Attention Norwalk Public School parents: The district has posted an online survey asking for your feedback on a variety of topics, including student progress, school leadership and atmosphere, safety, technology, facilities, school meals and transportation. The survey will be posted on the district’s website from May 23 to June 6. It takes about 10 to 20 minutes to complete and is anonymous. There is also a Spanish version.
“This is a great opportunity to have your voices heard,” says PTO Council President Lisa Lenskold.
This is the first time that the Norwalk district has launched such a districtwide survey. “The intention of these surveys is to provide feedback that will assist the individual schools and school district in our improvement efforts,” says Superintendent Susan Marks. “We plan to use the data as a baseline for continuous improvement. It is also a tool for more informed decision-making."
Parents are encouraged to fill out one survey per child. The survey will be administered online only, not by paper, in order to facilitate the best data collection. If you don’t have a computer at home or at work, the district suggests using a public computer at a library. Arrangements also have been made for parents to use a public computer on the third floor of City Hall at the district’s human resources office.
Most of the questions are rated on a 1 to 4 scale of “strongly agree to strongly disagree." A few questions are fill in and open ended. A joint committee of administrators, teachers, community members and parents developed the survey. It also created a staff survey.
The data will be aggregated and analyzed over the summer, and parents can expect to see a summary of their school’s survey results in the fall.
“We are hoping for a lot of participation,” says Bruce Mellion, president of the Norwalk Federation of Teacher and committee member. "The more the better."
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Will the people of the community who do not own computers really travel to libraries or to city hall to fill in this survey? I don't think so. The answers to this survey will be very skewed. The superintendent seems only to be asking these questions to a selected population. No further comment.
ReplyDelete9.19 - I agree with you 100%. There is going to be a large population that they are going to miss - very insensitive and not well thought out when thinking of such a diverse community.
ReplyDeleteIt's better than nothing and the first of its kind in Norwalk. So, please don't knock it until it's been given a try. With all of the pain of the last couple of years...one thing has happened and that is that NPS is more transparent than in years past. Two quick points of reference...the budget process, Dr Marks' out reach to the community on the snow day issue and this blog. The population that you seem to hide behind does have access to computers. If you are members of school staff...perhaps you are you afraid of what parents are going to say about your building?
ReplyDeleteI for one am a grateful parent.
Very astute #11:12 and I am a very grateful parent.
ReplyDelete1. How much did this "better than nothing" survey cost us?
ReplyDelete2. How will the results be used? Will principals finally be held to account? Or will it be more of the same old same old?
3. Let's be serious-- Supt. Marks wants to cut my kindergarten daughter's asst. principal, take away the first grade aide she'll need next year, while putting more kids in her classroom and giving them no literacy specialist. But, oooh, I get to fill out a survey, so somehow I feel so much better.
Grateful Parents, please open your eyes. This superintendent is worse than any other in memory. Just because she is doing a survey and opened up the snow day issue does not make a great or even good superintendent. The administrators and teachers know how bad the situation is and soon you will know it too. Watch how quickly the system hits bottom.
ReplyDeleteI have a question for the parent who thinks everything is now transparent. Did you know that a current Board of Education member resides in Westport right now and is WAITING to resign from the BOE? Strange that she will be sitting on the Board at the next meeting. Sounds a bit less than transparent to me. She is living in Westport right now.....Oh, and there is a replacement for her right now. Why is she still attending and voting as if she still lives in Norwalk??? It's a secret that she has already moved, that's why.
ReplyDelete6:02 PM again.....sorry, I should say that allegedly she has already moved. I have heard it spoken as a fact, but I am aware that I should not put it in print unless I say 'allegedly'......I believe the people I heard it from also said Bob Duff was her realtor. Perhaps someone should confirm it with him.
ReplyDeleteIt seems like the system HAS hit bottom!
ReplyDeleteAt last week's Board of Education meeting, Susan Hamilton said that her last meeting will be June 7 and that she is moving to Westport on June 10.
ReplyDeleteMoina,
ReplyDeleteI am interested in getting to the bottom of this myself. I would like to know if I've been lied to. Could you confirm with Bob Duff that she is still living in Norwalk? I was told he was her realtor.
Thanks.
As much as I love to see some BOE members twist in the wind--- especially those who defended Janie Friedlander, protected Fay Ruotolo and didn't lift a finger when we pleaded for her help with Stacey Lorre--- she still lives in Norwalk. Go the the Town Clerk's land records database. Type in "her" name and you wont find a record to show she sold her house.
ReplyDelete5:52:
ReplyDeleteSusan Marks has come to Norwalk during the worst budget season in recent years. The budget fat is gone and we are down to the bare bones. She and the board have to find over 4 million in cuts, while honoring union contracts. Nothing she does is going to be popular right now. Yet, she and the BOE have to make really hard decisions.
As someone who reads a lot about education nationwide, I hear of many districts shutting down schools, laying off teachers in droves, cutting art, music and gym. I'm often thankful that we are not one of those districts.
That said, I REALLY don't want to see aides, librarians, or the planetarium go either. You SHOULD voice your opinion if you think a cut or a decision is ill advised. I post the proposed cuts on this blog because I think people should know what is at stake. However, I really hope this forum does not become a place to needlessly criticize the superintendent just because she has to make tough choices.
