Norwalk Federation of Teachers President Mary Yordon speaks to the Board of Education on Tuesday in City Hall.NORWALK, Conn. – Too much money has been spent on needless fights, Norwalk Federation of Teachers President Mary Yordon said Tuesday, expressing hope that proposed budget cuts can be lessened with continuing negotiations.
Mayor Harry Rilling also expressed hope – using the word “optimistic” – at the Norwalk Board of Education meeting, where recommended budget cuts were a topic even if the BoE tabled the matter until next week, as expected.
“Teachers are your backbone when you start cutting them to the bone you have lost everything,” Douglas Peoples said to the BoE, in the public participation portion of the meeting.
The BoE was slated to cut nearly $2 million from its 2017-18 Norwalk Public Schools operating budget, after an assumption it made turned out to be incorrect.
The BoE assumed that “of course” the Norwalk Federation of Teachers would jump at the chance to get its health insurance through Connecticut Partnership 2.0, saving NPS a significant amount of money, BoE Vice Chairman Mike Barbis said recently. The city was also confident that NFT would sign on, with the Common Council voting to increase the schools budget with a year over year increase of 4.5 percent, expressing a feeling that problems were solved. Superintendent of Schools Steven Adamowski, who had requested a 10.1 percent increase, called the funding “very fair.”
But NFT offered a counter proposal, and the BoE refused. According to BoE Chairman Mike Lyons, the NFT’s requested contract extension would cost NPS millions; NFT filed a complaint with the State Labor Board and there was a standoff until Monday, when the mayor’s office convinced both sides to try again to negotiate.
“We seem to have been headed for layoffs that will have a dramatic impact on our educational community,” Yordon began Tuesday.
The BoE Finance Committee recommended cutting all kindergarten aides and laying off the preschool teachers at its only preschool program, at Brookside Elementary School. Also recommended for elimination was the middle school music program.
The Common Council and the mayor backed up their talk of education support with millions of dollars, Yordon said, asking, “What has become of this opportunity?”
Much of the comments made in the community are based on misinformation, said Yordon, who took over her role when former NFT President Bruce Mellion died suddenly in late 2015.
“As has been noted, I am not Bruce,” Yordon said. “I am, however, just as committed to our district, to education, and to NFT responsibilities of collective bargaining.”
“Last night, the NFT and the Board successfully concluded our midterm negotiations with reasonable outcomes for all parties,” Yordon said. “The proposals on the table were subject of negotiations that commenced in early spring. The NFT is looking forward to continuing in the healthy tone of the mid-term negotiations and the end of the personal attacks and vitriol that have been directed at me and the teachers, and continuing the relationship of positive outcomes for our students. The NFT is going to sit down soon with the Board and once again discuss the Partnership plan. It is unfortunately very late in the process but we are encouraged by the positive outcomes of the recent mid-term election, and I hope we will meet with similar success and save what we can on the next budget year at this very late date. We spent too much money on needless fights, too much on Central Office and consultants.”
Yordon said that $1.2 million was spent this year on middle school redesign consultants, when $207,000 was budgeted.
Asked about that after the meeting, Adamowski said, “No.”
“I think that’s one of those comments that people make in the public speaking section when they don’t know what they’re talking about,” Lyons said.
Yordon also said, in the public speaking section, “There are untapped solutions that don’t involve frontline classroom cuts. We need careful planning not last minute scrambling to implement innovative practice.”
She asked how cutting “trained, Tier II” kindergarten aides makes any sense when Adamowski has been touting literacy improvements, and the audience applauded.
“We do need to change the way we are doing business here in Norwalk,” Yordon said. “By valuing the talent that is already present among us, by improving the climate and by reducing the manufacturing of crisis in this district. In this way, we can build on success and become a better place to live, to work and to educate our children.”
Former BoE member Steven Colarossi also spoke to the Board, sarcastically suggesting that one point that the extra $110,000 planned to expand the communications department might be warranted given that it would be tougher to sell the district to parents without kindergarten aides.
“I am sure it is just by sheer coincidence, but none of these administrative areas were slated for cuts on the superintendent’s proposed cut list,” Colarossi said. “…Admittedly asking any Central Office administrator to have to contend with shortages of supplies is hardly fair, after all, look at how challenging it has been for our teachers when we have asked them to do more with less each year.”
Colarossi’s wife is a Brookside pre-school teacher.
He and his wife were insulted on social media, he said.
“There was a fat comment made about me,” Colarossi said. “Some would be offended by that but I took it as a good sign that at least there was one area in which there was something that the chairman of the Finance Committee understood that there was something in excess. I just wish more attention had been paid to excesses in the budget rather than the excesses in my waistline.”
Norwalk High School Marching Bears Inc. President Ed Abrams thanked the BoE and the NFT for being willing to negotiate, “to hopefully resolve things in a way that we don’t have to look at cuts.”
“To incent you to do that, we have actually called off the dogs a little bit,” Abrams said. “You will notice that there is not a flood of band parents in here. We want to let you do the work that is needed. but please we will be vigilant, we will watch every minute. Do that work and do it properly, so that the students of Norwalk benefit.”
“Yesterday, I had my office reach out to Board Chair Mike Lyons and NFT President Mary Yordon,” Rilling said later. “I am encouraged by the willingness of both sides. I know everybody at the table here, I know so many teachers and other educators. We all want what is best for our children. While cuts are never easy sometimes those tough decisions have to be made. So, I am encouraged by the fact that there is a willingness to come back to the table to see if we can’t come to a meeting of the minds, to then avoid the cuts.”
Finance Committee Chairman Bryan Meek thanked Rilling.
“In the face of very difficult decisions I think we have to highlight the positive and an $8 million year over year increase – I think that’s the highest in the city’s history for this department,” Meek said. “Maybe not percentage but dollar wise it’s got to be up there.”
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