Link to State Department of Education by clicking above...


NEW SUPERINTENDENT SELECTED - Jerome Belair new Superintendent (at left, with Dr. Pierson, 2007 "About Town" and at right, with Dr. Keating - watch this interview here)! 

EDUCATION: 


W.I.S. opened on time this Fall ('05); W.H.S. "Ribbon Cutting" May 13, 2006!  Video-tour streaming on this website now!
WestonArts at work on supporting Auditorium renovations;
compare to any other district in U.S.A.  (found while researching Whidbey Island, Washington); 
comparison of South Whidbey School District and Weston.  The northern part of Whidbey Island (Coupeville is there--Island County's capital) includes the Naval Air Station--how about their approach to inflation effect on school construction budget?
Everett WA has an interesting view...
Check out C.E.A. "calculator" website.
New Jersey moves on school funding...


Stimulus Funds Are Wildcard In Local Budgets 
DAY
By Karin Crompton 
Published on 5/25/2009

As legislators wrangle and bicker in Hartford over state budget details, local towns and school districts are embarking upon their annual ritual of drafting proposed municipal budgets without knowing exactly how much state funding they will receive.  This year's guessing game is more complex than in most years, however, as municipalities also factor in federal economic stimulus funds and try to sift through the regulations attached to the federal funds headed their way.

A large chunk of stimulus money that will directly influence local budgets comes in the form of education funds. And while the federal government released the money and sent out instructions for its use on April 1, local and state officials are still maneuvering through the details.

”I'm right in the middle of it right now,” Groton superintendent Paul Kadri said during a phone interview on Friday. “It's so complicated I don't even know where to begin.”

And that comes from someone who said he felt he had a good grasp of the subject.

”I feel we're on top of it,” Kadri said, “but make no bones about it, my desk is a mess.”

The stimulus funds for education are split into three categories: Title I (typically for low-income districts); IDEA (special education); and “fiscal stabilization” funds.

The first two pots of money are being doled out according to existing formulas districts are already familiar with. With a few exceptions about how the money can be used - qualifying districts can use up to half of their special education funds for other purposes, for example - these two categories are largely seen as the most straightforward of the stimulus funds.  Then there is the stabilization money.

A one-time appropriation of $48.6 billion nationally, the stabilization funding, as the name indicates, is meant to “minimize and avoid reductions in education and other essential services,” according to the federal education department's Web site.  Each state has to apply for its share, demonstrating in its application to the federal government that it will use the funds according to the guidelines laid out.

Twenty-two states and Puerto Rico have already applied for the stabilization funds, according to the federal education department's Web site, with 13 already having received money.  But Connecticut has not yet applied for its $541 million in stabilization funds.

Tom Murphy, a spokesman for the state Department of Education, said the department and the governor's budget office each has a role in putting together the application. Murphy said Connecticut ran into some minor technical issues regarding how the state funds its education grant program and how that jibes with federal guidelines for the stimulus funds.  The spokesman in Gov. M. Jodi Rell's office who fields stimulus questions was off on Friday and unavailable to explain Connecticut's delay in applying.

Meanwhile, local officials grapple with the unknowns in how the funds can be used, some saying they're awaiting guidance from the state, some pointing to the federal government.

”We have no idea yet what strings are going to be attached to another 2, 3, 4 million, whatever it's going to be, that the city's going to get from ARRA (the stimulus package) and whether that is supplantable or supplementable or what at this point in time,” said Donald Goodrich, New London's interim director of finance.

Goodrich was referring to a key component of the stabilization funds: the distinction between the terms “supplement” and “supplant.” Federal guidelines indicate that the stabilization funds can only be used to supplement a school district's budget, not be used in place of, or supplant, other funds.

In other words, a municipality - and, apparently, the state - is not supposed to “take” from education budgets and use stabilization funds to fill in the gap.  That point is still fuzzy to many, however. Goodrich suggested the federal government re-examine the point “because everyone is really getting hammered.”

”I think there's a lot of public misperception in how you can use the money,” said Christine Carver, New London's assistant superintendent of schools. “People think you can offset the local budget through the stimulus money and you absolutely can't.”

However, Goodrich asked, what if the school district doesn't have a perfect match for the funds?

”What if you cannot expend that (money) wisely; isn't it better to then supplant and not just supplement to be spending money?” he asked. “Or can we use it to, as we saw with the Board of Education adopting its budget, (avoid) reductions in staff? Can we use it to bring some of the staff back? Is that supplanting local dollars or supplementing it?”

It appears the state is considering the same issues. Connecticut is currently considering cutting its state education grant money, known as ECS funding, by 14 percent, then filling in the gap with stimulus funds. 
Murphy, the Department of Education spokesman, said one of the state's technical issues was whether its pledge to flat-fund the state education grant money would affect Connecticut's eligibility for the stimulus funds.  According to Murphy, the U.S. Department of Education “keeps saying in their guidance that dollars would be used to restore” funding.

But the prospect of a 14 percent cut to a crucial piece of state funding has many towns worried, local officials said.

A 14 percent cut in ECS funding means $4.5 million to Norwich, said Joseph Ruffo, the city comptroller. Ruffo said officials who attended a meeting of the Connecticut Council of Municipalities last week were concerned that school districts could find themselves 14 percent over budget already, and some went so far as to say the cut could bankrupt their communities.

Ruffo was more measured, saying Norwich hasn't yet passed a budget and still has a couple of weeks to receive clarification. Still, even if the state intends to fill the gap with stimulus funds, it will pose complications, he said.

”What we hear is (the state is) finding more information about how this process will go forward, but this $4.5 million will be treated separately, and there will be all sorts of requirements and stipulations on how that money will be spent,” he said.  
Conn. considers 'green cleaning' in schools 
DAY
Posted on May 5, 12:52 PM EDT

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) -- A coalition of lawmakers and health advocacy groups are asking Connecticut's General Assembly to require all public schools to use environmentally friendly cleaning products.

They gathered Tuesday to support a proposal that would bar school districts from using products that contain various toxic substances and are not certified as environmentally friendly.

Connecticut already requires crews to use certified green cleaning products in all state-owned buildings, including its universities and vocational-technical schools.

The legislation expanding the rules to public school buildings awaits House action, and would give districts two years to start meeting the new standards.
Op-Ed Columnist: ‘No Picnic for Me Either’
NYTIMES
By DAVID BROOKS
March 13, 2009

In his education speech this week, Barack Obama retold a by-now familiar story. When he was a boy, his mother would wake him up at 4:30 to tutor him for a few hours before he went off to school. When young Barry complained about getting up so early, his mother responded: “This is no picnic for me either, Buster.”

That experience was the perfect preparation for reforming American education because it underlines the two traits necessary for academic success: relationships and rigor. The young Obama had a loving relationship with an adult passionate about his future. He also had at least one teacher, his mom, disinclined to put up with any crap.

The reform vision Obama sketched out in his speech flows from that experience. The Obama approach would make it more likely that young Americans grow up in relationships with teaching adults. It would expand nurse visits to disorganized homes. It would improve early education. It would extend the school year. Most important, it would increase merit pay for good teachers (the ones who develop emotional bonds with students) and dismiss bad teachers (the ones who treat students like cattle to be processed).

We’ve spent years working on ways to restructure schools, but what matters most is the relationship between one student and one teacher. You ask a kid who has graduated from high school to list the teachers who mattered in his life, and he will reel off names. You ask a kid who dropped out, and he will not even understand the question. Relationships like that are beyond his experience.

In his speech, Obama actually put more emphasis on the other side of the equation: rigor. In this context, that means testing and accountability.

Thanks in part to No Child Left Behind, we’re a lot better at measuring each student’s progress. Today, tests can tell you which students are on track and which aren’t. They can tell you which teachers are bringing their students’ achievement up by two grades in a single year and which are bringing their students’ levels up by only half a grade. They can tell you which education schools produce good teachers and which do not.
New York City Schools Chancellor Joel Klein has data showing that progress on tests between the third and eighth grades powerfully predicts high school graduation rates years later — a clear demonstration of the importance of these assessments.

The problem is that as our ability to get data has improved, the education establishment’s ability to evade the consequences of data has improved, too. Most districts don’t use data to reward good teachers. States have watered down their proficiency standards so parents think their own schools are much better than they are.

As Education Secretary Arne Duncan told me, “We’ve seen a race to the bottom. States are lying to children. They are lying to parents. They’re ignoring failure, and that’s unacceptable. We have to be fierce.”

Obama’s goal is to make sure results have consequences. He praises data sets that “tell us which students had which teachers so we can assess what’s working and what’s not.” He also aims to reward states that use data to make decisions. He will build on a Bush program that gives states money for merit pay so long as they measure teachers based on real results. He will reward states that expand charter schools, which are drivers of innovation, so long as they use data to figure out which charters are working.

The administration also will give money to states like Massachusetts that have rigorous proficiency standards. The goal is to replace the race to the bottom with a race to the top, as states are compelled to raise their standards if they hope to get federal money.

In short, Obama hopes to change incentives so districts do the effective and hard things instead of the easy and mediocre things. The question is whether he has the courage to follow through. Many doubt he does. They point to the way the president has already caved in on the D.C. vouchers case.

Democrats in Congress just killed an experiment that gives 1,700 poor Washington kids school vouchers. They even refused to grandfather in the kids already in the program, so those children will be ripped away from their mentors and friends. The idea was to cause maximum suffering, and 58 Senators voted for it.

Obama has, in fact, been shamefully quiet about this. But in the next weeks he’ll at least try to protect the kids now in the program. And more broadly, there’s reason for hope. Education is close to his heart. He has broken with liberal orthodoxy on school reform more than any other policy. He’s naturally inclined to be data driven. There’s reason to think that this week’s impressive speech will be followed by real and potentially historic action.
Ariz. District Cuts School Week to Save Cash
NYTIMES
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 2:31 p.m. ET
February 14, 2009

SIERRA VISTA, Ariz. (AP) -- A school district has decided to shrink the school week from five days to four in an effort to save cash because of the deepening recession and falling enrollment.

The Bisbee Unified School District board voted Thursday to close schools every Friday for the next two school years. District Superintendent Gail Covington had recommended the shortened school week as a way to save $500,000 each year in the small southeastern Arizona town.

School days would be lengthened by an hour to make up the lost instructional time.

Bisbee Unified had just under 1,000 students during the 2007-2008 school year at four schools: an elementary, middle, junior high and high school. The superintendent has proposed closing the middle school and moving some grades.

Covington said the Friday closures are a more desirable alternative to laying off 13 teachers, but some staff -- including principals, cafeteria and custodial workers -- would lose their jobs.

She acknowledged that working families would have a hard time finding child care on Fridays.

Rebecca Barten, mother of a kindergartener in the district, said parents who attended the board meeting weren't allowed to address the panel before the vote. ''I wanted to hear about all the possible scenarios, not just what was said,'' she said.

Other school districts have proposed cutting school weeks to save on high fuel costs.
Stamford here, Montville here (in another part of CT)
Starr requests smaller school budget hike
Stamford ADVOCATE
By Wynne Parry, STAFF WRITER
Posted: 02/10/2009 11:08:14 PM EST

STAMFORD -- Superintendent Joshua Starr said Tuesday night he hopes to reduce his budget request hike from 4.6 percent to 3.8 percent, a savings of $1.7 million.

He also proposed using $160,000 from the retirement of an assistant superintendent to restore some of the cuts he proposed for high school athletics, choral and debate programs.

Starr presented the changes to the Board of Education, which is scheduled to vote on the budget Thursday.

"This is where I think it becomes really clear to folks the choices we have to make in this economy," Starr said. "I still frankly don't know if the Board of Ed will support (3.8 percent) or if the other board will support it."

Assistant Superintendent Eileen Swerdlick, who heads the Office of Family and Community Engagement, announced her retirement last week. Meanwhile, the board is considering a proposal to cut new supplies for sports, freshman sports and one semester of teacher stipends for choral and debate programs at Westhill and Stamford high schools.

Debaters from both schools turned out to speak with board members before the meeting and hand out letters supporting their programs.

Starr said principals and the athletic directors would decide where to distribute the reduced cut.

Board members reacted warily to leaving Swerdlick's position unfilled because the Office of Family and Community Engagement tries to get parents involved in their children's schooling. A literacy workshop sponsored by the office attracted nearly 10 times as many parents in January as in previous years.

Board member Jackie Heftman suggested replacing that with a lower-level position. But board member Robert King worried about making such a change.

"I don't want to lose that visibility because of the changes we are trying to do in the budget," he said.

The reduction in Starr's budget request was made possible by several factors.

The city reduced the amount it charges the Board of Education for services shared between the city and the schools by $1.5 million.

Locking in the cost of fuel for buses saved $50,000, and the projected spending for oil heat dropped by $100,000.

Starr's proposal takes into account a reduction in the amount the board can anticipate paying for certain post-employment benefits. And Starr said he and other high-level central office administrators will give up $21,000 in bonuses next year.

Board President Susan Nabel said the new increase of 3.8 percent is below what is needed to maintain the schools.

"I am not willing to support any other cuts below this level," she said.

Weston girls basketball reaches states
Posted on 02/14/2009
Staff reports

WESTON -- Brittany Swanson tied a season high with 27 points, including three 3-pointers, to lead the Weston High girls basketball team to a 57-47 victory over New Milford on Senior Night Friday to clinch a state tournament berth.

The Trojans raised their record 8-10 overall, 4-7 SWC and qualified for the state playoffs for the first time since the 2004-2005 season.

"We're very happy," Weston first-year coach Pat Cole said. "It's something we wanted and to do it on Senior Night for Marissa Diaz was great. The kids worked so hard and adjusted to a new system and went through the highs and lows. We're looking forward to the second season."

Weston had the lead throughout and held off the Green Wave in the second half. Hannah Hutchins aided the cause with 14 points and buried two 3-pointers.
See what happens when you have a track to practice on and a new gym?
Weston boys, girls sweep to SWC crowns
Norwalk HOUR
Posted on 02/08/2009

The Weston track and field teams swept both titles at the South-West Conference Championships Saturday night at the New Haven Athletic Center.

The girls scored 144.5 points to blow the field away and claim their fourth consecutive conference championship. Masuk was a distant second with 86 points.

Weston's boys had a closer battle but hung on to win their fifth title in six years with 93 points, five points better than Masuk.

The Trojans were edged by a point for the top spot a year ago.

Steven Piscatelli (first in the 1,000 meters) and Danny Eldon (first in the shot put) led the boys charge.

For the girls, pole vaulters Emily Ando and Julie Sitver put on a two-person tutorial in taking the top two spots. Sitver tied the state record of 11 feet, 6 inches, and Ando followed by clearing that same height a few minutes later.

A little while after that Ando created new girls' state standard by clearing 12 feet to win the event.

Weston also ran 1-2 in the 600 meters, with Rebecca Fine first and Meg Sanborn second. In the 1,000 meters Emma Tobin finished first, followed by Sarah Griffin.

Ando also took first in the hight jump at 4-10, Kathryn Bacher was best in the long jump at 15-10, and the Trojans won the sprint-medley, 4x400 and 4x200 relays.

Cathy Roberts ran second in the 55-meter dash, while Callie Arlo was runner-up in the 300.

"Obviously it was an outstanding job by everyone," head coach Matt Medve said.
Next Big Thing To Go Online Could Be College Education 
DAY
By Tamar Lewin , New York Times News Service 
Published on 1/26/2009

An Israeli entrepreneur with decades of experience in international education plans to start the first global, tuition-free Internet university, a nonprofit venture he has named the University of the People.
”The idea is to take social networking and apply it to academia,” said the entrepreneur, Shai Reshef, founder of several Internet-based educational businesses.

”The open-source courseware is there, from universities that have put their courses online, available to the public, free,” Reshef said. “We know that online peer-to-peer teaching works. Putting it all together, we can make a free university for students all over the world, anyone who speaks English and has an Internet connection.”

About 4 million students in the United States took at least one online course in 2007, according to a survey by the Sloan Consortium, a nonprofit group devoted to integrating online learning into mainstream higher education.

Online learning is growing in many different contexts. Through the Open Courseware Consortium, started in 2001 by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, universities around the world have posted materials for thousands of courses - as varied as Lambing and Sheep Management at Utah State and Relativistic Quantum Field Theory at MIT - all free to the public. Many universities now post their lectures on iTunes.

For-profit universities like the University of Phoenix and Kaplan University have extensive online offerings. And increasingly, both public and private universities offer at least some classes online.

Outside the United States, too, online learning is booming. Open University in Britain, for example, enrolls about 160,000 undergraduates in distance-learning courses.

The University of the People, like other Internet-based universities, would have online study communities, weekly discussion topics, homework assignments and exams. But in lieu of tuition, students would pay only nominal fees for enrollment ($15 to $50) and exams ($10 to $100), with students from poorer countries paying the lower fees and those from richer countries paying the higher ones.

Experts in online education say the idea raises many questions.

”We've chatted about doing something like this over the last decade but decided the time wasn't yet right,” said John Bourne, executive director of the Sloan Consortium. “It's true that the open courseware movement is pretty robust, so there are a lot of high-quality course materials out there, but there's no human backup behind them. I'd be interested to know how you'd find and train faculty and ensure quality without tuition money.”

Other educators question the logistics of such a plan.

”The more you get people around the world talking to each other, great, and the more they talk about what they're learning, just wonderful,” said Philip G. Altbach, director of the Center for International Higher Education at Boston College. “But I'm not at all sure, when you start attaching that to credits and degrees and courses, that it translates so well.

”How will they test students? How much will the professors do? How well does the American or British curriculum serve the needs of people in Mali? How do they handle students whose English is not at college level?”

Reshef said his new university would use active and retired professors - some paid, some volunteers - along with librarians, master-level students and professionals to develop and evaluate curriculums and oversee assessments.

He plans to start small, limiting enrollment at 300 students when the university goes online in the fall and offering only bachelor's degrees in business administration and computer science. Reshef said the university would apply for accreditation as soon as possible.

Reshef hopes to build enrollment to 10,000 over five years, the level at which he said the enterprise should be self-sustaining. Startup costs would be about $5 million, Reshef said, of which he plans to provide $1 million.

Reshef is now chairman of Cramster.com, an online study community offering homework help to college students.

”Cramster has thousands of students helping other students,” said Reshef, who lives in Pasadena, Calif., where both Cramster and the new university are based. 

Chicago school chief Arne Duncan got the nod!

Who Will He Choose?
NYTIMES OP-ED
By DAVID BROOKS
December 5, 2008

As in many other areas, the biggest education debates are happening within the Democratic Party. On the one hand, there are the reformers like Joel Klein and Michelle Rhee, who support merit pay for good teachers, charter schools and tough accountability standards. On the other hand, there are the teachers’ unions and the members of the Ed School establishment, who emphasize greater funding, smaller class sizes and superficial reforms.

During the presidential race, Barack Obama straddled the two camps. One campaign adviser, John Schnur, represented the reform view in the internal discussions. Another, Linda Darling-Hammond, was more likely to represent the establishment view. Their disagreements were collegial (this is Obamaland after all), but substantive.

In public, Obama shifted nimbly from camp to camp while education experts studied his intonations with the intensity of Kremlinologists. Sometimes, he flirted with the union positions. At other times, he practiced dog-whistle politics, sending out reassuring signals that only the reformers could hear.

Each camp was secretly convinced that at the end of the day, Obama would come down on their side. The reformers were cheered when Obama praised a Denver performance pay initiative. The unions could take succor from the fact that though Obama would occasionally talk about merit pay, none of his actual proposals contradicted their positions.

Obama never had to pick a side. That is, until now. There is only one education secretary, and if you hang around these circles, the air is thick with speculation, anticipation, anxiety, hope and misinformation. Every day, new rumors are circulated and new front-runners declared. It’s kind of like being in a Trollope novel as Lord So-and-So figures out to whom he’s going to propose.

You can measure the anxiety in the reformist camp by the level of nervous phone chatter each morning. Weeks ago, Obama announced that Darling-Hammond would lead his transition team and reformist cellphones around the country lit up. Darling-Hammond, a professor at Stanford, is a sharp critic of Teach for America and promotes weaker reforms.

Anxieties cooled, but then one morning a few weeks ago, I got a flurry of phone calls from reform leaders nervous that Obama was about to side against them. I interviewed people in the president-elect’s inner circle and was reassured that the reformers had nothing to worry about. Obama had not gone native.

Obama’s aides point to his long record on merit pay, his sympathy for charter schools and his tendency to highlight his commitment to serious education reform.

But the union lobbying efforts are relentless and in the past week prospects for a reforming education secretary are thought to have dimmed. The candidates before Obama apparently include: Joel Klein, the highly successful New York chancellor who has, nonetheless, been blackballed by the unions; Arne Duncan, the reforming Chicago head who is less controversial; Darling-Hammond herself; and some former governor to be named later, with Darling-Hammond as the deputy secretary.

In some sense, the final option would be the biggest setback for reform. Education is one of those areas where implementation and the details are more important than grand pronouncements. If the deputies and assistants in the secretary’s office are not true reformers, nothing will get done.

The stakes are huge. For the first time in decades, there is real momentum for reform. It’s not only Rhee and Klein — the celebrities — but also superintendents in cities across America who are getting better teachers into the classrooms and producing measurable results. There is an unprecedented political coalition building, among liberals as well as conservatives, for radical reform.

No Child Left Behind is about to be reauthorized. Everyone has reservations about that law, but it is the glaring spotlight that reveals and pierces the complacency at mediocre schools. If accountability standards are watered down, as the establishment wants, then real reform will fade.

This will be a tough call for Obama, because it will mean offending people, but he can either galvanize the cause of reform or demoralize it. It’ll be one of the biggest choices of his presidency.

Many of the reformist hopes now hang on Obama’s friend, Arne Duncan. In Chicago, he’s a successful reformer who has produced impressive results in a huge and historically troubled system. He has the political skills necessary to build a coalition on behalf of No Child Left Behind reauthorization. Because he is close to both Obamas, he will ensure that education doesn’t fall, as it usually does, into the ranks of the second-tier issues.

If Obama picks a reformer like Duncan, Klein or one of the others, he will be picking a fight with the status quo. But there’s never been a better time to have that fight than right now.
Sound familiar? 
State looks for $1.7M from city
By Elizabeth Benton, New Haven Register Staff
Friday, November 21, 2008 5:55 AM EST

NEW HAVEN — Thirteen years after High School in the Community opened on Water Street, the state is now seeking $1.7 million from the city, primarily due to a disagreement over the purchase price of the property.

