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Norwalk: BOE Fiefdom Still Under Siege


by turfgrrl


May 9th, 2007 · 28 Comments

Last night the Common Council debated the merits of passing a resolution urging the BOE to adopt a fresh look at the Price Waterhouse Cooper study of 2002. The debate shows that the continuing tactics deployed by Corda to obstinately defend the realm of the third floor are still generating strife. His most recent letter to Mayor Moccia, must have prompted the latest round. Council member Rick McQuaide made the motion, as he says according to the Hour:

For Republican Richard A. McQuaid, council minority leader, resolution sponsor and intervention specialist at Naramake Elementary School, the need for giving the school board guidance on how to best use the $141.5 million budgeted was self-evident.

“I’m on the inside looking out,” McQuaid said. “Teachers are working hard. Students are working hard. And to be cutting, as I call, the worker bees really doesn’t make any sense to me.

“That’s why I put forward this resolution, to get the ball rolling,” McQuaid said.

But the prevailing consensus was to let the proposed May 23rd meeting of the BOE, BET, Mayor and Council members proceed. The problem is that no body other than the BOE has control over line item spending. As long as Corda gets a free pass bu the BOE, there are no financial controls, no management oversight that is working on behalf of the students, teachers and tax payers. It’s all by decree with Corda. The Democrats have tried to make this a partisan issue, as if their election strategy is to promote themselves as great stewards of education. The reality is that the educational dollars are getting sucked up by every kind of bureaucratic ploy instead of hitting the classroom. If Matt Miklave spent more time helping his own party members on the BOE instead of challenging suggestions that the BOE execute more oversight, then maybe greater oversight on Corda would happen.

source: The Hour, Council: No to ‘02 schools report Resolution urged BOE to revisit report and cut administrators, By ROBERT KOCH, May 9, 2007

Tags: Education · In the News · Norwalk

28 Responses so far ↓ “Norwalk: BOE Fiefdom Still Under Siege”



  • 1 disgusted // May 9, 2007 at 8:54 am

    It’s bad enough that Galen Well’s political skills are heading the good ship Democrat right into the toilet as far as the council goes, but do we have to watch the BOE get slaughtered as well? Norwalk Dems are turning into as much a joke as Bridgeport Dems. It’s time for new leadership. Maybe young Lex Paulson can sweep out the old and bring some fresh ideas to the party.

  • 2 Watchdog // May 9, 2007 at 5:19 pm

    Excellent conclusion, Turfie. Ever give any thought to serving on the BoE?

  • 3 BOE needs new thinking // May 9, 2007 at 6:39 pm

    Definitely need new thinking on the BOE- as Kimmel laid it out- they are doing little with the information and letting THE MAN do his thing.

    How many voters/citizens really TRUST one man, Sal Corda (who fired the financial director and has a “curious” COO as his right hand man) to manage and control $141MM. He got a $5MM increase and wanted a $11MM increase.

    WHO HAS THEIR HEAD IN THE SAND? The man is totally out of control with spending but HAS TOTAL CONTROL over the board of education who meekly let him do “whatever.” If they let his suggested cuts happen, we WILL get a new board, next election. Some diversity is needed- !!!!!!

  • 4 conservdem // May 9, 2007 at 7:17 pm

    What a shame that the council failed to pass this resolution and what a shame Poruban and Miklave as well as the rest of those blowhards a do nothing but grandstand bunch were able to take a perfectly reasonable request and turn it into a political disaster. Miklave is the most annoying and boring self serving fool that ever served this city.(I suee the term serve very loosely) Poruban is just a trouble making rebel rouser , and the others who fall in step with them are just as bad. What a shame the 5 dems that had what we thought was an actual backbone are now falling in step with the outers. The taxpayers were actually thinking we had a pretty good group there and now this. Oh well, guess we’ll see ya at the polls in November but I’ll bet not in the council chambers after that.

