Steve Colarossi and the Naramake Family Resource Center

This is guest post by Steve Colarossi in response to comments on NorwalkNet.com about the Naramake Family Resource Center. It is posted here, not in the comments sections, because of its length.

Conventional wisdom dictates ignoring innuendo and annonymous malcontents. My desire to be open to the public, however, prompts my response to the absurd comments made by the various (or single) "Anonymous" parties.

But, as an initial caveat, please recognize that I am offering these comments as an individual (who is the subject of some silly innuendo) and not as a member of the Board of Directors of the Naramake Family Resource, Inc. (which is a non-profit corporation run by a Board of Directors). Furthermore, I am not the spokesperson for the Parents Not Politicians slate-- I was simply one candidate among four good people seeking to make the changes we needed for our public schools.

First, as far as I know, there have never been any allegations of "improprieties" regarding the operation of the Naramake FRC, Inc. In fact, the Board of Education annually has approved various initiatives of the Naramake FRC, Inc. and certifies that conditions have been met for certain grants that have been awarded to the FRC (but which are administered through the school department).

Secondly, I know of no Norwalk Public School administrator who is on the payroll of the Naramake FRC.

Third, these anonymous posters don't seem concerned about receiving the financials of any other non-profit which provides valuable services to our public school children, which have city officials on their Boards and which use school facilities. This point actually gives me some hope that the poster is really bent on a vendetta against me and is not intent on undermining the amazing partnerships which exist between the City of Norwalk, its schools and some great non-profits. Norwalk’s non-profits are indispensible to all segments of our diverse city—they provide an amazing array of services at no direct cost to our taxpayers.

Fourth, the alleged "educator" who feels that education should start in kindergarten is woefully misinformed about the need to start teaching kids from an earlier age. Because many at-risk children are born to parents who were, themselves, at-risk youths and who did not necessarily have positive school experiences, having school-based early childhood education programs helps in a variety of ways. You see, these programs help socialize children to school-life, provide critical early literacy and numeracy skills and have been found to reduce special education placements as children grow older. Furthermore, programs like the Naramake FRC provide parent education programs, as well as playgroups for much younger children; they help build a positive relationship between school and family. These programs help all members of our community at no direct cost to taxpayers.

Fifth, if you want to see a non-profit's tax returns, the information is publicly available. In fact, just to make sure that the information was publicly available, I looked at the Naramake FRC's returns, as well as the returns of other local non-profits through free, publicly available means. So, please, stop the nonsense of claiming that the information is not publicly available or that there is anything to hide. My hunch is that you know how to obtain that information, discovered nothing untoward in them but still want to see if you can spin some conspiracy tale out of nothing. Either that or you simply have no understanding of what it is you think you are looking for and are being completely misguided. Unfortunately, for those who want to hide behind anonymous comments, you can't expect to have documents mailed to you, now can you?

Sixth, the Naramake FRC provides a host of services to the school and its students. All the services, like the pre-school, are offered on a sliding scale (which is why different people pay different amounts). At least one program (the afterschool tutoring program) is offered free of charge.

Seventh, the Naramake FRC has been a valuable member of the community-- making donations to the school, providing babysitting services for school events held in the evening, offering vacation camps (which are a godsend for working families), leading parent education seminars at night (such as those to help parents promote reading at home and to provide guidance for behavioral issues) and co-sponsoring family events with the PTO. The before-school and after-school care programs are offered on a week-by-week basis which provides families significant flexibility (folks only need to sign up for the days they need on Thursday for the following Monday and do not need to pay for more than the one week in advance). Also their staff is always available when a family crisis occurs and a parent is going to be late to pick-up a child or must request last-minute before-school or after-school care.

Eighth, you understand that the Norwalk Board of Education has had several meetings to review the Naramake FRC as well as the city's other after-school programs. Many of the questions to which you are seeking answers are all contained within the public record. Once again, if you simply reviewed past BOE minutes you would have found the answers you seek, but then again you would not have enjoyed the few moments you have had to try to defame a great program that helps families and discredit me.

Ninth, if you have all these questions (and I do not mean to suggest that all your questions are mere baseless innuendo, although the fact that all of them are posted anonymously suggests more guile rather than concern) ask the families who use the FRC if they are paying more than the other programs in the city or if their children are not receiving quality before school and afterschool care. Sure, you won’t make your political points in public or see your “anonymous” name in print, but you would get first-hand information about a program for which you profess to have legitimate concerns.

Tenth, and finally, do you actually think that your bullying tactics are going to dissuade me from trying to help other school groups in forming their own programs to advance school-based early childhood education, or that you are going to discourage me from fighting for what is best for all of Norwalk's children? For years I stood before the Board of Education advocating for Naramake's children and now I have the opportunity to fight for all of Norwalk's children. Bullies and innuendo only encourage me to fight harder.

But, "anonymous", you already know that-- after all you're the reason I ran for the Board of Education and worked as hard as I did to make a difference for all of our kids, families and taxpayers.

Steven A. Colarossi
www.parentsforcolarossi.com
stevecolarossi@yahoo.com


[The contents of this article represent the views of the writer, not of NorwalkNet.com.]