Patrick Linsey’s report on the meeting between Sal Corda, members of the Board of Ed (BOE), Board of Estimate and Taxation (BET) and the Common Council suggests much rhetoric was lofted but little of substance was achieved. From his article:
Several members each from the Common Council, the Board of Education and the Board of Estimate & Taxation attended the meeting. All agreed to tone down political attacks and improve communication after a spring that saw much more of the former than the latter.
“I think that what happens is there is a tendency for the rhetoric to flow,” said Norwalk Schools Superintendent Salvatore Corda. “People tend to solidify their positions because they have to be right, rather than trying to increase their understanding.”
In Norwalk, the Board of Education’s budget is capped by the Common Council. The Board of Education then chooses how to spend the money, a matter over which the council has no say.Wednesday night’s meeting follows a bruising budget process earlier this year. The Common Council and Board of Estimate & Taxation trimmed millions of dollars from the Board of Education’s requested funding increase.
Councilmen argued among themselves and some accused the Board of Education of fiscal irresponsibility. School officials predicted eliminated teacher positions and program cuts if funding was not increased.
In the end, the state increased its funding to Norwalk schools and it is likely most, if not all, at-risk teaching positions will be saved. Now Norwalk officials are looking to do the same for relationships between the branches of city government.
Councilmen begged the understanding that efforts to keep property-tax increases low do not equate to attacks on education. School board members explained the funding they seek goes to providing the best possible education to city children.
Corda of course, was roundly criticized for his “slush fund budgeting” as a superintendent in Peekskill New York. His approach in Norwalk has been to obscure the financial details that would provide an open and transparent accounting of Norwalk’s school operations. Unlike superintendents in neighboring towns, Corda has not made his budget available online to the public, and it is likely due to the unorthodox way expenses are tracked without accompanying details. Routine financial audits are not being performed and thus the system is open to potential fraud and embezzlement. A good place to look would be the many construction projects that have exceeded their estimated costs by millions because Corda refuses to adopt standardized construction project management practices.
And Corda said councilmen can’t devote the same time to understanding the education budget that school board members do in their dozens of meetings every year.
“The difficulty is you don’t reasonably know what the Board (of Education) ought to get,” said Corda, adding “don’t try to figure it out for us, because that’s where the difficulty starts.”
The funny thing is, Corda lied. The BOE does not meet to discuss the budget, which is why Bruce Kimmel has publicly denounced the practice of the BOE finance committee not meeting, and denounce the cavalier substance-free presentation of Corda’s budget.
Corda apparently still believes that he gets a blank check to run the school system, without any questions about how that money is spent. He has blatantly ignored a statute to supply detailed monthly expense reports. People here may be concerned about the bank robberies that are plaguing Norwalk and the tri-state area which net a few thousand, but the bigger concern should be the theft of educational dollars by someone who refuses to be held accountable.
source: The Hour Tone down rhetoric in ed budget talks, officials say, By PATRICK R. LINSEY, July 26, 2007