New Haven paid $2.2 million for the property, which they then renovated into an inter-district magnet school. While the state initially reimbursed the city for that expense, in a 2007 audit of the $6 million project, the state determined the property to be worth only $700,000, according to School Construction Coordinator Susan Weisselberg.

The remaining expense was due to charges the state deemed to be not reimbursable.

Weisselberg and Chief Operating Officer Will Clark appeared before the Board of Aldermen’s Finance Committee Wednesday night seeking to include the unexpected $1.7 million in bonds the city plans to issue in March.

The committee approved the request, which will now appear before the full board.

According to Weisselberg, the state has 20 years to audit a project after its completion.

“It makes it really hard,” she said. “The project was done differently than the way we do things now. People who worked on it are not people who are here now. We were able to reconstruct a fair amount of it. Ultimately what it came to was the auditors viewing the acquisition price one way, we viewed it another way,” she said.

State education spokesman Tom Murphy said such reimbursement request are “quite normal and quite prevalent.”

“Every school construction project is audited at close out,” he said. “This is a common outcome in school construction. When you’re talking about a 40, 60 or $100 million project, $1.5 million or even $5 million is a real possibility.”

While the city and state differ over expenses for the older project, the city also is considering $25 million worth of new upgrades to the building, including window replacements, fa硤e improvements, energy efficiency upgrades and expansion for a full-size gym and a multipurpose space. Of that expense, all but $1.5 million would be paid for by the state. The city plans to submit that project to the state in 2009, dependent on economic conditions.
No Towns Willing To Take New London Students; City required to ask under mandate of No Child Left Behind 
DAY
By Jenna Cho    
Published on 10/6/2008 

New London - To comply with the federal No Child Left Behind Act, New London asked 18 school systems in the region last month whether they would transport and educate New London students - for free.

So far, there are no takers.

New London was required to contact neighboring school districts because its Harbor Elementary School this year became the fourth and last elementary school in the district not to make adequate yearly progress for two or more consecutive years under the law. That put Harbor on the list of schools that are in need of improvement.  Under NCLB, school districts with an in-need school must offer parents of that school the option to transfer to a different school within the district. But all the elementary schools in New London are in need of improvement, which means New London has no elementary school alternatives to so-called failing schools.

So on Sept. 2, New London Assistant Superintendent Christine Carver sent letters to school superintendents asking whether any of them would be willing to educate some of New London's 1,600 elementary students if a parent were to exercise his or her right to public school choice under NCLB. New London Superintendent Christopher Clouet said no parent has formally requested the school choice option this year.

”It doesn't say much about the quality of the teaching,” said Carver of sending the letters. “It really is just about the requirement of No Child Left Behind.”

Accepting New London's request would mean absorbing the cost of educating and transporting the New London children. Griswold, Ledyard, Lyme-Old Lyme, Montville, North Stonington, Norwich, Preston, Voluntown and Waterford have all declined to enter into what Carver, in her letter, called the “Inter-district School Choice Cooperative Agreement.”

Eight other districts have not replied, and Colchester is awaiting a board of education discussion on the matter, according to Carver.  Most urban districts in the state are caught in the same predicament as New London, said Susan Kennedy, chief of the state Department of Education's Bureau of School and District Improvement.

”It is very difficult to get surrounding districts to participate in taking kids,” Kennedy said. “Part of it is because there's no transportation that's guaranteed there. Many of these districts have no seats available. The timing is bad in terms of the economy; everybody's struggling. And so to take kids that are not naturally theirs presents some problems.”

Running out of schools able to serve as alternatives to failing schools is a symptom of the fact that adequate yearly progress is a moving target that keeps getting harder and harder to hit, said Kennedy. By 2013-14, 100 percent of students are expected to meet federal proficiency levels in reading and math standardized tests, which means most schools by then will be failing to make the yearly progress standard.

”These schools are improving,” said Kennedy. “The problem, this year, is that the threshold moved up.”

Kennedy said New London's request to other districts single-handedly satisfies the NCLB requirement that school districts offer public school choice, whether or not other districts agree to take on New London's students. When all its schools are failing, a district can offer supplemental services, such as tutoring to help struggling students but isn't obligated to, said Kennedy.  Michael Petrilli, vice president for national programs and policy at the education think tank Thomas B. Fordham Institute, called NCLB's provision for public school choice “basically toothless.”

Only about 120,000 students nationwide exercised their right to public school choice in 2006-07, according to the U.S. Department of Education.

”There's basically no way to force school districts to provide school choice to parents if they don't want to,” Petrilli said, “and in this case, if they don't have an ability to do so.”

Too expensive

For at least a couple of districts, cost was the main deciding factor in declining New London's request. North Stonington's Board of Education decided it could not foot the $13,747 annual cost of educating out-of-district students, said the district's superintendent, Natalie Pukas.  Out-of-district tuition in Ledyard is $9,200 a year for elementary students, and one school bus costs about $75,000 a year, said Ledyard Superintendent Michael Graner.

”Given the nature of our budget this year and certainly for next year,” said Graner, “it would've been a really substantial financial burden for our school district.”

Graner acknowledged the difficulty New London faces in improving student performance when the standards keep rising. He said New London offers strong bilingual programs and has been adept at educating English language learners.

”I have every confidence that New London Public Schools is providing the programs to meet the needs of the children,” Graner said.  
Stage is set for new Weston High School auditorium       
Weston FORUM
Written by Kimberly Donnelly    
Friday, August 08, 2008

The lights are dark and the stage is bare at the Weston High School auditorium. That’s normal for this time of year; what’s not normal is the fact that there are also no seats, no curtain, no floor tiles or carpet, no walls in some places, and lots and lots of dust.

“The demolition part is done,” said Tom Landry, town administrator. “Now they’re working on putting it back together.”

Renovation of the high school auditorium is the final piece in the town’s $80-million school and athletic facilities project that voters approved in 2001 and that broke ground in 2003. That project included new playing fields at Morehouse Farm Park and Bisceglie-Scribner Park, the new intermediate school, and renovation and additions at the high school.

Refurbishing the high school auditorium was not originally a part of the building project. However, when bids for a planned new auditorium at Weston Middle School came in millions of dollars more than expected, the focus shifted to making improvements to the existing high school performance space instead.

Work on the auditorium includes adding air conditioning, replacing antiquated rigging, lighting work, and floor replacement.

WestonArts, a nonprofit group, has raised about $300,000 in private funds to help supplement the costs of the auditorium project, specifically to replace the seats.

Mr. Landry said figuring out the cost of the project as a whole is tricky because so many different contracts are involved. Carlson Construction is the main contractor; Innovative Engineering Services of North Haven is the main design engineer; William Warfel is the lighting designer; Ducharme is responsible for the seating; two different fabric companies, J.B. Martin and Designtex, are involved; and Theatre Projects Consultancy is another designer.

In addition to the money raised by WestonArts, the money to pay for the project — which Mr. Landry ultimately pins down at about $2.1 million — comes from several different sources. Money that was originally bonded to build the middle school auditorium was “transferred” to pay for the high school roof replacement and auditorium renovation.

Mr. Landry said after the roof was completed, about $1.2 million was left to apply toward the auditorium. At a special town meeting June 11 this year, voters approved an additional $586,585 appropriation from the general fund, and there was money left in a capital account for the roof replacement that will be applied toward the auditorium.

The auditorium will not be completed by the time school opens at the end of this month. The building committee is pushing to have it ready by mid-October, in time for the high school’s Company to stage its fall performance.

No surprises here...Weston rank in the state -  #9 (math),#2 (science),#5 (reading),#7 (writing).
Sophomores Show Gains In CAPT Scores
By ARIELLE LEVIN BECKER | Courant Staff Writer
10:30 AM EDT, July 15, 2008

Connecticut high school sophomores showed gains in math, science and writing on the state's annual achievement test, while performance in reading was flat, according to figures released this morning.

Statewide, just over half of high school sophomores reached state goals in math on the Connecticut Academic Performance Test this year, a 4.9 percentage-point increase from sophomores in 2007.

Writing performance was up 4.8 percentage points, with 57.8 percent of 10th graders reaching state goals.

In science, 46.5 percent of students reached state goals, a 2 percentage-point increase, while 45.5 percent of students achieved goals in reading, the same as 2007.

State Education Commissioner Mark K. McQuillan described the scores as promising, but noted that many challenges persist, including wide achievement gaps between minority students and their white peers.

"We still have far to go, but this is a step forward for our state," McQuillan said in a written statement.

Overall, 35 school districts and the Connecticut Technical High School system showed performance gains on all four subjects. Seven districts recorded drops in performance for all four subjects.

The numbers varied widely by district.

In New Canaan, which topped the state in math and science performance, more than 90 percent of students reached state goals in math and writing, and more than 80 percent achieved goal in science and reading. In Hartford, which posted the state's lowest reading performance, 11 percent of students reached state reading goals.

Still, Hartford, like several other poor and traditionally low-performing districts, showed some gains. While the percent of students reaching goals in reading was down in the capital city, math, science, and writing achievement was up, though the district still ranked among the bottom 10 districts statewide in reaching goal in each category.

White, black and Hispanic students all showed gains in math, science and writing, but wide gaps persist. While 63.1 percent of white students achieved goal on the math exam, for example, only 14.6 percent of black students and 18.2 percent of Hispanic students did.

The scores come amid an increased focus on high schools by state education officials, who have proposed an ambitious plan to reshape secondary school education. The proposal, a response to concerns that students are increasingly graduating unprepared for college or the workforce, calls for added credit and curriculum requirements, including an independent project for seniors, end-of-course exams that students would have to pass to graduate, and an increased emphasis on students' connections with teachers and other school staff.
Fewer students in years to come?  Study projects 17% enrollment drop in Conn. schools 
DAY
By Jenna Cho    
Published on 7/5/2008 

In the world of population projections, there are always peaks and valleys that mark a cycle of population growth and decline.

But according to an analysis by the University of Connecticut's Connecticut State Data Center, the state is starting to see a “long-term decline in the school-age population.” The data center serves as a liaison to the U.S. Census Bureau. The state uses the data to create public policy and to decide where to spend money.

The study summary, released last month, projects a 17-percent decline between 2004-05 and 2020-21 in the total number of public-school students in grades 1 to 12 in the state. Public school enrollment in those grades peaked at 523,100 in 2004-05 and is expected to drop to about 432,300 in 2020-21, according to the study.

”Low fertility rates are the root cause of this decline,” the study release reads. “The boomer generation, now approaching retirement, had fewer children than their parents. … Each progressive generation is failing to replace itself.”

The state Department of Education's own projections, through the 2016-17 school year, also reflect a decline in student enrollment in preschool through 12th grade.

”The UConn study suggests that we may not recover from this decline, that the students that are graduating from the high schools now … will move out of state and not return,” said department spokesman Thomas Murphy. “And in some ways, they may be right. We've seen in recent years larger and larger percentages of high school graduates go to college outside of Connecticut and then fail to return.”

But Murphy also cautioned that trends over the past 60 years have shown recoveries from such declines. The state experienced a low of about 466,000 in public-school enrollment in 1988 but in 2006-07 saw the numbers climb back up to about 574,000, according to department records.

The 2008 graduating class was, at about 38,400, the largest the state has seen in the past 10 years, Murphy said. The decline in enrollment is expected starting this year.

”We should be mindful of the projections of the study and consider it a strong possibility, but there's nothing certain because these are projections,” Murphy said.

Orlando Rodriguez, the data center's manager and demographer, said the latest study was actually a re-emphasis of a study released in May 2007 showing enrollment projections in grades 1 to 12 between the years 2000 and 2030.

”In a sense, it's repackaged information,” Rodriguez said. “But the reason we brought it out is because we've been waiting for the numbers to start dropping.”

The data center saw that drop, of about 3,886 students, between 2006-07 and 2007-08. Rodriguez cited several factors as contributing to the decline, including lower birth rates, more people leaving Connecticut than staying and a stagnant job market.

The study projects enrollment to increase again somewhat after 2020, with an estimated 458,900 students in grades 1 to 12 in the year 2030.

The data center and state education department both looked at birth rates and factors such as migration and job opportunities. But Rodriguez said the data center and state numbers differ because the two used different methods of projection. The data center also tracked enrollment trends for a longer period, starting in 1990, he said.

Rodriguez said school districts should be cautious to spend money on construction projects when there may not be a need for larger school facilities in the future. A declining public-school population will have other social repercussions, he said.

”We're projecting that our elderly population is going to increase dramatically,” Rodriguez said. “So in terms of social services, we're going to have fewer children but more elderly.”

New London schools Superintendent Christopher Clouet said the data center's projections did not affect the school district's plan to convert two of its elementary schools into magnet schools because the magnet schools would draw a percentage of its students from outside New London.

Additionally, New London families already tend to have larger families than suburban families, he said.

”When they say the state of Connecticut will have a relative decline in students, I don't doubt that,” Clouet said. “I think the decline will be experienced differently in different types of communities.”
Magnet School Referendum Is Cause For Jitters; NL Lawmakers Fear Negative Vote Could Hamper Future State Funding 
DAY
By Kevin Dale    
Published on 4/5/2008 

New London — In July, officials from the city, school district and state gathered in the city's Science and Technology Magnet High School to celebrate what was portrayed as a legislative triumph.  In the waning days of the summer session, the General Assembly, after considerable lobbying from New London legislators, passed what has come to be known as the “magnet plan.”

The legislation designated New London as the state's first magnet-school district. But the true purpose behind the creative label was to give the cash-strapped city $58 million — 95 percent of the $61 million estimate — to renovate Winthrop and Nathan Hale schools into 600-student magnet schools.  But as the magnet plan heads to a resident-triggered referendum Tuesday, members of the city's legislative delegation nervously await the outcome of an election that they are surprised is even occurring. The rejection of the plan, they said, could harm their future efforts to secure state funds for the city.

“I don't think anybody thought this largess wouldn't be accepted,” said state Rep. Ted Moukawsher, D-Groton. “It's kind of inconceivable, but here we are.”

Echoing local supporters, Moukawsher noted the plan awards the city $10 million.  Under the reimbursement formula for nonmagnet schools, the city would have to contribute $13 million to renovate the two, roughly 40-year-old elementary schools; the magnet plan requires $3 million.

“It's astounding to me you want to prevent kids from having new schools at basically no cost,” said Moukawsher, echoing the “no-brainer” argument made by the plan's supporters.  State Rep. Ernest Hewett, D-New London, said he has been a little chagrined to have to inform the heads of the assembly's education committees — who backed the plan — that residents forced the referendum and could vote the plan down.

“Actually, I'm a little apologetic to them,” Hewett said. “I'm kind of hoping that it's passed. We would look pretty bad going back up there and making a pitch for New London.”

New London Superintendent Christopher Clouet has said the magnet plan came about because school officials needed additional state money to renovate the schools. He said the district couldn't ask the city to contribute $13 million, a figure equal to 17 percent of its total budget.

“There just wouldn't be any appetite for it,” Clouet said.

The city's legislators said the plan's rejection could complicate future pitches for state money. The assumption underlying those requests, they said, is that New London, as a tax-poor city overburdened with needs, should receive extra help from Hartford.

“People are watching,” said state Sen. Andrea Stillman, D-Waterford. “It has so much support. For the residents to reject what is really a gift from the state in the form of this grant would be a very difficult thing for us to explain.”

In addition to the legislators, the plan enjoys the substantial support of the city's elected officials. The city's Democratic Town Committee has endorsed the plan, as have the city's three Republican elected officials: city Councilors Rob Pero and Adam Sprecace and school board member James Pearce.  But the city's Republican Town Committee appears to be split on the plan. After debating the merits at its meeting this week, the committee decided not to take a position.

Last week, Sprecace, the council's chief number cruncher, and Democratic Councilor Mike Buscetto III held a “nonpartisan” forum to persuade residents of the plan's financial upside. Armed with the slogan “Pay Less, Vote Yes,” Buscetto has stepped forward as a major backer of the plan.

Buscetto, a developer, has said he will be “intimately involved” with the schools' construction. In his appearance Thursday on the cable-access show “The Renshaw Report,” he pledged that the city's $3 million share would be covered through cost savings and wouldn't increase taxes.

“Put it on tape,” Buscetto said after host Murray “the Eye” Renshaw held him to the promise.

With the city's GOP taking a sideline role in the debate, it is difficult to gauge the extent of the plan's opposition, which appears to be led by Charles Frink, Bill Cornish and Evelyn and Demetrious Louziotis.  Those residents, who have been vocal critics of the plan, sponsored the 409-signature petition that challenged the City Council's Feb. 4 decision to approve the plan.

Cornish, a One New London party member and former city councilor, has been the magnet plan's most outspoken critic. He objects to a stipulation in the plan that requires the city's magnet schools, whether they are district-run or not, to enroll a combined 15 percent of students from outside New London.  The city must meet the target by June 2012 or facing having to repay the $10 million, according to the magnet-plan legislation.

The plan's proponents say the goal can be reached, and they point to the roughly 400 suburban students who already attend the city's magnet schools, including 300 enrolled at the Regional Multicultural Magnet School, which is not run by the district.

Cornish and his fellow opponents are skeptical that the elementary magnet schools will attract the 100 or so suburban students needed to meet the 2012 target. “Take the penalty off. Take the quota off for suburban kids,” he said.

During his appearance on “The Renshaw Report” Thursday, Cornish questioned the widely held belief that the Winthrop and Nathan Hale schools are in desperate need of repair. “I don't think they're falling down,” he said.

And Cornish took issue with the $61 million price, which school officials admit is the best estimate that can be made at this point.

“They can take that 'no-brainer' label and stuff it. It doesn't do anything for me,” Cornish said.

Supporters of the plan have been harshly critical of the opponents, characterizing them as a small but noisy group of naysayers.

“There's a few people that are pretty much against everything, or mostly everything,” Buscetto said. Clouet, in a January interview about the plan, accused some critics of being “part of an organized, generalized assault on the young.”

Moukawsher said, “There's an element in New London that seems to be critical — it's just knee-jerk reaction.”

He suggested the critics' overriding motivation is to deal school-district leaders what would be a bruising political defeat on a cardinal policy initiative.

“They're anxious — and desperate almost — to find something negative to say,” Moukawsher said. “The only way their politics or political situation can be advanced is through failure.”

Cornish said he remains unfazed. “There's been a lot of name-calling in this,” he said. “It doesn't bother me at all.”

How do residency, voting controversy, beach access policy relate to this issue?
Schools check students' residence
Greenwich TIME
By Andrew Shaw
Published February 2 2008

Reality or not, concerned taxpayers and parents believe there are many nonresidents attending Greenwich Public Schools taking up tax dollars and classroom seats.

But school officials hope that a proposed centralized residency verification system, combined with a recently acquired software program that tracks address changes with the post office, will help address the perception that there are scores of New York children attending schools on the western side of town.

"We're spending some money to address that perception," said John Curtin, assistant superintendent of research and evaluation. Curtin heads the residency verification process.

The Board of Education's budget includes $48,500 for a centralized system that will change the verification process, starting in July. Instead of a new student bringing in proof of residency to their neighborhood school, under the new system they will have to go to the Havemeyer Building to be verified with district staff. As part of the change, a full-time staff member will be added to help Curtin and his part-time staff member. The school budget still needs to be approved by the town.

Board Vice Chairwoman Leslie Moriarty said non-residency isn't the large issue some believe, but she added that the centralized system should help the district with a more standardized approach.

"We do want to make sure our tax dollars are being used effectively," Moriarty said.

The district's existing verification system has been criticized by some parents for not being effective, based on their anecdotal evidence of seeing New York license plates on cars carrying students.

Deanne Biddle, a mother of Western Middle School and Greenwich High School students, said she's seen the out-of-state plates and thinks the district can do more to check addresses, just as Greenwich uses strict guidelines when approving its beach passes for town residents.

"I have to wonder how many of the children really belong there," said Biddle, 46, of the crowded high school.

But school officials say the out-of-state car often is owned by a relative, or is registered to a business, or there can be a variety of other reasons. However, if a school has cause to believe a student doesn't live in town, an investigation is conducted.

Western principal Stacey Gross said she takes residency verification seriously and that teachers listen for verbal cues that a child doesn't live in town. The school also checks for returned mail, chronic tardiness or an inability to reach parents as warning signs.

The district investigations rarely lead to a student withdrawal, Curtin said. From 2001 to 2006, 78 nonresident students were forced to withdraw. Curtin estimated there are about 10 such students this year. It costs the town about $14,000 a year to educate a student, not including extracurricular activities, the teachers' time and opportunities taken away from legitimate Greenwich students.
Tesei backs early start on GHS art center
Greenwich TIME
By Andrew Shaw, Staff Writer
Published December 22 2007

First Selectman Peter Tesei broke with his predecessor yesterday and said he would consider funding construction of a new high school performing arts center three years earlier than former First Selectman Jim Lash.

The Board of Education wants $2.1 million in architectural and engineering money for the project in the 2008-09 budget year, and $23.4 million construction money in the following year.

Before leaving office, Lash proposed that the construction money be withheld until the 2012-13 budget year. Supporters of the project feared that plans for the project would be out of date by then, and that students need new facilities as soon as possible.

Tesei said students would benefit from having the facility built sooner rather than later, in an interview yesterday.

"One cannot ignore the importance of it," Tesei said of renovating the space. "It's not just about the auditorium. It's about additional space for musical instruction and programming that's needed."

But he cautioned that getting funds earlier would depend heavily on the project clearing zoning hurdles, specifically parking concerns. Lash, who was the head of the Capital Improvements Committee, which evaluates and prioritizes projects for the town, had predicted the project will encounter zoning issues during the architectural and engineering study, pushing construction back.

"I think it's going to take a full and complete hearing," with the Planning and Zoning board, Lash said in an interview earlier this month. "I don't think construction is going to be the thing holding up the phasing of the project."

Parents strongly opposed Lash's plan, though. PTA co-president Leslie Cooper said yesterday, "If they move the construction back, that's another 8,000 to 10,000 kids that won't have use of that new facility."

The performing arts space has been cited for lack of classroom, rehearsal and storage space and poor acoustics, among other issues. A study by Glastonbury architect Perkins and Will showed the auditorium has about half the capacity of those at nearby high schools in other towns.

