Administrators File Grievance Over Appointment of Dir. of Elementary Ed

The Norwalk Association of School Administrators (NASA) filed a grievance on December 18, against the BOE due to the process used in hiring Carol Marinaccio, the new Director of Elementary Education.  NASA wants the position re-posted and the hiring process to begin anew.

Documents obtained by NorwalkNet show that NASA filed a grievance during the hiring process and revised it after the BOE voted to hire Ms. Marinaccio. NASA contends that the BOE violated its contract with the Administrators’ union because present administrators are supposed to be given a preference for promotions.  According the grievance during the Central Office’s screening process a current employee, with the highest qualification, was eliminated from consideration.

Additionally, NASA contends that the BOE also violated its own Diversity Employment Plan and Commitment to Affirmative Action because the committee that was formed to interview the candidates for the position is not identified in the contract as being part of the process.  (Two Elementary Principals, an Assistant Principal and an Instructional Specialist interviewed candidates for the Director of Elementary School position).

Finally, the grievance states that Ms. Marinaccio was hired without any parent involvement, which the Board had deemed an essential part of the process the last time this position was filled.

NASA President Tony Ditrio, who is also the principal of Kendall school, filed the grievance on behalf of the Administrator's union.

Board Chairman, Glenn Iannacone said in a phone call that the grievance must follow a "chain of command” before it is addressed by the Board.   It must be brought first to the assistant superintendent and then to the superintendent, according to Mr. Iannacone.

Mr. Ditrio could not be reached for comment and Fay Ruotolo, Director of Human Resources, and Assistant Superintendent Tony Daddona are on vacation.

Ms. Marinaccio was voted in as Director of Elementary Education at the December 15th BOE meeting.  The Board voted 7-2 in favor of Ms. Marinaccio, with Steve Colarossi and Sue Haynie voting against her appointment. 

Ms. Marinaccio, who is scheduled to start her new position on Jan. 11, has been the grants coordinator for the BOE for the past five years.  Prior to that, she was a school administrator for the Naugatuck Public Schools.  According to an October story in the Hour, Ms. Marinaccio is pursuing a doctorate in education and is completing her dissertation on: "Creating a mentoring program for school superintendents."

Draft Budget Online & Important Dates

A draft of the Norwalk Public School 2010-2011 Operating Budget request is now available on the NPS website.

The $155 million budget recommended by the superintendent reflects a 3.4% increase over last year's budget.

"This budget does not reduce any programs and there will be no new ones unless required by law given the financial climate," said Dr. Papallo in an email to NorwalkNet.  The only new program required by law is an in-school suspension program that will require additional staff in the high schools. 

"This is only the beginning of the process, thus there will be more opportunities for public comment once the BOE knows what the City allocation will be.  All comments will be recorded and reviewed at reallocation time," said Dr. Papallo.

Dr. Cook, Interim CFO echoed the superintendent's remarks. "It's like running a race.  The budget start gun has been shot.  For the next four months there will be deliberations on the budget until it is set."

There will be several meetings in January for public input before the proposed budget has to be approved by the BOE and sent to the City by January 15th.

Steve Colarossi, Chair of the BOE Finance Committee said: "I am having a finance committee meeting on Thursday, Jan. 7 at which I intend to devote significant time to the budget. Unless all of my questions are answered fully on Jan. 4 and Jan. 5, I will be moving to send it to Committee."

In addition, there will be several public meetings held with the Board of Estimation and Taxation until the operating budget is adopted in early May.  Please see a previous post, the ABCs of BOE Budgeting, for more details.

Here are some important dates and public budget-related meetings in January:

January 4th, 7pm:   BET meeting regarding City Budget, BOE Finance Commitee invited to attend

January 4th, 7:45pm:  Special BOE Meeting, the superintendent will present his proposed operating budget, City Hall A300

January 5th, 7:45pm:   Regularly scheduled BOE Meeing, City Hall A 300

January 7th, 7:30pm: BOE Finance Committee Meeting to discuss proposed budget, City Hall

January 15th:  Proposed budget submitted to City Finance Department.

I will be reviewing the budget over the holiday break and will post more detailed comments later.

