Sal Corda,
He said that his dealings with the current Board of Education had become increasingly difficult . “In the last 18 months my relationship with the Board changed,” he said. “This Board is more concerned with exercising control.”
When asked for examples Dr. Corda declined to elaborate.
Dr. Corda resigned suddenly on
According to Dr. Corda, the BOE decided last year not to renew his contract which runs through 2010 . He said he gave notice as soon as he had another offer in hand. Dr. Corda accepted a position as Associate Professor of Education at Southern Connecticut State University.
The minutes of the BOE meeting held June 30, 2008, reflect that the Board voted overwhelmingly not to extend Dr. Corda's contract beyond 2010. The BOE also denied a 3% cost of living adjustment . Board member Susan Hamilton told her colleagues, "The Board does have some concerns around communication and [Corda's] visibility, along with collaboration between the superintendent, the school community and the community at large."
Dr. Corda, who will be leaving his position on September 15, talked at length about his challenges and accomplishments as superintendant. He said that this year he had experienced the most brutal budgeting process of his career.
“Sometimes a budget crisis forces you to get creative and rethink how to do things,” Dr. Corda said. “Not this one. This one was just about cutting back. We are losing important elements of our service.”
Dr. Corda cited, in particular, the decision to eliminate the positon of two elementary assistant principals and the Dean of Discipline at
Dr. Corda, who has been Superintendant of Norwalk schools since 2001, said that his greatest accomplishment has been the improvement of student performance as measured by the
Statistics obtained from the No Child Left Behind website maintained by the Dept. of Education bear some of this out. Based on the 2002-2003
Dr. Corda hopes the BOE will choose a strong instructional leader as the new superintendent, someone with what he calls “vision”, not simply a manager.
“There has been systemic improvement,” said Dr. Corda. “
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At last the truth starts coming out about Sal Corda's reasons for leaving. You're telling us what The Hour and the MSM is afraid to say.
ReplyDeleteFirstly, thank you Moina for begining this forum and for paying attention. Working together we can make it better and be inclusive and effective for all.
ReplyDeleteCorda embarrassed himself, repeatedly. Yes, he was shoved and hard. He still is hanging around. Guess doctorates do not include courses on etiquette and class. Guy destroyed himself. Inflated ego's can take you up, they also can take you down. The man was not worth the money, simple as that. He is just a simple number cruncher, absolutely no leadership skills whatsoever. Kids are killing each other because of disenfranchisement, lack of hope of any opportunity and he had the gall year after year to stand up and hand our students a diploma and shake their hands and tell them “Good Luck”, Far too many with diplomas at 6th and 7th grade reading levels. That was the only day of the year he made any contact with the students and teachers besides yearly teacher orientation and national reading day, where he did his George Bush for the cameras. He was the highest salaried employee in the city, yet he turned his back on his students and his teachers. He could have made a real impact, he choose and announced clearly that he was the captain and he knew better than anyone else the course to set. Well the crew can see, with their own eyes, where the captain has navigated us and it’s not the future we want to leave our children. The crew have mutinied. (Our), ship isn’t sunken, his career, perhaps but that was his choice. (Our), ship is in need of serious repair but she will sail again and perhaps even be a grand flagship. Corda would be best suited for a profession dealing with economics. Maybe now that he has experienced first hand the power of a democracy he may be educated enough to instruct a political science 101 course, in (High School) in a district struggling to get a foothold. If he did really care, he would do just that. He choose a cushy tenured position with no challenges. That isn’t what our district needs, we can hire numbers crunchers for a fraction of what Corda takes in. He is correct; it will take “a leader with foresight”, with courage and passion as well as compassion. Attributes the former never brought to the table.
Again Moina, thank you for paying attention and investing your time and effort. Absolutely admirable.
Now, hold on just a minute, Anonymous #2.
ReplyDelete"Kids are killing each other because of disenfranchisement, lack of hope of any opportunity and he had the gall year after year to stand up and hand our students a diploma and shake their hand and say "Good Luck"...
Are you actually holding Dr. Corda responsible for every student in the District who ends up in either juvie or the regular court system? In your very next sentence, you admit that the only contact Corda may have had with most of the students was at graduation, but somehow it still works around to being his fault that the students are running afoul of the law because he wishes the the best of luck after completing their course?
Lack of opportunity? Come on, Brien McMahon has a Center for Global Studies in it, NHS has a fabulous music department and I'm not going to even begin to comment about the sports figures that called Norwalk their hometown. I also think it's a backhanded insult to the Norwalk students who do study and do well and the teachers who work hard to assume "far too many" of the students are only reading at a 6th or 7th grade level when they graduate.
I'm sorry you feel the Norwalk students are disenfranchised and that they have no opportunities and are murderers, but I must most respectfully disagree that the students are disenfranchised, or lack opporutnities and that the blame lies at Corda's door. As for their criminal records...well, what ever happened to personal responsibiity?
Anonymous #3 is right about the opportunities, and we all know that there are many more; he/she used BMHS and NHS only for illustrative purposes. I hasten to add that Dr. Corda, while not to be blamed for the ills of youth in Norwalk, is also not to be credited with the two programs we have identified as strengths.
ReplyDeleteThe article talks about Dr. Corda's claim that his boat has been sunk by the BoE, but he makes no mention of all of the holes in the hull that were created by his actions, including those actions that allowed other administrators to be neglectful or abusive to people in the school system.
Dr. Corda, you are not a victim of others. You are a victim of your own actions.