  • 5 Mike Lyons // May 9, 2007 at 8:40 pm

    It amazes me that anyone — much less ALL of the Council’s Democrats — would vote against the Resolution submitted by Rick McQuaid. Here it is:

    RESOLUTION OF THE COMMON COUNCIL REGARDING
    THE BOARD OF EDUCATION BUDGET

    WHEREAS, Norwalk spends $1,704 per pupil more (in direct spending) than the State average; and

    WHEREAS, the $5.2 million increase in education spending in this year’s budget will raise our direct per pupil spending to almost $13,000 per year; and

    WHEREAS, Norwalk spends more per pupil than 8 of the 9 cities in our comparable group of cities established by the State Board of Education; and

    WHEREAS, Norwalk spends $1,454 per pupil more than the State average on salaries and benefits for school employees; and

    WHEREAS, this spending is largely funded by Norwalk taxpayers as a result of the mistreatment of Norwalk by the State Government in taxation and appropriations policy; and

    WHEREAS, this results in Norwalkers paying the highest taxes in the area (21% higher than Stamford’s, and as much as 52% higher than Darien’s); and

    WHEREAS, those high taxes are largely driven by school spending (up 50% in the last 10 years, while all other City spending is only up 22%); and

    WHEREAS, sensitive to the high and rising burden on Norwalk’s taxpayers, the Common Council established a spending cap that limited the Board of Education budget increase to said $5.2 million; and

    WHEREAS, discussions at the Board of Education’s Budget Committee have continued to focus on budget reconciliations that would cut teachers, educational programs and sports; and

    WHEREAS, possible savings of millions of dollars have been identified by the City’s Finance Director in non-personnel budget areas such as maintenance accounts, consultant fees, travel and workshop expenses, etc.; and

    WHEREAS, the 2002 PriceWaterhouseCoopers audit of the school system identified up to $7 million per year of possible savings in school spending without reductions in educational programs.

    NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE NORWALK COMMON COUNCIL, that the Council calls on the Board of Education, before any programs or teachers are cut, to leave no stone unturned in searching for savings in administrative expenses while, at the very minimum, maintaining the current level of service to our students; and

    BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the Council urges the Board’s Budget Committee to “dust off” the 2002 PriceWaterhouseCoopers Audit Report, and look at the possibility of implementing some of the large number of suggested proposals therein for reducing spending without impacting educational programs.

    Submitted by Councilman Richard McQuaid
    May 3, 2007

  • 6 Norwalker // May 9, 2007 at 8:55 pm

    How can Miklave say, last night, the the PWC report stated that there was NO FAT in the bd of ed?

  • 7 Mike Lyons // May 9, 2007 at 9:01 pm

    Well, PWC found $7 million per year of possible savings. I wouldn’t call that “no fat”!

  • 8 Anonymous // May 9, 2007 at 9:06 pm

    This to #6 thye reason Miklave can say it because in his narrow mind he see what he wants and believes that his words were impressive and hurtful to the republicans. Sitting there all I could think was poor man he was so far from the real world that it was actually shameful. what was even more shameful was when he demamded that the mayor direct the council to give the BOE $6MM and stop playing politics and stop harming our kids. If that was political grandstanding, I don’t know what is, but I can tell it made me very sad to see our elected officials using the council floor to promote their political agenda’s.

  • 9 anonymous // May 9, 2007 at 10:03 pm

    McQuaid’s resolution is sensible and well articulated - why wouldn’t Miklave et al buy into it? Why not? Because of partisan political motives, that’s why. It’s a shame because taxes are driving our middle class out of town - the greying, middle class whose kids can’t afford to live here, and who realize they could live quite well, thank you very much, almost anywhere else. We should try to address everyone’s needs, people moving into town as well as those who have been here a long time. There has to be a good balance.

  • 10 turfgrrl // May 9, 2007 at 10:49 pm

    watchdog: By posting that you probably made Corda reach for the Alka Seltzer…. in the Costco size. :)

    Seriously, I don’t see myself campaigning for office any time soon. It would interfere with blogging, amongst other things in the pipeline.

  • 11 turfgrrl // May 9, 2007 at 11:00 pm

    Mike Lyons: While I think the intent is in the right place, I have issues with the whole idea of these symbolic resolutions. When the “outers” wanted to have the council vote on a resolution to increase the budget cap, that would essentially have no binding action on the BET, I thought it a waste of effort. I think the same applies here.

    Yes, the BOE should be dusting off that PWC report. More so Corda, but he’s perhaps a lost cause. The BOE should be using the report as a guideline for asking questions and digging into actual oversight. The separation between the council and BOE line item control hinders the teeth that such a resolution should have. I suppose there’s a use for it to be wielded as a political club come election time. But otherwise, why do it?

