Alex Kemeny: Candidate for Board of Education

Alex Kemeny

Candidate for Board of Education

Party Affiliation: Independent, cross-endorsed Republican

What inspired you to run for the Board of Education?

After many years of watching Board meetings, I’ve felt frustration in their lack of communication with parents and teachers. I feel they make decisions without researching more solutions or tapping into available resources like our teachers or other local Board of Ed’s. I am a veteran teacher of 31 years in the Norwalk Public schools and I’ve never seen a Board member reach out to teachers for advice or ask what their needs are. I feel there is a lack of communication and am inspired to fill that gap.

What local education work have you done and what has changed because of your work? 

I am a retired music teacher from Norwalk Public Schools after 31 years of service. I retired in 2019 but continue to work with children at the Crystal Theatre which I co-founded in 1987 and have worked for 38 years. I hopefully have impacted many children’s lives by empowering them to take risks stepping in front of an audience and in doing so; building up their confidence. 

What perspectives would you add that the board currently lacks?

The Board, in my opinion, lacks the creativity and drive to find solutions for many of the current problems. Our students are not reaching their full potential as demonstrated by the test results. Our diverse student population is just as capable as our native speaking students. But our expectations are lowered in the false assumption that they can’t achieve that standard.  Let’s not lower the standard to make the diverse population “feel” successful. They can reach higher expectations with extra support due to their language barrier. Let’s give them that support and let them reach their potential to achieve the “American Dream”. The Board needs to do their due diligence to research, reach out to teachers and communicate with the public. No more excuses. Let’s get our students up to speed.

What are your three top priorities for the next school years and what is one thing you would deprioritize? 

First priority would be the budget. Funds need to be reallocated in places that will directly impact student achievement. Instead of spending thousands of dollars on consultants to improve scores, the Board along with the Superintendent should have the expertise to analyze and make these decisions. Board members should have some experience in either education or finance to do the job. If not, they should be willing to educate themselves and do the research to improve our educational system. Isn’t that what voters expect? Isn’t that why they ran?

Second: Raise the expectations. Referring to our students as “Scholars” is a misnomer. The definition of a scholar is a distinguished academic. Does the lowering of expectations to reach superficial scores help our “scholars” when graduating from high school? Or is it only to make us and them feel successful. This is doing a disservice to our student population. Students can step up and do the work if they are asked to. Human nature is to do what is required. Let us require more.

Third: It is no secret that the makeup of our school population has changed. Regardless of race, ethnicity or legal status it is our moral duty to educate and produce contributing adults to society. This is a complicated issue. Addressing this issue is where there is a difference of opinion. We have over 2,400 multilanguage students from 41 countries and 32 languages according to the Norwalk Public Schools website. Many students aren’t fluent in ANY language and some have never attended school in their respective country. You can’t put an eleven year old in a first grade class because that’s his level, whether it be in his native language or English. Before students are placed into a regular classroom, their skills and proficiency should be evaluated and they should be placed appropriately in order to achieve success. How do you do this?  Placing MLL students in an age appropriate classroom ”feels like” the right choice but is a detriment to them, the teacher and the other students. It is not racist or separatist to give these students a chance for success. There should be leveled classes where students are placed according to their ability. Just an example: 2 classes of 5,6,& 7 years olds of mixed ages. One class who picks up English quicker and the other that needs a little more time. They would learn basic English , reading (whether it be in their native tongue or English) and basic math skills appropriate for their grade level. Three classes of 8,9, and 10 year olds- learning basic English and Math skills. Here is where students can be identified for special needs instead of depositing them into a regular class where they won’t get identified for 3 years. Three classes of 11,12, & 13 year olds . Identifying those who have never been to school and finding the right placement for them. 

Now, some of these students may only be in this special classroom for a month or two depending on their ability to test out. There is an English proficiency test that is administered to the students called LAS- Links Assessment. Once they pass, they are placed into their homeschool to continue their education benefitting from proper placement.

*Just an idea to get them up to speed. To make them successful.

