Parents from District E (Rowayton, Brookside and West Norwalk) are organizing an educational forum for political candidates, but the Democratic candidates running for the Board of Education have not confirmed their attendance as yet.
The organizers of the forum have contacted each of the candidates but instead of hearing from them directly they've received calls from "emissaries" like Gail Wall, the Democratic Party leader and Bruce Morris, a Democrat who represents Norwalk in the State Assembly and is also employed by the BOE as its human relations officer.
Mike Barbis, co-president of Roton Middle School PTO and one of the main organizers of the event said that he and his committee have been frustrated by the lack of responsiveness of the Democratic candidates. "I want to hear from them," said Mr. Barbis referring to the candidates themselves.
The meeting was originally scheduled for Oct 7th, but had to be pushed back because the Democrats did not respond to an earlier invitation. The Democratic candidates later offered two dates including the 21st through their intermediaries.
The forum is scheduled to take place on Oct. 21st at 7pm at Roton Middle School. The guest list includes both mayoral candidates, District E candidates for city council and all eight candidates for the Board of Education. (See below for the official announcement.)
Mr. Barbis said that the organizers decided to have all these different candidates to discuss education because many elected officials, not just the BOE members, have a role to play in education in Norwalk.
"We decided to invite all of these candidates because we want straight answers. Some times there is overlap in responsibility. And there is a lot of pointing fingers. This way we have everyone there," he said.
The event is open to the entire city of Norwalk. However, some of the topics will be specific to District E schools, for example overcrowding at Rowayton School.
Mr. Barbis said they have not chosen a moderator as yet.
I contacted all of the Democratic candidates and Ms. Wall. Only Heidi Keyes, the only non-incumbent running, has responded.
"My understanding is that they were working on a date/time for the event since the originally scheduled date/time conflicted with a BOE meeting," said Ms. Keyes.
The incumbent Democratic BOE candidates are Rosa Murray, Amy Jimenez and Shirley Mosby.
I'll be attending the BOE meeting tonight and will try to confirm whether the Democratic candidates will be attending the forum and why its necessary for intermediaries in the Democratic party to get involved in such a simple matter.
Updated: BOE candidate Heidi Keyes emailed me to confirm her attendance:
I wanted to confirm with you that I will be attending the District E forum on the 21st. I look forward to meeting and talking to parents about the future of the Norwalk school district. I think this forum will be less about partisan politics and more about an open dialog about the concerns parents have about their children's education and how they will best be served.Here is the official announcement for the forum on the 10/21:
Hear Our Local Political Candidates Discuss Education – Submit Your Questions Today and Attend The Forum on Wednesday October 21 at 7 PM
As voters, taxpayers and parents, we all have many concerns about education in the City of Norwalk. Currently, we are spending $169 mm (or 61% of the City’s budget) to educate the 11,000 children in our public school system (almost $16,000 per student). This November 3rd will feature a local election – we will be electing our mayor, our city council and 4 of the 9 Board of Education members. All of these people play a role in education.
Living in Rowayton, Brookside, West Norwalk, Harborview and Village Creek, we live in the political District E. The Parent Teacher Councils (PTCs) of the public schools in District E are organizing an Education Town Hall Forum for all of these local candidates . . . as they all impact the education that we are paying for and our children are receiving. Please come to this forum and hear all of the candidates answer YOUR questions about the future of education in Norwalk.
We ask you to submit your questions in advance to Vote4Education@optonline.net . These questions will be handled confidentially. Many issues need to be addressed from capacity constraints to budgets to the quality of education to CMT scores to the new superintendent we will be hiring. Please participate so that we can all make informed decisions as to who we should vote for on election day. We look forward to hearing from you and seeing you on October at the Auditorium at Roton Middle School (201 Highland Avenue)
Organized by the Parent Teacher Councils of Brookside Elementary, Fox Run Elementary, Rowayton Elementary and Roton Middle Schools as well as the Parents Club of Brien McMahon High School .
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The Democratic incumbants which include two African American women are worried about a negative backlash by the mainly white voters of District E.
ReplyDeleteAs BOE members voters in District E want to hold existing BOE members accountable for the state of the school system but Rosa Murray and Shirley Mosby are trying to play the race card.
Also what's Bruce Morris, the Godfather of South Norwalk, doing in the middle of this? Someone should be asking the BOE and the Attorney General whether a state legislator can be employed by Norwalk schools. There are so many real and potential conflicts of interest here that someone like Norwalknet really needs to take a look at the situation.