ConnCAN grades CT Schools; Lackluster grades for Norwalk

The Connecticut Coalition for Achievement Now (ConnCAN) today released its 2009-2010 School Report Cards, assigning letter grades to over 1,000 Connecticut public schools and 160 school districts based on their students’ academic performance in four categories.  The grades are based on the 2009 CMT and CAPT scores.  Click here to read about the Methodology of ConnCAN’s School and District Report Cards.

Here is how Norwalk scored:
Elementary Schools
Performance Gain:  B
Overall Student Performance: C
Student Subgroup Performance: D+
Achievement Gap:  D

Middle Schools
Performance Gain: C
Overall Student Performance: C
Student Subgroup Performance: D
Achievement Gap: F

High Schools:
Overall Student Performance: D
Student Subgroup Performance: F
Achievement Gap: F


Click here to view the School Report Cards at www.ctreportcards.org.

Using the data from the School Report Cards, ConnCAN also released the Top 10 Connecticut public schools in Performance Gains, Low-Income Student Performance, African American Student Performance, Hispanic Student Performance and Improvement. Each category is scored separately for elementary, middle and high schools.

Click here to download the Top 10 Connecticut Public Schools.

The only Norwalk Schools to appear on these top 10 lists are Jefferson Elementary for Improvement and Hispanic Student Performance and Nathan Hale Middle School for Hispanic Student Performance. (Nathan Hale has made the top 10 list three times)

“The report cards are designed to help Connecticut parents serve as effective advocates for their children,” said Alex Johnston, ConnCAN Chief Executive Officer. “Parents deserve to know how well their child’s public school is meeting the needs of all of its students.”

ConnCAN is an advocacy organization that believes in "fixing poverty by fixing schools." This is ConnCAN's fourth year of publishing School Report Cards. More than 60,000 people access the School Report Cards online each year.  According to web research firm Alexa.com, more Connecticut parents get their school information from ConnCAN’s School Report Cards than from the state’s official websites, cmtreports.com and captreports.com.

Statewide, the ConnCAN press release reports that a few trends stand out among the Top 10 lists:

• Of the four years ConnCAN has produced Top 10 public school lists, 15 schools have made the lists three or more times: High Horizons, Multicultural Magnet, Park City Magnet, and Winthrop School in Bridgeport; Amistad Academy and Elm City College Prep Middle in New Haven; Rogers School and Westover School in Stamford; Jumoke Academy in Hartford; Second Hill Lane School in Stratford; JP Vincent in Bloomfield; Nathan Hale Middle in Norwalk; Irving Robbins in Farmington; Broadview Middle in Danbury; and Bethel Middle in Bethel.

• The Achievement First network of charter schools showed a very strong performance. For example, three of the top ten middle schools for African American performance were Achievement First schools. Achievement First Bridgeport Academy was also number one for middle school performance gains.

• For the first time, Waterbury public schools had a notable presence in the Top 10 lists, with seven schools cracking the fourteen Top 10 lists.

TTYL: Is Young Adult Novel Too "Adult"?

During the public comments section of last week's BOE Meeting, a Ponus Ridge parent Matthew Surapine read racy passages aloud from a novel, TTLY,  that his daughter had checked out of her school library.  Those of us present at the meeting squirmed uncomfortably in our seats while we listened to some pretty sexually graphic content.

TTLY, a young adult novel by Lauren Myracle, was published in 2004 and gained attention for being the first-ever novel written entirely in the style of instant messaging.  It contains strong language, sexual content, teen drinking and an improper student-teacher relationship.  The novel was a New York Times bestseller and has had two sequels, ttfn and  l8r, g8r.  Some critics have hailed Ms. Myracle's approach as "creative" and "unusually candid". 

Mr. Surapine, however, was clearly objecting to what he believes is vulgar and innappropriate material for a middle school age student.   He is not alone is his disapproval of TTLY.  In November 2008, TTLY was pulled off shelves in middle schools in Round Rock, Texas and Pflugerville, a neighboring town.

