Open Letter To The Board Watchers

Dear Board Watchers,

Writing you here is a call to action for you all. You represent people who held office who decided to arbitrarily not communicate to the public via a forum that was available 24/7 and permanently. So we begin our conversation by pointing out that had you supported greater communication and made efforts to communicate and represent all, you might be in a different place.

Let’s take your founder, Rick Fuller. He has famously said in a BOE finance meeting, that it was not necessary for the BOE to question an administrative official because they were experts. Remeber this from Rick Fuller; “I don’t think we are here to challenge the staff, we are part of the politics of this town, some of this we have to put to politics. To think that some of these concerns are legitimate is wrong, its politics.”

So is it safe to say the board watchers is about politics, and that they have no intention to ask questions of professionals?

It’s kind of funny, the very thing you want accountability, is right here. Every time your meetings were covered, your words, your actions here for all to see.

So congrats on forming this parent coalition. Can anyone join? Do you have to be a parent? Do you have a web site? Or is this all just politics.

“Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?” You could answer that by saying that we do here. And there’s your paradox. If you chose to present your concerns and ideas on an open and public forum, such as here, or anywhere that is a permanent archive, then you are being open and transparent. If you chose to simply show up angrily at public meetings claiming that no one is listening, or that you believe that BOE member “backgrounds did not prepare them to understand the life-long discrimination experienced by Black people,” or that “We need to let the Board of Education know we need to be diverse in our thinking, we need to be diverse in our representation, and we definitely need to be diverse in our educational system,” — then you are being all politics at the expense of a diverse student population you claim to represent.

Sincerely,

the readers of  yourCT.com

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  • Norwalk recycler

    The irony here…. that many people causing all the stink about the BOE were probably more than a little PO’d when people like Cheney criticized the Obama administration shortly after he had taken office. I was annoyed myself and would think “why don’t they keep their mouths shut, they didn’t win, the public doesn’t want them, let the new administration do their jobs without hinderance.” And that is exactly what needs to be stated here. Give these new people a chance to do their work without making wild and quite fankly not helpful accusations. They were elected by the citizens of Norwalk, this is a democracy after all. Let it go and move on.

  • concerned

    Good letter and good point. Are they going to be a proactive group or are they going to be full of more of the same negativity voters just said a big NO to? Let the nastiness stop. No one wants to hear it any more. You are not doing the school system any good. You are not doing Norwalk any good and you are certainly not doing the children any good. So either stay home and be quiet or try to be part of a positive solution and work with the schools – ask how you can help instead of demanding to be the only ones with answers. Once people see you are on the same team, then they may start to listen.

  • NorwalkSpectator

    I thought the low point was when former Council member Amanda Brown told the Board that they should undergo “sensitivity training” so they can do their job. Quite frankly, the Board really doesn’t deal with the day to day transactions of the classrooms. That’s the job of teachers and administrators. The Board approves field trips, sets the budget and approves candidates for various positions. They have no idea what the ethnic and racial make up of the NHS Winter Guard is, nor should they. They work with the budget to insure that the City residents have access to the NHS pool, regardless of which race they belong to. How does Amanda Brown have the guts to stand up there and suppose she knows what the members of the Board think and how they view things? Come on, people, next year’s budget’s gonna be tighter than this years. Let’s give these people a chance to figure out what they need to know so they can do the best for Norwalk’s kids.

  • SeenThisBefore

    One good reason why there is only one minority on the BOE is that the incumbent members of the BOE conspired to remove one of their own. They ganged up and “cleverly” blocked Greg Burnett from nomination. Now they are bad mouthing Heidi Keyes as if it is her fault that they are out of office.
    Heidi is not their problem. Norwalk voted out the incumbent members because they were really bad at their job, especially with communication to their constituents. Boo hoo, now they want to play the race card. Not going to work.

  • NorwalkSpectator

    Uh, just a point of clarification….didn’t the DTC nominate Heidi for candidacy? What does it profit them to bad mouth her? I mean the woman has actually only been on the Board for slightly over 24 hours. At this point in time, other than voting to elect the Chair, the Vice Chair and the Secretary, there’s nothing political about the other votes, unless the DTC objects to West Rocks budget transfers for copy paper,the re-hiring of the Assistant Principals or something about the field trips.

  • Item One Boot Friedlander, Check.

    Dosen’t seem to be covered anywhere but Pupil Services Director Janie Friedlander was given the boot by the new board. All the students and parents of special education warmly extend a thank you to all board memebers. Now lets right our ship and raise the bar and our sails.

  • NorwalkNet Fan

    Moina Noor at NorwalkNet gives her take on the BOE meeting.

    http://www.norwalknet.com/2009/11/rocky-start-for-new-board.html

    Blogs rule no matter what Shirley Mosby and Lynne Moore think.

  • anon

    does amanda browns kids even go to the public schools? everyone knows she was trying to use her job on council to get them scholarships to green farms academy. norwalk schools arent good enuf for her ? just like she uses her old job on the council to work for developer carl kuehner working at his harbor point project in stamford. has anyone investigated this ? good old amanda working the system in her favor. i am so thankful i didnt vote for her again and that she lost.

  • Education is the Answer

    Brown has been positively and actively involved and seems like she genuninely

    cares and pay’s attention to the details.

    Being anywhere near Carl, well, she should know better.

    Conflict?

    Oh yeah, big time.

    Criminal, doubt it, more than likely just not as ‘clued in’ as we thought.

    Far as the pushback, hey didn’t someone say payback is a b—-h?

    Certain minorities have been getting the shrift a very long time.

    Anyone, that feels they are not part of the process and the community,

    has every right, as well as civic and moral duties to be heard.

    Feeling excluded, is the same as being excluded.

    Those feelings must be acknowledged.

    Anyones feelings are valid, no matter who’s feelings they are.

    We all need to work on this together.

    Education, IS, the civil rights cause of our time.

    Yes We Can, make a difference.

    Let’s get busy, lots and lots of minds to educate and liberate.

    • For the Kids

      I only wish to comment on your latter points. Yes, working together is the key. We can make a difference! First, we need to acknowledge our differences and be accepting of the change. We have to move forward and support our BOE or our children are going to suffer.

  • Kurm Udgeon

    You can’t liberate a closed mind. The problem with the schools are the parents, and the politicians who provide this pitiful kind of an example. It’s time that the squeaky wheels stop getting the grease when all they do is go around in circles. Maybe if those folks who are whining had done a better job while they were in control, the voters of Norwalk would have had them continue in their jobs. We cannot continue to be race baited by exploiters of the system who cannot see their ways clear to getting past their own race hate to work for ALL of the children of Norwalk. Tell them to get the hell out of the way and let those duly elected folks take their turn at fixing what these “watchers” broke. Enough is enough! Let’s spend this huge percentage of our cities budget to the best ends we can. There are more then just disadvantaged children in our schools. How about if we incent those kids who want to learn, to do just that!!!!!

  • BLARNEY SKANK

    If the world is coming to an end in 2012 why are we wasting time on Cap & Trade, health Care reform, and most of all Global Warming?

    Al Gore said today we should drill deep into the Earth where the temperature reaches 3 million degrees, and pump the heat out………

    3 million degrees?

    Gee the surface of the Sun is only about 11,000 degrees