 All the current MLL teachers would be drawn from their current schools and placed in one location to be more effective and efficient. Will this cost more? Maybe.  But these children are here and Norwalk, being a sanctuary city, has the responsibility to service them whether you advocate for it or not. 

So, I refer you to priority #1 and to figure out how we allocate funds to make this happen. I believe there should be dedicated schools to house this program. I have ideas about how this could be done but this would a be matter decided by the entire Board going forward.

Deprioritize: Sensory Overload. There is too much “screen time”. Pack away the phones during the school day. None between classes, no use at lunch time.  It will alleviate the online bullying and get kids face to face talking again. Let teachers teach. No more “open your laptop” and proceed to do a lesson through the screen. Have discussions in the classroom and practice back and forth banter and critical thinking. See both sides of an issue. 

In the elementary schools there needs to be more discovery and risk taking. Kindergarteners need more play and self-discovery and less emphasis on “writing a book”. We need to go back and stop pushing our kids until they are developmentally ready to tackle certain skill sets- and then we push and encourage. Pushing too soon creates frustration and behavior problems.

What changes would you implement to make the budget more parent readable? 

The budget is an overwhelming document. If the budget were broken down into individual school budgets, teacher salary, administration, etc.  clarifying the cost of operating said school, not only parents, but tax-payers could see where their dollars are going. I wouldn’t think it would cost more money to break down the expenditures to each school and would shed light on any wasted money. This alone would bring more transparency into where the money is spent.

What is your contingency order if federal funds shrink or are taken away?

 It is my understanding that the funds are being reallocated from the federal government to each state allowing the states to distribute the funds as they see fit. In some instances, there are strings attached. One of the Federal bills proposes tax benefits for school choice scholarships. This gives scholarship money to students to attend private schools; essentially tax payer money going to private institutions. We need to make our public schools as desirable as private. How? By having higher expectations (like private schools) and insisting students work to their potential. We must get parents involved to raise the level of our standards and to raise behavioral expectations. I could never understand why parents are allowed to accept tax payer money for their children’s education and not get involved. Public education shouldn’t be considered “free” because it’s not. 

How would you approach the recent attendance concerns for multilingual students?

 Chronic absenteeism is defined as missing 10% or more of school days. This is not only a problem for multilingual students but for the general population in a school.

Frequent absences can affect a student’s ability to read at grade level especially by the third grade. There can be multiple reasons for this: unreliable transportation, unstable housing, health conditions or unreliable parents. First the reason must be identified.

I propose that every elementary school have a family coordinator whose responsibility it is to contact every family and keep a record of address/ phone etc. Often phone numbers and contact information are inaccurate and this needs to be discovered before an emergency takes place. Her/His job would be to reach out to every family in the school. Their job not only would be the responsibility for attendance records but to coordinate transportation for conferences and PPT meetings. They would then identify and report chronic issues to the social worker who would send out an outreach worker to the home of these children and contact the parent. As recipients of a free education paid for by our tax payers, parents have a duty to send their children to school.

In addition, the family coordinator would organize social events (in conjugation with the PTO) to welcome and encourage families to get involved in the school community. Social events as international pot luck dinners, arrange babysitting (perhaps high school students doing community service) to enable parents to attend conferences, coordinating translators when needed for PPT’s etc. 

This position in a school would not only identify children who fall through the cracks but will create a more inclusive community in the school and free up the social worker to attend to those children who need her/his services for mental health issues.

What should Norwalk families remember about you when they vote? 

Voters should remember that I’m neither Republican or Democrat. I am an Independent and an independent thinker. Politics should not have anything to do with the education of our students. I was born and raised in Norwalk and am a thirty-one year veteran teacher from the Norwalk Public schools. I remember what a strong educational system we had. It should make no difference that our student population has become more diverse. Regardless of race, ethnicity, legal status or IQ, our students have the capacity to be contributing citizens. It is the job of the Board of Education to give every child the opportunity to reach their full potential until they reach 18. It’s the Board’s responsibility to help our students find their pathway to a successful future.