The budget cut targeting the Academically Talented program in Middle Schools ia no longer being proposed as a possible budget cut according to an email to Middle School principals sent by Assistant Superintendent Tony Daddona. I have calls into Daddona, Instructional Specialist Joan Glass, and Superintendent Nast for details.
Clearly, this decision is the result of an strong stance by several BOE members that AT was an important program for the district. They told school administrators to look for other ways to save money before they touched the program.
At a special meeting of the BOE held Monday night at City Hall, interim CFO Dan Cook reviewed with board members a department-by-department breakdown of a revised budget and $3.5 million in cuts being proposed. (see related story)
The cuts included ending the Middle School AT program -- a decision, according to interim Superintendent Michael Nast, made unanimously by the principals of Norwalk's four middle schools. "I have a letter from them," he told board members. "It was their choice and they say that there is some data which indicates that it has very little impact on test scores."
Nast's comments, made near the end of the evening's meeting, drew immediate reaction from several board members.
Board member Steve Colarossi said that cutting AT would affect all students not just those enrolled in the program. He said that even though his daughters' are not in Nathan Hale's AT program they benefit when other students are taken out of the classroom for AT. "It lets them shine in a smaller classroom, because the teacher can focus on their needs," he said.
Colarossi said that it would be "incredibly unfair" to students to encourage them to participate in AT while they were in elementary school, leave them adrift in grades 6, 7, and 8, and then expect them to participate in an Honors program when they entered grade 9 in high school.
His sentiment was echoed by Heidi Keyes who said that her two children participated in the AT program (one at middle school and one at elementary school). "We have to raise the bar, and I get concerned if at the central level there is a decision not to lift the bar for our most gifted students." Keyes said that students would be detrimentally affected by the loss of AT and that valuable years would be lost.
Board member Erin Halsey also weighed into the debate and pointed out that the existence of an AT program is part of Norwalk's educational profile that was trackable online. She said that BOE members should be concerned that the lack of an AT program would negatively impact a family's decision to move to Norwalk and have an effect on property values.
A lone voice of dissent was expressed by board member Jodi Bishop Pullan who suggested to school administrators that the middle school curriculum as a whole needed to be addressed and overhauled. As such, she implied that a separate AT program may not be necessary if the Middle School curriculum were rigorous.
Mr. Nast reminded board members that the cutting of the AT program would eliminate four teaching positions and save the District $435,000. If AT remained, he said, that money would have to be found elsewhere.
"We can do it," said Colarossi.
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
Plenty of children who are not in AT at either the elementary or middle school take Honors and AP classes and do quite well.
ReplyDeleteThis is fantastic, but where is the missing $450,000 going to come from? Undoubtedly other programs and services will have to be cut and someone will be affected.
ReplyDeleteBreaking Update; Tuesday May, 4, 2010.
ReplyDeleteWe have done well. The State Education committee has been working hard. They have married numerous reform bills into SB 438.
We have only one single day remaining to get this done.
Hartfrod has been screwing Norwalk for eduaction dollars. Are we going to allow them to screw the students in Norwalk again by letting this golden opportunity slip by.
NO, NO, NO.
We want that money and we are going to get it, with your help. We are still very much in the running for RTTT dollars, big dollars, possbly could mean millions for our district.
Slap it in gear people, we cant lose this opportunity.
Contact everyone you know and request them to immediatly contact our representatives and let the voices of the people and the silent voices of the students be heard.
As a parent, an educator a taxpayer now is the time to act swiftly and boldly.
Do it to it people.
Lets get this done and bring money into our district.
You have the power. USE IT!!
Conatcts;
State Representative Thomas Gaffey
Chairman of the Education committee co sponsor
Email - Gaffey@senatedems.ct.gov
Toll-free hotline 1-800-842-1420
State Representative Andy Fleischmann
Co-Chairman of the Education committee and co sponsor of the legislation, being written this weekend.
Email - Andrew.Fleischmann@cga.ct.gov
Hotline - 860.240.0420
State Representative Larry Caffero of the 142nd district:
Email - Lawrence.Cafero@housegop.state.ct.us
Toll free 800-842-1423
State Senator Bob Duff for the 25th district;
Email - Duff@senatedems.ct.gov
Telephone - Toll free - 800-842-1420
There's a lot of other budget issues to report on, it's too bad you waited until now to report. I hope you do a better job picking up the coverage during the next few weeks.
ReplyDeleteWell now most of the people who comment on this blog will not show up to the meeting tonight! Their concerns are placated. I agree.. can you report on other things than AT and strings?
ReplyDeleteTo the last two comments, how about you do the leg work and let us know? If you don't like the work Moina is doing, why don't you have a go?
