Norwalk's Political Parties Endorse BOE Candidates

Democrats and Republicans endorsed their candidates for the Board of Education last night at two separate meetings. Four member-at-large seats are up for election in November.

The style and organization of each meeting could not have been more different. The Republican affair held at the Norwalk Inn had a celebratory atmosphere with balloons and appetizers. All of the Republican candidates had prepared statements that were handed out. The Democrats, who seemed to be more representative of Norwalk's diversity, met at City Hall in a by-the-books meeting that lasted well into the night.


The Republican Town Council endorsed Artie Kassimis, a pastor and former business executive, Steven Colarossi, former co-president of the PTO at Naramake Elementary school and lawyer, Sue Haynie, PTO Council president and Erin Halsey, a parent with three children in Norwalk schools. While the first three candidates had declared their candidacy weeks ago Ms. Halsey says she was approached by the RTC just today.

Ms. Halsey is a native of Norwalk with three children in the school system. She worked in the field of medical education for 22 years before being laid off recently.

Fred Wilms, a member of the Republican Town Council's executive board said that the Republican BOE candidates are running on a platform of reform. "We are a district in need of serious improvement. We need better communication and more fiscal responsibility," he said.

In the past the BOE has deferred to the superintendant," Mr. Wilms said. "The BOE is supposed to be supervising the superintendent."

Each of the Republican candidates had prepared written statements that were handed out to the attendees of the nominating convention.

In his statement Mr. Colarossi said that he wanted "to close the true gap that plagues Norwalk's public schools -- that is the gap between those who have hope that they can make a difference and those who have felt neglected and marginalized for far too long that they have abandoned confidence in our public schools."

Mr. Colarossi changed his political affiliation from Democrat to "unafffiliated" in June. "The fact that I'm not a Republican, but can still be endorsed by the party says something about the inclusiveness of the party." he said

"I changed because the majority party refused to communicate with the public and the same people keep getting renominated. Moreover [Democratic] party leadership refused to rebuke the board," Colarossi said.

In her statement Ms. Hayne echoed the need for change. She said that she was running because as a parent of two dyslexic children she came to realize that Norwalk public schools were incapable of teaching her children to read. She related that she and her husband had to pull their children out of school for 10 weeks and send them at their own expense to a special program. Both children are now reading above their grade level she writes.

"Through my this all I learned, importantly, that a child with a Learning Disability and a high poverty child, though coming to reading failure for different reasons, both [can] succeed with the same type of quality intervention," she said.

Ms. Hayne said that Norwalk must aggressively pursue state and federal funding for education that get students reading at grade level and increase the rigor of local education.

In his statement Mr. Kassimis a parent of four* children who attend Norwalk public schools and a the Pastor of Word Alive Bible Church stressed his background as a business executive in bringing fiscal discipline to the BOE. "There is much to be learned from the business world," he said. "There is $150 million that needs to be accounted for! I believe we need to take advantage of technology and use it to better manage the Norwalk Public School system. Yes it is a school, that has a mission to educate our students, but there are some aspects that ought to be managed like a business. Politics should not be managing my children's education. "

In his statement Mr. Kassimis also highlighted his role in establishing the Naramake Family Resource Center which he says came about after his daughters were attending a preschool program 11 years ago at Norwalk High School He said that NHS was not a healthy environment for children that age since teenagers were using the same bathrooms.

Mr. Kassimis also touted his role in combating gang violance in Norwalk and took credit for having Resource officers assigned to NHS and Brian McMahon High School.

At the Democrat Town Committee convention six individuals, four incumbents and two newcomers, were contesting for four BOE positions. Incumbents BOE chair Rosa Murray, Shirley Mosby, and Amy Jimenez, , were endorsed. Newcomer Heidi Keyes, is the parent of three children in the Norwalk schools, an officer of the Columbus PTO and the owner/director of Creative Kids of Silvermine, a pre-school learning program, was also endorsed by the party. Incumbent Greg Burnett and Bob Wagman did not receive the party's endorsement. The Democrats did not have written statements outlining their positions, accomplishments or reasons for running.

In an interview Ms. Jimenez defended the current Board's engagement with the public. "We listened to 15-20 hours of public testimony during the budget process. The Board has been working very hard at being available."

In a comment clearly directed at Republican candidate Sue Haynie, Ms Jimenez commented that she was very surprised by the lack of involvement by the PTO Council during the recent budget process. "They were silent. Usually we have a strong partnership with them."

Ms. Jimenez, who took over Bruce Kimmel's position when he resigned from the BOE earlier this year, also said that working on the current board has been difficult recently. "We were working with a superintendent whose contract was not renewed. It created friction."

"It will be the priority of the future board to really look at the effects of the cuts we made. We made some very touch economic choices and we'll need to look closely at the impact of the cuts," she said.

(In picture: Steve Colarossi and his daughters, Liza and Kana, at the Republican Town Committee endorsement meeting)

*Correction. I had previously written that Mr. Kassimis had seven children. He actually has four children.