It's absolutely time to show these people the door. There is simply no excuse for the BOE members not to respond to a parent led initiative like this one. Involving these so called emessaries is just plain silly.
ReplyDeleteI also agree that Bruce Morris should not be employed by the BOE. If you look on his biography he's doing so many things. How can he be effective in any on thing.
Morris is not the God Father. That title belongs to Bobby Burgess.
ReplyDeleteI don't think the candidates being black has anything to do with it. But they are simply bad representatives to begin with. Rather than electing qualified people who have shown educational success themselves we tend to elect people who were probably C students. as such they are overly defensive and unwilling to expose themselves to a forum they can't control. At the end of the day our BOE is composed of a bunch of Sarah Palin clones. Brainless and Ignorant.
ReplyDeleteWhile I may be the first in line to critique or support any elected official, there is no cause or justification to insult personally or attack family of anyone that has stood up to serve.
ReplyDeleteIt is insensitive and more representative of adolescent "your mama" explectives at the playground.
Thats not representative of who we are, where we are or where we want to be headed.
This board may have been unaware of many issues when they stepped up from an empty field, however, they all must be acknowledged for their efforts, their time and their passion.
It is a substantial commitment to make to their community to serve.
There is no big paycheck, no performance bonuses. No hidden offshore lobbying piggy banks.
Their only rewards are the smiles on the faces of the children awakening to the world around them and to be a part of that.
Collectively they have taken the heat some more than others, regardless they stood tall and have worked together to at least face what many before have ignored for whatever reasons, while at the same time facing historic challenges.
They are all, past, present and future, all are a great bunch of folks and they make me proud to be a Norwalker.
To anyone that thinks about or is raising a race card - shame on you.
Get a clue.
Whatever comes, tip of the hat to all, on the B.O.E.
Rereading what I just wrote, can't believe I just wrote it, but I did.
It was way screwed up before, lets get it right and move into the century we are living in.
The reluctance of the incumbents to commit to the District E Parent Forum is just another example of why it's time to elect PARENTS AND NOT POLITICIANS-- this is just another example of how these firmly-entrenched incumbents simply refuse to engage in open communication with the public. This is a group of incumbents that tends avoid responding to parent emails-- why would they willingly want to answer for their actions (such as approving a budget that cut elementary school aides) and inactions (such as their inexcusable delay in approving the portable classroom for Rowayton)?
ReplyDeleteOf course, when Artie Kassimis, Erin Halsey, Sue Haynie and I learned of this parent forum, we were all very quick to respond. We didn't impose conditions, we didn't send emissaries-- rather we respected the efforts of the parent groups in organizing this event and appreciated the opportunity to find out about the particular needs of schools their kids attend.
But then again, our campaign starts with the simple promise that communication is important-- that's why on our website (www.parentsnotpoliticians.com) we provide an easy way for concerned citizens to contact us.
"This board may have been unaware of many issues when they stepped up from an empty field, however, they all must be acknowledged for their efforts, their time and their passion.
ReplyDeleteIt is a substantial commitment to make to their community to serve.
There is no big paycheck, no performance bonuses. No hidden offshore lobbying piggy banks.
Their only rewards are the smiles on the faces of the children awakening to the world around them and to be a part of that.
Collectively they have taken the heat some more than others, regardless they stood tall and have worked together to at least face what many before have ignored for whatever reasons, while at the same time facing historic challenges."
I'm literally speechless as I read this. Perhaps this person is living in some type of alternate universe.
Let's really alter their reality and free up their Tuesday evenings.
ReplyDeleteWHERE ARE THE STORIES IN THE HOUR, THE ADVOCATE AND THE YOURCT.COM SITE ON THESE INCUMBENTS?
ReplyDeleteI'm sure we'll all read stories about apathetic voters on November 4, but unless the press shines a light on this gang of incumbents, how is interest going to be generated in this school board election????
Where is the press?
ReplyDeleteExcellent question.
Couldn't have something to do with ad revenue? Nah, couldnt be.
Christine and her husband at ctnewsjunkie.com have a standing offer to pull all political ads if that revenue is relaced specifically to pull the ads.
Are the MSM that desperate that they will lower their journalisim standards forcing their customers to get news from sources that are reliable and have demonstrated their integrity?