ReplyDeleteI guess when people feel that AT and strings arevaluable then we will comment on keeping hte programs. I am also suggesting what to get rid of .....overpaid central office staff who do not support our kids!!
ReplyDeleteMoina--I think this blog is great.
Now we are talking! Keep AT and lose the literacy coaches and the Director of Elem Ed. There's a whole lot of money right there!
ReplyDeleteCould the dir of elementary ed be cut?
ReplyDeleteI was also happy to see that the lit and math coaches may be cut---reality check they are not useful.
How about full time nurses? How about recycling? How about fixing the filth in the schools (have you been in the Norwalk HS locker room)? How about school parking lots with huge pot holes? What about the HUGE amount of property on Marvin Elementary School with country club and long island sound views that is unused.. full of grass, dirt and a yard waste dumping ground? Why not sell that off, that has got to be worth something?
ReplyDeleteMoina, you are doing a terrific job reporting and commenting on the issues that affect our kids!
ReplyDeleteDoes anyone really believe we are getting our moneys worth from central? How much does Dadonna make? $200,000? What is Marks inking now $300,000? Wow. Hey Norwalk, want to buy London bridge, with the Queens autograph?
ReplyDeleteMoina
ReplyDeleteBecause you have children at Columbus it is disappointing to see no coverage of the meeting held there last night with Columbus and Side by Side School. It was attended by the Mayor, the Superintendent of Schools (briefly) and the Chief of Police. It was wonderful and so encouraging.
My husband attended that meeting briefly and I will do a write up on it, based on his notes. Please feel free to send me your comments/feedback on it. I'd be happy to post them here. I had another work commitment yesterday evening and could not attend.
ReplyDeleteWhile I am happy that high performing students will continue to get additional services, a few comments.
ReplyDeleteYes, plenty of non AT students do take honors classes and AP classes and do excel. Some even do better than their AT peers. Have we failed these "average" students by excluding them from the elite programs and expecting them to compete with students who were classified as AT students in elementary and middle school??
Did an administrator actually suggest to parents that their AT children would not be prepared for the rigor of a honors/AP high school curriculum unless an AT program was in place in the middle schools?
One has to wonder why such a diverse body of middle school administrators thought AT was the least of all evils to be cut. Should some cost savings changes be made to this program? It is incredulous that this population agreed to anything.
A prior blogger on this website alluded to the fact that the AT administrator organized parent meetings to support AT. Hope it was done on her time and not on the taxpayers' dime -- her expertise could have been spent training our regular classroom teachers on some of the more successful ways to engage our promising yet not AT students.
It is no surprise that hundreds of AT parents banded together to save the AT program but cannot find the time to volunteer an hour each year to help out with school events.
Did anyone take notice that one lone board member, Ms. Bishop Pullman suggested that we make our middle school curriculum more challenging for all students? Is this too much to ask? Or does no one respond because their kids are all in AT?
Ouch on the last comment, I'm not sure what's happening at your school but many of our most involved parents happen to have children in AT as well. AT parents are usually also often encouraging the schools to make the curriculum more challenging but I think that needs to be done BEFORE the program is discontinued. In reality, cutting 4 teachers (that's what we're talking about people, JUST 4 teachers) is not going to save the town and they would need to spend alot more than the cost of those 4 salaries to train the other teachers to meet those children's needs. Again, take middle school AT away and we'd probably start tracking our kids - what would you prefer?
ReplyDeletePlus, AT takes the place of a Language Arts class, wouldn't they need to hire additional LA teachers to cover those classes? How was this going to save money?
I find it discouraging that the BOE is quick to try to cut the programs that encourage children to strive for a higher bar educationally. I have found that in the elementary school the teachers are asked to teach to the lowest common denominator thus leaving many children (not just AT candidates)to sit around twiddling their thumbs and not being challenged academically. If they would raise the expectations of ALL the students and teach to the higher denominator I believe that all the children would be encouraged to stretch and achieve. Cutting help for the lower performing students is NEVER put on the table - How are any children expected to stretch themselves if they are not challenged??? Until they improve the everyday curriculums - I say leave the AT and gifted programs alone!
ReplyDelete8:29 is correct in that many children are not challenged. The problem is that bright non AT kids get nothing. We need to raise the bar for all students. And aren't we tracking already - isn't it either AT or non AT? I think traditional tracking might be more beneficial to the above average student who happens not to make the AT cut in 2nd grade. Maybe there would be some mid-ground rather than teaching down to all students.
ReplyDeleteI may be worth while listening to what our middle schools principals are telling us in a round about way.