    What I’d like to see is some sort of binding action that requires that the BOE have a finance director. Well, maybe not the title per se, but that they have to have someone at the CFO level of actuarial experience as part of the management team.

    I don’t think you can force an organization to adopt management recommendations, or even recommend that they be adopted. But I think you could make the capital budget requests and such get tied to conditions. And maybe there’s some way to strip out facilities management, construction etc. from the BOE, or as part of a joint oversight committee or something. At least then that would limit Corda’s financial responsibility to labor and curriculum. Or something along those lines.

  • 12 anonymous // May 9, 2007 at 11:14 pm

    Why hasn’t Mr. Lyons commented on why two republicans would not even support the resolution last evening. Why don’t you bash Hempstead and Straniti, Mr. Lyons ?
    If the resolution was so great then those two loyal republicans should have supported it. Cat got your tongue ?

  • 13 Anonymous // May 10, 2007 at 6:17 am

    Hempstead and straniti were out of town and had not had suffient time to read the resolution and to give it the consideration it was due. When someone doesn’t know the facts and is not fully understanding of the contents it is only right that they abstain from voting or if in the case of the bike trails, 2 republicans abstained because they had questions that they wanted to look at before voting. When you abstain from a vote it is not a “NO” vote. Therefore Straniti and Hempstead did not vote against the resolution but instead abstained from thier vote. It is much better people who abstain than those who go along for the ride.

  • 14 anonymous // May 10, 2007 at 6:36 am

    Number 13, how do you know all this ? Also, then why the excuses for them ? Mr. Lyons should be giving them a dress down also. He will not though because they are in his party.

  • 15 anonymous // May 10, 2007 at 7:19 am

    Comment on the Resolution of the Common Council Regarding the BOE Budget. I think we need to be very careful when we assume that the opinion of a bean counter, in this case the City Finance Director, is viewed as being accurate. How can a person who knows absoluteley nothing about education, maintenance, and the other things that he claims to have indentified as areas of savings be taken seriously? He may be a good bean counter, and excellent at making sure the columns add up correctly, but lets get real people, he is not an expert in the other areas that he so boldly enters. Sorry, but everyone has their limitations, and this includes the City Finance Director.

  • 16 Food Watcher // May 10, 2007 at 7:39 am

    Concerning Mr. Opdahlls food tester, the rumor is that she is gone from the central kitchen. Disappeared during the cover of darkness. The central kitchen staff came in one morning and found her desk empty, personal picutres and junk gone, and not even a goodbye note left. No one has been told anything, no one has filed a missing person report. I must admit that when this food tester/dancer thing was first reported we had our doubts. How could this be allowed to happen in a school district of our size? Maybe in NY, NJ, or Bridgeport, Hartford, but not in little old Norwalk. How could someone be so brazen? Well I quess it was true!

  • 17 Gone but not forgotten // May 10, 2007 at 8:13 am

    BOE still needs to get to the bottom of the “food tester” caper.

    Who, what , why, where, when and how

    Recommendation, Approval, control, payments, etc. all need to be flushed out and reviewed.

    What CRACK in CORDA’s system allowed this to occur? If the Opdall the CORDA COO was responsible for it, then his (and CORDA’s) oversight of our “finances” is in question.

    Then the “why” is she gone- how did that happen, is there any coverup, etc?

    BOE - PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE, do YOUR JOB.

    The only thing we can do is vote to keep you or not, if you can’t do the job, then we are obliged to find someone who can control our educational system.

  • 18 curious observer // May 10, 2007 at 9:32 am

    The fatal flaw in the resolution was that it came from Richard McQuaid. He works for the Board of Education in a department where there are threatened positions, and he could easily be perceived as saying ‘ Don’t cut our jobs or mess with my seniority . Find the savings somewhere else.’
    This becomes an Ethics issue. You aren’t supposed to participate in matters that affect your livelihood. Don’t expect questions since McQuaid also serves on the city’s Ethics committee and becomes a good illustration why an independent board should be considered. Fellow committee members Michael Coffey and Carvin Hilliard should have told their bi-partisan pizza buddy to let someone else bring any BOE resolutions on to the floor.

