This is a rough rough draft of the debate. Most people spoke to fast for my typing tonight. Sorry about the paraphrasing and the lack of commentary, but I’ll put it all in perspective tomorrow.

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Here we are at the BOE debate, and frankly its depressing. The audience can be described as political flunkies, other candidates, BOE members, PTO members, the high school class that has to be here and about 12 other people including the press, which includes me.

Onto to the opening statements.

Migdalia Rivas: Spent time taking advocacy courses to learn how to get help within her community. She knows the needs of her community in schools.

Susan Hamilton: Is seeking re-election, member of curriculum committee and holds Masters in special ed and that her experience on the board and professionally.

Greg Vetter: Norwalk Public School graduate and taught at a Norwalk school last year. BOE must continue to improve quality of education.

Jodi Bishop-Pullan: 19 years involved in schools. Volunteers in after school programs and believes that improving school curriculum and that high levels of achievement have been achieved.

Jack Chiarmonte: Two children and business and concerned parent. Finance committee has not met, this is not good financial management, We have serious problems, there is educational damage and low moral amongst teachers.

Ellen Wink: Bachelors in science, diverse district, advocate for getting the BOE back into the community. Never voted on a matter without knowing everything about an issue, will commit to holding meetings.

[More people are showing up, this is good. Some of them are political flunkies though.]

Maria Lopez: Financial background and professional experience after immigrating to here, to bring transparency and accountability to the BOE.

Greg Iannacone: Masters of Public Administration, firefighter. We have a failing school system, why aren’t the test scores rising, why does the BOE buy furniture that it doesn’t need?

Mike Harden: Norwalk school system is in jeopardy. We need to step up and offer solutions. The administration gets raises while teachers take their own money to buy supplies for the classroom. Misallocation of funds is unacceptable. A more business centric approach. We must make changes now.

Q. What current policy of procedure will you change or improve upon.

Migdalia Rivias: There’s not enough time for the BOE to do their homework. I can’t pick one policy to change because I need to look at them all. My choice is parental involvement, we have to reach into the community. There are lot of things that are working, the xxxxxx specialists that are helping children in the elementary schools.

Susan Hamilton: Public Relations needs to be improved upon and to let the public know about the good things that are happening in the schools. Public forums on specific topics could be held. Email is not accessible to everyone, we need to improve that method of communication. Parent training to teach how to work with the schools is important.

Greg Vetter: Instructional policies need to be looked at. Some recent changes have helped, like changing middle school instruction on fiction and non-fiction to reading and writing. Further explore homework policies.

Jodi Bishop-Pullan: Three things to improve student achievement. Higher standards, more time spent … Wants to improve student achievement by working with structured supervised time in after school programs.

Jack Chiarmonte: Disparity of the school curriculums, imposed unequally. Finance appalled at lack of fiduciary responsibility. Board has neglected its duty. BOE is intimated to avoid providing guidance, oversight and transparency.

Ellen Wink: Policy for reimbursement to the teachers for direct instructional expenses. Lack of supplies for direct student instruction. It will be the most impact to the students. Our polices and procedures for our schools need review.

Maria Lopez: A curriculum audit. We need to look at other methods of teaching. The five year curriculum that has been used for the last 4 years is not closing the achievement gap. Engage our teachers in the process. We have excellent and talented teachers in Norwalk, we have a lax administration.

Glen Iannacone: Emergency preparedness process of the school district. Schools need to be prepared for an emergency.

Mike Harden: All those children gets 30 minutes of exercise every 7-9 days. That is enough. As a policy on studying this? The BOE should be looking at this.

Q. Improve BOE relationship with City Governemnt:

Wink: We work for the tax payers and students. You have to earn a respect for a good communication.

Hamilton: More communication, attend each others meetings on a regular basis. The biggest problem is around the budget process. We need to have a continuous dialog about the budget.

Q. What would be the first thing you would do if elected:

Lopez: To form committees. To ensure openness and transparency on the board. During budgetary time, the finance committee only met once in 2 years. There needs to be more due diligence.