Tesei said he's impressed with the work done so far by the architect and the community advocacy group, the Friends of the High School Performing Arts, who cleared a hurdle Thursday night when the Board of Education unanimously approved preliminary designs for the project. That clears the way for the board to ask the town to create a building committee to oversee the project.

Day 4 In Sheff Case Reveals Rift
By RACHEL GOTTLIEB FRANK | Courant Staff Writer
November 10, 2007

Testimony by the state's education commissioner on the fourth day of a hearing on the Sheff vs. O'Neill desegregation lawsuit revealed a testy relationship between Hartford's superintendent of schools and the state Department of Education over state efforts to quicken the pace of desegregation.

The Sheff lawsuit, filed in 1989, resulted in an order by the state Supreme Court in 1996 to end the racial, ethnic and economic isolation of Hartford's minority students. The court left it to the state and the plaintiffs to decide how to do that. Now the plaintiffs say desegregation efforts have fallen short, and they are in Superior Court appealing for help.

State Education Commissioner Mark McQuillan on Friday summarized an exchange of letters that began last summer between him and Superintendent Steven Adamowski in which McQuillan asked Hartford to submit documents showing why several of the city's magnet schools didn't have enough white students and how the district intended to remedy the problem.

"This was a repeated plea that went out," McQuillan testified, and the state was threatening to withhold millions of dollars if those documents weren't submitted by Oct. 1.

In letters back to McQuillan, the commissioner testified, Adamowski challenged the state's authority to withhold funding.

"I wrote back to say we really do have the authority to withhold funds," McQuillan said

In time, he said, Adamowski set conditions for the release of the documents that the state was seeking. One condition was the reform of the lottery system used to admit students to magnet schools. In Adamowski's opinion, the lottery system for admission to interdistrict magnet schools is illegal in the wake of recent U.S. Supreme Court rulings on the use of race for the assignment of students to schools, McQuillan said.

"He continued to come back to me to say it was the state's responsibility to develop a new lottery system," McQuillan testified. Finally, he said, Adamowski took the position that until he saw a new lottery system he would not release enrollment plans sought by the state.

McQuillan testified that he believes the lottery, which is run by the Capitol Region Education Council (CREC), is fair.

The U.S. Supreme Court decision released in June forbids schools from enrolling children strictly on the basis of race and threatened many voluntary desegregation plans throughout the nation. But at the time of the ruling,, experts said they believed it would have little effect on school desegregation efforts in Hartford. The key difference, legal experts said, is that the magnet schools and school choice plans that are a central piece of the Sheff efforts do not single out students by race. Rather, the plans attempt to achieve racial balance by selecting students based on where they live.

In the dispute between McQuillan and Adamowski, the state ultimately withheld $4.6 million from Hartford because the city did not submit the enrollment plans that the state demanded.

Another point of tension between McQuillan and Adamowski is the development of a joint office between the state, Hartford and the CREC to implement desegregation programs.

Since he took office last January, McQuillan testified, he has reorganized his office and created a special division to concentrate exclusively on Sheff mandates. The joint office between the state, Hartford and CREC is a separate office he is attempting to create. But Adamowski made clear to McQuillan that he thought the state should take the lead role in implementing integration efforts.

Throughout the hearing on the status of the desegregation projects under the Sheff ruling, Hartford's lawyer has pushed the point that it is the state - not Hartford - that is the defendant in the case, so the state should be responsible for all costs and implementation.

Before McQuillan was called as a witness for the state, Robert Genuario, secretary of the state Office of Policy and Management, testified about some of the funding dedicated to desegregating Hartford's schools, including $4.9 million in the state budget this year and $9.9 million in next year's budget. The money is earmarked for the development of new charter schools, expanding the Open Choice program through which city students enroll in suburban schools, funding interdistrict cooperative programs and operations of the joint office between Hartford, the state and CREC.

John Rose, Hartford's lawyer, asked Genuario if there was money dedicated to make up for lost taxes when the city buys private property for use as a school and whether the state was paying for all the staff in the magnet schools opened in Hartford as part of the integration efforts.

Genuario said that the state assists with salaries for staff through its main grant for education called the Education Cost Sharing Grant, and he pointed out that schools never pay taxes.
Spotty Sheff Enforcement
By RACHEL GOTTLIEB FRANK | And MAGDALENE PEREZ Courant Staff Writers
November 9, 2007

Over the years the state has helped develop a comprehensive plan to desegregate Hartford's schools, spent hundreds of millions of dollars on the efforts, appealed to suburban districts to open their schools to city students and offered training to suburban districts to help city students succeed, state witnesses testified Thursday in the Sheff vs. O'Neill desegregation case.

But cross-examination of those witnesses in Superior Court in Hartford revealed that shifts in management have resulted in spotty results and murky accountability since 2003, when the plaintiffs in the Sheff lawsuit reached a compromise agreement with the state on integration goals.

During those years, changes in oversight included five state education commissioners, multiple reorganizations of the state Department of Education, four Hartford superintendents, a transition from state control over Hartford schools to local control and the creation and disbanding of a magnet school office in Hartford.

The lawsuit, filed in 1989, resulted in an order by the state Supreme Court in 1996 to end the racial, ethnic and economic isolation of Hartford's minority students. The court left it to the state and the plaintiffs to decide how to do that, and sent the case back to Superior Court for monitoring. Now, 11 years later, the plaintiffs say desegregation efforts have fallen short, and they are in Superior Court appealing for help.

Marcus Rivera, a consultant for the state education department, testified that he helped Hartford create a plan for integration that included developing magnet schools, improving all of Hartford's schools and sending city students to suburban schools. After Hartford's school board approved the plan, the state left it to the city to implement it, he said.

But during his cross-examination of state witnesses Thursday, the city's lawyer, John Rose, pointed out that Hartford is not a defendant in the Sheff lawsuit and therefore not responsible for carrying out its mandate.

After his testimony, Rivera said he isn't sure how much of the plan he helped create was carried out, though he believes some of it was.

Some of the testimony suggested the state is not entirely to blame for failure to reach Sheff goals to enroll specific numbers of Hartford minority students in suburban schools through the Open Choice program. Rivera said that Hartford hasn't always cooperated.

For example, Rivera said, when there were openings in suburban schools for kindergartners and first-graders, then-Education Commissioner Betty Sternberg asked then-Hartford Superintendent Robert Henry to include information about the vacancies in a letter to Hartford parents that the district was required to send anyway as part of the federal No Child Left Behind law.

Henry refused to include information about the vacancies, Rivera said, telling the state, "We really would not like to have these letters go out because we want to keep all Hartford students in Hartford."

Under cross-examination by Sheff lawyer Martha Stone, Rivera said the state did not take it upon itself to send the letter to parents.

"What we were not able to do is get information into the hands of all parents that this was a choice open to them," Rivera said.

Stone pressed the point that the state had repeatedly made participation in desegregation efforts voluntary by asking districts to help, but never setting benchmarks for individual districts to meet.

When the state realized it would fall short of its requirement to place 1,600 Hartford minority students in suburban schools - last year 1,070 students were enrolled in the Open Choice program - Sternberg wrote a letter to superintendents "strongly encouraging" them to open more seats, Rivera said.

The July 2006 letter said that 469 new students must be added to the Open Choice program - a total of 18 in each of the 27 school districts governed by the Sheff compromise - to reach the state's ordered obligation of placing 1,600 students in the program by 2007.

Each district has decided to heed or ignore that recommendation on its own terms, Rivera said. While some districts have renewed seats for Hartford students, others have not opened a single new seat in years.
Schools: A Shift Of Views On Sheff;  Case Returns To Court Amid New Skepticism
By RACHEL GOTTLIEB FRANK | Courant Staff Writer
November 5, 2007

A decade after the state Supreme Court ordered the desegregation of schools across Greater Hartford in the landmark Sheff v. O'Neill case, the goal of integration remains elusive.

Magnet schools, the cornerstone of the state's plan to bring together white children and children of color using voluntary incentives, have fallen short. Hartford's schools still have a population that is predominantly black, Hispanic and poor.

Now, as the Sheff plaintiffs head back to court Tuesday to demand the state make good on its assurances, advocates of integration are facing increasing skepticism on the part of both state lawmakers and city officials over both the cost - and value - of continuing down the same path.

Tensions that have long remain hidden are now erupting, opening up a new and potentially contentious chapter in the effort to desegregate schools in and around Hartford.

"It's breaking out in the open now," said John Brittain, a former Sheff lawyer. "The current spat with the Hartford school system exposes the fragility of the infrastructure of the Sheff v. O'Neill process."

Lawyers for the Sheff plaintiffs declined to say what they will seek in court. The latest effort at compromise between the state and the plaintiffs - which failed to win legislative approval - called for the state to spend $112 million over the next five years to expand the array of magnet, charter and vocational-technical schools.

But one attorney said now that the issue is heading back to court, the plaintiffs won't be constrained by the compromises that they have agreed to in the past.

"There's new thinking we'll be presenting at the trial," said Matthew Colangelo, an attorney with the NAACP Legal Defense Fund who is representing the plaintiffs in the Sheff v. O'Neill lawsuit.

"We're saying it's been 11 years and not enough progress has been made and we think it's time for the court to get involved."

Forced Integration?

The question of whether the city's schools must be desegregated was settled by a state Supreme Court order in 1996, though the court left it to the Sheff plaintiffs and the state to figure out how to do it.

The state and the plaintiffs finally reached an agreement on a plan in 2003, and it was left largely to Hartford to implement its terms by building magnet schools and sending students to suburban schools through the state's "Open Choice" program.

The guiding principle of those efforts has been to make desegregation voluntary - sidestepping the politically explosive prospect of forcibly moving children from one school to another.

But the effectiveness of this approach is now being questioned.

"The notion that we're going to get a better result by voluntary programs is ridiculous," said state Sen. Thomas Gaffey, D-Meriden, co-chairman of the legislature's education committee. "We need to shift away from the model of remedy that the state has been pursuing for years. The district is as racially isolated today as it was 10 years ago. It suggests you need to do something different."

Gaffey advocates giving the education commissioner more statutory authority to enforce broad participation by area towns.

The best way to satisfy the court order, he said, probably would be to expand the Open Choice program, through which Hartford students enroll in suburban schools. This would give the commissioner power to order reluctant towns to open their doors to more students from Hartford.

"How open Open Choice is, is really debatable," Gaffey said, conceding that towns won't like being strong-armed into admitting more Hartford kids and that getting any major changes through the General Assembly would be difficult.

Hartford School Superintendent Steven Adamowski bluntly told the State Board of Education recently that it isn't fair Hartford has borne the brunt of making integration happen, while suburban participation remains optional.

As it stands, the state is withholding $4.6 million from the city-run magnet schools for failing to enroll enough white students, and won't release that money until the city submits a plan outlining its plan for a remedy. If the state doesn't release the money, Adamowski said, the district will have to begin laying off staff at the four magnet schools that don't meet the quota.

Adamowski told the State Board of Education and the education commissioner that a regional approach is needed. He strongly encouraged them to create a system of rewards and punishments to get the region's many "fiefdoms" to work with Hartford in developing models for integrated schools that are different from the traditional magnet school model.

But while there are growing questions about the effectiveness of voluntary solutions, the state will likely argue in court against involuntary participation, said Education Commissioner Mark K. McQuillan. "This state has historically and fervently relied on local control," he said.

That devotion aside, he said, programs that are entered into voluntarily are more likely to work.

"People will invest more of their energy and time to carry it out," McQuillan said. "Let's try voluntary measures now. If that fails then we may have to take more drastic measures that people may not want."

McQuillan said he wants to expand the Open Choice program and to press for the development of magnet schools in the suburbs.

He conceded that the assumption that suburban youngsters would be drawn to magnet schools run by Hartford was mistaken. By locating schools in the suburbs, officials said, the state could address the perception of some parents that Hartford schools are not safe.

"Suburban parents have some trepidation about sending their children into the inner city. Whether it's perceived or accurate, we are aware of it," said Tom Murphy, spokesman for the state Department of Education. "Having several schools in suburban communities as a choice will give an opportunity to allay those concerns."

McQuillan said he thinks that six or seven magnet schools run by suburban towns could work, focusing on young children in grades pre-K through 3. Parents who would otherwise pay to send their preschool-aged children to day care would find the offer of an all-day public preschool school program particularly enticing, McQuillan said.

Hartford Pulls Back

Beyond the question of how to make desegregation happen is a broader problem: Officials are growing more vocal about the burden Sheff presents - and even questioning the value of its goals.

In a presentation to the State Board of Education on ways Hartford is working to close the achievement gap between urban and suburban children, Adamowski questioned the very premise of the Sheff lawsuit.

"There is no research to suggest that minority students will do better by sitting next to a white student," he said.

The original lawsuit, filed in 1989, asserted that the racial segregation of Hartford schools violates the state's constitution. Adamowski's comment resonated with some, including Hartford school board member Andrea Comer, who believes it is demeaning to assume that children of color need to share a classroom with white students in order to learn well.

But it drew a sharp response from some advocates of desegregation.

"We're disappointed that it's 2007 and the superintendent wants to debate whether it is a bad thing for Hartford's minority children to be taught in racially segregated schools," Colangelo said.

"As a social science matter, the answer has been clear for decades," Colangelo said. As a legal matter, he said, the case was settled years ago.

In his presentation to the state board, Adamowski outlined a strategy for improving the city's schools that does not specifically address the court's order, although the Hartford school board's new policy for redesigning failing schools directs the superintendent to "give consideration" to the Sheff goals of reducing racial and economic isolation.

"This is high stakes for the state," Murphy said. "The superintendent's reform package has not connected Sheff with the strategies for improvement. We've got to find some common ground."

In the past, Hartford's superintendents have publicly embraced the lead position in fulfilling the requirements of the Sheff lawsuit, even if they grumbled behind the scenes about cost. Adamowski's public arm's-length posture from both the state and the tenets of the court order represent a dramatic shift in the landscape.

Lawmakers are also asking questions about the direction of desegregation efforts.

Legislative leaders this summer didn't put the $112 million plan to expand magnets up for a vote in part because they questioned the effectiveness of the approach, and in part because Hartford's mayor and superintendent urged rejection until the state develops a more comprehensive plan to integrate schools.

On the eve of the case's return to court, Mayor Eddie A. Perez, chairman of the school board, lobbed his pitch into the arena, saying that while the city remains committed to the Sheff goals, the state shouldn't dump the burden on Hartford.

"The state wants to monitor us and have us implement Sheff. We want them to implement Sheff and we will assist them," Perez said. "It can't just be Hartford's burden."


Drug-Resistant Germ Nothing To Lose Sleep Over, Experts Say 
DAY
By Amy Renczkowski   
Published on 10/19/2007 

Local health officials are urging parents and students not to panic about the potentially deadly antibiotic-resistant staph infection found this week in some schools around the state.

“It's out there, but it's not something to be scared of,” said Sue Congdon, epidemiologist at Ledge Light Health District.

At least three high school students — in Weston, Berlin and Newtown — have been diagnosed with Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus infection, or MRSA. Three students at Albertus Magnus College in New Haven also were confirmed Thursday to have contracted the infection.  According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, MRSA is a type of bacteria that causes staph infections and is resistant to treatment with usual antibiotics.

A student from Virginia died from a similar infection earlier this week.

The state Department of Public Health reported Thursday that about 900 cases of MRSA are reported in Connecticut each year, while hundreds of other cases never become serious enough to require reporting. 
Officials at the local Ledge Light and Uncas health districts said they aren't aware of any cases of MRSA in the local high schools, so they are concentrating on educating the community about prevention.  Congdon said Ledge Light sent out information about the infection to school superintendents in areas the health district covers: East Lyme, Groton, Ledyard, New London and Waterford. Some schools are taking it upon themselves to notify parents and students about methods of prevention.

Robert Bacewicz, principal of Robert E. Fitch High School in Groton, said the school sent out a letter Thursday reminding students to be mindful about washing their hands and keeping clean. He said there have been no cases of the infection at the high school. High schools in Montville and Stonington also reported no cases of MRSA.

“We're taking precautionary measures all the time,” said Thomas Amanti, principal at Montville High School.

Amanti said the school nurse keeps administrators well informed about the latest techniques in disease prevention.  Deborah Buxton-Morris, emergency preparedness coordinator and public health nurse at Uncas Health District, said MRSA spreads through skin-to-skin contact. Buxton-Morris said schools should be careful to sanitize athletic mats and remind students about showering and changing their clothing.

“We don't need to create a panic. Just focus on good hand washing and good hygiene,” Buxton-Morris said.

Congdon added, “If you have a wound, clean it and cover it.”

The Centers for Disease Control reported that MRSA caused more than 94,000 life-threatening infections and nearly 19,000 deaths in the United States in 2005, though these were associated with health-care settings rather than community outbreaks.  Most of the victims were patients who underwent invasive medical procedures or had weakened immune systems.  MRSA in health-care settings commonly causes serious and potentially life-threatening conditions, such as bloodstream infections, surgical site infections or pneumonia.

Buxton-Morris said the infection also affects a lot of children and those with weakened immune systems.

Gov. M. Jodi Rell said in a press release Thursday that her office is working with the state Department of Education and the state Department of Public Health to track cases of infection and to provide information about MRSA to school districts and the public.  
Deadly Germ, But It Can Be Beaten
By WILLIAM HATHAWAY | Courant Staff Writer
October 18, 2007

The antibiotic-resistant infection contracted by high school students in Weston and Newtown is turning up more often in communities across Connecticut as it sparks fear across the nation.

Doctors across Connecticut have been reporting more cases of methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus infection, or MRSA, that have been contracted by people outside of hospitals. The number of serious blood-borne MRSA infections acquired in the community has increased from 38 in 2001, to 99 in 2006, state officials said.

But infectious disease experts also said that although the strain can kill the elderly and others with underlying health issues, in otherwise healthy people it is highly treatable and rarely life-threatening.

Weston High School officials alerted the community to the problem this week, telling parents in a letter that one student had a confirmed case of MRSA and that they were waiting for results of tests on a second student. A similar letter was sent to parents of students at Newtown High School. Officials also posted the letter on the school's Web site.

Although the Weston students were not seriously ill, the news came amid widening concern about the growth and severity of such infections.

The letter from the high school began circulating Tuesday - the same day a study in the Journal of the American Medical Association documented the high toll of MRSA in hospitals and the day the death of a Virginia high school student from the infection became national news.

Ashton Bonds, 17, a senior at Staunton River High School in Moneta, died Monday after being diagnosed with MRSA, his mother said. Protests after Bonds' death led officials in Virginia to shut down 21 schools.

As news of a similar infection in Weston spread Wednesday, officials took several steps - including a press conference - to address community concerns.

There are no protocols that require schools to publicly report MRSA infections, but Weston school district officials said they wanted to be proactive in order to ease fears.

"Yesterday's New York Times and CNN raised a lot of concern," Westport-Weston Community Health Director Monica Wheeler said. "The coincidence of that tragedy in Virginia just made everybody say, `What is going on?'"

Parents' reactions have been mixed, said interim Superintendent of Schools John Reed in Weston.

"There certainly are parents very comfortable with the steps taken, and there certainly are parents concerned," he said. "Some have asked if we're closing the school, and some have said we should close it."

But the state health department has not recommended such steps, Reed said. The district is following the state's advice. School officials have taken some actions, including wiping down surfaces and switching the type of cleaning agents used at the school. Students also are being encouraged to wash their hands and use antimicrobial hand gel that is already available in classrooms, Reed said.

The origin of the Weston High School student's infection has not been confirmed, but school and health officials believe the student was infected off school grounds. Weston school officials would not say whether the infected student had returned to class, citing privacy laws.

As documented in the JAMA article, the MRSA strain kills thousands of people in the nation's hospitals every year, usually elderly and those with severe underlying health issues. The strain is responsible for more than 94,000 serious infections and nearly 19,000 deaths a year nationwide, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

But experts also say that when acquired by healthy people in the community - as opposed to those infected at hospitals - the bacterial infection only rarely causes serious illness and is treatable by other classes of antibiotics.

As many as 40 percent of people may carry staphylococcus aureus bacteria at any one time, according to some estimates.

When staph does appear, it is usually as a skin infection, characterized by reddish skin surrounding a boil topped by a black scab. The infection is often mistaken for a spider bite. Occasionally, the bacteria can enter the blood stream, where it can become life-threatening.

Ever since the introduction of penicillin in the 1940s, staphylococcus and other bacterial infections have developed resistance to several forms of antibiotics. As the JAMA study illustrates, these strains continue to raise havoc in hospitals.

But while rates of hospital-acquired MRSA infections have been relatively stable in recent years, community acquired infections have been rising steadily in the state and across the country.

Connecticut reported 952 cases of MRSA infections in 2005, but Hadler said the actual number could be much higher because many cases are not particularly serious.

In fact, MRSA infections are so common in the community now that most doctors who see such infections don't bother treating patients with the class of antibiotics that include methicillin, said Dr. Kevin Dieckhaus, chief of infectious diseases at the University of Connecticut Health Center.

The bacteria often spread through contact with pus-filled boils. In schools, athletes are often susceptible to infection.

"The infection is usually spread by person-to-person contact, and sometimes we see outbreaks in sporting teams, such as wrestlers or football players," said Dr. Robert Lyons, chief of infectious diseases at St. Francis Hospital and Medical Center in Hartford.

Simple hygiene, such as washing hands, can help stop the spread of the infection, said Monica Wheeler, community health director at Westport Weston Heath District.



THE FULL REPORT
Report: Program Underused; Suburban Schools Could Absorb More Hartford Children, Say Sheff Supporters
By ROBERT A. FRAHM | Courant Staff Writer
September 28, 2007

A long-running program allowing Hartford schoolchildren to enroll in nearby suburban schools has been underused but could be a crucial means of promoting school desegregation, says a report being released today.

Fewer than 1,100 black and Latino children from Hartford are enrolled in predominantly white schools in nearby suburbs under Project Choice, but those suburban schools appear to have the capacity to enroll thousands more, the report says.  Despite slow growth in recent years, the program has produced encouraging academic results and has potential to help meet goals established in the Sheff v. O'Neill school desegregation legal case, says a report sponsored by a group of Sheff supporters known as the Sheff Movement Coalition.

The report, called the "Project Choice Campaign," calls on the state to take a more aggressive role in expanding the program and prodding suburban schools to enroll more Hartford students.