  • 19 anon // May 10, 2007 at 10:02 am

    Rick is one of the most ethical people I know. To accuse him of promoting a resolution to “save his job” is warped thinking. I guess the Anne Carbone fan club is still kicking the can. Carbone has disgraced the ZBA, and should resign. Her employer fired her for being unethical. Filing 60 zoning violation complaints shows that she purposely went to people’s homes in order to look for violations. For what purpose? Are you going to say she was overzealous? Carbone admitted to filing the complaint against the Diezes, that eliminates any b.s. about whether she did or didn’t file the complaint.

    Promoting a resolution that tells the BOE to dust off a report is hardly the grounds for an ethics inquiry.

  • 20 anonymous // May 10, 2007 at 10:14 am

    #18, Richard McQuaid’s job was not in jeopardy, therefore he wasn’t operating as a staff member whose position was being threatened. He happens to be a very honest man who won’t turn a blind eye to what is happening.

    BOE take note. The people on this blog don’t have the attention spans of a fruit fly. These issues will not be forgotten. Take a stand or be remembered when election time arrives. It’s unfortunate that we have to wait until then.

  • 21 anonymous // May 10, 2007 at 10:39 am

    Don’t all of you have jobs and families? You sit around theorizing about “the plot against education” but have no idea what you’re talking about. There is so much misinformation in these articles that it’s nauseating.

  • 22 SouthMain // May 10, 2007 at 10:47 am

    #21, if you don’t identify what you think is misinformation, then we have to assume that you don’t know what you are talking about.

  • 23 anonymous // May 10, 2007 at 11:01 am

    #21, tell us what you believe to be misinformation. In my opinion, there has been information revealed that can be backed up.

  • 24 anonymous // May 10, 2007 at 4:40 pm

    #18 I don’t think Mr.McQuaid is part of the so called
    Pizza bunch, he fights with his own party when he thinks it may be doing something not in the best interest of the city. You might recall he also was the one who made the motion at the Carbone hearing that it didn’t make any sense and the hearing should end.

  • 25 Anonymous // May 10, 2007 at 5:01 pm

    #14-had you been at the council mjeeting you would have heard both of them say they had not reviewed the resolution and therefore were abstaining.Its that simple. Some of us go to these meetings to see what is happening in the city first hand and not wait for them to show up here. Rick McQuaid is one of the most honest and caring people who we have on our side as taxpayers, so when he put this proposal together I am sure he did it with the best intentions in order for the BOE to sit up and take notice. You’ll note that there were only 3 yes votes on this resolution because the pizza bunch has decided to go back to their own side of the fence in an election season. Some people care more for their positions than they do about right and wrong. You might want to make an effort to drop by some the meetings that go on in this city if you want to make educated posts here. I was not making excuses for anyone, just stating facts. Some of us who care what goes on do take time out of our busy schedules and family life to get the facts.

  • 26 anonymous // May 10, 2007 at 5:08 pm

    The Republican council members know enough not to drag everyone into their squabbles, but it is a fact that they do not blindly support the mayor behind the scenes. Anyone who knows Mr. McQuaid, knows he is not someone’s puppet.

  • 27 anonymous // May 10, 2007 at 5:17 pm

    I think you can add a few others to that non puppet terminology as well. I see the democrats are in high gear even this early in the game. it must be the “Lets discredit the republicans” season opening. apparently you don’t really know the 4 repubs who do their own thing. There’s only one of them that sidles up to every last word the mayor says and that person is Miklave turned republican. His pontificating speach is getting old. you should really sit in on one the council meetings to see they show that goes on between this person and Miklave, if it weren’t so pitiful, it would actually be comical.

  • 28 AnonNorwalk // May 11, 2007 at 7:12 am

    McMahon has new principal -Finally a Norwalk resident gets a top job in Norwalk! This is probably the best news I have seen in the papers in a very long time.
    Speaking to people with regards to this over the past week I have found that Suzanne Brown Koroshetz is going to be sorely missed in Stamford and Norwalk is going to be a very lucky place or should I say McMahon will be getting a wonderful Principal. Now we can only hope this will become a trend and we will stop going to NY and other areas for retired admins who not only get a pension from their previous jobs but in time will be eligible for pensions in Norwalk.