Common Council Needs Ed Focus by Kimmel

Here is Bruce Kimmel's latest op-ed which appeared in The Hour. 

The Norwalk Board of Education has adopted an operating budget that requires a 4.5 percent increase in spending. The next step in the budget process will be taken by the Common Council when it establishes an overall limit on spending for the 2011-12 fiscal year. I am cautiously optimistic that the Council will approve a spending cap that enables the Board of Estimate and Taxation to provide sufficient funds for the BOE. However, I have some reservations. Here’s why.


I served on the Council from 1997 until August 2005. Before voting on BOE items, especially in the late 1990s, Council members were usually provided information from the Superintendent or some other BOE official. On more than a few occasions, we were uncomfortable with that information because we had no independent analysis of the particular request. Our own staff was generally stretched too thin to delve deeply into these requests, although I recall a few instances when they suggested we should not accept the BOE analysis or rationale.

This problem was partially addressed early last decade by the creation of the Norwalk Facilities and Construction Commission, whose responsibilities include close examination of all construction requests, including those of the BOE. It is comprised of residents who have a background in construction and facilities management. The city has also established a Technology Committee to perform similar analyses for all technology upgrades and projects.

However, I still believe there is a major problem in one area – and it’s a big one: the Council’s responsibility vis-a-vis the BOE’s operating budget. Under our City Charter, the Council sets an overall spending limit for the operating budget, and the Board of Estimate and Taxation decides how the funds are divided among the different departments, including the BOE.

The problem is that the level of spending established by the Council is invariably dependent on the size of the BOE’s request (despite statements to the contrary by some Council members who would rather shift responsibility to the BET). Thus, establishing the spending cap requires some sort of evaluation, or at least an opinion, of the BOE budget.

Education is a controversial, expensive and complex issue. Communities are repeatedly asked to pay for mandates, programs and personnel without hard statistical evidence that they increase student achievement or enhance the overall educational experience of students. Nonetheless, each year, when establishing a spending limit, Council members have to make budget decisions that directly or indirectly relate to our schools.

Generally, they rely on recommendations from the city’s Finance Director. While these recommendations must be respected, I believe the Council needs an on-going mechanism that keeps members up-to-date on what’s happening in the rapidly changing world of education.

I was pleased last year when the Council established an Education Committee. But it seems the committee, which I don’t believe has ever met, was doomed from the start because of its “ad hoc” status and its narrow purview. Ad hoc committees usually meet on an as-needed basis. This committee was established, I’ve been told, to foster better communication between the Council and the BOE. Problem is: Council members do not need a committee and thus additional meetings to merely communicate with Board members.

But they do need an Education Committee – like city and town councils across the nation – that provides in-depth knowledge of all types of education issues that influence the quality of life, as well as the property values, in our city. These committees deal with a host of school-community issues, such as gang violence, before- and after-school programs, graduation rates, expensive unfunded state mandates, special education costs, school transportation, etc. They often invite independent experts to these meetings, and they occasionally issue recommendations to their Boards of Education.

If the quality of our schools is ever to become a community responsibility, if we are ever to rid ourselves of the divisive notion that our community is divided between taxpayers (whose interests are represented by the Mayor and the Council) and parents (whose interests are represented by the BOE and Superintendent), we might start by removing the ad hoc label from the Council’s Education Committee and by broadening its mandate.

That’s also the best way to ensure that Council members have accurate, facts-based knowledge on how much money our school system needs to provide a quality education for each and every one of our students.