Efforts to place Hartford children in desegregated schools have fallen far short of goals established in a 2003 court-approved settlement in the Sheff case.  With the state spending millions of dollars creating and supporting magnet schools as the centerpiece of its racial integration efforts, the suburban school choice program has been largely overshadowed, today's report says.

Unlike magnet schools, which can take years to develop fully, the city-to-suburb program "is the most efficient means of placing students in integrated school placements," says the report written by Erica Frankenberg, a graduate student at Harvard University's Graduate School of Education.

"The slow growth and low suburban participation rates in Hartford's Project Choice program stand in sharp contrast to similar programs in Boston, Minneapolis, and St. Louis," Frankenberg wrote.

If the program were to expand, "I'm sure many parents would benefit," said Norma Richards, whose son Cedane, a second-grader, has been part of the choice program at Noah Wallace School in Farmington since kindergarten.

"In kindergarten, he was the only black child in the classroom," she said. "If he had two or three more children from the choice program, he'd probably feel more comfortable."

Of 27 suburban districts in the program, 10 provide less than one percent of their seats to Hartford students, and no district provides more than 3 percent, the report said. A review of state data suggests "there is significant room available in many suburban districts" for additional Project Choice students, the report said.  However, the capacity of districts to take Hartford students "is a moving target," said Robert M. Villanova, superintendent of schools in Farmington. He agreed there appears to be room to expand the program throughout the Hartford region, but said, "Capacity is determined to some extent by the will and desire of people who live in the community."

In Farmington, there has been strong support for Project Choice, he said. According to the report, Farmington schools enrolled 95 Hartford students last year, just over 2 percent of the town's overall enrollment. 
Project Choice is an outgrowth of a student transfer program that began more than 40 years ago and was then known as Project Concern.  Project Concern survived financial problems in the 1980s and '90s and nearly closed down after being hailed as one of the nation's first voluntary school integration programs. The program started with 266 Hartford children bused to schools in Farmington, Manchester, Simsbury, South Windsor and West Hartford.

Along with magnet schools, the suburban choice program was part of a court settlement four years ago to comply with a 1996 state Supreme Court ruling ordering the state to desegregate Hartford's schools. However, enrollment in the choice program stagnated, and many of the magnet schools failed to attract enough white students, causing the settlement to fall far short of its goals.  After the settlement expired earlier this year, the two sides agreed on a new settlement that calls on the state to speed the pace of integration, but the legislature has balked at approving the agreement.

Still, lawmakers did approve a budget that includes additional money for integration programs related to the Sheff case, including Project Choice.

"What has to happen is Project Choice has to be marketed more effectively," said state Sen. Thomas Gaffey, D-Meriden, co-chairman of the legislature's education committee.

Suburban participation in the program is voluntary, but Gaffey said the state Department of Education should be given authority to require suburban districts to set aside a specific number of seats for Hartford children.  Today's report calls on the state education department to "play a lead role as the champion for expansion ... of Project Choice" and says the department should establish goals for the number of Hartford children each suburban district is expected to enroll.

Although state financial support for Project Choice has increased, the report said the extra funding is not enough to provide teacher training, academic support and other services to assist students, the report said.

George A. Coleman, deputy commissioner in the state Department of Education, had not seen the report but agreed that "in many ways [Project Choice] is underutilized."

He said the state hopes to begin discussions with local districts about their level of participation in Project Choice, magnet school programs and other efforts to promote integration.

'Where did kids go?' schools ask - Numbers down for 10 districts
By Eric Stevick
Everett, WA Herald
November 23, 2007

An enrollment drop in 10 of 14 Snohomish County districts has school leaders wondering where the students have gone.

Enrollment declined across the county by more than 300 students, slipping to 107,445, according to head counts taken by the districts last month.

What's most perplexing is the dip is occurring while hundreds of new homes across the county are being built and moved into.

"We are all sort of in the same arena of scratching our heads," said Arlene Hulten, a Lake Stevens School District spokeswoman.

The districts expect enrollment will rebound as families with school-age children move into the new homes.

For now, it may be that some families are passing up Snohomish County on their way to cheaper housing in surrounding areas.

"The general trend is that there is small growth in Whatcom and parts of Skagit counties and there is a reduction in San Juan and Snohomish counties," said Jerry Jenkins, director of the Northwest Educational Service District. "I would suppose that the likely cause would be housing costs and that young people with families can stretch their dollars further."

Other factors are also suspected, including a slower birth rate in the county five years ago. Ten of 14 districts had a smaller kindergarten classes than a year ago.

Statistics kept by the U.S. Census Bureau showed a drop of more than 1,500 school-aged children between the ages of 5 and 9 in Snohomish County between the years 2000 and 2006.

More students also are choosing online schools instead of the traditional classroom.

The Edmonds School District surveyed families earlier this year and found more than 40 students who said they were planning to enroll in an online school this fall. Edmonds is now considering starting its own online program.

"That has happened a little bit," said Nathan Olson, a spokesman for the state Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction. "In terms of a percentage, it's probably not much, but it is happening."

The state does not have statewide enrollment numbers for fall.

Projecting enrollment accurately is key for each district as more than 70 percent of its budget is based on the number of students in classrooms. Districts receive more than $5,000 from the state for each full-time student.

Housing, birth rates, population trends and job losses all figure into projections.

The Monroe School District was one of two districts to see enrollment growth in large part because of its new online school for freshmen and sophomores. The school is called Washington Virtual Academy. October enrollment was 264 for the virtual school and the plan is to add a grade each year until it is a ninth- through 12th-grade school. Students have enrolled from across the state with most from outside of the county, said Rosemary O'Neil, a school district spokeswoman.

The Monroe district also added 95 more students to its home-school program this fall, increasing enrollment there to 727.

The district grew from 6,795 in 2006 to 7,174 in 2007, an increase of 379 students.

"The only growth was in the alternative programs," O'Neil said.

Similarly, the Marysville School District saw a slight increase in enrollment only because of a fast-growing online program that also attracts most of its students from outside the county.

"It was done out of a concern for recapturing some of the students who were dropping out," said Larry Nyland, the district's superintendent.

Everett School District, which opened a new elementary school in its fast-growing south end, saw enrollment increase since 2006.

In most districts, enrollment was flat with slight losses.

In Lakewood, for instance, the October head count was exactly the same as last year.

The Edmonds School District experienced the most dramatic loss, dipping from 20,725 to 20,352.

The loss of students can be costly. Edmonds estimates it lost about $1 million in state revenues because of declining enrollment. It won't fill some vacant positions but won't have to make layoffs either, according to a district memo.

Charter Schools without a building?
Virtual schooling growing at K-12 level
By BILL KACZOR, Associated Press Writer
Fri Sep 7, 8:03 AM ET

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - As a seventh-grader, Kelsey-Anne Hizer was getting mostly D's and F's and felt the teachers at her Ocala middle school were not giving her the help she needed. But after switching to a virtual school for eighth grade, Kelsey-Anne is receiving more individual attention and making A's and B's. She's also enthusiastic about learning, even though she has never been in the same room as her teachers.

Kelsey-Anne became part of a growing national trend when she transferred to Orlando-based Florida Virtual School. Students get their lessons online and communicate with their teachers and each other through chat rooms, e-mail, telephone and instant messaging.

"It's more one-on-one than regular school," Kelsey-Anne said. "It's more they're there; they're listening."

Virtual learning is becoming ubiquitous at colleges and universities but remains in its infancy at the elementary and secondary level, where skeptics have questioned its cost and effect on children's socialization.

However, virtual schools are growing fast — at an annual rate of about 25 percent. There are 25 statewide or state-led programs and more than 170 virtual charter schools across the nation, according to the North American Council for Online Learning.

Estimates of elementary and secondary students taking virtual classes range from 500,000 to 1 million nationally compared to total public school enrollment of about 50 million.

Online learning is used as an alternative for summer school and for students who need remedial help, are disabled, being home schooled or suspended for behavioral problems. It also can help avoid overcrowding in traditional classrooms and provide courses that local schools, often rural or inner-city, do not offer.

Advocates say those niche functions are fine, but that virtual learning has almost unlimited potential. Many envision a blending of virtual and traditional learning.

"We hope that it becomes just another piece of our public schools' day rather than still this thing over here that we're all trying to figure out," said Julie Young, Florida Virtual's president and CEO.

Florida Virtual is one of the nation's oldest and largest online schools, with more than 55,000 students in Florida and around the world, most of them part-time. Its motto is "Any Time, Any Place, Any Path, Any Pace."

Struggling students such as Kelsey-Anne, who suffers from attention deficit disorder, can take more time to finish courses while those who are gifted can go at a faster speed.

Casey Hutcheson, 17, finished English and geometry online in the time it would have taken to complete just one of those courses at his regular high school in Tallahassee.

"I like working by myself because of no distractions, and I can go at my own pace rather than going at the teacher's pace," he said.

For all its potential, virtual schooling has its critics and skeptics.

"There is something to be said for having kids in a social situation learning how to interact in society," said state Rep. Shelley Vana. "I don't think you get that if you're at home."

But virtual students get a different kind of social experience that is just as valuable, said Susan Patrick, president and CEO of the North American Council for Online Learning in Vienna, Va.

"We should socialize them for the world that they live in," she said, suggesting that people spend much of their time interacting via computer these days.

Many policymakers approach virtual learning with dollar signs in their eyes, expecting big savings from schools that do not need buildings, buses and other traditional infrastructure.

"We should not, as stewards of public money, be automatically paying the same or even close to the same amount of money for a virtual school day as we pay for a conventional school day," said Florida Senate Education Committee Chairman Don Gaetz.

Florida Virtual this year is slated to get $6,682 for every full-time equivalent student, just slightly less than the average of $7,306 for all of the state's public schools. Young said her school has expenses that traditional schools do not.

"Our data infrastructure is our building," she said.

Teacher unions have opposed spending public dollars on some virtual schools, mainly those that are privately operated or function as charter schools.  Indiana lawmakers this year refused to fund virtual charter schools. Opponents argued they are unproven and would have siphoned millions of dollars from traditional public schools.

Florida Virtual's Young said she plans to recommend that her state follow the example of Michigan, which passed a requirement that students complete some type of online experience to earn a high school diploma.

If "we do not give them an opportunity to take an online course, we're doing them a tremendous disservice," she said. "It's become the way of the world."


Weston High may soon switch to solar power
Norwalk HOUR
Jeremy Soulliere
Saturday, September 1, 2007

Weston High School could be going solar in the near future.

The town's Building Committee, together with the Hartford-based law firm Shipman and Goodwin, is investigating the possible grant funds the town could receive if it were to place a photovoltaic array, or solar panels, on the roof of the school, said committee member Don Gary.

"They're experts in writing RFP's (request for proposals) and evaluating where you can get the grant money," he said about the newly-hired firm.

The grant money evaluation, along with the creation of an RFP for the proposed project, were approved by the Board of Selectmen two weeks ago, Gary said. The board had appropriated up to $5,000 for the assessment, he said.

"At the end of this $5,000 we'll know what we can design for that roof," Gary said.

Gary, who approached the selectmen with the solar panel idea, said the high school's flat roofing could hold anywhere from 800 to 1,000 solar panels, a photovoltaic array that would likely cut the school's electricity bills by 50 percent.
"We'd be able to cut the electricity probably in half," said Gary, who noted the school has no shading.

An 800- to 1,000-panel arrangement could cost the town anywhere from $7 million to $8 million, Gary said, but up to 85 percent of that cost would likely be covered by grants. The panels, he said, would pay for themselves in about five years.

"It just makes sense from a financial point of view," Gary said.

Beyond the financial savings, the town would be helping to combat global warming with the new "clean" energy option, he said, which would be generating roughly 1.25 million of the 2.6 million kilowatt-hours of electricity used at the school per year.

"It's the right thing to do because every kilowatt-hour in Connecticut causes a little less than a pound of carbon dioxide to be put in the atmosphere," Gary said. "That would save over a million pounds going into the atmosphere per year."

First Selectman Woody Bliss said the proposed project would need approvals by the Building Committee, the Board of Education, the Board of Selectmen and the Board of Finance. But, given the estimated cost savings and the environmental advantages of going solar, he said, it "looks very, very promising" that the town boards would give the solar panels the green light.

"I think we need to be leaders in trying to break the mold in how we get our energy," Bliss said. "Right now it's all about burning oil."

Bliss said Weston, which has already committed to a campaign calling for municipalities to acquire 20 percent of their electricity from clean energy sources by 2010, is looking to assess its energy options wherever it can.

"We are committed to that," he said.

Healthy discourse: Area parent group hopes engage others in exploring school lunch reform
Greenwich TIME
By Christina Hennessy, Staff Writer
Article Launched: 10/28/2008 01:00:00 AM EDT

Given the choice of a snack for their next day's lunch, Emma and Abby Straight were not opposed to some cucumber slices.

"Can I peel it?" Emma, 7, asked her mother, Nicole, who was spooning pineapple chunks into reusable containers.

"Just be careful," her mom said, as she helped her other daughter, Abby, 6, roll up a sandwich wrap around grilled strips of chicken.

It was a typical night in the Straight's Westport home, since the girls often opt to bring lunch from home, rather than eat the lunch offered by their school.

Straight and other Westport mothers who are concerned about the kinds of meals students are eating in school will gather at the Westport Public Library's McManus Room from 9:30-11:30 a.m. today for a screening of "Two Angry Moms." The documentary, produced and largely financed by Weston resident Amy Kalafa and her husband, Alex, examines the food offered to children in school and the changes being made around the country to create more nutritious school lunch programs.

Kalafa, 50, who has a daughter in high school and another who is a college graduate, is expected to attend the screening.

A holistic health and nutrition counselor who has produced films and television programs for the past 15 years, Kalafa also directed the film, which was released a year ago. She worked with Susan Rubin, the founder of Westchester (N.Y.) County-based Better School Food, a coalition of educators, health professionals and parents. The group has worked for many years to increase awareness about the link between food and children's health and learning.

"The whole reason I made the film was because there I was in Weston, feeling like a freak, wondering if I was the only parent who was worrying about this," Kalafa says of the food being served in the schools. "This was all very fringe when I started. I felt very isolated."

Since then, she and Rubin have been profiled by leading national publications, as well as featured on television news and radio programs.

Their hope is to get the schools to replace foods loaded with artificial ingredients and additives, such as sugary drinks, chicken nuggets, chips and other snacks, with healthier foods, including fresh fruit and vegetables. Kalafa says she also hopes communities will push school officials to work with local and area farms and farmers' markets to create sustainable agricultural communities.

Straight, 35, who owns Time to Eat, which offers cooking classes to busy moms, says while she sees positives on the school lunch menu, such as grilled chicken on a whole wheat bun and tossed salads, she thinks there can be further improvement.

"We are not the food police," Straight says of Parents for Change, the group organizing the screening. "When people hear lunch reform, they think nuts and twigs."

Instead, she says she'd like to see fewer mozzarella sticks and french fries and more healthful options. Further, she and others are urging schools to purchase locally grown products and create school gardens, so children gain a better understanding of food, from seed to table.

"It's not about withholding delicious food," she says, adding that it is more about making nutritious food delicious and appealing.

The film highlights some school systems that have not only eliminated junk food and processed snack options, but also have worked to create these links with area food producers.

Attempts to reach Westport schools' lunch provider, Chartwells, were unsuccessful, though the districts' Web site lists the elementary, middle and high school menus nutritional values for such foods - at the elementary level - as chicken nuggets made with whole-grain flour, turkey and cheese on whole wheat wrap, French toast sticks, pizza dippers, and a bologna and cheese sandwich. The Web site also provides a link to the student wellness policy. That policy calls upon the district to provide students with nutritious and affordable food choices in school.

In recent years, the work to improve children's culinary choices has been linked to growing obesity rates among the youngest U.S. residents. And before that, health officials were looking to the link between a high-fat diet and cardiovascular disease.

Fifteen years ago, the U.S. Department of Agriculture began working on its School Meals Initiative for Healthy Children. Although school lunches were meeting the recommended dietary allowance, there was concern that too many calories were coming from saturated fat. As a result of that initiative, schools had to limit the amounts of fat and saturated fat in their menus.

The initiative was considered the largest change in the National School Lunch and School Breakfast programs since their inception in the late 1940s, according to the department.

Straight and Kalafa see this time in history as a moment to push ahead even further with reform.

Straight says she would love to see some of the items that make it to her dinner table - couscous, edamame and hearty soups, for example - reflected in school lunch menus. She says she does not want to "buck the system," but rather work with school officials to make changes.

"The idea of kid food is a made up concept," she says. "We are assuming what kids will or will not eat before asking them."

Kalafa sees opportunities to raise better food consumers, students who understand what is in their food, where it comes from, how it is being prepared and how their diets affect their ability to learn and play in school. She also hopes area schools work on coming together to increase their purchasing power and support the local and area farmers and businesses attempting to make thriving local food systems.

Rather than being "angry," Kalafa is hopeful that this movement is spreading across the country, empowering parents to take a better look at what their children are eating.

"How do you get kids to eat healthier foods?" she asks, "By them not knowing that the food (they are eating) is actually good for them. Instead, they see food that is beautiful, tastes great, has texture, has beauty and it has flavor."
Filmmaker hopes documentary spurs action on school lunches
Stamford ADVOCATE
By Lisa Chamoff, Staff Writer
Published August 20 2007

WESTON - In Amy Kalafa's ideal world, the processed pizzas and chicken nuggets normally found in school cafeterias would be replaced with meals made from scratch, and fruits and vegetables grown by local farmers or students.

While working on a documentary, Kalafa, a Weston resident and veteran independent filmmaker, learned it happens in some parts of the country.  But in most others, bags of chips, cookies and snack cakes sit tantalizingly in bins at the end of the lunch line, and most of the meals arrive frozen in the kitchens.

That's why she's angry.

Kalafa's recently completed film, "Two Angry Moms," chronicles how school lunches became so unhealthy and what some districts are doing to turn around their food programs.  She hopes the film will mobilize parents to take action this school year.

"We really want people to see the film in community groups, hold discussions and formulate an action plan," said Kalafa, 48, who has two daughters, including one who will enter Weston High School at the end of the month.

The other "angry mom" is Susan Rubin, a nutritionist and mother of three from Chappaqua, N.Y., who created the Westchester Coalition for Better School Food, made up of parents, educators and health professionals.

Kalafa decided to make the film and was introduced to Rubin. She followed Rubin and the efforts of her coalition for more than a year.  The pair came up with the name "Two Angry Moms" one day while tossing around ideas. It seemed to fit, especially when they discovered that a former Texas secretary of agriculture once said it would take 2 million angry moms to change school food programs nationwide.

In the film, Kalafa visits five schools that have what she describes as model food programs.

One of these, the Katonah-Lewisboro School District in New York, employed a chef from the Culinary Institute of America, who had workers creating some menu items from scratch. On one of the days that Kalafa showed up, the cafeteria was serving baked chicken with olive oil and herbs, cauliflower and roasted sweet potatoes.

"Kids were buying it and they were liking it," Kalafa said. "Surprise, surprise."

Kalafa filmed at a school in California that began stocking its salad bar with produce from local farmers. Another served kid-designed meals with locally grown vegetables.  Kalafa said she and Rubin have heard criticism about the documentary from those in the food-service industry.

"There's a perception the film is down on food service and that's totally not true," Kalafa said. The idea is to "help them make it better."

Holly Betts, the new food service director for Weston Public Schools, said school food is becoming more nutritious.  The district, which contracts with Whitsons Culinary Group in Islandia, N.Y., is promoting whole-wheat breads and pasta, and fresh vegetables, Betts said. They limit most foods that are high in fat and offer fruit each day.  Betts recently attended a convention by the School Nutrition Association in Alexandria, Va., where vendors showcased new products.

"Booth after booth after booth, it was trans fat-free and fat-free," Betts said. "Ultimately, we will see a whole-grain chocolate-chip cookie."

But some low-fat and fat-free foods are far from nutritious, she said. In one cafeteria she saw containers of low-fat yogurt sweetened with high-fructose corn syrup and aspartame.

"I don't want my kid eating that," Kalafa said. "I don't think that's healthy. Yogurt? Yes. Artificially sweetened yogurt? No."

Kalafa and Rubin are encouraging people to hold screenings of the film to encourage discussion. They are selling screening kits with 10 DVDs for $275, and single DVDs will be available for $25.

Rebecca Velasquez, a social worker at Springdale Elementary School in Stamford, plans to show the film to the district's Wellness Committee, of which she is a member.  Velasquez saw the documentary last spring and has been bringing up suggestions from it during meetings of a nutrition subcommittee.

"I really feel the documentary has a lot of value," Velasquez said.

People may sign up to host a screening by visiting www.angrymoms.org. Kalafa and Rubin are soliciting donations of "lunch money" to help fund production of the film, which cost about $500,000 to make.

Kalafa said she hopes to get involved with the Weston School District's Wellness Committee and make changes in her town. But so far the committee has they have not asked the "angry mom" to join.

"I'm awaiting my invitation," Kalafa said.
 

A Ruling On Race: Court Rejects Diversity Plans; Little Effect Seen In Hartford
By ROBERT A. FRAHM | Courant Staff Writer
June 29, 2007

 A U.S. Supreme Court decision forbidding schools from enrolling children strictly on the basis of race threatens many voluntary desegregation plans throughout the nation, but experts believe that it will have little effect on school desegregation efforts in Hartford.

That is because Hartford's court-approved desegregation plan in the Sheff v. O'Neill case differs from the voluntary plans in Louisville and Seattle that were overturned in Thursday's 5-4 Supreme Court ruling.

The key difference, legal experts said, is that the magnet schools and school choice plans that are a central piece of the Sheff efforts do not single out students by race. Rather, the plans attempt to achieve racial balance by selecting students based on where they live.  That strategy "falls firmly within what is permitted" by the Supreme Court, said Dennis D. Parker, an American Civil Liberties Union lawyer who is part of the legal team representing the plaintiffs in the long-running Sheff case.

State Attorney General Richard Blumenthal said that Thursday's ruling "should have no impact on state programs to reduce racial isolation in Hartford public schools." Under the Sheff plan, "no student is forced to attend a particular school based on race."

The Supreme Court rejected voluntary plans in Louisville, Ky., and Seattle, saying that assigning children to schools by race violates constitutional guarantees of equal protection.

"The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race," Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the majority. Justices Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas and Antonin Scalia joined the entirety of Roberts' 41-page opinion.

