I stopped counting the number of times Sal Corda said the word understanding tonight after 100, and I missed the first half hour of the meeting. Listening to Corda answer questions is like being caught in an endless loop of Mentos commercials. Here’s a reminder:
See, I too have created an understanding about the meeting. Now, onto the points worth discussing.
Illegal students. Corda is pretty sure that they investigate students who might have a false residence in Norwalk. He also doesn’t think that even if there was a hypothetical 100 illegal students in the schools that we’d see any cost savings. On the one hand, Corda is right about pinning a per student cost savings. What he neglects to point out, is that students who are are attending our schools are taking away resources that could be serving the rest of the student population. Coupled with the higher incidences of ELL (English language learners) that most of schools are reporting, one has to wonder what is going on. Last week the Ponus Middle School principal said they need more resources to handle special ed and ELL students. Something doesn’t compute with the numbers Corda is presenting. Let’s see a breakdown of investigations by school and what the teachers have been reporting versus what the principals have kicked over to cnetral office. The Cambridge Report says there’s a lack of two way communication, so how can we believe Corda is even aware of all the problems in his schools? BOE do your job.
Budget & Finance Director
Corda says that the Cambridge Report validates his argument that they are doing an open and transparent budget. Well not quite. The Cambridge Report said that the numbers presented in the budget report were clear, but that no one in the entire school system with the exception of Corda and Opdahl felt that the budget reflected what was needed. Then Opdahl provides the key piece of info, the woman sitting behind him, labeled as a secretary, does the entire budget. I’m sure she’s a nice woman, but come on people. First Corda said having a finance director wouldn’t save him any time because he really only takes the recommendations of his department heads and makes sure that those budget recommendations jive with his instructional goals. Goals, btw, that have consistently landed Norwalk schools on the state non performing list. But I’ll let that slide for a moment, because there’s change afoot with the instruction direction once karen Lang retires at the end of the year. No one, not Corda and not Opdahl apparently look at budget numbers from the perspective of operating costs. Corda wants you to believe that labor costs, which run through the city payroll, are the sole fluctuating expense that anyone should be concerned with.
This leaves out all the energy cost savings, teaching supplies, maintenance, transportation and food costs conveniently left out. Something Corda chose not to answer on a per school basis because he wants to keep that labor number in all his budget so he can then say any cuts affects students. The real question I have is how much more money could be going into the classroom if someone other than Opdahl was overseeing finances. Under Opdhal’s incompetent leadership, individual schools are not hooked up to the MUNIS system so that schools can put in purchase requests in real time. Opdahl lamely supplied the outrageous answer that the MUNIS software people have a bad relationship with him. Sure, like the long trail of former employers who have had bad relationships with Opdahl. And here’s another gem, the HR module is not even being used by Opdhal. Maybe that explains why Bruce Morris doesn’t have to account for his hours of work.
Corda claimed that the Cambridge Report says that all his fleet of Vice Principals are a good thing. That’s not what the Cambridge Report says.
Lastly, despite an average declining enrollment of 300 students a year, Opdahl let slip that they are asking for two additional school buses. You simply cannot accept this performance.