KXAN, a NBC News affiliate in Austin, TX had the story:

After months of debate, Round Rock Independent School District superintendent has decided to pull the racy, controversial book "TTYL" from the middle school libraries. The battle has been brewing between parents and the school board because many parents said "TTYL" is too vulgar for middle school students. The fight to get the book in a special section of Ridgeview Middle School started when the Jennings' sixth-grade daughter brought it home and Wes and Sherry Jennings started looking through it. What they found was, "TTYL" discusses sex, pornography, drinking and in inappropriate student-teacher relationship.

 The Jennings brought the book to the attention of the Ridgefield Middle School librarian and principal, and were displeased with the reaction they received. Next, they teamed up with several other parents and started the school districts' appeals process to get the book moved into a "mature" section of the library. However, the school district is strictly prohibited from allowing only certain students to read isolated sections of materials. Instead, the school superintendent chose to remove "TTYL" from all Round Rock middle school libraries.

The Jennings said that people think it is acceptable to censor Websites, but the thought of removing a book from a middle school shelf makes many uncomfortable.  "We do not want to ban or censor books, we just want it to be age appropriate where it was intended," said Sherry Jennings.

Another Round Rock  parent wants to make sure that schools and libraries are "safe" for children.

While the Jennings started the fight to clean up Round Rock's middle school libraries, there are many other parents are on the same page. "Children have neither the emotional or intellectual ability to deal with this kind of content," said Karen Withers, Round Rock Parent and Teacher. After learning there are several books with similar "content" that her son could check out, Karen Withers would like to see the type of rating system used for movies, music and video games for books as well. Withers said the issue is not about just "TTYL" and the Round Rock school district, but about numerous books in libraries across the country. "We want to trust our schools are safe for our children," said Withers.

In an interview with KXAN, Lauren Myracle defended herself and her book. Ms. Myracle said that she wrote the book for high schoolers.  "It is a story about real life girls struggling with real problems,"  In the interview, she pointed out that the very week the book was banned from Round Rock middle schools,  a Round Rock High School coach was accused of having a sexual relationship with a student.  "It does suggest yeah these things happen," she said. 

Have your children read Lauren Myracle's novels?  Do you think that some books are too advanced for middle schoolers?  Should they be pulled off library shelves?  

Updated: New IT Director Lands in Norwalk

Norwalk’s newly hired IT Director isn’t just parachuting into a new position, he’ll actually be flying to work every day.

Robert Polselli Jr., the new Director of IT, has an extensive background in education and technology, but he lives in Charlton, MA.  A commercial pilot, he plans to fly his plane to Bridgeport and drive to work from there.

In an interview with NorwalkNet this morning, Mr. Polselli said that he was attracted to the position in Norwalk because he is “up for the challenge” and that he thinks he can have a “wonderful impact” on the school system.

Dr. Polselli, 36, has been the IT Director of the Middletown Public Schools for the past eight years and before that he held the same position in Killingly Public Schools in upstate Connecticut.  Before his move to the Central Office, Dr. Polselli was an English and Computer teacher for high school and middle school students.  He also has taught Computer Sciences on a college level.

Dr. Polselli has an education doctorate in Computing in Education from Nova Southeastern University in Ft. Lauderdale, FL, as well a Masters in English/Secondary Education from Worcester State and a Master's in Educational Leadership from the University of Massachusetts in Lowell.  He wrote his doctorate on "Combining Web-Based Training and Mentorship to Improve Technology Integration in the K-12 Classroom."

Mr. Polselli, who is starting the new job on January 11th, said he has two priorities upon arriving in Norwalk—data and communication.

“My priority is to create systems that allow teachers, administrators and the IT department to use data effectively to make good decisions,” he said.  “We need to use data constantly and it should be easy for everyone to use.”

Mr. Polselli thinks that technology plays a key role in implementing “common formative assessments" that measure student progress. 

In addition, he wants to introduce technology tools into classrooms to help teachers get instant feedback.

“There are tools, like clickers, that help teachers know instantly whether kids are grasping concepts,” he said noting that Middletown has used tools like this for the past four years to great success.  “This allows teachers to change their instruction daily spending more time on certain things and less on others.”

With regards to communication, Mr. Polselli intends to revamp the NPS website and allow for teachers and administrators throughout the district to interact with the site easily, posting their own documents. 