However, Justice Anthony Kennedy, who voted with the majority, left open the door for schools to pursue racial balance as long as individual students are not selected on the basis of race. He cited alternatives such as strategic site selection of new schools or attendance zones designed to tap into demographic patterns.

"A district may consider it a compelling interest to achieve a diverse student population," Kennedy said. "Race may be one component of that diversity."

Some civil rights leaders had feared that a ruling against the Seattle and Louisville plans would mark the end of an era of school integration efforts that began with the court's landmark Brown v. Board of Education ruling in 1954 that outlawed deliberate school segregation. However, Kennedy's opinion leaves open, with some restrictions, opportunities for schools to pursue desegregation.

Although the ACLU's Parker called the decision "a significant step backward," he said, "The bottom line is that five justices [counting Kennedy] did agree that diversity and reduction of racial isolation is a legitimate governmental interest."

Theodore M. Shaw, director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, said, "We got rained on today, but there's a silver lining." He said that Kennedy, who joined only part of Roberts' lead opinion, didn't go "as far as many people thought he might go."

Kennedy's assertion that racial balance remains a legitimate goal was seen as pivotal by legal experts.

"What Kennedy essentially is saying was, `I don't have any problem with race-conscious policies as long as they don't classify individual students by race,'" said Jack Balkin, a Yale University law professor and constitutional law expert.  Still, the ruling strips school boards of a tool to offset the impact of racially divided housing patterns. Both sides say that the practices used in Louisville and Seattle are common throughout the nation.

Justices John Paul Stevens, David Souter, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer dissented. Breyer said that the ruling would "threaten the promise" of the 1954 Brown decision.

Some, however, hailed Thursday's ruling. "There can't be a dual system of school assignments based on race or ethnicity," said Edward Blum, a visiting fellow at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington. "Racial quotas and preferences never produce diversity - they produce animosity, bitterness and perpetuate the belief that minority students just can't hack it."

The ruling reflects the influence on the high court of Alito and Roberts, both of whom were appointed by President Bush. Three years ago, before their appointments, the court ruled that universities could consider race in making admissions decisions.  Thursday's ruling comes just as Connecticut has tentatively agreed to take aggressive new measures to speed the pace of integration in Hartford's mostly black and Hispanic public schools.

Under a proposed extension of a 2003 settlement in the Sheff case, the state would spend millions of dollars more over the next five years to subsidize magnet schools, charter schools and other programs designed to bolster integration. The extension still must be approved by the legislature.  The original four-year settlement, due to expire this week, fell far short of its goals, including targets to more fully integrate magnet schools and to increase the number of Hartford schoolchildren enrolled in predominantly white suburban schools.

Plaintiffs in the Sheff case in 1996 won a state Supreme Court ruling ordering the state to desegregate Hartford's public schools, in which more than nine of 10 students are black or Hispanic.

Because some towns have large minority or white populations, magnet schools have tried to achieve racial balance by setting specific enrollment quotas for individual towns. That approach has had mixed success. Many recently established magnet schools in Hartford have had difficulty attracting enough suburban white students but have been more popular among minority students from both Hartford and its suburbs. However, some older regional magnet schools - notably those operated by the Capitol Region Education Council - have been able to attract racially mixed student bodies.

"We've never had to use a lottery that was race-based," said Bruce Douglas, the council's executive director. "We've been able to draw a large number of suburban students to our schools. ... This court case is not a significant concern to us."

In Seattle, the school system allows students to choose among high schools and then relies on tiebreakers - including race - to decide who gets into schools that have more applicants than openings.

In the Louisville case, a mother claimed that her son was denied entrance to a neighborhood school because he is white. The metropolitan district was under a court desegregation order until 2001, but since then it has continued to use an assignment plan using racial guidelines.

In Connecticut, while most observers said that the ruling would have little effect on the Sheff case, it was less clear what impact it would have on schools under orders to comply with the state's long-standing racial balance law.  That law says that the racial makeup of any public school must be within 25 percentage points of the overall racial makeup of the local school district.

Since 1980, when the law's regulations took effect, the state has required several towns to redistrict schools or adjust attendance policies to comply with the law.  Blumenthal, the attorney general, said that Thursday's ruling raises questions about how the state law might be applied, but that each case would have to be evaluated individually.

"We know of no particular racial balance plan in the state that would be invalid under the Supreme Court's ruling," he said.

Some towns, including Manchester and West Hartford, are under pressure from the state to improve racial balance at some schools.  In light of Thursday's court ruling, "we will definitely re-examine the entire racial balance plan we submitted to the state," said Margaret Hackett, chairwoman of the board of education in Manchester, which was cited two years ago because one of its 10 elementary schools was out of compliance.

West Hartford officials said that plans to reduce the racial isolation at two south end schools are based not on designating enrollment by race, but by boosting achievement at the schools and drawing families of all races from throughout West Hartford. The district will continue to work on improving the schools with an eye on how the court ruling will affect other integration efforts, said Jack Darcey, chairman of West Hartford's board of education.

Note:  the opinion expressed below does not represent that of this website
We Keep Succeeding At Failure
Hartford Courant
Rick Green
June 29, 2007

As we nod off again, give thanks to the Supreme Court for its 5-4 decision telling us not to bother with race when trying to create equality in education.

No, this inequality isn't about "extreme" issues like race. It's not about income either, since our cities are repositories of impoverished minorities.  So relax, there's no need to disrupt our antique education system, which preserves and enhances divisions based on race and class.

If you believe this hokum, then you probably think more money will solve our education problems. These divided, inferior schools will be our downfall, preventing us from having an educated, competitive workforce.

Back in 1965, a team of Harvard researchers visited Hartford, warning city officials that they "will have lost the ball game" if the region's growing racial imbalance wasn't addressed. Now, it's the first-ring suburbs that are up for grabs.

More recently, Trinity College researchers found that Connecticut's efforts under the Sheff v. O'Neill decision to create racially mixed magnet schools in the Hartford area have failed.  In West Hartford, schools have grown more segregated. Neighboring Bloomfield, at 95 percent, has a higher percentage of minorities than Hartford. Windsor and East Hartford will be there soon.

I heard Gov. M. Jodi Rell Thursday morning on the radio, touting a budget that gives an additional $260 million for public schools. Sure, let's just give Hartford - and what the heck, Greenwich and Avon, too - more money.  That might be useful, if most of it wasn't funding preservation of the same old divide.

"Segregation is harmful," John C. Brittain said when I called. A lawyer in the Sheff v. O'Neill lawsuit, Brittain was repeating - for the zillionth, drowsy time - that racial and economic isolation are destructive. Business leaders, worried about a nonexistent future workforce, agree.

The problem is us, the way we run this ant farm of a state with all our school boards, police departments, planning and zoning commissions and accompanying political fiefdoms.

"Rather than continuing to try and make these separate schools for rich and poor work well," Richard D. Kahlenberg, a senior fellow at The Century Foundation in Washington, D.C., told me, "we might try instead to give every kid the chance to go to a middle class school."

Dozens of school districts around the country already choose to balance enrollment based on income. St. Joseph College Professor Carlota Schecter told me her research proves the point we continue to ignore: Poor kids do better when they go to school with middle class kids. This is dangerous, sleep-disruptive thinking.

Schecter looked at the vocabulary of preschoolers in West Hartford, comparing children from different backgrounds, and found "children in economically integrated programs made significantly greater gains."

Yawn. We're still building new schools in Hartford and the suburbs, reinforcing racial and economic divisions, even as we pour additional millions into special programs, including the governor's new initiative dramatically expanding preschool.

"Racial segregation, particularly in education, leads to other segregation and disadvantages in the broader community," Brittain said, before I drifted off. "Look at Hartford."

No, look at West Hartford, Bloomfield or Windsor: They're Hartford back in 1965.  Take your pick - race or income - the divide remains. Or listen to the Supreme Court. Nighty night.

In Weston schools District's staff may enroll their children
Weston FORUM
by TERRY CASTELLANO
Apr 21, 2007

Children of non-resident Weston Public School certified staff may once again attend schools here if they satisfy tuition requirements. The step is seen by school officials as one that would help the school system recruit new teachers and other professionals and keep them on staffs here.

At the April 9 school board meeting the board unanimously approved reinstating a suspended policy permitting qualified children of non-resident certified staff to enroll in established programs within the school district.

This policy had been suspended before the new school buildings construction projects because of the lack of classroom space.

According to the revised policy, presented by the assistant superintendent, Jeremy Belair, admission is contingent on an assessment of class size limitations and the availability of school resources, and is based on the premise that additional staff will not be required. Tuition will be determined at a rate established by the board before the students are admitted.

This adopted policy states that the board will not be obligated to provide special education programs or services to non-resident students. However, should a non-resident student receive special or additional services, the actual costs associated with providing these services will be in addition to the tuition fee.

Tuition is to be paid in semi-annual installments, due Aug. 15, before the beginning of the school year, and Jan. 15.

Parents or guardians will be responsible for transportation for the non-resident students.

“This is very satisfying,” Ellen Uzenoff, board chair, said, after the unanimous vote of approval. “We are very happy to see this in place.”

Last month, during the first reading of the draft of this policy, Ms. Uzenoff told the board and the public that she believes this reinstated policy will help with recruitment and retention of teachers.

Decision on schools could impact home sales
Greenwich TIME
By Andrew Shaw, Staff Writer
Published April 16 2007

Greenwich real estate agents will be listening carefully when the Board of Education's task force gives its recommendations to fix racial imbalance and declining enrollment in September.  Prospective buyers aren't showing signs of caution yet, agents say, but the housing market will benefit once a decision is made on how to address the problems.

"Any change, like a closure or redistricting, can definitely affect people's decisions on purchasing real estate," said Russell Pruner, a partner at Shore and Country Properties in Greenwich.

Real estate agents will be glad when a decision is made, he said, because uncertainty doesn't help. "The perception is worse than what the reality is, and perception can really drive the market."

George Crossman, a member of the task force as the Greenwich Board of Realtors representative, said that when a family moves, they usually are bound to sending children to the school closest to their home.

"That's your one time to choose where your kid goes to school," said Crossman, a Riverside resident and father of two. But one option expected to be examined by the task force -- making more schools available to the entire town using a lottery admission process -- would open up housing possibilities by no longer linking families to the neighborhood school. "It's the first time in Greenwich they've really given them a choice after they've moved into their property."

Real estate agent Doug Fainelli, a member of the task force, has witnessed what the town's reaction was like the last time a school's status was in flux. Before the International School at Dundee opened, residents were anxious to find out its status, recalls Fainelli, a retired Dundee principal. Once the decision was made, people came to accept it.

Fainelli, who now also is with Shore and Country Properties, expects much of the same with prospective owners as they await the board's decision, expected at the end of the year.

The buyers aren't overly worried now because they believe Greenwich will make a sound decision, he said, but it will help to have a clearer picture of what the school system will look like.

"There's a high confidence level in the school system in town," said Fainelli, a liaison with the selectmen's office. A decision will help in easing uncertainty, he added.

Pruner believes changes to the housing market will be more of a blip than a transformation, citing the example of the closing and reopening of Cos Cob School after the fire in 1990. "All of this is short lived," Pruner said. "Once the decision has been made, people go forward. Going through the process is the hard part."

Carolyn Anderson, president of the Greenwich Association of Realtors, is optimistic that the recommendations will strengthen the district and, as a result, make Greenwich more attractive for prospective owners.

"A committee examining this is a good thing. This could be a great help," said Anderson, of Anderson Associates of Greenwich. Real estate agents are aware of the task force's work, she said, because the success of the school system reflects on the success of the housing market. "We all really care about the schools."


School enrollment hard to predict
Greenwich TIME
By Andrew Shaw, Staff Writer
Published April 9 2007

Three decades ago, the number of public school students in town plummeted. Three schools were closed and those children distributed among the remaining schools.

Over time, enrollment rose, though, and the three schools were re-opened.  Now, officials have projected a steady decline in enrollment that they believe will continue for another decade. Since 2003, their projections have been correct.  The projected decline has parents worried their children's schools might be closed.  The importance of enrollment projections, therefore, is not lost on assistant superintendent of curriculum, research and evaluation, John Curtin, who calculates enrollment.

"The stakes are certainly higher now that we're in a period of declining enrollment," Curtin said recently.

He has produced volumes of enrollment data for the Board of Education's task force that is recommending options to fix declining enrollment and space use issues, as well as racial imbalance.  The district's enrollment projections, he often reminds the committee, are best guesses, not hard facts.  For example, the projection for the 2012-2013 school year is 8,358 students, but, with a 6.2 percent margin of error, that could still mean as many as 8,876 or as few as 7,840 will show up.

That's why, Curtin said, "the art of enrollment projections" will never be an exact science. But in this case inexact science is still useful.

"It's not like the variation (on projections) has been so far above or below that it's not a usable number," he said.

It would be better in the future to use a range for long-term projections to show the margin of error better, Curtin said. Trends in town can be unpredictable and add difficulty to projecting enrollment, he added. Housing development, birth rates and economic changes that could bring new families to town all have to be considered.

"Greenwich is changing. It's really hard to anticipate what those changes are going to be," he said.

Even a one-year projection, with a margin of error at plus or minus 0.7 percent, can be off. The district's projection of 8,905 students for this school year was under by 49 students, causing operating budget constraints.

"That makes our budget a lot tighter," Curtin said. "There's no way to adjust things once school starts."

Peter Prowda, an education consultant with the state Department of Education who does projections for Greenwich, said the numbers will never be entirely accurate. I don't expect to hit it on the number," Prowda said. "You make an assumption that the patterns we observe will continue."

Prowda said that after gathering data, there still can be discrepancies on what the calculations mean. "Numbers speak to us, but sometimes we're not sure what they're saying," he said. "Now you have to figure out what it is, whether it's a temporary phenomenon or not."

No experts are disputing the claim that Greenwich is in a state of declining enrollment. The question is if the projected decline will continue as predicted. By 2016-2017, Greenwich will have only 8,007 students, down from the 2003-2004 peak of 9,113, according to a chart provided by the district.

As Curtin pointed out to the enrollment and space use task force, there's always the chance enrollment could drop dramatically again, as it did in the late 1970s and 1980s. Or it could do just the opposite. Experts say Greenwich usually is a stable town with its economy and housing, so the projections stay accurate. At least, that's how recent history unfolded. If a major change happens in Greenwich, all bets are off with projections, Prowda said.

"Most people can't adjust for future things," he said. "We're going to guess based on past history."

Westporter files suit vs. town, school officials; cites racial bias
By JEREMY SOULLIERE, Hour Staff Writer
March 13, 2007

WESTPORT — A Westport woman has filed a civil suit against the town of Westport and school officials, contending the town's school district has fostered "a pattern of racial discrimination" that has caused her family emotional distress.

Carla Karlen, a black Westport resident who has brought forward the federal suit, claims school officials have tolerated and encouraged race discrimination in Westport's "educational environment," neglected her child's need for proper special education services, and failed to protect the Karlen children from bullying.

The suit, which was filed with the town on March 8, names the town, Superintendent of Schools Elliott Landon, Director of Pupil Services Cynthia Gilchrist, and Kay Maye, the former principal at Coleytown Elementary School.

Neither Landon or Gilchrist returned calls concerning the suit Monday.
Karlen's spouse is white, the legal documents state, and her two children are biracial.

When the couple's oldest child was in the first grade at Coleytown Elementary School in the fall of 1998, the suit papers state, Karlen noticed there were no "students of color" in her daughter's classroom despite there being "children of color" in other classes. After parents had been asked by school officials if they had any suggestions concerning class placement in the next school year, Karlen had written back to the school, stating "she would like to see other children of color in the classroom with her daughter."

In September of 1999, she was "alarmed" to learn there were still no students "of color" in her daughter's classroom at Coleytown Elementary, the suit papers state. Karlen then approached the school's assistant principal about the matter, who told her that "'because (your daughter's) skin is so fair, we don't think of her as black.'" The assistant principal also told Karlen that the minority students who were bused in from Bridgeport to Coleytown Elementary were kept separate "for obvious reasons," the documents state.

"Outraged at what she was hearing," she met with then-First Selectwoman Diane Farrell "to discuss what the town was doing to promote racial diversity," the suit papers state. Karlen quickly thereafter became "persona non grata" at Coleytown Elementary and in town, with school administrators suddenly being "antagonistic" towards her family, and school personnel following her when she was at the school.

"(School) staff members would openly stare and whisper," the documents state. "Parent Teacher Association ... members became hostile and treated (Karlen) as if she were invisible, (and the Karlen children) suddenly had difficulty getting play-dates."

When the Karlens' oldest child — whose learning disabilities include Dyslexia, Dysgraphia, Auditory Integration Disorder and Erlin Syndrome — was in the second grade, she still could not read, the documents state. The Karlens approached the school's educators about their daughter possibly having a learning disability, but "their concerns were met with hostility," the suit papers state.

"The administrators and educators insinuated that a dysfunctional home life could be a factor in her inability to read," the documents state.

After an "outside evaluation" determined their daughter had Dyslexia, the school decided to assess the child, the suit papers state, resulting in a contradicting analysis that stated the child was not Dyslexic.

"(The schools' tests determined she) was not Dyslexic or learning disabled in any way — that her delays are 'developmental' and that, while she does not qualify for special services, they do intend to give her some support," the documents state.

The Karlen's oldest child was also "physically harmed by different children throughout" her third grade year, the documents state, but the school's administration failed to help her.

"The principal finds for the other child each time, regardless of the circumstances," the suit papers state.

After the Karlens requested both their children be transferred to another district school in 2001, their children were transferred to Long Lots Elementary School, the documents state, where the older Karlen child's Dyslexia and Dysgraphia was confirmed. But, despite being classified as special needs at Long Lots, the Karlens' oldest child still "had difficulty getting the special services she needed," the suit papers state.

Karlen, who is being represented by Middletown Attorney Dawne Westbrook, is seeking compensatory and punitive damages the court "shall consider to be just, reasonable and fair" in this case, according to the suit papers.

The federal case, which has been assigned to U.S. District Court Judge Christopher F. Droney in Hartford, has no set court date as of yet, according to the U.S. District court clerk in Hartford, and the defendants named in the suit have to respond to the allegations within 20 days of when the notification had been received.

That's "Freund" not "Freud"
Budget woes, vacancies await Freund
Greenwich TIME
By Colin Gustafson, Staff Writer
Posted: 05/16/2009 09:11:31 PM EDT

From working with a tight budget and making critical hiring choices, to restoring public confidence in the district and monitoring a high-stakes construction project, Sidney Freund will have his work cut out for him when he takes over as head of Greenwich Public Schools on July 1.

One of the most immediate challenges, according to outgoing schools chief Betty Sternberg, will be dealing with the district's budget difficulties.  Because of town revenue shortfalls, school officials have shaved nearly $4 million out of next school year's spending plan, which totals nearly $126 million and includes cuts to more than two dozen staff positions.  With more revenue shortfalls forecast next year, Freund's administration could be forced to make more cuts from the 2010-11 budget and seek more union concessions, she said.

"When you have a budget that was already $4 million less than what you started, there will be some tremendously difficult decisions to make," said Sternberg.

Freund is also expected to work closely with school officials to fill top administrator spots, including the high school headmaster position being vacated Al Capasso.

"I think that's the real challenge, because his decision will leave a lasting imprint," said former school board member Bill Kelly. "The budget is important, but you have to pick the right people to work within a budget."

Additionally, officials said, Freund will have to jump into a hodgepodge of different initiatives, programs and school projects, including implementation of a new teacher-evaluation system and leading the district's review of its secondary schools.  He'll also have to keep a close eye on the progress of Glenville School's reconstruction this summer. Students and staff will move first into temporary modular classrooms this fall and then into their new school in January 2010, pending an on-time completion of work.

The Hamilton Avenue School rebuilding debacle could also re-emerge if Freund's administrators are required to testify in the town's anticipated legal action against the project's general contractor, Sternberg said. 
Another challenge will be boosting the public's confidence in the school system, which has dwindled for many over the past two years, according to survey results, said Board of Estimate and Taxation Chairman Steve Walko.  Between 2006-08, community satisfaction with the district declined on the 2008 Harris poll, with teachers saying they didn't feel they could influence policy and parents saying their schools weren't doing enough to communicate with them.

"He needs to be able to communicate with constituents. He needs to be transparent. He needs to understand the fabric of the community," Walko said. "People will have confidence if he, in fact, recognizes and addresses their issues with solutions that are consistent."

For Freund, the adjustment to a larger school district may also pose a challenge. His first three superintendent posts were in small districts -- Herricks schools in New Hyde Park, N.Y. (4,077 students); Oyster Bay-East Norwich schools in Oyster Bay, N.Y. (1,628); and Valley Stream, N.Y., schools (4,583).

And in Dobbs Ferry, he was responsible for a district totaling roughly 1,450 students in just three schools -- an elementary, middle and high school -- with an operating budget of about $38 million budget this year. By comparison, in Greenwich, he'll be managing a school system of nearly 9,000 students in 11 elementary schools, three middle schools and a high school, with a nearly $126 million operating budget.

"It's a larger community and a larger school district (in Greenwich), and it takes some time to get to know all of the players, learn the names, meet the parents," Sternberg said.

The school board will evaluate Freund's performance in an annual report that considers a variety of factors, including community satisfaction and his progress at boosting student achievement, among others, said board Chairwoman Nancy Weissler. He will not be subject to a pay-based critique of his efforts, however, since the school board eliminated a performance pay component from his contract that had existed in Sternberg's contract. However, under a new provision, board members will be able to vote on whether to renew his contract at the end of his second year.

Meantime, community members say they'll be watching his moves closely.

"I have trust in the (selection) process that got us this superintendent," said Bob Brady, chairman of the Representative Town Meeting Education Committee. "But whether or not we got the right person, only time will tell -- as it always does."

Former Commissioner for Education in CT Betty Sternberg - link to other article here.

Ed Board races to replace Sternberg
Greenwich TIME
By Colin Gustafson, Staff Writer
Article Launched: 10/17/2008 07:19:10 AM EDT

School board members say they are intent on having a replacement for departing Superintendent Betty Sternberg when she leaves in June.

With Sternberg's three-year contract expiring on June 30, 2009, the Board of Education will have to complete the search in eight months or appoint an interim superintendent - an outcome several members said they were determined to avoid.

