaper?
Just for an FYI for those naysayers who think he doesn’t do anything, but Human Relations Director/Gen.Assembly Man/Rev./Almost-College Grad Bruce Morris was actually a member of the committee that recommended WHITSONS be renewed.
In fact, Mr. Morris’ group stated that Whitsons has received universal praise for all that they do (see the recent minutes from the BOE if you don’t believe me). I guess the fact that not every batch of mac and cheese made kids sick is positive. Right?
“Just for an FYI for those naysayers who think he doesn’t do anything, but Human Relations Director/Gen.Assembly Man/Rev./Almost-College Grad Bruce Morris was actually a member of the committee that recommended WHITSONS be renewed.”
Given this vote, as well as the way he handles discrimination complaints, maybe everyone is better off when he is in Hartford, not doing his job in Norwalk.
But let’s pay him over $80K/year to stay on full time while BOE and Corda ask teachers for more givebacks? Just get rid of him — he’s useless. Our kids deserve better.
Good news for those of us who will be attending tonight’s BOE meeting— word from City Hall is that the BOE just purchased a large screen flat panel monitor so that they can display facts and figures about their budget. And you people thought that there was a financial crisis!
An LCD projector isn’t good enough? What a message this is sending to the taxpayers.
With the Jumbotron showing the score throughout tonight’s budget meeting, the final result says it all:
Politics $151,000,000 to
Education $0.
More discussion was given to custodial positions than to classroom cuts. Extra staff was awarded one middle school, but the BOE refused to given Supt. Corda a sense if the three new middle school teachers were to be sent to Nathan Hale (where they are needed), even after he said that the determination was ciritcal for proper planning.
And, of course, why bother restoring the 12 elementary school aides that had been cut in the first budget when the BOE would rather reinstate some of the funds that had been cut from their conference budget.
What a clusterfuck! You can’t make this up.
So the pool is history, so are a few teachers, a psychologist will be terminated and rehired with stimulus funds as will a financial officer. The coop sports program is gone so our Wright Tech busses but than again looks like Wright Tech is headed for the mothballs. What was most interesting was the number of students that attended and held up signs silently protesting. Several groups of students raised homemade signs to save our schools and programs. In all there were half as many students as adults attending, nearly 100 together all tolled and to witness such dramatic acts of all three groups raing signs silently protesting, is heartwrenching to any parents soul and screamed out in the silent concert hall. It felt like we all were attending a funeral, looked smelled and even sounded like a funeral. So very sad.
Why isn’t anyone, including the local paper(s) mentioning that the BOE voted to eliminate 12 Instructional Aides in the Elementary Schools?
As a teacher, I know how important these Instructional Aides are in the direct education of our Norwalk Students. Students that swim, dance, and excel have all been positively affected academically by our Aides. These people are on the front lines of assisting Teachers to help Students reach at times unrealistic academic benchmarks. They provide invaluable one on one remediation and differentiation as well as supporting student growth in the area(s) of Personal Growth and Work Habits.
In an era of No Child Left Behind, when Administrators are levying higher, and higher benchmarks for our little ones to attain without any thought to their actual educational psychological and physiological development; Instructional Aides are an integral part of ensuring that all goals are met and that each child has an equal opportunity to achieve and receive the vital educational foundation necessary to be able enjoy some of the benefits saved by the BOE at the upper school levels!
Can anyone please tell me which 12 aides are being cut in the elementary schools? The only single position common to all 12 schools, as far as I can determine, is the spot of Utility Aide or Intervention Aide.
Much of this is a ploy by Corda and the BOE and they are hoping the unions will blink and accept givebacks in order to restore positions. They are cutting positions and programs that people care about in order to put pressure the unions to bend. If they cut Morris and other Central Office personnel in order to meet the budget, no one would care about those positions and there would be no pressure on the unions to concede.
So everyone is being held hostage here because Jack Chiaramonte wants to know more about the “mac & cheese” incident! I’d be REALLY EMBARRASSED to have friends & relatives in other parts of the country know what was going on here.
Why should the unions give back until they know what they’re getting instead? Just GIVE US A BUDGET for the love of Mike, whoever Mike is.
At my school it’s the first grade instructional aides. They work with individuals and small groups to reinforce the reading and math lessons taught. They are invaluable.
If you cut 6 unnecessary administrators–that’s a million in savings with no impact to the students.
As for elementary aides, many schools utilize an aide who splits her time among first grade classrooms. These aides help with literacy– particularly because with the cuts several years ago to literacy instruction (the BOE opted for “literacy” coaches for teachers), kids were found to need extra help. For schools who do not get Title I money, there is no other source of revenue to hire the aides.
