Opinion: Plenty of projects on the table for Norwalk Public Schools

Mike Lyons is chairman of the Norwalk Board of Education

In December I published a comprehensive list of achievements we’ve made in recent years in improving the Norwalk Public Schools. These include getting our finances and budgets under control, fully adopting the Common Core curricula for English and mathematics, establishing the P-Tech Academy with IBM at Norwalk High School, making security enhancements throughout our schools, moving forward with our K-5 Literacy Program, pushing wireless technology into all our schools, improving use of social media and other forms of parent communication, and many others.

In this article I’d like to highlight projects that are moving forward or just around the corner, many of them parts of the Strategic Plan adopted by the Board with former superintendent Manny Rivera. We have a long to-do list, and I’d like the public to know what we’re working on (though this is only a partial list).

1. Search for New Superintendent. We retained Proact Search (the same firm that brought us Dr. Rivera) to help us with the new search. We completed the community outreach process last week. The current plan is for the Board to establish the updated profile for candidates at our March 3 meeting, to carry out in-depth candidate reviews by late April, and to hopefully make a selection of a new superintendent by late May.
2. Budget. We submitted the smallest budget increase in many years this year, despite increasing staff and adding programs. The budget has been endorsed by Mayor Rilling and the Council and we expect a smooth approval by early May. Our budget includes both in-sourcing (special education) and out-sourcing (custodial) of various services, judiciously used where appropriate to cut costs and improve quality.
3. Facilities. We have commenced a $230,000 facilities utilization analysis to take a comprehensive look at use and condition of all school facilities (including special attention to Briggs High School). This should be completed in the fall and will be used to develop our capital budget requests for 2016-2017.
4. Security Enhancements. Over $2 million of security enhancements will be made during the next year, with several major contracts having been approved by the Council.
5. Evaluations. This will be the initial year for full implementation of our new teacher and administrator evaluation systems, which explicitly include student achievement as 45 percent of the evaluations.
6. Standards and School Governance. With support from GE, we are moving forward with a plan to establish School Governance Councils of principals, teachers and parents at all 19 schools, and to enhance those Councils with stronger structures and techniques for maximizing parental and community involvement in our schools. The Councils will be primary leaders in implementing new school Quality and Leadership Standards.
7. IB at Brien McMahon. An International Baccalaureate program is under investigation at Brien McMahon High School. This will provide another alternative for students looking for challenging opportunities (as with P-Tech at Norwalk High and the Center for Global Studies at Brien McMahon) to reach their maximum potential in our high schools.
8. High School Accreditations. Both Norwalk High and Brien McMahon are making great progress in working toward their re-accreditations by NEASC (New England Association of Schools & Colleges). This comprehensive process requires a top-to-bottom review of each school’s practices and development of long-term plans for success.
9. Parental Involvement. In addition to expanding our School Governance Councils, we will continue expanding use of the “Literacy 4 Parents 4 Children” program, initiated by the Norwalk Federation of Teachers, to bring parents more actively into the development of their children’s reading and writing in early grades.
10. Community Involvement. We will deepen our relationship with Norwalk ACTS, an umbrella organization that brings together almost 60 of Norwalk’s organizations that support children and their educational needs “from cradle to career.”

Our interim superintendent, James Connelly, has made it clear that he is not here just as a place-holder; he is working actively to maintain the momentum on these initiatives and on our Strategic Plan so the permanent superintendent who starts this summer can keep them moving forward without missing a beat.

We have a lot in the hopper, and we remain dedicated to taking our good school system and making it into a great one.