Spending Money Smartly, The BOE Fails Again

There are days that I feel the blog has become a living reenactment of Groundhog Day, a stellar movie featuring Bill Murray reliving Feb. 2 till he gets it right. There the similarities end, because getting things right seems to be an impossible goal when it comes to Norwalk’s BOE. Two stories in today’s Hour illustrate the problem. The first, a simple planning study that reveals, to no one’s surprise, that $50 million is needed to keep all 17 schools in repair. Note that I didn’t say improvements. For that we have only to look at the $200 million capital improvement bonds that former Mayor Alex Knopp said were a necessity in 2003. Six years later 8 schools were never touched, and we find another $50 million more is needed.

Some of the most common items included in those funds are replacing roofs, toilets, boilers, lighting, windows, chimneys, exterior doors and frames and temperature control systems.

The thing is buildings don’t teach children, teachers do. The next story, 300 teachers protest the “draconian” recommendations to a new teacher’s contract. Lost amidst the typical union rallying hyperbole is this statement from a teacher than sums it up:

“… I feel the board doesn’t listen to us. The teachers have come up with a lot of ways to cut money and they never listen to any of our suggestions.”

It’s the same issue, repeated each year in so many ways. The BOE didn’t make any cuts to administration contracts. The BOE didn’t make any attempt to regin in renovation costs and actually spend money in each school like they were supposed to. And now, they decide to reduce costs through contract negotiations with the teachers.

Here’s the sad part. The federal and state government has shoveled money to school systems throughout the state to build and renovate schools. Instead of pursing those funds, the BOE has been content to let its high paid administrators create slush fund budgets that rely on local tax payers. The BOE idly sat through countless meetings of push back when Corda did not want to have a real finance director on board. The BOE now tries to lay claim that it successfully got rid of Corda, Land and Opdahl, and then blithely continues to remain alseep at the switch while millions of dollars are wasted.

The irony here is that what the teachers wrote on the signs they carried sort of sums it up, “the board doesn’t care.” Maybe because there is neither student representation on the board, nor teacher representation on the board.

source: The Hour, Norwalk schools need $50M in repairs, By LAUREN MYLO 08/31/2009

source: The Hour, Norwalk teachers protest ‘draconian’ contract proposal, By LAUREN MYLO 08/31/2009