And, if you go back to the postings on this site from mid-March (http://www.yourct.com/new/2009/03/who-knew-who-would-replace-kimmel-on-boe/), you’ll find that someone was complaining about these cuts to elementary education.
But, here is the bottom line, cuts were made to education, the Human Relations Director (who is not available to work full-time hours) was allowed to keep his full-time pay with full-time benefits, the Board of Ed members insisted on keeping money so that they can attend conferences and inequity reigned.
“But, here is the bottom line, cuts were made to education, the Human Relations Director (who is not available to work full-time hours) was allowed to keep his full-time pay with full-time benefits, the Board of Ed members insisted on keeping money so that they can attend conferences and inequity reigned.”
Where is the rage? How dare the board of education to exercise such incredibly bad judgment in setting its priorities? What does the Director of Human Relations do to improve student learning?
I favor literacy coaches if they do the job of helping teachers to improve their delivery of instruction. A good coach can help many teachers to be more effective, thereby providing improved learning opportunities to many students. Since I don’t work in any of Norwalk’s elementary schools, I can’t comment about the effectiveness of any of them, but that is the job of the school administrators to evaluate their work.
COUNT ME AMONG THE OUTRAGED! Junkets for politicians, extra staff for politically-connected schools but elimination of some elementary school aides. Whether it effects your kids or not, you should be incensed at the BOE’s awful priorities.
Why is the BOE teeming with reckless abandon toward the taxpayers?
Do you always make dumb statements #33? Who’s being held Hostage?? What the hell does a food contract have to do with passing the budget? Nothing! As a parent of one of those children that got food poisoning from the “mac & cheese”, I applaude Mr. Chiaramonte and the other BOE members for holding them accountable. Isn’t that what they are there for? Should this city give a food contract to a vendor that is serving unsafe food to our children. Just a few days before this meeting, there was another incident involving cookies made with peanut products that caused an alergic reation to a child. Whitson supplied the cookies and had said they had no peanut byproducts in them. Maybe you should re-read Post #17 from Mr. Colarosi. And by the way anon #33, the budget was passed last night, so it again shows you don’t know what you’re talking about. Obviously you have an agenda. You need to get a clue #33
You mean the reconciliation is complete? I thought they were still working on it. Will someone please clarify?
Yes, the Budget was passed late last night. The board stuggled to find 2.2 million $ in cuts. They have done their part. Now if the unions will do theirs and give a few concessions, those deans of students, aids and other cut positions can be restored. Unfortunately, this is how “the game” works.
The Board DID NOT DO THEIR part. They caved to political pressuresN didn’t cut anywhere near enough fat and balanced the budget on the backs of kids, elementary aides and secretaries.
Can anyone explain to me why the BOE wouldn’t commit to assigning the three new teachers to Nathan Hale– especially after Dr. Corda told them that Principal McCain needed that information so that he could start planning for next year?
Could they be any less responsible?
Were the BOE members so angry at the superintendent that they didn’t care what the impact would be on our 7th and 8th graders? Can they really be that petty?
Or, will we get to see sometime this summer, when parents aren’t at a meeting, that one of those three teachers goes to West Rocks to replace the dance teacher?
Clearly #43 you do not understand what is going on here. If those jobs weren’t cut, then the unions would not care. The ball is in the unions court now. If they give a little, like the rest of the work force in this country are doing, then Nobody looses their job. That is what is going on.
The NFT should not give up anything until the director of human relations job is eliminated.
You make a great point, #45– the BOE plays hardball with the unions and if the kids get hurt, so be it? Right?
Board members do no research about combining positions, they don’t visit schools and they cut positions (like elementary aides that are important).
Just so I understand, what sacrifice did the BOE make in making sure they had enough money to go to conferences?
The union should play hardball too. All givebacks should have strings attached. Two days furlough matched by 2 paid personal days. City lowers budget with furlough days and teachers get an additional two paid days off. Union should demand additional non-financial concessions from administration in exchange for the unions financial concessions.
#48: But this results in lost instructional days for students. While some might argue that one or two of the days without pay could be the professional days, teachers and administrators need those days to earn CEUs. Also, as pointless as some PD is, there is some work done on those days that isn’t pointless.
The BoE gave up the executive assistant to the superintendent? Does this mean he will bring her back as a consultant, as he did with Dr. Lang? The board ought to monitor the consultant money spent.