Dr. Polselli believes his background in the classroom is invaluable.

“I really understand the day to day in a classroom and what can help to make the classroom better,” he said.  “Something that works in the business world is not necessarily what can help teachers and students.”

“My goal is to improve the lives of children.  Central office is secondary,” he said. 

“Bob is a visionary leader,” said Craig Creller, a consultant for CREC and the former K-12 Math Supervisor in Middletown. “He created and improved upon the data collection systems in Middletown.”

“He is a teacher trainer and leader and has built capacity among the teachers.  He’s very hands on and leads by example.  Middletown has a 21st century school system because of him,” said Mr. Creller. 

Kathleen Bengtson, Dr. Polselli's administrative assistant, is sad her boss is leaving Middletown.  "He has been an inspiration.  He has a passion for technology and how it can really benefit kids."

Dr. Polselli flies to his current job in Middletown which he said has been "fantastic".  He expects that his daily commute to Norwalk will be just over one hour.

When asked how his commute will be affected by bad weather and late nights at the office, Dr. Polselli said that he actually trains other pilots to fly in bad weather and does not foresee many days when the weather will be bad enough to ground his flights.  He is planning to purchase a small condo in the area to give him flexibility.  Further, he added that he does not think of his job as 9-5 and he often logs into work remotely on nights and weekends. 

Outside of work, Dr. Polselli volunteers for Angel Flight Northeast, a non-profit organization that provides free flights to people requiring medical care, and coaches his children’s soccer games.

Communications Committee Formed and Two Central Office Positions Hired

At Tuesday night’s  BOE meeting the Republican-endorsed Parents Not Politicians board members fulfilled one of their main campaign promises and pushed the BOE to create a Communications Committee.  The resolution establishing the new committee passed unanimously but not without Democrat members voicing concerns about the committee's purpose, composition and outreach to non-English speaking parents.

In addition, the Board approved the hiring of two key central office positions.  Robert Polselli has been hired as Director of Technology. He is currently the IT Director for the Middletown Public Schools. Carol Marinaccio is the new Director of Elementary Education.  Ms Marinaccio has been  NPS’ grants coordinator for the past five years. 

(I will do a more in depth story about the two new hires shortly)

There were several remarks during the public comments section regarding the establishment of the Communications Committee.

Emily Aguilar of the PTOC asked that the Board materials be translated into Spanish and said that translation software is not always reliable. She asked that the newly formed committee use “cultural sensitivity” in its approach.

Kerry O’Neill, president of the Silvermine PTO, said that Communications Committee should consider the work the already established parent groups which also focus on district wide communication.

Bruce Mellion, president of the Norwalk Federation of Teachers, said that the new committee should address issues of  communications between the Board and the NPS staff and suggested that the language of the motion include more specifically teachers. 

Steve Colarossi put forth the motion to set up the Committee in order to discuss better ways to communicate with parents, teachers, and other community members.  Before the unanimous vote, Ms. Rivas had several questions and concerns about the Committee: 

“How will you decide who is going to be on the committee?”  she asked.  “How will you reach out?”

She also thought the committee should have non-board members on it.  “How will we ensure that the committee is diverse?”

Board Chairman  Glenn Iannacone assured her that this committee would function like all the other committees and information would be brought forth before the entire board.

(Committee members were appointed subsequent to the meeting. They are:  Erin Halsey, Chair, Heidi Keyes, Sue Haynie and Migdalia Rivas)

In addition, a motion was put forth to put non-confidential BOE documents of the website. 

Ms. Bishop-Pullan questioned whether this motion was necessary since documents have begun appearing on the website.

“I think it’s important for the public that we take this direction,” said Mr. Collarossi.  “It had not been done for so long.”

Ms. Rivas said that we need to make sure that documents are available in other languages like Spanish and French-Creole.

This comment irked Board Member Jack Chiramonte who exclaimed passionately that the BOE cannot translate documents in to every language.

“I can understand Spanish, but why French Creole? What about the Koreans?” he said.  “This is America.  We can’t bend over for everyone.  They need to make an effort.”

