Updated, 3:38 p.m. Saturday, comment from Christina Fensore
NORWALK, Conn. – Norwalk Public Schools Director of Special Education Christina Fensore has submitted her resignation effective June 30.
Fensore, who was hired for the position a year ago after serving several months on an interim basis, is leaving to take a similar position closer to home, according to NPS communications director Brenda Wilcox Williams. Fensore will be the director of special services for the Region 14 School District (Woodbury-Bethlehem), Williams said in an email.
“I am so appreciative of my experience in Norwalk over the last few years,” Fensore said in a Saturday email. “I have had the opportunity to meet and work with so many wonderful students, families and staff members. Norwalk has so much potential to be a great district for our students. I hope that I was able to impact at least one student in a positive way during my time here. I will sincerely miss so many people that have certainly touched my life and helped me grow as a professional.”
Board of Education Chairman Mike Lyons said he did not know that Fensore was planning to leave.
“I haven’t talked to her about her reasons for leaving,” he said in an email. “She was very popular with SPED parents, who felt that she had changed the attitude of the department to be much more parent and student friendly.”
The Special Education (SPED) budget has been under the microscope lately as Norwalk experienced unexpected costs this year. Plans were made under former Superintendent Manny Rivera to bring more SPED services in house instead of continuing to pay for costly outsourcing.
Norwalk SPEDPartners Executive Committee Member Jeff Spahr, who also is Norwalk’s deputy corporation counsel, heaped praise on Fensore Friday afternoon.
“I think that Christina ‘Chrissy’ Fensore did a fantastic job here,” he wrote. “She always kept the children’s interest first – but, at the same time, keeping another eye on the total picture.
“She impressed me and many other parents when she first got here by attending a number of parents’ meetings and putting herself out there on the front line,” he continued. “She also had a vision as to how she would like to restructure the Special Ed department – including bringing many of the services in house.
“The difficulties faced by parents and administrators alike have all been documented in various reports reviewing the Special Ed department,” Spahr said. “She is going to be greatly missed. Hopefully, she will have the chance to sit down with her successor and the new Superintendent and pass on to them her impressions and share her lessons learned.”
Fensore was Norwalk’s special education administrator for Pre-K through grade 5 from August 2012 until stepping up in 2014. According to her resume, Fensore, of Monroe, earned her BS in special education in 1995 at Southern Connecticut State University, and was awarded her master’s degree in special ed in 2005 from the same institution. In 2010, she earned her certification in educational leadership, also from SCSU.
Fensore spent three years as a special education teacher at Bradley Elementary in Derby before moving on to Fawn Hollow Elementary in Monroe from 1999 to 2004, teaching grades 3 and 4. From 2004 to 2012, she served in the Regional School District 17, where she was promoted to the role of pupil personnel instructional specialist after several years as a special education teacher at Killingworth Elementary School. That was followed by a move to Killingworth schools, where she taught special education at the K-2 level for 2½ years before taking over as pupil service instructional specialist for Preschool through grade 12 from 2007 to 2012.
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