Last night’s BOe committee meeting was about as depressing as a meeting could be. The majority of the meeting was spent reviewing the technology and It budget requests. It turns out that Ralph Valenzisi, sitting on a 25 person Microsoft advisory committee is busy recommending, gee what a surprise, Microsoft technology as the public schools’ preferred “tier 1″ vendor. What a conflict of interest! Hearing all the “required” computer “refreshes” and smart boards and other nonsense last night, as not a single BOE member asked the obvious question about what the totally cost of operation was going to be by these proposed solutions, and even worse, gasped at the idea that a computer that is 5 - 7 years in use is still in the schools. “Band-aids” tut-tutted Rosa Murray at the shock of hearing about the age of those computers. Meanwhile in the real world of IT, there is nothing wrong with computers that old that can’t be repurposed into other uses, particularly since the state of educational software hasn’t really advanced since 1999.
Greg Burnett was heading down the right path when he asked if all these requests were absolutely necessary or could they be scaled back. The next whopper came out of Opdhal and Valenzisi that somehow if all 195 computers weren’t purchased there wouldn’t be “equity” in the schools. How this lame ass statement passes for any kind of serious IT recommendation is beyond me. But it it is illustrative of the lack of qualifications of Corda’s staff, the inherent conflict of interests that dominate and the lack of expertise on the BOE. I reluctantly conclude that Norwalk public schools are doomed.
Which is why I can review last night’s tap dance on why Corda absolutely feels that a fiance director is unnecessary as being just another smoke screen to keep real expertise from ever shaking the country club decision making process that is deployed by Corda. Why demand the best financial mind to get maximum value out of every dollar, when the BOE will compliantly pass through budget requests that waste tax payer dollars. The IT requests indicative of waste that I can easily pick out.
So despite Brice Kimmel’s valiant efforts to outline how having a financial director and contingency line in the budget is in the best interests of Corda and the BOE, the contingency line got withdrawn and the committee will kick around the idea of a finance director a little longer. It’s too bad that Corda doesn’t get that having someone on staff that will actually make his performance better is a good thing. Corda seems determined to wallow in mediocrity.
The other depressing item to come out of the meeting was that finger pointing over playground and school facility repairs was an ongoing mess. According to Corda, 5 years ago, Hal Alvord informed the BOE that DPW would no longer handle pot hole repairs and parking lot plowing as well as playground maintenance and repairs. Naturally Mark Gorian prepared a thick book with pictures detailing all these simple infrastructure repairs that are now needed. Corda lamented that poor Hal Alvord’s budget just hasn’t been increased enough to handle the school maintenance. I thought that was a telling remark, since the DPW budget was never cut 5 years ago, simply that the Director decided unilaterally to stop performing work that was agreed to under a 1989 letter of understanding. Corda referenced that letter and the “not in writing” pronouncement by Alvord. Why this problem persists 5 years later, still with nothing in writing is beyond belief.
As always there are two sides to the story, one that I know Alvord talked about during the last budget meetings where he complained that the BOE would send over emergency requests instead of filling out a work order that DPW could better manage. Somehow I suspect that the truth of the situation lies in the petty budget fiefdoms that exists pitting one department over another because responsibilities aren’t spelled out specifically.
Here’s a solution, DPW should be responsible for all infrastructure for all property that is city owned, which would include the schools, and for all right of way that connects to private property if its being used for the public.
