At about 5 minutes into the January 19th meeting, Tony Ditrio representing the coalition of Norwalk Public Schools bargaining groups, steps up to inform the BOE that the central office is not supportive of providing a quality education, and concludes that they have no confidence with the cabinet level administrators of the central office.
The gist is that retreads from districts where the individuals have demonstrably failed have been appointed in interim positions. They asked for a clean sweep of the top leadership when the new superintendent gets hired.
Interim Superintendent Dr. Papallo must have taken those words to heart, being that he was an interim appointment and is, er, a cabinet level central office administrator. So it’s not a surprise that at a later point in the meeting, (41 minutes in) he makes excuses which he labels “not an excuse.” According to Papallo, the third floor leaders, which would presumably include himself, are dedicated hard working people who are understaffed.
Really? Well oaky, someone who is blatantly incompetent can be hard working and understaffed, but that’s not what the unions were saying. They specifically said that they were frustrated by the lack of respect and lack of support. Forget the unions for a moment, this would be teachers who are once again, coming before the BOE and saying your administrative people aren’t listening to us. This has been echoed by parents too. What is so hard to acknowledge here, Papallo. Oh wait, you would have to be listening.
But listening, according to Papallo is like three blind people feeling up an elephant. Yes, he really does bring in a fable as his whole rationale for why only the superintendent can see the whole big picture. Granted this was as a “not an excuse” for why Norwalk was dragging its feet on race to the top funding. WTF. Anyone can see the whole big picture, if the whole big picture is actually transparent and available. That is the chief problem! A “C” level problem rooted in the lack of communication another “c” word.
Migdalia Rivas somehow manages to say the same thing except that she then goes on to attack Sue Haynie over the wording that was used in a typical SWOT report. Business people, know that SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. This also is the language of grants and pretty much everything to do with Educational Inc. lingo. Rivas was confused by this line under Threats: “Cultural resistance to educational reforms.”
But back to Papallo who cites a quote in the Hour that “Taxpayers want good schools. There’s no disputing it. Even people without kids in the school want good schools. What no one wants, whether you’re a parent or a retiree without any kids, none of us wants the waste and inefficiency that has marked the central office” Papallo hoped it was a misquote.
Colarossi says it wasn’t a misquote.
Papallo then says it was irresponsible (1 hour 18 minutes in) and that Colarossi owed an apology to hard working people of central office. Um, that would include himself presumably. But what for? A pass through budget with inaccurate enrollment projections? Pages upon pages of item codes with no context of what taxpayer dollars are being spent on? A web site that fails to deliver basic information about the school system? Oh yes, an apology is needed, but from the BOE to the public. And for Chairman Ianacone to even reference that staff was “upset” upon reading the report in the Hour, puh-lease. Get over it staff. You’ve been graded an F, or let’s be politically correct here, in need of improvement, and the voters have spoken by replacing BOE members.
For years central office had a dedicated staff person whose sole job was to process teacher step/logevity changes payroll on paper. On paper! The concept of using a spreadsheet was beyond the grasp of the central office culture. And hey, Migdalia Rivas, that’s a call out to you, using definition #1c of culture. Or what about how about the use triple carbon payroll forms. Can we get to maybe the 21st century and have computerized forms that employees can fill out themselves?
The irresponsibility lies with Papallo in accepting productivity mired in bodies that sit in chairs rather than data that sits in servers. He can’t even bring himself to acknowledge new media! He probably thinks that it is perfectly fine to have someone read his email for him out loud during milk and cookies time. And hey administrative staff person, when you get to this line, make sure his milk has been warmed.
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A close reading of various reports — Cambridge, CREC, the review of the finance department, and even the legal summaries related to the autism mess –clearly indicates there are indeed major inefficiencies in Central Office. (This, of course, does not preclude the likilihood that there are also major problems in the operation of our schools.)
From what I have read and heard, Central Office staff members were not completely up to speed on various issues related to the Race to the Top application. Something like that should be impossible in this day and age; such things as the Internet, cell phones, email, you name it, make it inexcusable to walk into meetings without the knowledge necessary to make informed decisions. The question that should be asked more often is, “What do you mean you don’t know?”
Moreover, some of the issues go beyond plain old inefficiencies. It is clearly disconcerted when Central Office personnel are not familiar with the latest advances in curriculum and the delivery of education — from general literacy development, to the latest advances in math education, to the proper ways to assess and work with English Language Learners, to our Special Needs students.
Mr. Colorossi said publicly what other board members have been saying privately for a number of years.
Bruce Kimmel: Thanks for reminding us all about the curriculum, literacy, autism and special education issues too. It really isn’t one issue, it really isn’t a new issue, as you also reminded, it’s in several reports.