There’s many good things that happen over in the Stamford Public School system. For one, they post and disclose more of the administrative stuff than Norwalk does. But there’s a special distinction with how they run their operations versus how Norwalk does. For instance:
V. The Stamford Public Schools will maintain efficient and effective operations by:
1. Managing fiscal, capital, instructional and personnel resources in a prudent and
transparent fashion, which includes increasing alternative sources of funding through
state, federal and private grants.
2. Evaluating the return on investment for all district initiatives while reporting progress
towards benchmarks to the entire Stamford community.
3. Continuing to improve the budget process so that it is outcome related and
transparent.
It kinda helps to have a strategic plan in place. Not to mention an easy to use website, agendas and minutes for all meetings, including committee meetings(althought they stop mid 2007, tsk, tsk),
In Stamford, it is the City of Stamford’s purchasing department which oversees the purchasing for the Stamford Schools. They spell out all the details here. It is important for the BOE to know this, as Corda works his way around having the expertise that he should have as part of his CFO needs. Purchasing had been under the umbrella of Stuart Opdhal operations. In short, a series of oddly named accounts and transfers effectively wiping out the open, transparent and accountable way that one should run a finance department.
Corda has appointed an interim person from Stamford to take on the responsibilities of finance operations while the BOE fiddles with consultants about the need for a finance director. The BOE should look carefully at Corda’s actions because he has not exactly been a friend of open communication and transparency.