Also during the public comments section, Matthew Surapine, a parent of a Ponus Middle School student read several sexually graphic pages of "TTLY" a  young adult novel by Lauren Myraclet hat his daughter took out from her school library. 

“Is this what kids are reading in middle school?” he said  “Shouldn’t they be reading Ernest Hemmingway?”

A draft calendar for the 2010-2011 school year was presented to the Board.  Several Board members asked that the second day of Rosh Hashana (Sept 10th) be reinserted into the calendar.  Ms. Haynie commented that several of the neighboring towns do not take the second day of Rosh Hashana off. 

Ms. Haynie suggested that the Board solicit the input of parents about the calendar by reconvening the PTO Council calendar committee that was established last year. 

“Let’s make parents part of the process,” said Ms. Haynie.

Other members thought that this process would be time-consuming and said that the calendar was similar to this year’s and it should be voted on as an action item at the next meeting.

(I will post the draft calendar shortly)

Dr. Papallo and Board Member Sue Haynie briefed the Board on Race to the Top, $4 billion federal grant for which states have to compete.  Norwalk is one of 18 districts targeted by the State for funding, although it is not one of the five cities that the Commissioner called to lead the work on the application. Ms. Haynie said that this funding could potentially mean $1.5 million additional funds for NPS.

“Local district buy-in is a important piece in receiving funding,” said Ms. Haynie. 

Assistant Superintendent Tony Daddona, NFT President Bruce Mellion,  and Board Chair Glenn Iannacone will attend a meeting this Friday held by Commissioner Mark K. McQuillan about Connecticut’s application.

Earlier in the meeting, Superintendent Papallo gave an update on the budget and said that a draft budget will be ready by Friday for internal distribution and will be released to the public on Monday.  It must be submitted to the city by January 15.   He said that he will also try and have it uploaded to the NPS website.  A meeting is scheduled for January 4, to solicit public comment on the proposed budget.

Dr. Papallo also stated that he plans to stay on as Interim Superintendent until the middle of February. The state law allows him to work at 45% of the compensation of the full-time position and he will stretch his time out by taking furlough days.  

During the approval of field trip section of the meeting, Ms. Bishop-Pullan said that she has been hearing concerns from parents about the value of some of the field trips, as well as the cost and ability of some children to participate in them.  She said she would like to be presented follow-up reports after the field trip in order to evaluate their usefulness.

Mr. Iannacone said that he has engaged a committee of business and community leaders to review the compensation of the new superintendent. Committee members include Joe Mann director of the NEON Center, Tony Lopez a benefits expert and Michael Lyons, an attorney.

BOE Agenda and Race to the Top

One of the topics on tonight's BOE agenda is Race to the Top Funding, the Obama Admistration's $4.35 billion investment in school reform that requires states to compete for grants.  The grants place a strong emphasis on effective teachers and principals.

Connecticut Public Radio did a story on Race to the Top funding on Saturday in which State Education Commissioner Mark McQuillan says he’s “guardedly optimistic” about Connecticut’s prospects.

Reading Rewires Brain Function

Over the last few days, there has been a lot of interesting discussion about the role of the literacy specialist in the Norwalk Public Schools.

Our focus on literacy, especially for elementary age students, underlies the obvious assumption that reading is important.  However, after listening to a National Public Radio report last week, I learned that reading is important for more than accumulating knowledge.  The mere act of regular reading improves our brain.

According to a study published in the journal Neuron, "intensive instruction to improve reading skills in young children causes the brain to physically rewire itself, creating new white matter that improves communication within the brain."

Finance Commitee Reviews Staffing Needs and Central Office Vacancies

The Finance Committee of the Board of Education began a review of staffing needs for the 2010-2011 Norwalk Public School budget at their meeting last night.  Two programs on the agenda were Early Childhood and Literacy Services.  The Committee also performed an inventory of all interim, vacant and soon to be vacant positions. 

Early in the meeting, Finance Committee Chair Steve Colarossi and Dan Cook, Interim Chief Financial officer said that a RFP will be drafted for "negotiations of legal services".  The BOE will look for a firm with the most competitive legal fees. This move is the a result of a review of Legal Services which occurred at the last Finance Committee meeting. 