Rivas: Engaging the parents in the community, you need a strong voice in the community. Common Council meeting is the same day as the BOE, that should change. That the agenda of the BOE be sent home to the parents and that communication become clearer.

Q. How would you get the BOE message to the parents.

Iannacone: I would use the internet, but also we have a channel on cablevision that is accessible for city news. You have to send the information home, and let the parents ahead of time longer just posted in the city clerks office.

Q. How would you decrease the contention between BOE, Teachers Union and the city.

Chiarmonte: We have a failure to communicate. Teachers are scared to come and have an open forum. A severe lack of communication. We are not working together and that money allocated get rid of secret meetings, and get rid of executive meetings. Put the meetings on tv.

Vetter: Teachers are not attending the BOE meeting, or the teachers union meetings. Research and input from the public and teachers and administrators and outside consultants need to happen.

Q. Districts to improve district wide literacy

Harden: What we are talking is teaching our children. The board is striving to meet the bare mininum, which we haven’t met. The sytems is broken. We have to run the BOE more like a business, the business of teaching our children. Teachers are scared to raise their voices and tell us what they need, by fixing the system and bringing in the people who are in charge of doing all this that will fix itself.

Pullan: The reading scores have been flat, we have 12 literacy coaches and 6 literacy specialists that are working in our schools. That process can work to increase and differentiate instruction for children to learn literacy. There’s a new program to focus on improvements in comprehension and writing.

Q. How can you ensure safe school environments?

Hamilton: There are visitors badges and officers in the schools. Having a good PA system and phone system helps.

Wink: Review our policies and procedures on as needed basis and yearly basis. There isn’t one plan that works we have to review those that are working and those that are not.

Q. Top issue facing education in Norwalk?

Rivas: Parental involvement in the community. Its all about the parents and the community and accountability making sure that what is being taught in the classroom is up to par.

Lopez: Curriculum and spending, higher standards in evaluating standards of the students, curriculum, and stop demanding more money form the tax payers and more accountability from the administration. We need to form open comitteess, we need better notices, on the internet and on tv. Move the BOE meetings out of city hall into the schools. We need to show respect to our teachers, an administrator came to school

Q. Number one priority?

Iannacone: Number one priority is the get the most bang for out buck. We are spending more than the state average. We are near the last of several DRG categories, we need use the price waterhouse study and see $7 million in cost savings.

Q. What would you do to ensure collaboration with the party opposite yours?

Vetter: In the last 4 years the BOE has worked well together, there haven’t any 5-4 splits. You have to work together to do what best.

Chiarmonte: THe BOE should be more apolitical it goes beyond party affilialtion, not matter who is on the board. You need to have good communication. When they voted on the contract, they threw it on the table took no inout and voted on it in 5 minutes. We need to be more open, we’re all in this together.

Q. What would you do differently?

Pullan: Increase community involvement. We need more forums and feedback and get involved in advisory committees. We need community backing to achieve those goals. More surveys.

Harden: There’s a lot I would like to do, try to run it more like a business. Democrats put $450k into the price water house audit, and it sat on the shelf. Things would move faster if it were managed better. THe BOE is like the board of directors. They need to guide and direct what the administrators need to do.

CLOSING STATEMENTS

Rivas: We need more youth programs.
Hamilton: Knowledge of curriculum and best practices makes me more effective.
Vetter: Students deserve the best education possible.
Pullan: Continue to do a good job.
Chiarmonte: You need to have results. BOE has not done a good job.
Wink: An incoming tide floats all boats. A BOE that answers only to the taxpayers, students and teachers.
Lopez: Quality education for all of our students. Our children desrve better. Out teachers deserve respect.
Iannacone: The budget wasn’t picked apart by the BOE shows that the system isn’t working.
Harden: We need to make a change, balance the current by adding business minded people. Disagrees with how the board has been run, more active sub committee system, committee system.