Norwalk BoE adds another year to Estrella’s contract

NORWALK, Conn. — Norwalk Superintendent of Schools Alexandra Estrella’s contract was extended another year Tuesday, minutes after Norwalk Federation of Teachers President Mary Yordon said most Norwalk teachers “do not feel that the district cares about providing excellent service to students.”

Norwalk Board of Education members voted unanimously to extend Estrella’s contract through the 2024-25 school year and give her a 2% raise. Some noted that continuity is important given the revolving door nature of superintendents in the previous years, while all who spoke lauded her performance.

Estrella began work here July 1, 2020. Her initial contract stated that her base salary will be negotiated annually, before the beginning of the new school year, and if no agreement is reached, she will receive a cost of living adjustment equal to the percentage change in the Consumer Price Index for the year.

Board of Education Chairman Colin Hosten said that would have been 8.5% this year. Board members appreciated Estrella’s “willingness to work with us” to reach a “fair compromise, both for her and for the Norwalk school district.”

Estrella was hired for the 2020-21 school year with a $275,000 base salary with a $15,000 annuity. Last year, the Board added a year to the contract and boosted the base salary to $284,625, with a $17,400 annuity. That jump represented a 4% increase.

Yordon began the meeting as a public speaker, elaborating on the union membership survey she mentioned two weeks earlier. She said 76% of respondents “agree that they are completely overwhelmed and that won’t change anytime soon,” down a bit from the 80% who said that in October.

“It has been intense, unforgiving, exhausting, and not like any other district,” she said. “There is very little praise given. Effective professional relationships are built on trust, collaboration, communication and appropriate goals. Such relationships allow for all members to grow and remain invested in the work. Instead, 73% of our members do not feel that the district cares about retaining capable employees.”

NFT First Vice President Joe Giandurco later quoted a teacher as saying, “It is well known within my building, that every teacher is replaceable. This is a repeated mantra from the administration.”

He said, “What this goes to show is this is not a national issue, as some people had mentioned at the last meeting. This is not just a Fairfield County issue about teacher retention. This is a local Norwalk issue, and we need central office and the Board of Education to do a better job of working with us to accomplish the goals that we need to for our students.”

Former BoE member Sarah LeMieux countered by citing her own experience as a teacher in another district.

“The problems that teachers are having are the same everywhere,” LeMieux said. “Teachers feeling replaceable, teachers feeling overworked, teachers feeling like they’re not having room to be creative. These are systemic issues, and they’re systemic issues all over America. But in Connecticut, also, because we have regulations, we have assessment metrics that are tied to the funding that we get. And there really is not as much room for people to make changes, even in positions of leadership, as like the common person would think.”

Estrella is “skilled and experienced in collaborative leadership,” exhibiting “a spirit of outreach, and identification of partnerships and outside funding sources,” LeMieux said. Norwalk is lucky to have her and given the “really silly amount of superintendents” in the past 12 years, the “stability” of a contract extension would “be really great.”

“I know for a fact that the things that are spoken of by the teachers from the Federation of Teachers are the exhaustion which we identify with,” said the Rev. Kevin Mullins. “We spend a lot of time as a church praying about exhaustion and the turnover are certainly systemic issues.”

He too wanted to keep Estrella longer because “amount of superintendents we’ve had in place is ridiculous.”

Among Estrella’s accomplishments are the new Family Welcome Center and translation services, according to Iliana Zuniga.

“As a Latina woman, it’s incredible to see a woman of color in a leadership position that has worked so hard to engage our community,” Zuniga said. “… A lot of our parents are very thankful for the efforts. Many of our parents don’t have the ability to speak up because of a language barrier, or maybe they’re just afraid of being in a public forum. But as a founder of Latinos Unidos Norwalk that has over 3000 members, I can tell you that the sentiment resonates along this group of people.”

Tyler Fairbairn noted that the agenda for the meeting said simply, “Approval of Superintendent’s revised Employment Agreement,” without providing any information about the revisions. He had emailed Board members but didn’t get a reply, and when he tried again he was told “there are contract negotiations, and they’re private.”

Transparency is important and “it becomes increasingly difficult” to fight for school funding when “there’s a perception that things are not being operated on level and things are not being made available to the public,” Fairbairn said. “I’ve had discussions with Council members who’ve not been supportive of funding the schools and that’s been their arguments.”

Hosten later said he agrees transparency is important but legally, contract negotiations are confidential. “Any part of the contract is completely theoretical until it is actually agreed upon.”

As the school year ends, the Board of Education “goes through and reviews the superintendent’s performance on every single goal that we have set,” Hosten said. In a three hour executive session last week, Board members “had a very rigorous discussion, we asked tough questions.”

The final evaluation will be a public document, as will a lengthy year-end report, he said.

“I think that we have started a really great program here in Norwalk,” Hosten said. “It’s really been built around this theme of equity, it’s something that we’ve been talking about for a long time, now we’re actually walking the walk. Now we’re actually putting things in place to make sure that we have a rising tide that lifts all the ships here in Norwalk, all of our scholars.”

“This administration is executing big, bold and comprehensive programs including curriculum updating, maximizing staff retention, and engaging families in a very deliberate manner with the opening of the Family Center,” Board of Education member Sheri McCready Brown said.

“Reflecting back on this year, the number of union contracts that were executed successfully is an example of just the growing collaboration and partnerships happening eternally,” Board Secretary Godfrey Azima said, also mentioning “the increased support provided by the philanthropic community.”

“I feel we’ve been in the shadow of the pandemic for the last two years. And I truly want to see Dr. Estrella’s visions and strategies bear fruit and show the impact in measurable ways,” BoE member Mary Ellen Flaherty-Ludwig said.  “… There are some communications with key stakeholders like teachers and parents that could improve. But my vote is to applaud the good and recommend work on certain areas, I am enthusiastically in favor of the contract and the extra year.”

BoE member Erica DePalma said the emails the Board received showed “misunderstanding in the community about the levers that Dr. Estrella can pull behind the scenes.”

“She is at the will of state requirements in many instances, City Health Department requirements,” DePalma said. “There’s differences between what we can do from an operating budget perspective and a capital budget perspective. There are initiatives that are funded specifically because they are backed by nonprofits who are funding them. And with that comes very specific guidelines of how they can be implemented.”

And then there are the restrictions in contracts, she continued. “Until you sit in this chair, I assure you that you do not appreciate what goes on behind the scenes in Central Office. I surely did not.”

“There is so much behind the scenes,” BoE Vice Chairwoman Diana Carpio said. “It’s every day, it’s 24/7. It’s all the time, we hear what we are told, but at the same time, we don’t hear what is not said to us.” Estrella came in strong and upheld her vision, and “put together this great, unbelievable team that has been working so hard.”

Estrella navigated the unprecedented pandemic “beautifully,” BoE member Kara Nelson Baekey said. “That’s a large part of the reason why I ran out for the Board of Ed, because I saw her vision. I saw what she was doing. I saw positive change happening in this school system. .. I am also fully in support and I’m grateful that Dr. Estrella is wanting to stay here in our community for another year on contract.”