The political process is a strange one. You have people who theoretically should be really interested in how government should work better basically fixated on the trees and ignoring that big old forest aflame. In Norwalk’s case, it’s not flames that are flickering, but floods that are the latest sign that there’s an aging, creaking infrastructure that exists out of sight just crying for some attention. Tuesday night’s DTC meeting started with a presentation by Susan Bysiewicz of the new voting machines that will be in place this fall. More on that in another post, sticking around for the rest of the show revealed another infrastructure creaking under the weight of indifference. So. what can I say about a Democratic party that takes up 30 minutes debating the merits of spending $30 on an ad for a local charity, and less than 5 minutes on the merits of focusing on city infrastructure issues? Nothing. I’m just too disgusted with the process to even begin a good rant about it.

Flooding in Norwalk is a serious issue. There are many areas of the city that are affected, and the residents who are affected have to battle the proverbial city hall, but must also battle the threat of more floods. Water is a persistent force of nature. Just ask The Grand Canyon, or the residents of New Orleans. But that’s a tad more dramatic than the issue here. Norwalk, like most towns in Connecticut, has a Board of Ed which takes up a rather large share of the city budget. In Norwalk’s case its about 70%. Or to put it in sharper perspective, Danbury the 7th largest city in the state, has a proposed budget for 2006-2007 of $100 million. Mayor Boughton said in his budget address, “In the last 4 years education spending has risen by almost 20 million dollars. Yet student enrollment has only increased by 100 students.” In Norwalk, the proposed budget is 147.7 million. And the enrollments of both cities? Danbury is 9,586, while Norwalk is 10,891. It should be noted that Danbury’s enrollment increased 2.3% over the past 5 years, while Norwalk’s declined by 0.2%.

Having a healthy debate about the all the capital needs would be a good thing, but the Board of Ed would prefer having a debate about healthy snacks students might potential miss out on if they happen across a bake sale held in their honor for some of the things that the school budget keeps on ignoring. Chief Operating Officer Stuart Opdahl wants to build an astro turf field for Norwalk High. It wasn’t too many months ago he was advocating putting trailors on an athletic field at Jefferson school. Back then, bake sales could be held, but there just wasn’t enough money to start the renovations that had been promised to the students of Jefferson school. Trailers would be the solution, much to the dismay of many parents who were opposed to the solution. It turns out with good reason, Opdahl plans to take $1 million dollars that was allocated to Jefferson school. According to an article in the Norwalk Advocate by Alexander Fenwick;

Money to improve the fields is not in the proposed operating budget for Norwalk High for the upcoming year, so the work will be funded with a Board of Education-approved transfer of money now assigned to Jefferson Magnet School, Opdahl said.

“The allocation is already there, so it’s something we can move on right away,” he said. “We’ve done this before, taken money from some of the other buildings to Norwalk High School.”

Council member Fred Bondi was not too happy with the actions of Opdahl. He spoke out against the fields at the Tuesday night DTC meeting. Board of Ed Chairwoman Jodi Bishop-Pullan wasn’t too happy with Bondi’s remarks. They exchanged pointed words over the issue afterwards, with Bishop-Pullan more concerned about Bondi identifying Opdahl by name in the meeting. So clearly focused on the defense of the Opdahl species of dead wood, that she failed to see the the bigger picture of one school, falling apart and subjected to the band aide use of trailers planted on an athletic field so that another could gain an athletic field. A greater irony may be in the works if Bondi’s theory that the recent flooding near Norwalk High is due to a ruptured drainage pipe caused by the paving of a new parking lot proves to be accurate. But rubber stamping Opdhal’s projects have been the the way that the Board Of Ed prefers to tackle the task of oversight. Cleaning up the messes are left to the taxpayers, in the form of higher taxes. The school system still underperforms, but hey, at least if student’s can’t read about the evils of trans fat in each cup cake, the Board of Ed will make sure they can’t buy one at school.