See George run at ctwatchdog.com and his battle with the Courant.
George hasnt accepted any political ads, do it to it George.
MSM apparently just cannot resist.
Do Norwalk a favor and do not vote for any of the incumbent candidates for the board of education. Most of them deserve personal blame, and all of them share the collective guilt of the board for its very poor thinking and decisions.
ReplyDeletePeople, to lay this all at the current boards feet with complete fault is simply not understanding the issues.
ReplyDeleteThis is all extremely complex for even this best educators,legislators and advocates.
Its a nation wide systemic issue.
Not to acknowledge the depth of our broken education system and just lay fault at the local B.O.E. is going to keep us spinning that revolving door of new faces.
This is far larger than most folks are aware.
That is where the parents and teachers come in. It isnt going to get done or get any better until we make it better.
Lets get busy. The children are depending on us to stop the feuding and do our homework.
No excuses from anyone.
But the current Board of Ed has failed-- they have failed to communicate with the public, they failed to start the process in June when Dr. Corda announced his exit, they failed to have any plan to replace him (even though they claim to have been working on forcing him out).
ReplyDeleteThe crisis we face is their fault-- brought about by their utter lack of leadership.
This board needs to be replaced, and my regret is that the voters can't replace all of them. If that seems extreme or unfair, consider:
ReplyDelete1. The inexcusable amount of time even the newest board members allowed Sal Corda to fail
at communicating with his educators, as well as with parents and students.
2. The inexcusable amount of time even the newest board members allowed Stu Opdahl to continue doing things his way, with what seems to have been little supervision.
3. The inexcusable amount of time even the newest board members allowed an assistant superintendent to fail at open communication with educators, parents and students.
4. The failure of even the newest board members to appoint a highly qualified and professionally respected educator to the position of assistant superintendent. I refer to Bob McCain.
5. The inexcusable negligence of the board in its failure to correct (or remove) abusive principals.
6. The unnecessary struggle by the board in delaying the appointment of a well qualified administrator to the principalship of Naramake School. The power of parents won this battle.
In deference to an earlier posting that says that not all of the problems are the fault of the Norwalk Board of Education, I agree; however, enough of the problems are their fault. Voters, removed from office all incumbents.
Well those are excellent points.
ReplyDeleteI could add a few more myself.
Communication is a huge issue, however, what must be kept in mind is that there is substantial litigation in process and that, in essence, gags everyone.
It is agreed it should have never gotten this far out of hand.
There is a learning curve here and even though the challengers seem to have substantial enthusiasim, there will be a learning curve for them also.
If they really want to know what they are getting themselves into, Bruce Kimmel, I am confident would be able to shed some insight.
Open transparent debate is whole heartedly encouraged.
But whoever you are that is insulting personally anyone standing up to serve and playing race games.
Shame, Shame on you.
Let's go over the basics . . . there is no "substantial liitgation" that would ever prevent a Board of Ed member from at least extending the courtesy of a reply to concerned parent. Also, it is a poor excuse to claim that "substantial litigation" prevented the incumbent BOE members from responding to taxpayer concerns about the budget.
ReplyDeleteRegarding the "learning curve"-- for all the years of experience on the BOE, the incumbents have very few accomplishments to show for it. It's hard to imagine how steep a learning a curve there would be to surpass them.
Finally, have you checked out the credentials of the Parents Not Politicians bunch-- these people are well-experienced, well-educated and able to hit the ground running. Plus, they don't hide from debates and parent forums.
Pending litigation is never a valid reason for not replying. The correct procedure, should a legal action be on the horizon is to reply and politely explain that you cannot discuss the issue because of the litigation.
ReplyDeleteMore importantly, apart from contract negotiations and personnel questions, the only truly delicate issue in recent months that would require a BOE member to watch his or her words is the situation around our autism services.
Also, possible and pending litigaton are not the same. Anything is possible, but that shouldn't be an excuse to not carry out one's responsibilites as an elected official.
Well said Bruce!
ReplyDeleteIt's called respect. Answer my call or call me back...
I am done with the incumbents.
I guess if one of the Dems. comes to talk to us, she can explain why she's supporting these incumbents who don't answer emails and didn't care enough about our kids to order the portable classroom in time for it to be ready by the start of school.
ReplyDeleteI really want to know why the newcomer feels that these incumbents have done such a good job that she's running a campaign with them-- you'd think she'd be supporting the Parents Not Politicians team.