"I personally have no desire for that, because it just prolongs the outcome," said board member Steven Anderson. "We really need to keep our eye on the ball and make sure we find somebody who can hit the ground running by next June."

Sternberg, the town's highest paid employee, will earn more than $290,000 this year.

Sternberg announced Wednesday that she plans to step down in June. Her decision comes amid mounting concerns from some parents, teachers and board members that the initiatives implemented by Sternberg during the first two years of her tenure have failed to produce satisfactory improvements in student achievement.

Board Chairwoman Nancy Weissler said next week she plans to appoint a four-person search committee, which will hire a consulting firm to identify poetntial candidates; host focus groups of parents, school staff and administrators to help develop a "profile" for the new superintendent; and finally begin actively being recruiting and interviewing candidates, she said.

"We'll very much be looking for public feedback when this gets started" following the board's Oct. 23 meeting, said Weissler, who served on the previous search committee that selected Sternberg for the position in June 2006.

In choosing a successor, Democratic Selectman Lin Lavery said the board should seek out someone likely to remain with the district for some time. She said she was concerned that turnover in recent administrations could raise red flags for candidates and deter some from applying.

"We have had two different superintendents step down in three years," she said. "At some point, people are going to look at this and start asking 'what are they stepping into? What is happening with our community?' "
North Mianus parent Tom Pastore said the school board should focus its search on candidates who have already amassed years of experience as administrators in the school district and are more familiar with the concerns of parents.

As a former state commissioner, "Sternberg was like this big-name free agent that the board went out and decided it had to have," he said. Next time, "we need somebody local and homegrown, who has already been here a while, and knows the politics of what people like and dislike."
Sternberg to step down
Greenwich TIME
By Colin Gustafson, Staff Writer
Article Launched: 10/16/2008 01:00:00 AM EDT

Superintendent of Schools Betty Sternberg will step down as chief administrator of the town's public school system when her contract expires next summer, she said, citing a desire to be "responsive to the interests of the community."

With a Board of Education vote looming next week on whether to renew her contract with the school system, Sternberg said she decided on Monday night to not seek renewal of her employment agreement, which expires June 30, 2009.

"I wanted the district to know sooner rather than later," she said of her decision to announce her resignation prior to the board's vote on Oct. 23.

Sternberg's decision comes nearly two weeks after the board voted to give her a $3,500 salary bonus - out of a potential $15,000 for which she was eligible - based on its evaluation of her management of the district last school year.  Over the past two months, the superintendent has faced heavy criticism from some board members over what they have called the lackluster progress of students since she took over the schools two years ago.

She also came under fire last spring for blocking Boy Scouts from recruiting during class time in Greenwich schools, and has endured intense scrutiny from some parents over the district's handling of the delay-mired Hamilton Avenue School project. In making the decision to step down, Sternberg took into account "the context in the education community and the community at large," she said. "My sense is that it would be in everyone's interest for a new person to take this mantle and continue with it."

Sternberg, who returned in August from a three-month medical leave of absence, said health concerns had not played a role in her decision.  Several school board members described Sternberg's decision Wednesday night as a surprise, and said the superintendent had not faced internal pressure from individual members to step down.

"This was her own decision," said Board Chairwoman Nancy Weissler, who was on the four-person search committee that recommended Sternberg for the position in 2006. The others were current member Steven Anderson and two former members, Ginny Gwynn and Bill Kelly.

Weissler said she will begin selecting members for a new search committee to find Sternberg's successor following the body's Oct. 23 meeting.  Sternberg will remain in the district through the end of her contract. At a meeting Wednesday night on the Hamilton Avenue School reconstruction project, parents reacted to the news of Sternberg's future departure.

"PTA Council has a very good working relationship with Dr. Sternberg. We wish her well in all of her future endeavors," said Julie Faryniarz, the PTA Council president.

Alex Capozza, a vice president of the Hamilton Avenue School PTA Executive Board, said Sternberg had big shoes to fill in and inherited a number of complex issues.

"She came into very tough territory," Capozza said.

Sternberg's departure, Capozza said, creates an opening for the next superintendent to improve academics across the school district.
Sternberg waiting for OK from docs
Greenwich TIME
By Colin Gustafson
Staff writer
Article Launched: 08/05/2008 02:30:20 AM EDT

Her doctors will tell Superintendent of Schools Betty Sternberg this Friday whether she can return full-time to being the town's chief school administrator, a position that she temporarily vacated two months due to an undisclosed illness.  Sternberg said yesterday that while she's eager to jump back into being superintendent of the town's public school system by a target date of Aug. 11, it's up to the doctors to give her a clean bill of health to go back to work.

"I cannot tell you with 100 percent certainty what will happen," she noted. "But I do know I'm feeling better and can't wait to get back."

Sternberg, 58, started a leave of absence June 16 citing undisclosed medical issues. Last year, she wrote an opinion editorial in which she discussed living cancer-free since being diagnosed with breast cancer in 2001.  While declining to discuss her medical issues with Greenwich Time Monday, Sternberg said she felt "more than ready" to take on a full slate of responsibilities in the 2008-09 school year.

One goal Sternberg hopes to pursue upon her return, she said, is expanding the teacher evaluation system she implemented last year at several schools.  Sternberg would like to turn her pilot program into a district-wide program that uses a standardized set of criteria to judge performance. Administrators under the program are also encouraged to take a more active, hands-on role in observing how teachers interact with students before completing their evaluations.  However, topping her list of priorities is finding a resolution to the facility issues with Hamilton Avenue and Glenville schools, Sternberg said.

The Board of Education last week agreed on a plan to delay the start of Hamilton Avenue's year to give a contractor extra time to finish work on its rebuilding project, while shifting Glenville students to modular classrooms to allow restoration to begin on their own building.  Both projects have been mired in delays for years, and despite the school board's recent approval of a plan to expedite work, another projected delay in the Hamilton Avenue project has thrown the fate of both schools next year into doubt.

If the Hamilton Avenue project isn't done by August 15, Glenville students will be forced to attend class in as many as four different schools across the district, while Hamilton Avenue students occupy the modulars instead.  While she hopes the situation won't come to that, Sternberg said she'll be prepared to deal with such a dispersion scenario by drawing on her experience of re-assigning Hamilton Avenue students to other schools after mold was discovered in their modulars last year.

"It was painful, but we've learned a lot from the decisions we made with Hamilton Avenue," she said. "That was an emergency situation - so not only having that prior experience, but being able to brace for it as a possibility will make things go smoother next year with Glenville."

Sternberg added that she's been closely watching the situation as it unfolds, even while undergoing treatment for her illness. As such, she's well aware of "all the nuances" of the situation and plans to be able to approach the issues with a fresh perspective, she said.

"There is a positive aspect to having being removed from everything," she said, "because you come back and understand what's important in a big picture - and what you need to do help children meet the vagaries of life, when not everything goes as planned."
Sternberg unveiling budget proposal
 Greenwich TIME
By Andrew Shaw, Staff Writer
Published November 8 2007

Communicating with native Spanish speakers, increasing technology and improving specialty programs are focal points for Superintendent of Schools Betty Sternberg's presentation tonight on her 2008-09 budget proposal to the Board of Education.

Sternberg's budget proposal is for $125 million, a 5 percent increase over the 2007-08 budget. That marks a slight drop compared with the 5.4 percent increase she sought for the 2007-08 budget over the 2006-07 budget. Sternberg will make her presentation at 7 p.m. at Cos Cob School.

One of the highlights of the budget, Sternberg said, is the $300,000 marked for adding computerized whiteboards, known as Smartboards, to more classrooms around the district as part of a multiyear plan to eliminate the disparity in the number of Smartboards per school.

The western end of town, especially at the underperforming New Lebanon School area, is a focus of the budget as well. Money is targeted to pay for a part-time bilingual parent liaison to talk to Spanish-speaking parents, and more brochures and letters will be translated.

"If you have a liaison who speaks the language and is able to connect with people É that whole issue of (parent involvement) is addressed," Sternberg said.

Western Middle School seeks money to offset field trip costs for students in need, while Hamilton Avenue School seeks money to expand its Suzuki violin program down to the second grade.

Consultant Ed Linehan, who was hired to help the board's task force in its research of magnet schools addressing racial imbalance problems, will be retained to help the review process of Hamilton Avenue School and the other two magnet programs, as well as the development of New Lebanon's magnet program.

Inside the classroom, after recent overhauls in math and literacy curricula, Sternberg wants to spend money reviewing the effectiveness of science curriculum to find improvements for instruction. Science is under more scrutiny by the state because more students are tested now in science on state exams.

Sternberg also wants funding for her new secondary education review committee, set to begin meeting this January as they consider major changes in how the middle schools and high school operate. For teachers, Sternberg wants to pay for more training in using student test scores and other data to drive their instruction, part of the district's goal to give teachers more insight into their students' academic performance history.

In last year's budget approval, the Board of Estimate and Taxation lopped $500,000 off the Board of Education's final proposal and advised school officials to look for ways to reduce costs where possible instead of seeking more money than the BET believes is necessary. Sternberg ended up evenly spreading the budget cut over all the departments.

The BET sets a spending guideline based on how many students are in the district. In 2008-09, the district predicts there will be 8,929 students, slightly less than the 8,974 this school year.

Sternberg said the district found ways to cut back elsewhere, such as by not making any major textbook purchases for the district, which can cost about $300,000. And, instead of giving departments a dollar amount they can expect to receive each year, now all departments have to explain every item they request. This year, Sternberg said the budget should be more accurate and not leave money unspent at the end of the year, as has happened in the past.

"There should not be an expectation we'll return money," Sternberg said.

After tonight's presentation, there will be a public hearing Nov. 20, also at Cos Cob School. The board will vote on the budget on Dec. 20, and then submit it to the town for approval.

Diversity dilemma Parents, RISE committee disagree over influence of race on options
Greenwich TIME
By Andrew Shaw, Staff Writer
Published September 23 2007

As Greenwich considers adding magnet programs they hope will scatter children of different races across the district, some white parents have spoken out against underperforming, non-English speaking students coming to their child's school and taking attention away from their child.  They also have questioned school officials about why students at schools with many underachieving, minority students would get more money for a magnet program compared to their child's school.

Supporters of the Board of Education's task force, which is examining racial imbalance, say that the comments of those parents are actually bigoted remarks veiled in the language of requests to preserve a neighborhood school system the state says is racially segregated.

Natalie Queen, who is set to become the first black woman to be elected to the Board of Education, said that when people oppose opening up their neighborhood schools to other parts of town, it's akin to "structural racism."

"All kids should be educated equally regardless of what they look like and where they came from," said Queen, a mother of a middle school student.

The state said New Lebanon and Hamilton Avenue Schools have too high a percentage of minority students, and warned that Old Greenwich soon will have too many white students. The law is intended to create a diverse classroom so that students of all races have time together.  As of Oct. 1, 2006, 168 minority students attended Hamilton Avenue and 119 attended New Lebanon, compared to Old Greenwich, which had 19 minority students last year, according to the most recent data available.

Since the beginning of the task force on racial imbalance, space use and declining enrollment, or RISE, in February, some parents have worried that the district would close a school to create better racial balance and maximize space. Now that that option is considered off the table, the focus has been on magnet programs, which school officials say will draw white students from other parts of town to a mostly minority-populated school, and vice versa.

Other than redistricting, magnet schools are thought to be the only option available to make the district more evenly diverse. In response, opponents ask why the district is focusing on racial diversity, saying they want the schools to focus solely on achievement.  A few parents have questioned whether the state's diversity mandate is valid in light of the recent Supreme Court ruling that said Seattle and Louisville schools can't assign students to schools based on race; lawyers consulted by Greenwich officials believe the Connecticut law will be upheld.

Supporters of the RISE task force's efforts say diversity is a measure of achievement and it's not a "tangential issue," as described by one parent at a task force public forum earlier this month.

The forum included comments from both sides of the issue -- those supporting the task force's search for a solution for racial imbalance, and those saying the district isn't looking at the bigger picture of student achievement for all students, not just minority students at a few schools.

Craig Bibb, who called the work of the task force a "social policy experiment," said people would be wrong to think that those speaking against the task force are narrow-minded parents who want to maintain a system that sustains racial isolation.

"I didn't hear anyone speak against diversity. It's about reducing (racial imbalance) at the cost of losing a school," said Bibb, a North Street parent. On a list of options, North Street was listed as a school that had the greatest projected cost savings if it was closed, although school officials said school closure is not being seriously considered. Some parents, however, see turning their neighborhood school into a magnet school as a closure.

"What people are saying is that they love their neighborhood school and they want their neighborhood school to become even better. I don't think anyone's saying they don't want children from other ethnic backgrounds in their schools. They just don't want their child bused to another school," Bibb said.

But some supporters of the committee's work interpret recent public comments of opponents as being close-minded and ignorant.

"It's hard for people to talk about racial imbalance when they are the majority. They never had to deal with being the minority. But I can see the imbalance," said Queen, a task force member.

Angelique Bell, a task force member who is Hispanic, said "some people just don't want to see change," but on the other side, worries that too much is being made of diversity for diversity's sake.

"I'm offended by the thought that just putting a Hispanic kid next to a white kid is going to raise the Hispanic kid's scores," said Bell, a Parkway School mother. "I don't care who sits next to my child, as long as the education is stellar."

Administrators have touted increased diversity as a way to help wealthy, white students be immersed with poor students and other cultures. Sternberg said the cultural development of students, not the mandate, is the driving reason behind the committee's work, which will be reviewed by the board Sept. 27.  Some parents who commented at the public forum said Sternberg was just performing a "social experiment" and trying to be a "social engineer" by arbitrarily mixing races through an open choice school system.

Sternberg emphatically disagrees.

"It's about teaching children to work and play together with children who may not necessarily look like them or represent cultures of their own. I'm not the social engineer," Sternberg said.

Those who feel she is overemphasizing racial diversity at the cost of achievement should think about the racially charged fight at the high school in 2006, she said. Achievement is more than just test scores, Sternberg believes, and people should not be satisfied with students who do well in class but don't embrace diversity.

"I don't think anyone's achievement has been addressed," if there are racially charged fights, Sternberg said.

Early on in the committee process, Sternberg said she was angered after she received e-mails with "a hateful, bullying tone," by those opposing the focus on racial imbalance. She wrote a letter in March to parents and as an op-ed to newspapers chiding parents for being narrow-minded.

In her letter, Sternberg wrote, "I am distraught to read e-mails written with a hateful, bullying tone from parent to parent and from citizen to town official which say, among other things, 'The children are exposed to racial diversity in middle school and high school and in their extracurricular activities. We don't want our elementary school-age children used to neutralize the makeup of another part of town.' "

Since that time, Sternberg said there are parents she believes haven't changed their minds.

"There will be some people who will never embrace this as an important goal," she said.

Representative Town Meeting member Peter Sherr remembers the letter well.

"She was implying that people who were not supportive of her point of view of racial balance might be racist or bigoted. That's Hartford-style politics," said Sherr, referring to Sternberg's former job as state Commissioner of Education. "Greenwich is a much more generous and open-minded place."

Sherr, a North Mianus parent, said that a lack of interest in diversity is not the problem.

"I know there are lots of parents who want a diverse environment. But I don't think they want it preached to or dictated to on that subject," Sherr said. "I don't believe people in Greenwich are bigots or that they don't believe diversity in Greenwich is a good thing."

Instead, Sherr said that it may be the board and top administrators, who are white, that are being racist by trying to come up with a solution for increasing diversity.  School officials believe "we think we know what's best for them. If that isn't racism, I don't know what is," Sherr said.

However, board chairwoman Colleen Giambo said the idea to address racial imbalance is about embracing the fact that that Greenwich is racially diverse.

"This is not a social experiment that's just out there for the world. This is Greenwich. We're a diverse community," Giambo said.

While some parents told the district they believe adding magnet programs and busing children to new schools for the purpose of diversity will take away money from achievement measures, Giambo said there won't be "huge, extra expenses" and that all children will get the attention needed. A magnet program can cost about $75,000 in start-up fees, plus $50,000 in recurring costs.

"This is not an exercise of taking from this one and giving to that one," Giambo said.

She also addressed the concern that moving English as a Second Language children to a mostly white school will hurt the achievement of students already there, since the teacher may need to give extra attention to the ESL child.

"They are always concerned there will be a remedial aspect and then their kid won't get as much attention. But you have to have classrooms that can manage differentiation," Giambo said. The International School at Dundee, which is culturally diverse and has a magnet program, handles different cultures and learning abilities well, Giambo said.

Parents should embrace the idea of a racially balanced district, Giambo said.

"You can't really argue with the concept," Giambo said. "We need to do it."
Parents slam RISE options
 Greenwich TIME
By Hoa Nguyen, Staff Writer
Published September 12 2007

Some parents blasted the effort to achieve racial balance in Greenwich schools as a "social policy experiment" that puts their children's education at risk.

"We want great neighborhood schools," parent Craig Bibb said to wide applause last night at Greenwich High School during a public forum to discuss seven options school administrators are proposing for next year to address racial imbalance, declining enrollment and space utilization identified at some Greenwich schools.

"Greenwich citizens do not want to put our community's great assets at risk to conduct a social policy experiment," Bibb said to thunderous applause. "The performance gap Greenwich parents are most concerned with is the gap between public and private schools. The gap É between students of different ethnic backgrounds is a tangential issue."

A few weeks ago, administrators gave seven options to a task force called the RISE committee to consider. The group, which was organized in February, is expected to issue its recommendations to the Board of Education later this month.

With three of the options requiring the closing of a school -- an unpopular choice among parents and administrators -- task force members said last night that they will not recommend any of those options to the education board. That leaves the other four options, which include some variation of transforming one or more so-called neighborhood schools into magnet schools. In all four cases, New Lebanon School would be one of those schools.

Last night's forum attracted nearly 100 parents, some of whom directed their attacks at Superintendent of Schools Betty Sternberg.

One parent said the superintendent and a consultant she hired to help the district sort out the options send their own children to private or charter schools rather than public ones.

"Apparently, magnet schools are not good enough for their children," Parkway School parent Anna Saras said.

Sternberg acknowledged that her children, who are in their 20s, did attend private high school but up until eighth grade were enrolled in public school.

Another parent, Peter Sherr, who is a Representative Town Meeting member, also derided Sternberg's "overemphasis" on racial balance.

"It's the height of bigotry, actually, that white wealthy educated people are thinking what's best for the African American and Latino communities," he said. "I think what we need to do is not go further with building a system of haves and have-nots. We should not be going any further with figuring out racial balance until we have a clear answer from the legal authority in the state."

Marianna Ponns Cohen, who is running for a spot on the education board, said magnet schools are ineffective and costly.

"We should educate our children to the highest standards and spend money on academic programs and not busing," she said. "Magnet schools are just a fancier way to legitimate the busing of students under an illusory promise of choice."

Some parents objected to the objections, saying they want schools such as New Lebanon to become a magnet school so that it is not subject "to the segregation that this country has been trying to fight for a long time," Byram native Ted Flinn said.

"New Lebanon is a racially imbalanced school," he said. "I'm faced with a decision of sending them to a racially imbalanced school or sending them to a private school É Your ideas of trying to change the system that currently exists and to improve it is very noteworthy."

Other parents said those who opposed magnet schools are too hung up on details.

"It seems to me that you are more worried about driving or busing your child than you are about your child's education," parent Claudia Velez said.

Still other parents with children in existing magnet schools such as the International School at Dundee and Julian Curtiss said they have had success with those programs and would recommend it to other parents.

The task force is expected to hold its final meeting Tuesday at Cos Cob School where the group will vote to prioritize the seven options. The Board of Education will then review the choices during its Sept. 27 meeting at Old Greenwich School.

Sternberg grades her year
Greenwich TIME
By Andrew Shaw, Staff Writer
Published August 19 2007

As she sat in her office last week, Betty Sternberg, superintendent of schools and amateur photographer, gestured toward three photographs she took in Mexico that are now displayed beside her desk.

"These two got awards, but this is the one I like the best. Of course, that's the one that didn't get an award," Sternberg said, pointing toward the center photo that captures the image of a solitary stone statue on a run-down street in San Miguel D'Allende. Sternberg, 57, laughs about receiving honors for two photos, but not for the artwork of which she is most proud.

The same may be said of Sternberg's first year on the job, which began last August when she left her position as state commissioner of education. Since she arrived, the Board of Education's task force on racial imbalance, space use and declining enrollment, which Sternberg serves on as a co-chair, has become the most recognizable and perhaps most divisive work during Sternberg's tenure.

But Sternberg said the RISE task force often overshadows all of her other projects aimed at raising the achievement of all students. It's a topic she describes with emphatic hand gestures, such as when she slants her hands upward as she discusses how "youngsters" who are underperforming need to have accelerated growth.

"You can see we're making progress," said Sternberg, the district's first permanent female superintendent.

The statistics illustrate that statement. The Connecticut Mastery Test scores showed general improvement in math scores this past school year compared to 2005-2006, although reading and writing scores slightly dipped. Some of the schools with the most economically and racially diverse students, New Lebanon and Hamilton Avenue, made strong gains in all categories.

To accomplish this, Sternberg continued the work of her predecessor, Larry Leverett, in implementing new math and literacy curricula. She also brought in new cabinet members, including Kathy Greider, deputy superintendent of teaching and learning, and Chris Winters, assistant superintendent of curriculum, learning and staff development, and she oversaw a push to coordinate the work of all the principals.

Sternberg said she's also proud of developing the Success System, which gives the board tangible, defined benchmarks to evaluate how well the district is doing in all areas, including student performance and professional development.

Still, it has been the task force, which has been meeting since March and has taken a considerable chunk of her staff's time doing research, that garners much of the attention, good and bad.

Sternberg said the issues being addressed by the task force are "the most difficult issues I've had to grapple with" in her 26 years as an educator and policy maker.

In December, before the task force was assembled, Sternberg faced one of her biggest challenges of the past year. First Selectman Jim Lash said publicly in a speech to a community group in December that the town either had to "lop off some schools" because of declining enrollment or the cost of public education in town would go up significantly. His comments set off a wave of worry among parents concerned that the district already had their child's school preselected for closure, and a short war of words between Parkway and Glenville school parents over whether the scheduled renovation at the latter would guarantee the closure of the former.

"Parents perceived (that Lash's comments) directly affected their kids, and understandably so," Sternberg said.