Recycling and BOE Finance Committee Agenda

I read an interesting article in The Hour yesterday about recycling in Norwalk Schools. The Joint Services Committee of the Board of Estimation and Taxation (BET) and the Board of Education met last Thursday and discussed saving money through recycling.

At issue is saving money. The city currently gets paid $17.50 for each ton of recyclables hauled away by City Carting & Recycling, the Stamford firm that handles recycling in Norwalk. At the same time, the city must pay $75 for each ton of trashed hauled away, according to public works officials.

In particular, some schools have started to recycle plastic lunch trays and other plastic materials in the lunchroom. This recycling program has been implemented in seven of the 19 schools, one of which is Norwalk High School, and is in the process of being rolled out to other schools soon.

Teacher Gifts

The annual holiday gift collection letter arrived in my son's backpack today.  The room parents are asking for a small cash contribution for a gift for his teacher.

My children's teachers are on our family's holiday gift giving list every year.  We usually contribute to whatever the room parents have in mind.  Most years, the class gives a gift card.  One year, parents coordinated the purchase of monogrammed beach bag. Another year, parents chipped in for a souped-up electronic pencil sharpener for the classroom, at the request of the teacher. 

In addition to the classroom gift, I know some families who give their own personalized gift--a tin of cookies, a craft or a handwritten note.

Papallo Staying Until End of Feb; Another Interim?

I learned last week that Interim Superintendent Bill Papallo will be employed by Norwalk Public Schools until at least the end of February. 

As we know Dr. Papallo was hired by the BOE at the beginning of August. According to State law as a retired administrator Dr. Papallo can work for just over 5 months. As such Dr. Papallo's contact would allow him to work only until mid January.  However, Dr. Papallo told me in an e-mail that he will be taking "furlough days" to extend his contract out into February.

More on Board Communication

At the recent BOE meeting this week, communication was a major topic of discussion.  There was considerable back and forth about Steve Colarossi's draft motion to create a communications committee and put Board documents on the NPS website.  A couple of the Board members clearly thought the committee would be a forum for the public to air their grievences as opposed to a group that would devise strategies for the Board to improve communication with the public.

I spoke with Robert Rader, executive director of CABE (Connecticut Association of Boards of Education), this morning and he said that "many districts have had communications committees at one point or another."

The purpose of a communications committee can be manyfold according to Mr. Rader.  "The purpose of the committee depends on the priorities of the district.  It could be a committee to reach out to parents or the business community or the broader community, since many people in cities don't have children in the schools," he said.

In his experience, Mr. Rader has seen committees comprised of the Board only and committees with members of the public, especially those that have a Public Relations background. 

Take a look at the Stamford Public School website.  Stamford has an ad hoc "Public Engagement" committee and it also has a very informative website.  Like ours, it includes BOE meeting agendas and minutes.  Unlike ours, it includes superintendent reports and presentations, BOE meeting background information, BOE policies and bylaws and the budget.  It translates documents into nearly 50 languages.

I understand that the Web is not the only way to communicate with our parents and community, but it is an important one.  So much so, that the state requires important documents to be publicly available on the website.  In fact, I am waiting for Norwalk to put the Grant Application for the ARRA Special Education Funds online which is State requirement. 

We expect our children to have a 21st century education and skills.  Shouldn't we lead by example?

Communication was a defining issue of the BOE elections last month and arguably one of the primary reasons that the incumbents were not reelected.  It must be addressed by this Board.

Updated: Sup Search and Communication Discussed at BOE Meeting (including CABE Report)

At the BOE meeting last night, CABE Search Services, the search firm retained by the Norwalk Board of Education, presented a summary of their findings from community forums and surveys that were conducted last month.  According to CABE, approximately 198 individuals filled in the leadership assessment profiles that were distributed by the firm. (See below for report)

The surveys indicated, according to CABE, that Norwalkers believe that there is a “void in leadership and little long term visioning” in Norwalk Schools.  Survey respondents also expressed their concern about outdated systems and “perception of inequity” in the school system. 

The CABE consultants told the BOE that the community is “looking for direction”.  Norwalkers indicated in the surveys and forums that they want a new superintendent who knows how to partner with different groups, including the business community, and manage finances.