7:21, She may own property in Norwalk, but where is she actually living? I think that's the crucial question. What I was told was that she is (and has been) living in Westport. I just want to clear it up and apologize profusely if I am wrong.
ReplyDeleteMoina,
ReplyDeleteCriticism of the superintendent is not only about a most serious budget cut. It is about the recommendations to cut positions that affect the students in the classrooms versus positions that could be cut that do not affect the students. It is about unbelievably low morale in the schools, and I hear it from many teachers and administrators. It is about a nonsupportive superintendent who claimed she worked well with unions and central office staff. It is about the insensitivity to her community by creating a computer only survey. I am sorry, Moina, but if a person is willing to become a superintendent of schools, both criticism and acclaim is part and parcel of the position. Let those who think she is doing a fantastic job also post!
It is really easy to make Dr. Marks a scape goat as she tries to clean up Norwalk's organizational doo doo. Everybody attacked Corda and the guy before him and the only Supt everyone seems to like on this blog was Ralph Sloane, whose been gone for decades. I'm begining to think we might want to look at ourselves or have staff tell us what attributes Sloane had that made him successful.
ReplyDeleteBut bear in mind, Norwalk is a different city that the one Sloane presided over all those years ago.
In any event, Dr Marks wallks into a district with both financial arms tied behind her back coupled with various NPS staff and union leadership, with air tight contracts and decades of politicing behind them, plotting and scheming against her in what resembles more of a Shakespearean tragedy than a professional educational organization.
Districts around this state and country are fincially struggling as parents and the public peek into a system that has had realtively few checks and balances with regard to its adult accountability for DECADES.
We spent lots of money as a nation and yet test scores continue to drop. Until we close the communication and accountability loop between the classroom, afterschool programming and the home, kids will continue to suffer and we as a nation will fall further behind.
Dr. Marks is trying to get input from the community (both staff and parents) while at the same time trying to put some checks and balances in place (with no budget) and people are balking.
A couple of suggestions for NPS staff on this blog...instead of making annonymous drive by attacks...why not make constructive suggestions?
As for parents...speak up! Rather than complaining about the survey. Make your voice heard. There are not enough parents in the community that get involved...and those of us that do, get attacked as well. But nothing wil change if you don't get involved.
I will be sharing my thoughts on where I think the cuts should be and shared some at the finance meeting held last week. Where was everybody????
But people, have the decency to be constructive and thoughtful rather than blindly and angrily attacking individuals.
9.19, plenty of people who do have computers at home will not bother to fill out the survey. Do you want Dr. Marks to go door-to-door making sure they do?
ReplyDeleteI don't see what the big deal is. I really appreciate that they are trying to reach out to all the parents and get a sense of our thoughts and opinions.
The libraries are open on Saturdays and have several late nights each week. There are dozens of free computers available to the public. If anyone who doesn't own a computer wants his/her voice heard, it's pretty darn easy to do so.
Sometimes the negativity here is really depressing....
Yes, Ralph Sloan was an impossible act to follow because he was a superintendent's superintendent. He was extremely intelligent, a great orator, worked at LISTENING to his staff, was kind to those with whom he worked.....well, I could go on and on. The point is, we have had real 'charmers' in that seat ever since his departure. Unfortunately the charmers show one face to the public and quite another to staff. Dr. Sloan never had a 'teacher's pet' who was protected at all costs. He dealt evenhandedly with everyone. That's my input. Hope it helps you to understand why he had such a large fan base.
ReplyDeleteIs anyone checking on the residency question posed here? Not owning property, but residency. I really would like to know.
ReplyDelete6.54 am, For Goodness sake - she is leaving soon - get over it and drop it already!
ReplyDelete11:09 AM, I am asking a rather simple question. What do you have against a truthful answer? She is or isn't currently living in Westport? Do you know?
ReplyDeleteI'm curious to know thoughts about Joe Klein's article in "The Atlantic."
ReplyDeletehttp://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2011/06/the-failure-of-american-schools/8497/
If the link is not active, cut and paste into your browser.
Kind of peeved taxpayer here-- I posted on another thread here, but I'm hoping for answers.
ReplyDeleteDoes anyone know how much this survey is costing me?
Did anyone think to send out a survey for taxpyers without kids in the system?
ELIMINATE ALL THE ASST. PRINCIPALS IN THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS...that's $$$ 2 MILLION in savings with no effect on education.
ReplyDeleteWhen all is send and done and positions are eliminated. The process does not stop there. The people who are eliminated go into a pool and start bumping other people who have less time. This process takes time and impacts many people. Its easy to say eliminate but the impact of family and people trying to pay their bills what do you say to them?????
ReplyDelete6:09 AM, incorrect. When jobs are eliminated, first the people who are eliminated fill vacancies for which they are qualified. Only if there are no vacancies do they start bumping. In my memory of 30 years in Norwalk, no one was ever bumped. I could be wrong, but if so, it was a bump with a rehire when school started.
ReplyDeleteSo what's the story with the Westport residency?
ReplyDeleteShould she be sitting on the NPS BOE?
Is a board member allowed to be a non-resident? Shouldn't someone find out before this next board meeting? Seems that Norwalk is looking at another possible nonresident situation. Does anyone know for certain where this board member resides?
ReplyDeleteRosa Murray is replacing Susan Hamilton - so leave it as that!
ReplyDelete