Sternberg had to spend several months attending PTA meetings and speaking individually to parents to reassure them that closing a school was a last resort, not the first option.

"That took a lot of focus away from the instructional aspect," said Colleen Giambo, chairwoman of the board, whose members have been eye-to-eye with Sternberg throughout her tenure.

To address racial imbalance and declining enrollment in the schools, the Board of Education created the RISE task force, which Sternberg assembled. But the public relations work for Sternberg was only just starting.

Once the task force began to meet, Sternberg was criticized by some in the community who questioned the motives of the group. At a string of public meetings in February and March, parents, including some from a newly formed group that calls itself Friends of Parkway School, chided the district for what they perceived to be a hidden agenda to push for more magnet schools or close certain schools.

Parent Marianna Ponns Cohen, who is running for the board this year, has been one of the most vocal critics of the process. Ponns Cohen made a massive Freedom of Information Act request for e-mail correspondence among Sternberg and some of her cabinet regarding Parkway School, Glenville School and the task force. The request, which is still being fulfilled, came after weeks of Ponns Cohen making comments in public meetings against Sternberg's administration.

"You're cooking the outcome," Ponns Cohen said to Sternberg at a January Parkway School PTA meeting with the superintendent and other school officials.

Ponns Cohen declined to comment for this story.

Sternberg continued to appeal for calm, writing a letter to the public in March in which she said her critics were using inaccurate facts in their arguments and pitting schools against each other.

Public reaction to the task force's work has settled during the summer, though when the group reports its findings to the board next month things could heat up. Sternberg said the people who have spoken out against the work of the task force aren't looking at the big picture.

"It's important that the community understands that it's a great educational system if it educates all children well, not just some children well. It isn't just about 'my kid,' " Sternberg said. However, she added, "I respect that not everyone agrees."

Beginning in April, Sternberg had to face another crisis when her staff was informed by the Hamilton Avenue building committee that the rebuilding project scheduled to be finished in time for the first day of school was several months behind schedule. The committee first became aware of potential delays around February but thought they could make up for lost time.

Laura DiBella, the Hamilton Avenue PTA president during the past school year, said she wished Sternberg had acted faster, but she was satisfied with Sternberg's effort once she became aware of the delay.

"I think it would have been more helpful had she closely monitored the situation earlier," DiBella said. "But it's difficult coming in midproject."

The delay also pushed back Glenville School's plans for renovation, angering parents who said the school was already overdue for an upgrade and that their children have been receiving a substandard education because of the antiquated building.

Celia Fernandez and Lisa Harkness, Glenville PTA co-presidents could not be reached for comment about Sternberg's performance.

Giambo said Sternberg ably handled the delays.

"There's no fault to her on that. The whole point of a building committee is to take away attention from the superintendent and the board," Giambo said. The project is now scheduled to be finished in December.

Sternberg said she wished she would have known earlier about the delays, but she said the district has learned from the experience. In the upcoming Glenville School renovation, a construction manager will be used instead of a general contractor, which is used for the Hamilton Avenue project. A construction manager gives the district more control over subcontractors and the construction process, Sternberg said.

Despite the hurdles, Sternberg said she's already made progress in accomplishing many of her goals as superintendent. She still would like to make preschool more available to all children and she wants to continue developing programs for parents who need to learn English. Adding more technology in the classroom and reforming secondary education are on her agenda as well.

Sternberg said she would like to be around to see her initiatives through.

"I expect to be here," Sternberg said.

Giambo said the board has long-term hopes for Sternberg, too, after only having Leverett around for about three years, and fairly quick turnover before him.

"It's very disruptive when there's a change of leadership," Giambo said. "We're really hoping we can get good years in so we can make a lot of progress."

Sternberg letter to critics hits chord
Greenwich TIME
By Andrew Shaw, Staff Writer
Published March 10 2007

A letter to the public by Superintendent of Schools Betty Sternberg has many in the school community saying they are glad to see a clear message directed at critics of the Board of Education's task force: Stop fighting with each other and join our cause to improve overall student achievement.

Sternberg said she wrote the letter to make it clear what the mission of the Board of Education's task force is -- to better the education of all children, regardless of wealth or location, by fixing declining enrollment, racial balance and space use problems in the district.

"She's doing the right thing by rallying the troops," said Nicki Barret-Lennard, co-president of the Old Greenwich PTA. "We're all better off together than fighting with each other."

In Sternberg's letter, available on the school Web site and printed as an op-ed piece in Thursday's Greenwich Time, she writes about her anger and disappointment at what she describes as bullying by some.

"I am so upset, so disappointed -- even angry -- about the nasty, mean-spirited talk and e-mails that are coming from some sectors of Greenwich É," she wrote. "I am distraught to read e-mails written with a hateful, bullying tone from parent to parent and from citizen to town official."

She says the e-mail she has seen expresses outrage over redistricting to achieve racial balance, and the possibility of closing schools because of declining enrollment. She refers obliquely to the perception among some parents that if the Glenville School renovation project goes forward, then the Parkway School will certainly be closed -- an idea which she has repeatedly said is false.

Janice Richards, PTA Council president, said she thinks the letter reiterates the PTA Council's mission to get all schools to work together, especially as the district faces uncertainty.

"It serves no purpose to pit schools against each other," Richards said.

Some in Greenwich, including members of the newly formed group Friends for Parkway School, have questioned the financial and statistical data provided by the school administration, especially in regard to the proposed $23 million Glenville School project. Sternberg writes that there is "ill-informed, misinformation that pits one school against another."

"There's a small group of people who present numbers as fact, and, in fact, it is not fact," she said in an interview yesterday. "Everybody is entitled to their opinion. But it's just a concern of misrepresentation of data as if it were fact."

Sternberg also chides in her op-ed piece those who have written letters of criticism without signing their names, going instead under the moniker "Friends of Parkway School." The group also has put an ad in the papers under that name. Sternberg's words also may be directed at members of the Concerned Citizens of Greenwich group, which asked for the postponement of the Glenville project until the task force made recommendations. The group members have remained anonymous.

"When people hold important views, you'd hope they'd be willing to stand up and put their name to the view of others," Sternberg said. She added she is upset with the way people are presenting their case, not the fact that they disagree. "It is done in a very mean-spirited fashion."

Anna Saras, a member of the Friends for Parkway School group, said that she and those around Greenwich who share her views are similarly frustrated.

"We're trying to get facts out. We're trying to keep emotion out of it, but, yes, you do get emotion into it when you're trying to get out a logical message but people aren't listening," Saras said. Friends for Parkway School's main goal is to keep Parkway open and keep town officials fiscally responsible.

"We represent at least half the school," Saras said, adding that their passion has been misconstrued. "We're not bullies."

Sternberg and the Parkway PTA dispute this. Abby Pillari, Parkway PTA secretary, said there has been a false view that there is a Glenville School versus Parkway School attitude.

"I hope they see we are not pinning a school against a school," Pillari said of the community opinion. "We are one school system. We need to work together."

Sternberg concludes the letter by reminding the community that the point of the task force is to create opportunities for all of its children.

"We should operate as if each child in Greenwich is our own child ..." she writes. "Let's get to it. Our children are watching. And waiting."

Celia Fernandez, co-president of Glenville PTA, said Sternberg drove home an important point with that message, and that she's glad the superintendent took a public stance.

"This kind of clears the air," she said. "She's on the money. At the end of the day, it's about the kids." 

    
Did you know that Yale's colors are pale blue, baby blue, or in this case, just blue?

Steamy Shower Has Yale Students In A Bit Of Hot Water 
DAY
By John Christoffersen , Associated Press Writer  
Published on 2/3/2007

New Haven — Sex is not a taboo subject at Yale, home to Sex Week, a biennial celebration that's one of the most provocative campus events in the nation.
But a randy couple's frolic in a shower at one of Yale's undergraduate residential colleges prompted a professor to issue an e-mail of protest, which in turn has sparked debate on the Internet.

With the subject line “Shower Stalls are for Showering,” the e-mail begins “OK, well THIS is the most awkward college-wide e-mail I've ever had to send.”

Yale officials told The Associated Press on Friday that the e-mail was sent Jan. 30 by Professor Jonathan Holloway, master of Calhoun College, one of 12 residential colleges at the Ivy League university.

About 330 students received the e-mail from Holloway, who runs Calhoun as master. He referred comment to Yale's public affairs department.

His e-mail warns against “intimate activity” in the showers, “especially that kind of activity that leaves the showers in a decidedly less hygienic state.

“Several times since the start of the spring term some Hounies have come across a couple having the time of their lives in a shower stall,” the e-mail stated, referring to the nickname for college residents. “Last night, the shower flooded and the bathroom could not be used for over 90 minutes. To the as yet unidentified couple, this may be pleasurable and exciting for you, but it is a violation of community standards. Please stop.”

The note, first reported Friday by the New Haven Register, ended with a warning to the frolicking couple: “I really don't want to explore this matter any further, as I respect your individual privacy. But such continued brazen public displays of affection will only invite public embarrassment. I beg of you, let's not go there.”

One Calhoun resident made his views clear on another blog, criticalmassblog.com. Dan Gelernter, class of 2009, is co-editor of Critical Mass, aimed at “collegiate conservatives,” and called the episode “a new chapter in the story of Yale's continuing descent into the depths of moral degradation.”

“It is not merely unfortunate, but pathetic and disgusting that the Master needed to send such a note to us but in the moral vacuum that has been created by Yale intellectuals, students seem to be left without even the most basic guidelines for proper and decent behavior,” Gelernter wrote.
 
Soda ban hitting some schools in pocketbook 
DAY
Posted on Dec 23, 1:46 PM EST

EAST LYME, Conn. (AP) -- Four soda machines at East Lyme High School generated more than $20,000 in revenues last year.  Much of that money was used to buy new athletic equipment and send students to athletic banquets and awards dinners.  But those machines are now stocked with juice and water because of a new law banning soda and sugary drinks from schools. Since the beginning of this school year, the machines have pulled in only $500.

"It's affecting us big-time," Scott Mahon, the school's athletic director said of the legislation.

"That (revenue) really has been part of the (athletic department's) budget," Mahon told The Day of New London in Saturday's edition. "As budgets get tougher and tougher, we kind of rely on other things. If we can't get sponsorships and other things, we have to rely on soda."

Earlier this year, state lawmakers voted to ban all public schools from selling regular or diet soda and sports drinks in vending machines or school stores in hopes of combatting childhood obesity in Connecticut and sending a message about good nutrition. The bill, which Gov. M. Jodi Rell signed into law, includes a narrow exception for sales at concession stands at school-sponsored events on weekends or after school.

Only milk, soy and rice milk, water and 100 percent fruit and vegetable drinks can be stocked in the machines. Students are still allowed to bring their own sodas and sports drinks to school.

The new law does not ban junk food, but does provide extra money for school lunch programs at schools that offer healthy snacks.

Groton Public Schools signed up for the reimbursement program. It pays schools an extra 10 cents per meal served that complies both with the federal school lunch program and state nutritional standards. Contents of school vending machines in Groton have changed to healthier items, such as baked rather than fried potato chips.

"It's the only thing that has saved us from total decimation," said Fitch Senior High School Principal Robert Bacewicz of the state reimbursement program.

Cliff Still, the school's food services director, estimates revenue at Fitch is down $150 to $200 a day on the beverage machines.

"We used to have a student council machine in the cafeteria, with all sodas, on a timer that didn't kick in until 2:30," he said. "That machine is gone, and they're hurting."

In Waterford, the cost of yearbooks and some school events are expected to rise because of the drop in revenues from the machines. But student groups are making the most of the situation.

Waterford High School Principal Donald Macrino said the school store switched to selling water and school spirit items, such as logo sweat shirts and jackets. With higher student dues and more car wash fundraisers, he said students are now close to generating the same amount of money raised by the soda machines last year. 
School-Aid Boost Recommended
By ROBERT A. FRAHM, Courant Staff Writer
December 21, 2006

Connecticut's heavy reliance on local property taxes to pay for schools fuels a well-documented array of stark inequities.  But what to do?
 
On Wednesday, a state commission on education finance made a bold recommendation: boost the state's major school-aid grant 75 percent by pumping an extra $1.2 billion a year into the public schools.  The hefty price tag will be a daunting political challenge to Gov. M. Jodi Rell and state lawmakers as they consider how to revise a 17-year-old school finance formula that critics say is underfunded and unfair.

After nearly a year of work, a study commission created by Rell outlined a proposal that would simplify some aspects of the complex formula and - over a period of years - increase state school aid dramatically, affecting virtually every school district in the state.

"This proposal is financially a very, very large undertaking," said Robert Genuario, Rell's budget director and the chairman of the 25-member commission. But the recommendations would go a long way toward making the formula more equitable, he said.

Other school funding reports in the past have produced mixed results. The most recent one, in 1999, made similar recommendations that would have produced big increases in state funding, but those recommendations were largely ignored.  The first signs of how the new report will fare should occur in February, when Rell outlines her state budget proposal, which then will go to the legislature. Lawmakers will have to weigh educational needs against a host of other budget demands.

"I think the governor is going to take [these] recommendations very seriously," Genuario said. "She's the one who called for the commission. She, however, is fully aware the state has limited resources, and this needs to be adopted in a fashion consistent with taxpayers' ability to pay for it."

Still, some are hopeful that Wednesday's recommendations, along with another report to Rell earlier this month calling for a major expansion of preschool programs, will provide a welcome boost to public schools across the state.

"This could be the year of education all around," said Patrice McCarthy, deputy director of the Connecticut Association of Boards of Education. "We've never [fully] funded any formula in the past, so there is a bit of skepticism, but I do think the governor will support these recommendations in her budget."

Along with the proposals to phase in more state school aid, the panel recommended broad authority for the state Department of Education to order changes in curriculum, staffing and management in school districts that consistently fail to show progress in students' performance.  The panel also called for significant increases in funding for charter schools, magnet schools and a voluntary school choice program that allows students to transfer to schools outside their home districts.

Critics say the existing method of funding schools has strained school budgets and placed too much of the burden of school costs on local property taxpayers, leading in some cases to tax revolts.

In the small, rural town of Canterbury in eastern Connecticut, for example, voters have rejected school budgets each of the past two years, prompting officials to cut foreign language classes and reading programs and reduce custodial help at the town's middle school. Sandra Suplicki, the school superintendent, is hopeful the state will provide more help. "We'd also like to provide additional math and reading assistance to our students," she said, "but at this point we can't afford to do that."

The state's school funding formula underwent a major change after the state Supreme Court in 1977 ordered the state, in a case known as Horton vs. Meskill, to close a large funding gap between the state's wealthiest and poorest communities. As a result, lawmakers redistributed money, sending millions of dollars to the state's poorest cities.

In 1989, the legislature revised the school aid formula again, introducing the Education Cost Sharing grant, but lawmakers have imposed limits on the formula under the strain of tight state budgets.  This year, that grant will distribute more than $1.6 billion to cities and towns, but it is only part of a complex series of programs and grants adding up to about $3.5 billion in annual state spending on education.

Whatever Rell recommends in her budget, the issue is certain to be intensely debated by lawmakers. At stake are billions of dollars and the way those dollars are distributed to the state's school districts.  The debate will be watched closely by a coalition of municipal officials and educators that filed a lawsuit a year ago seeking to force the state to dramatically increase spending on education and revamp its education funding formula.

Dianne Kaplan deVries, a consultant working with the coalition, said Wednesday's report does not fully address what she called funding inadequacies among school districts, but if all the recommendations were adopted, "I think it would be a tremendous step forward."

Although there is support in the legislature for increased spending on education, the challenge will be to satisfy taxpayers that their towns are getting their fair share of state money, said state Sen. Thomas J. Herlihy, R-Avon.

Herlihy, whose district consists mainly of suburban and rural areas, said, "The cities tend to get ... two or three dollars back on every dollar they send, whereas many suburban and rural communities get only pennies back on that dollar."

However, state Sen. Thomas P. Gaffey, D-Meriden, said, "What you hear a lot about are complaints from towns that feel they're entitled to get more." Despite those complaints, the legislature must focus on helping the neediest school districts, including major cities, first, as required under the Horton vs. Meskill court ruling, said Gaffey, co-chairman of the legislature's education committee.

"It's going to be a difficult chore, as it always is, trying to allocate education funds under any formula and make everybody happy," he said.

School Residency Cases Tracked 
By ANN MARIE SOMMA, Courant Staff Writer
December 2, 2006

WETHERSFIELD -- The school district is cracking down on parents from bordering towns who illegally enroll their children in district schools by providing a false address.

Since March 2005, 49 students have been removed from district schools because they did not live in town, and 50 more cases are under investigation.

"They are just trying to make a better life for their children, but we have a state statute that is reasonably clear on what constitutes residency," said schools Superintendent Patrick Proctor.

To deal with the problem, the district last year instituted a central registration process to replace on-site enrollment at schools. Parents must now provide a mortgage or rental lease as well as a long-form birth certificate for students entering grades 1 through 12.

Students who are suspected of being illegally enrolled are investigated by John Ryan, the district's security officer. Ryan, a retired probation officer, said he uses every investigative tool available - including staking out homes - to weed out the nonresidents. He said his investigations usually begin with a hunch or a tip.

Ryan said the problem is serious. Wethersfield residents get stuck with the cost of educating the nonresident students - $10,000 a year for each one - because their parents don't pay local taxes.

"It's not fair to taxpayers," Ryan said.

It's a common problem for suburban school districts bordered by poorer urban cities where test scores and graduation rates are low.  West Hartford has hired an additional investigator and is investing in high-tech software to keep track of where families live. Bloomfield is dealing with illegally enrolled students from East Hartford, Manchester, South Windsor and Windsor.

Ryan said many of the cases involve parents giving a false address. Some cases involve students living with a friend or relative in Wethersfield. The students come from Hartford, West Hartford, New Britain, Rocky Hill, Manchester, and as far as way as Ledyard.

Ryan said the 49 students removed from the district since March 2005 had been in school for as little as a few months to a couple of years. Proctor said the central registration process has been effective in deterring out-of-district parents from trying to enroll their students in Wethersfield schools.

From July 2005 to June 2006, 51 out of 412 parents who requested registration materials chose not register their children after learning of residency requirements, according to a school district report.  Another report states that from July to Oct. 20 this year, 18 out of 209 parents chose not to complete the registration process after being advised of the residency requirements.

"This isn't an attempt to be punitive," Proctor said.

"It's not our decision. It's a statutory requirement." 
 
Former Norwich Superintendent To Lead Hartford School District;  Adamowski is credited with major changes here
Norwich Bulletin
By Associated Press 
Published on 11/27/2006
  
Hartford (AP) — A new superintendent of schools starts work today in Hartford, one of Connecticut's largest and most challenging school districts.
Steven Adamowski, 55, a former superintendent of the Norwich school system, and an education consultant with the American Institutes for Research in Washington, will head the 24,000-student district with a mandate from city leaders to boost achievement.

He worked in Norwich from 1983 to 1987 before leaving to head a newly formed school district in New Jersey. While in Norwich he developed a new curriculum, made sweeping staff and administrative changes, retrained teachers and started new programs. Test scores rose, and the number of remedial students declined. School officials at the time said that he had broken the network of nepotism and cronyism in the district.

Hartford and Bridgeport are the state's two largest school districts, and both have struggled to reach the standards set by the federal No Child Left Behind Act.

In Hartford, more than two-thirds of the city's elementary and middle schools fell short last year of benchmarks set in the law.

A native of Ansonia, Adamowski has said his experience in reforming Cincinnati's public schools as that city's school superintendent will be helpful as he takes on Hartford's challenges.

Adamowski attended Trinity College and Southern Connecticut State University, was the associate secretary of education for the state of Delaware, and also worked in the New Haven and Farmington school districts. His annual salary in Hartford will be $205,000
New York's Highest Court Cuts Aid Sought By City Schools In Landmark Decision
By David Herszenhorn, New York Times News Service 
Published on 11/21/2006     
 
New York state's highest court ended a landmark legal fight over education financing on Monday, ruling that at least $1.93 billion more must be spent each year on New York City's public schools — far less than the $4.7 billion that a lower court called the minimum needed to give city children the chance for a sound basic education.

In its 4-2 ruling, the Court of Appeals noted that a commission appointed by Gov. George E. Pataki in 2004 had contemplated a range of spending options for the state to fulfill its constitutional obligation to New York City's nearly 1.1 million schoolchildren, with $1.93 billion at the low end of the scale. The court endorsed the $1.93 billion as “reasonable.”

The amount is to be updated for inflation and other factors, which will bring the total to more than $2 billion a year.

The judges said that lower courts had erred by proposing their own sums, treading on the turf of the governor and the state Legislature. “In fashioning specific remedies for constitutional violations, we must avoid intrusion on the primary domain of another branch of government,” Judge Eugene F. Pigott Jr. wrote for the majority.

The New York case, brought by a coalition of education groups called the Campaign for Fiscal Equity, has been among the most closely watched of dozens of lawsuits over school financing filed across the country that seek to direct more money to needy school districts. The ruling cannot be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court because it is based on the state constitution.

The financing issue has divided Albany for years. But for all of the predictions over 13 years of litigation that the suit would reshape education financing in the state, the ruling did not do so. The court did not touch New York's arcane formulas for education financing and refused to impose new oversight mechanisms.

The decision came as an immense blow to New York City, which, based on prior court rulings, had anticipated up to $5.63 billion a year in additional education aid. New York state now pays about $7.1 billion, or roughly 45 percent, of the city's total education budget of $15.4 billion, the largest local school budget in the country. The court-ordered increase would be on top of this, but the ruling left open the possibility that the state would press the city to contribute to the added financing.

The decision on Monday also vacated lower courts' rulings mandating more than $9 billion in capital aid for new schools, libraries and other amenities, saying that the state had met its obligation last spring by authorizing $11.1 billion for the city's schools.
School enrollment projections: Estimate is off by just nine kids
WESTON FORUM
by TERRY CASTELLANO
Oct 25, 2006

With 2,575 students attending the Weston Public Schools this year, the New England School Development Council (NESDEC) underestimated the total actual enrollment by nine students. This is a less than a half-percent variance, noted Arvid Anderson, the school district’s human resources director, during his presentation to the school board this past Monday.

“This is the third consecutive year that NESDEC’s projections have been at or under 1% of actual (enrollment), which is helpful in relying on future enrollment forecasts,” Mr. Anderson said.

Nineteen students more than were projected entered Hurlbutt Elementary School this year, for a total enrollment of 604 children.

