Sal Corda Speaks: “They Sank My Boat”

Sal Corda, Norwalk’s outgoing Superintendant of Schools said in an interview with NorwalkNet that his departure is involuntary.

He said that his dealings with the current Board of Education had become increasingly difficult . “In the last 18 months my relationship with the Board changed,” he said. “This Board is more concerned with exercising control.”

When asked for examples Dr. Corda declined to elaborate.

Dr. Corda resigned suddenly on June 18, 2009, hours after the BOE approved the 2009-2010 budget in which serious cuts were made. “I didn’t have a choice, they (the BOE) sank my boat,” he said repeating a quotation made famous by John F. Kennedy.

According to Dr. Corda, the BOE decided last year not to renew his contract which runs through 2010 . He said he gave notice as soon as he had another offer in hand. Dr. Corda accepted a position as Associate Professor of Education at Southern Connecticut State University.

The minutes of the BOE meeting held June 30, 2008, reflect that the Board voted overwhelmingly not to extend Dr. Corda's contract beyond 2010. The BOE also denied a 3% cost of living adjustment . Board member Susan Hamilton told her colleagues, "The Board does have some concerns around communication and [Corda's] visibility, along with collaboration between the superintendent, the school community and the community at large."

Dr. Corda, who will be leaving his position on September 15^, talked at length about his challenges and accomplishments as superintendant. He said that this year he had experienced the most brutal budgeting process of his career.

“Sometimes a budget crisis forces you to get creative and rethink how to do things,” Dr. Corda said. “Not this one. This one was just about cutting back. We are losing important elements of our service.”

Dr. Corda cited, in particular, the decision to eliminate the positon of two elementary assistant principals and the Dean of Discipline at Brien McMahon High School. No decision has been made as to exactly which schools will lose the assistant principal positions.

Dr. Corda, who has been Superintendant of Norwalk schools since 2001, said that his greatest accomplishment has been the improvement of student performance as measured by the CMT and CAPT standardized tests. He said that the instructional program he instituted helped to close the achievement gap between White students and minority students. Dr. Corda claims the number of students performing “at goal” has increased.

Statistics obtained from the No Child Left Behind website maintained by the Dept. of Education bear some of this out. Based on the 2002-2003 CMT scores 70% of Norwalk students were proficient in Math and 66 % were proficient in Reading. By the 2007-2008 school year 80.8% of students were proficient in Math and 71.9% were proficient in Reading. Nevertheless, Norwalk is still considered not to have met the State’s proficiency levels. (NorwalkNet will be drilling into the CMT data once the score are made publicly available later this summer.)

Dr. Corda hopes the BOE will choose a strong instructional leader as the new superintendent, someone with what he calls “vision”, not simply a manager.

“There has been systemic improvement,” said Dr. Corda. “Norwalk will be positioned well to continue to improve.”