YourCT.com header image 2
← Norwalk: Historical Commission Is History Norwalk: Vets Park Future On Meeting Agenda →

Norwalk: BOE Budget Posted


by turfgrrl


January 6th, 2008 · 8 Comments

First, at long last, the link to the Board of Education 2008-2008 Operating Budget. This past week the BOE has met to discuss this budget and due to the confluence of events I was unable to attend. The buzz following those meetings has not gone unnoticed. And that buzz says that the lack of a finance director that reports to the Superintendent or the BOE will cause this budget to be voted down somewhere along the line.

The fact that the budget is 200 pages, shows that the lack of a CFO level executive is harming the process. Corda doesn’t get it quite fully, but his defense of the incompetence that Opdahl has wrought is the biggest liability he has.

Cut the loss Corda, and jettison Opdahl as COO.

Tags: Education · Norwalk

8 Responses so far ↓ “Norwalk: BOE Budget Posted”



  • 1 Anonymous // Jan 6, 2008 at 12:14 pm

    How is it that BMHS, the larger school this year, as well as in next year’s projected enrollment, has fewer teachers than does NHS? Even taking into accout the Center for Global Studies teachers, BMHS has a smaller teaching staff, and yet it currently has about 100 more students.

  • 2 Anonymous // Jan 6, 2008 at 6:39 pm

    Read the enrollment narrative at the top of page 7 of the budget, and then look at the graph below. Someone mixed up the high school and middle school numbers. Some award-winning document this is!

  • 3 Short term not enough // Jan 6, 2008 at 9:12 pm

    Need to look at the enrollment, and spending by category, by year….since 1995 or so, then you will see the problem with our budget.

    Enrollment down, admin/staff up.

    Having six top admins per high school, plus guidance counselors and their staff is absurd.

  • 4 Anonymous // Jan 7, 2008 at 12:23 pm

    Is this the first time the schools have posted the budget or are the budgets from previous years available so that I can compare changes from year to year?

  • 5 Anonymous // Jan 7, 2008 at 8:42 pm

    STAMFORD - The city will test for radon in the schools in the next few months to comply with a state law targeting the potentially dangerous gas.

    The city issued a request for proposals and will award a contract in the next few weeks, said Al Barbarotta, facilities director for the school system.
    January is National Radon Action Month, designated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. It also is one of the months when indoor radon readings are highest because doors and windows are closed, confining the gas, said Margaret LaCroix, spokeswoman for the American Lung Association of Connecticut
    The worst possible reading that you’re ever going to get would be in January, when everything’s closed up,” she said.
    The test kits placed in classrooms are unobtrusive, he said. The request for proposals calls for 1,750 tests at all 20 public school buildings.Teachers and parents must be told the test results in 30 days.

    and in Norwalk it took almost 6 months to see results. Its amazing how other systems work and to think we did 600 test there doing over three times as many and have their results back 5 times as quick.

    simply another reason we need a change in our schools.

  • 6 Anonymous // Jan 7, 2008 at 10:09 pm

    How is it possible that the Norwalk schools would give more staff to a school with lower enrollment?

  • 7 Anonymous // Jan 8, 2008 at 7:43 am

    #6: Anything is possible in the Land of Oz. Just don’t go behind the curtain because the Wizard of Oz doesn’t want anyone to question what he says and does.

  • 8 anonymous // Jan 8, 2008 at 8:06 pm

    Assistant Principals in the Elementary schools? As posted previously, New Canaan administrator:student ratio is lower than Norwalk’s administrator:student ratio. What about New Canaan’s teacher:student ratio? Why does this typically homogeneous community need a lower teacher:student ratio (about 20:1) than Norwalk’s very diverse 24:1. Could it be New Canaan knows what works to help kids learn best? Fewer administrators with more teachers to keep class sizes low enough to directly affect the achievement of ALL students–a proven recipe for success! When will Norwalk figure this out?

Leave a Reply