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.
During this time Dr. Papallo said that he will be focusing on the budget and the superintendent search. "My main concern and concentration have been to (1) have the budget in place and delivered to the City and (2) that the search is well along" said Dr. Papallo.
Dr. Papallo is hopeful that a new superintendent is hired by the BOE before his contract runs out. "In fact if all goes well there could be a decision made on the superintendent by the time I leave," he said. "The expectation is that we will have a new superintendent identified by mid January. Most of the time, a large percentage of the time in fact, a person appointed can be on the job within four to six weeks."
I think Dr. Papallo's assumption seems optimistic given that we have not even begun the interview process for a new superintendent. Interviewing and vetting candidates will undoubtedly take time especially now that we are in the Holiday season. What if there is no decision about the superientendent by the time Dr. Papallo is set to leave? Or what if the new superintendent needs to finish out a term at another school district?
According to Board Chairman Glenn Iannacone, if a new superintendent is not selected before Dr. Papallo's contract expires, the BOE will have to find another interim superintendent. " We can't go without it according to state law." he wrote in an email to NorwalkNet.
The BOE is functioning under many unknown variables. What will the candidate pool look like? Will a new hire be able to start immediately or will he or she have to wait until the next school year?
If the goal is to hire the best possible superintendent for Norwalk then we should operate under the assumption that this process might take a while (if it doesn't, great!) and it may very well may require another interim superintendent. The fact that we waited until mid October to even hire a search firm made us lose precious time at the front end of this process.
When Dr. Papallo was hired in August it was unclear that his contract only allowed him to work for 5 months. At this point, the Board needs to clearly communicate with the public how Dr. Papallo is stretching out his time (has he beeen working part time, half days, starting when?) and what plans are being made to find another interim superintendent.
Sunday, December 6, 2009
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Truly amazing. The BOE has strung the public along obfuscating what's really going on. We've followed them like a bunch of lemmings and if it wasn't for this blog we would still be in the dark.
ReplyDeleteWhat happened to the vaunted words of openess and communication that the "Parents Not Politicians" people ran on. One of the first things that they should have found out was the status of the interim Superintendent and let the word out.
So much for change. Just like Obama is the same old same old.
BTW guess who pays for the $60K Pap-mobile (the free car that Papallo got) while he's taking time off? You and me folks.
It seems to me that the new board members are not blameworthy in this. After all, they have been on the board for less than a month.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I am concerned about the timeline here, one which is the fault of the former board, some of whose members continue to serve. I surely hope that this doesn't give an inferior candidate an opportunity to take over the school system.
9:21, just as you are saying the new Board of Education members are not blameworhy, which is not entirely true, you are also judging an 'inferior candidate' before the process has even begun. What is your problem? We certainly don't need people jumping to ridiculous conclusions. Let the applications come in and let the process take place the way it should.
ReplyDeleteHere is the basic thing: Why does it take a part time journalist to get some "straight" answers from our school officials? Why isn't the professional paid media in this city ie The Hour doing its job and bringing us this information?
ReplyDeleteIt's incredibly frustrating that this information isn't being disclosed up front so we all know what's going on.
This hide the ball mentality has got to stop.
10:00 - I'm not judging anyone. I said I hope that this doesn't result in Norwalk's getting an inferior person as its next superintendent, meaning that it will have to settle because it has taken so long. What did I say that points my finger to anyone?
ReplyDelete10:00 was way out of line 12:21.
ReplyDeleteI am a little confused because I thought we had the interim through Jan. 1, then it was the end of Jan., now it's through the end of Feb. And it's not that we are getting any more work out of him, we're just stretching the rubberband to see how far it can stretch before it breaks. Get him out and either hire someone for the job or hire an interim who can do the job. This is not fair and it is expensive. Boy, the old BOE did a great job hiring him - they gave him a sweet job - working part time and a car for free, while Norwalk gets??? And then they hired the search firm to get a new superintendent in by the time he HAD to leave. The firm would speed up the process. Guess that didn't happen either - more money down the drain. The whole thing is frustrating.
ReplyDeleteAll I am saying is that you can't jump to conclusions that we will get an inferior person for the job, or as you said, 'that this doesn't give an inferior candidate an opportunity to take over the school system.' The process is going to happen as it should! Applications are coming in and interviews will be held. Just let it happen and don't be so negative about the possible outcome!
ReplyDeleteHow much is this search firm costing us? I thought the idea for the search firm was to speed up the process.
ReplyDeleteIt is appalling that 6 months after Corda announced his resignation that we don't even have a list of candidates yet.