Wednesday, August 7, 2013

Bits and Pieces

Not much to report during the summer months, so here are some bits and pieces from 'As the School System Turns.' (Yes, I've resorted to a Soap Opera twist)

Sue Haynie was exceptionally quiet at the Board meeting Tuesday night. It might be the first time ever that she didn't demand a correction of the minutes. Oh right! It's election time in Norwalk! Maybe the Republicans think we all have no long term memory of what usually happens at Board meetings? Did they tell her to stay under the radar? In this election will she only have 'One BOE Life to Live?'

Who continues to rudely tweet at Board meetings? A Board member?

Question of the moment: Has our new superintendent met with principals yet? After all, they are 'All His Children.' Do you know your children yet, sir?


And so goes 'The days of our Norwalk Lives.'

Yes, I know this was corny! :)


5 comments:

  1. The meeting was the same song and dance. The crowed room contained Rilling and Mosby, but they both sat back and said nothing. Are they there to watch and learn to finally outline their position.
    Also interesting to note that Vinny M. has never outline his position on education. He remains totally silent, and silence is deafening when your running for mayor..

    My hope is the that someday in the near future all this boys and girls can learn to play in the sandbox together. Norwalk will rise!

    ReplyDelete
  2. The big show for me was the plan to pay $500-Large to Don Moccia for the use of the Board of Education's own money. It's seems like Don Rivera does not want a turf war at this time of peace, especially when he must be uncertain if Conciglierri Mike Lyons is his Tom Hegan or his Salvatore Tessio.
    We know that Rich Rudl was an earner for capo Elio Longo, but seems to be looking for greater riches on the Tom Hamilton crew. Now, in my day, such disloyalty would have been dealt with swiftly and decisively. But no, the "Commission" sat stone-faced, hoping for boxes of tater tots to fall off the Whitson's Truck rather than challenge Don Moccia's demand for juice. ONLY ONE ACTED LIKE A MAN- the rogue Collorossi, who challenged Rudl and who, we understand, is running with his own crew looking to take over the turf of the established Families. Madonna, we've got the start of a three-way battle that's going to the mattresses.

    ReplyDelete
  3. How about 'The Dumb and the Restless? ' It's not difficult to figure out who that is.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Parodies aside, can anyone suggest a way to clarify the insurance issues that the Board of Education discussed this week?

    ReplyDelete
  5. I think that the movie and t.v. parodies are a lot more entertaining to read than the Readers' Digest version of the insurance problem. But here goes . . .
    There were lots of reasons why the insurance account went into deficit between 2010 and 2012-- part of the problem was that the reserve account from which some of the expenses were paid was never disclosed to the BOE and the amounts (which in turn had the disastrous effect of not providing the BOE with the right amount to fund). To remedy that problem, an insurance reserve account was created so that there would be a cushion in the event of unplanned medical expenses. Another part of the problem was that in June of 2011, there were serious errors made in entering the amounts the BOE approved for line items and the actual dollar figures which were entered into the municipal budget program (in fact, the insurance allocation was off by more than one million dollars). To remedy that problem, the Board of Education authorized the replacement of the "budget coordinator" position with a chief financial officer (which meant that the person with day-to-day oversight has an extensive financial background). The second part of the problem is that there is no formal agreement as to how the funds provided to pay-off the insurance shortfall are to be "repaid" to the City. This caused a lot of consternation in June (of 2013) when the balance in the insurance reserve account was "swept" by the City to pay-down the "loan"-- this required Interim Supt. Daddona to then re-work the budget to account for the need to fully-fund the reserve account (as opposed to simply adding funds to the positive balance in that account).

    ReplyDelete