The major increase occurred in kindergarten, with the district enrolling 17 students more than projected, necessitating the addition of one section of kindergarten. Hurlbutt is a pre-kindergarten through grade two school; however, the enrollment figures do not include the pre-kindergarten program.

The pre-kindergarten program has an enrollment of 36 students, seven more children than projected. Of these, 17 students are non-special education tuition paying students.

The intermediate school saw a drop in enrollment versus projection with 570 students, grades three through five, compared to NESDEC’s projection of 584 students.

At the middle school, which houses grades six through eight, 600 students are enrolled. NESDEC had projected 603.

Seven students more than the projection are now attending Weston High School for a total of 801 students. NESDEC had projected 794.

Enrollment projections, which are developed annually, provide the school district with data for program and budget planning as well as future staffing.

NESDEC takes the following factors into consideration when making enrollment projections: migration, in or out of the schools; retention in the same grade; drop outs and transfers; births and deaths; new house construction; and economic conditions.

Projections for 2007-08

NESDEC projects a decrease in student enrollment for the 2007-08 year. NESDEC’s forecast is for 2,527 students to attend Weston schools next fall, which would be a decrease of 48 students when compared to this year’s enrollment.

Much of this expected decrease can be attributed to a projected drop in the kindergarten population.

Mr. Anderson noted in his report that the “in-migration/growth rate” between the year of birth and kindergarten eligibility five years later has been on a general decline for the past 10 years with the exception of this present school year.

Hurlbutt is projected to have a decrease in enrollment by 61 students. The middle school also expects to see a decrease in enrollment when compared to the present school year; 21 fewer students are expected to pass through the doors of the middle school in the fall of 2007.

However, NESDEC projects an increase of 17 students at the intermediate school and 17 more at the high school.

Monitoring kindergarten

Cautioning the board that the kindergarten enrollment must be carefully monitored, particularly in light of low birth rate reports for the years 2002 and 2003, Mr. Anderson said the district will be undertaking the following steps to help ensure as accurate a kindergarten projection as possible:

•    Conduct a district survey of parents of kindergarten students to determine factors that played a role in the large increase in the 2006-07 kindergarten enrollment
•    Launch an earlier pre-registration for kindergarten to help with planning the number of sections needed for the fall of 2007
•    Continue to work closely with NESDEC to identify strategies and methods to identify more accurately three- to five-year-old children who may have moved into the community
•    Schedule the process of contacting all area pre-school programs to obtain an earlier update on the number and ages of children enrolled in these programs

Board member Dick Bochinski asked if the decrease in birth rate during 2002 and 2003 is seen nationally or an anomaly to Weston.

“Weston seems to be the only area town to be showing a depressed birth rate,” Mr. Anderson said.

“It is a challenge when trying to determine how many families are moving to Weston between the birth of a child and (the child’s) entrance into school,” Lynne Pierson, superintendent of schools, said as she reflected on the difficulty of accurately projecting kindergarten enrollment.

Mr. Anderson will present an updated enrollment report, reflecting additional data and information, at the Nov. 20 school board meeting.

Vouchers coming around again?
On another subject...
New Leb to adjust racial balance
Greenwich TIME   
By Keach Hagey, Staff Writer
Published October 17 2006

New Lebanon's School's minority population has increased so much that the school will be cited for racial imbalance by the state Department of Education, according to a school district report.

"There has been a gradual shift in the demographics and enrollment of the students here, so it's not a surprise," Principal Gene Nyitray said. "We have a significantly larger Spanish-speaking population, but we take that as a given, and we make our best efforts to involve parents, educate parents."

State law prohibits any school from having a minority population that is 25 percentage points above or below the district average. A recent report of enrollment figures measured on Oct. 1 revealed the district had several schools either out of compliance or approaching imbalance and said the district expected a citation from the state.

According to enrollment figures measured Oct. 1, New Lebanon School's population is 43 percent Hispanic, 6 percent Asian and 4 percent black. Its 53 percent minority population is 29 percentage points above the district's average of 24 percent.

Hamilton Avenue Magnet School, which is 59 percent minority, according to the Oct. 1 data, also will be cited by the state, as it has been in previous years. Old Greenwich and Julian Curtiss Schools will be cited for having impending racial imbalances, meaning they have minority populations that are 15 percentage points off the district average, according to the report.

If a school violates the state statute, the district is required to file plans with the state that explain how the district plans to come into compliance. In Hamilton Avenue school's case, those plans involved the development of a magnet program to attract students from throughout the district.

After it was cited by the state in 2001, the district filed plans with the state stating its intention to turn the school into a magnet school. During the 2002-03 and 2003-04 school years, some progress was made toward reducing its racial imbalance, but it never reached the state's goals for racial balance.

Facilities issues at the school have temporarily curtailed the magnet program, but committees are now working on developing a revamped magnet program that will attract students from around the district with special programs when the school opens its renovated doors in the fall of 2007.

Now officials are beginning to consider a similar solution for New Lebanon School, although they say it is too early to say just how they plan to solve the racial imbalance problem.

"In order to get people to move around, you need some draw," Board of Education Chairman Colleen Giambo said. "We would like to address it in that way, as we did at Hamilton Avenue School."

However, New Lebanon School may present some unique challenges, she said, because the school building, which now holds 225 students, may be too small to accommodate enough extra students to bring the school into balance.

"It's possible that we need to attract both ways," she said, meaning attracting minority students out of Hamilton Avenue to other Greenwich public schools and draw non-minority students into the school.

While New Lebanon, Hamilton Avenue and Julian Curtiss appeared on lists because they had more minority students than the district average, Old Greenwich appeared on the list because it had too few.

The school is 95 percent white, making it 19 percentage points below the district average.

Father Gets Probation In Coach Assault Case
Courant Staff Reports
5:20 PM EDT, September 20, 2006

MERIDEN -- A 16-month ordeal came to an end Wednesday when Mark Picard, 48, of North Branford avoided jail time when he was given a five-year suspended sentence and five years probation for the May 2005 attack of his daughter's softball coach with a bat.

Picard received his sentence from Judge Nicola Rubinow as the victim, John Crovo, watched. Crovo had asked, through his attorney, that Picard not receive jail time.
 
Picard assaulted Crovo, then softball coach at Sacred Heart Academy in Hamden, after Crovo had suspended Picard's daughter for three games after she missed a game to attend a prom.

Picard, a former art teacher at Notre Dame High School in West Haven, attacked Crovo at a May 17, 2005 practice, hitting him several times with a bat. He then called police and admitted he had attacked the coach.

Over the next five years Picard must serve 750 hours of community service and adhere to a number of conditions, including not attending any sporting event for the next five years. 

Weston experience here...
Panel looks at sports complex idea
TONY SPINELLI tspinelli@ctpost.com
Article created: 09/05/2006 04:43:56 AM EDT
 
REDDING — The Region 9 Board of Education is impaneling a special committee to scrutinize the concept for a sports stadium complex at Joel Barlow High School.The ad hoc committee will include a member of Falcon Pride, the private nonprofit group proposing to raise the $3 million to build the twin-field complex. A member of Barlow Neighbors, the opposition group that presented a petition with 260 signatures at a board meeting last week, will also participate.

The group will include board members and representatives from Redding and Easton as well. Region 9 serves students of Redding and Easton.

The objective is to finish the study within six weeks, said Region 9 Supt. of Schools Allen Fossbender.

The study is needed because there are impassioned arguments for and against building a new athletic facility at Barlow.

The group wants to build the facility because the school board has financial constraints that would delay such improvements for years, if the board were to try to pay for the project itself. But some Barlow parents want students to have an updated facility as soon as possible.

Julia Pemberton, the Region 9 board chairwoman, could not be reached for comment Friday, but had said earlier in the week the board needs more time to discuss the proposal.

The board owns the land so it must agree to be the applicant for the project when reviewed by land-use boards.

Opponents view the study as an opportunity to have their views heard, and perhaps achieve a compromise.
"Instead of the single vision Falcon Pride had proposed, we are hoping that using the needs of the school as a basis that we can emerge from the committee after a few weeks with a new plan that is amenable to all of us," said Susanne Krivit, co-founder of the neighbors' group, in a prepared statement.

The neighbors hope to offer a compromise before the issue reaches the zoning, planning and conservation board levels, Krivit said.

"We want to get this done in six weeks," said Jay Contessa, president of Falcon Pride. "We don't want it to stall."

The group proposes a lighted competition field for football and soccer with bleachers to accommodate 1,600 people and a press box, plus an adjoining all-purpose field.

There would be no cost to taxpayers, according to the project's boosters.

Barlow athletic officials support the concept because they say the high school's fields are aging and in disrepair.
WESTON HIGH SCHOOL HAS ONE OF 9 IN CT...238 IN THE USA!
A Few Students Get The SAT Just Right
By ROBERT A. FRAHM, Courant Staff Writer
August 30, 2006

A new writing test on the SAT college entrance exam made the exam longer and, some believe, more difficult, but that didn't stop Connecticut high school graduates from posting strong writing scores in results released Tuesday.

An elite few, such as Tiffany Yuh, were letter-perfect.

The New Milford High School graduate was one of only nine students in Connecticut and 238 throughout the nation to score 2400 on the SAT, getting perfect 800s on the math and reading portions of the test and on the newly added writing section, which includes an essay.

Nationwide, there were less than one-fourth the number of perfect scores this year, compared with a year ago, when the SAT included only the reading and math sections, and 1600 constituted a perfect mark.

Nearly 1.5 million students took the test this year, and overall they recorded the sharpest one-year scoring decline in three decades, making Yuh's accomplishment even more notable.

"I just couldn't believe it," Yuh, 17, said Tuesday from the campus of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she is a freshman. The test "wasn't too hard, but I didn't expect to get a 2400, that's for sure."

Yuh got the perfect score after compiling a sparkling record at New Milford High, where educators described her as a soft-spoken, hardworking student with an exceptional talent in mathematics. After taking her high school's most advanced mathematics course, she enrolled in a graduate level statistics class at Western Connecticut State University.

"I used to grade her paper first to find any mistakes in my answer key," said David Shaffer, Yuh's calculus teacher and head of the math department at New Milford High.

"Her work ethic is unbelievable," he said. But, he added, she was involved in much more than just academics.

Yuh, who was her class valedictorian, also tutored others in Chinese, played in various musical groups and volunteered at a local hospital, Shaffer said.

Yuh chose MIT but also was accepted by colleges such as Dartmouth, Cornell and Brandeis. She has not decided on a career but is thinking about medical school. "Since I was young, my parents have encouraged me to do well in school," she said. "That really instilled the motivation in me to really work hard."

Throughout the nation, 8,862 students got perfect scores on the reading portion of the SAT and 8,057 were perfect on the math portion, but a much smaller number, 4,102, got perfect scores on the new writing portion, according to the College Board, which produces the test.

The writing test - which includes a series of multiple-choice questions on standard English usage, structure and organization - is the first major change in the SAT in more than a decade.

Among states in which more than half of graduating seniors took the test, Connecticut had the highest writing score, averaging 511, 14 points higher than the national average. In part, that might be the result of students' familiarity with timed writing exams, which have been part of the annual Connecticut Mastery Test for many years.

"We have had long and consistent experience teaching high-quality writing. ... It's one of the national areas we're leading in," said acting state Education Commissioner George A. Coleman.

Connecticut students, however, posted a 1-point decline in mathematics and a 5-point drop in critical reading since last year. State averages were 512 in reading and 516 in math. U.S. students had a similar 5-point decline in reading, dropping to 503, and fell 2 points in math to 518.

Connecticut had the third-highest participation rate in the nation, with 84 percent of high school seniors taking the SAT, compared with a 48 percent average nationwide. Generally, higher participation rates result in lower scores.

Although Connecticut's scores have risen in the past decade, Coleman said, "I'm particularly concerned when I see the curve going the wrong way, even if it's just for one year."

He said he is frustrated by the chronic gaps that show black and Hispanic students trailing white and Asian students by large margins.

Coleman praised the handful of students with perfect scores, including six from public schools. In addition to Yuh, the other public school top scorers came from Cheshire, East Lyme, Granby, Weston and Wilton, Coleman said. "I'm very impressed with them," he said.

The latest SAT results come several months after numerous colleges reported surprisingly low scores on the exam for this year's incoming freshmen.

The College Board said that the scores declined partly because some students took the new, longer test only once instead of twice.

Although Yuh had no trouble with the SAT, she described it as "really long" and said it is possible that the length of the test had something to do with the overall decline in scores.

"It's easy to get kind of tired and lose your concentration," she said.

College Board officials, however, insisted that fatigue did not contribute to the lower scores even though the new test runs about three hours and 45 minutes. Others, however, said that the test's length was a factor.

"The kids found the test such an excruciating marathon that they didn't want to take it again," said Bob Schaeffer of FairTest, a Massachusetts-based watchdog organization that is critical of standardized tests such as the SAT.

"Everything we've heard anecdotally ... has students reporting they are drained by the test," he said.

Education Chief Greenwich-Bound;   After Spotlighting Needs Of Poorest Students, Sternberg Expected To Take Post In One Of State's Wealthiest Towns
By ROBERT A. FRAHM, Courant Staff Writer
June 13, 2006

State Education Commissioner Betty J. Sternberg, who has made the state's poorest schoolchildren a priority in her administration, is expected to be named today as superintendent of one of Connecticut's wealthiest school systems.

The Greenwich Board of Education is scheduled to vote this morning to pick a new superintendent, and Sternberg told members of the State Board of Education in a closed meeting last week that she will take the job.

Her resignation after less than three years as commissioner comes as a surprise. Sternberg is a veteran administrator who rose through the ranks of the state bureaucracy to become the first woman to hold Connecticut's top education job.

Sternberg did not return repeated phone calls Monday.

Virginia Gwynn, a member of the Greenwich Board of Education and head of a search committee for a new superintendent, would not comment Monday, saying only that the board is scheduled to vote and make an announcement today.

Sternberg would replace Larry Leverett, who has announced he will step down June 30.

Among Sternberg's biggest challenges as commissioner has been the chronic achievement gap for low-income and minority children, a problem far more acute in urban centers such as Hartford or Bridgeport than in Greenwich.

According to state figures, slightly less than 8 percent of Greenwich's student body qualifies as low-income. The largest minority groups include Hispanics, accounting for 12 percent of the 9,100-student district; Asian Americans, 8 percent; and blacks, 3 percent.

Of Connecticut's 166 school districts, Greenwich ranked fourth in financing its schools, spending $14,431 per pupil last year, compared with the state average of $10,677. Its test results on annual state tests are well above the state average but not as high as those in several other affluent school systems. About three-fourths of the town's fourth-graders, for example, met the state goal in reading last year on the Connecticut Mastery Test, ranking behind 18 other districts.

Sternberg, 56, became education commissioner in 2003 after working for more than two decades in the state education department as a key player in some of the state's major school reforms.

She was a controversial choice for the job when the State Board of Education, in an unusual split vote, appointed her even though she had no experience as a principal or superintendent. At the time, some board members openly questioned whether the soft-spoken, behind-the-scenes bureaucrat could handle the politics and high visibility of the commissioner's job.

Sternberg, however, soon gained attention in a standoff with the U.S. Department of Education over the federal school reform law known as the No Child Left Behind Act.

She emerged as one of the nation's most outspoken critics of the law, taking issue with its heavy emphasis on testing and questioning its methods for measuring groups such as special education students and non-English-speaking children.

Frustrated by a failure to get waivers from the federal government on the law's requirements for a broad expansion of testing, she supported a lawsuit filed last year by Attorney General Richard Blumenthal challenging the federal act.

She engaged in a high-profile spat last year with U.S. Education Secretary Margaret Spellings over No Child Left Behind. When Spellings suggested Connecticut doesn't expect success from urban black schoolchildren and characterized that attitude as "un-American" and the "soft bigotry of low expectations," Sternberg demanded an apology.

She never got the apology, but she did wind up in the spotlight, appearing in television interviews, newspaper commentaries and other public appearances to criticize the federal law.

Aside from taking on the No Child Left Behind controversy, Sternberg has called for efforts to bolster preschool education, reform high schools, revamp the state's technical high schools and close an achievement gap between poor and middle-class children that remains among the largest in the nation. She has also had to confront a decline in fourth-grade reading results on state and national tests.
 

Easton votes down budget hike.  Officials to cut proposal after narrow defeat
VIN MORAN vmoran@ctpost.com
Article created: 05/03/2006 04:30:24 AM EDT
 
EASTON — Town officials must begin the budget process anew after voters rejected a proposed $35.5 million spending plan in a referendum Tuesday that failed by 19 votes.  The low, 30 percent voter turnout and razor-thin margin of defeat, 960-941, frustrated town officials, who have to go back and find reductions without cutting too deeply.

"We are going to have to put an adjusted package together," Board of Finance Chairman Andy Kachele said.

If approved, the $35.5 million budget would have raised property taxes 6.61 percent, from 25.12 mills to 26.75 mills. A mill is equal to $1 for every $1,000 of a property's assessed value. Bud Jennings said he voted against the spending proposal because property taxes are already too high and the town could stand additional cuts.

"I really think they have a lot of room to play with," he said. Jennings added that further mill rate increases could force longtime residents to move. "We're being driven out by taxes," he said.

On the other side of the fiscal divide, Parent-Teacher Association member Robin Pantalena disagreed with Jenning's financial forecast, saying Easton couldn't afford to skimp on education. "I don't believe there is a lot of fat in this budget," she said, adding that Easton residents would feel the loss of services to the schools and town if the proposal gets cut further.

In a separate ballot question, Easton taxpayers voted 955-876 to reject the $17.7 million budget requested by the Region 9 Board of Education to run Joel Barlow High School, which it shares with Redding. However, the Region 9 budget was approved Tuesday when Redding residents supported it overwhelmingly, 927-689, helping to pass the proposal by a vote of 1,803-1,644.

Despite Tuesday's victory for the Region 9 budget, the troubled school district is not out of danger.

Region 9 officials are seeking another $1.3 million from district voters in a May 23 referendum to pay construction and legal bills pending from the problems that plagued the project over five years.

The project has gone through four referendums, and the cost has skyrocketed to nearly $39 million with the latest request.

With the Region 9 budget passing Tuesday, education officials think the district may be willing to move on and approve the $1.3 million funding request.

"I think all residents in both towns are ready to put this project behind us," Region 9 Board of Education Vice Chairman Paul Coppinger said. "And we are close."

The Board of Finance will discuss further cuts to the budget when it meets tonight at 7:30 at Helen Keller Middle School. The finance board's recommendations will then be forwarded to the Board of Selectman, which is scheduled to meet Thursday at a time and place to be determined.

The selectmen are required to set up a town meeting for residents' input before setting a new referendum date. 

State tries new school measure;  Performance check to be removed from economic considerations
LINDA CONNER LAMBECK lclambeck@ctpost.com
Article created: 04/08/2006 4:42 AM EDT
 
HARTFORD — Four months after the state Board of Education dropped ERGs from its vocabulary, it has a new way to compare school districts: DRGs.

The state's 166 school districts are being reshuffled into district reference groups based on demographic information, similar to the way economic reference groups were categorized under the discarded system.  However, the state will no longer measure districts' performance directly against others in their reference groups; instead, the benchmarks will be the state average and the best- and worst-performing districts.

The move comes after officials in some districts complained that the basis for determining ERGs was flawed, and the system forced them to pit their schools' performance against other districts within their groups.  Supt. Allen Fossbender, in charge of the Easton, Redding and Region 9 school districts, said the state's decision this week to create district reference groups that disassociate themselves with academic performance comparisons is a positive step.

"I'm delighted," he said.

Under the new system, Redding and Region 9 will remain with Easton in the top reference group.  Reference groups were introduced 16 years ago as a way to compare districts of similar economic composition. They are grouped based on income, education, occupations, poverty, single-parent families and non-English-speaking families. The state and others use the categories in doling out grant money and comparing everything from preschool slots to school computers.

Under the ERG system, there were nine groups. ERG A represented the wealthiest; ERG I the poorest.

Last year, state officials set about reshuffling ERGs based on the 2000 census. Officials in 23 districts weren't happy with the proposed realignment — especially districts that would have slipped in the rankings.  They  blamed inflated housing prices — particularly in lower Fairfield County — for skewing the formula.  So the board decided in January to scrap ERGs.

Commissioner of Education Betty J. Sternberg agreed the groupings shouldn't be used to limit expectations of students. It should be expected that all students do well, not just as well as students in the same economic group, she added.  Yet Sternberg returned to the board this month with a list of other reasons why grouping like districts was important.

"It really has permeated our state as a way of reporting information about the education, health and well-being of children," she said. "As district reference groups, it will not be about performance."

As such, Connecticut Mastery Test scores and Strategic School Profiles will no longer compare scores to the reference group average. Instead, Sternberg said they would be compared to the state average and a high and low score range.  Fossbender said that's a good thing. "Nine ERG's meant nine expectations. Student performance was related to relative affluence. That, in my opinion, was poor public policy," he said.

He is also happy that under DRGs, Redding and Region 9 will remain in the top category. With data provided to the state in February, the district successfully argued that DRG A was the appropriate classification for the two districts, Sternberg said.

Man pleads not guilty to assaulting girl he met on Internet
Norwalk HOUR
Associated Press
April 9, 2006

BRIDGEPORT — A Pennsylvania man has pleaded not guilty to traveling across state lines to have sexual contact with a 14-year-old Connecticut girl he met through the social networking site MySpace.com.  Stephen Letavec, 39, of Elrama, Pa., entered the tearful plea Friday in U.S. District Court in Bridgeport, the Connecticut Post reported.

His wife and two children traveled nine hours from Pennsylvania, but Magistrate Judge William Garfinkel granted a prosecution request to delay a bond hearing.

"This is a very, very difficult case for release," Garfinkel said.

Letavec has been held without bond since he was arrested in Pennsylvania in February.  He's accused of molesting an Oxford girl in his car. The FBI said Letavec made several visits to see the girl between last summer and January.

"I showed you what love is and how it feels," Letavec wrote in an e-mail found in the girl's school locker, according to the FBI report. "I want to show you how making love feels too, not just sex because there is a difference."

The girl signed onto MySpace as an 18-year-old, but told Letavec she was 14 before he visited, the FBI said.  He is charged with one count of using the Internet to persuade a minor to engage in sexual activity and three counts of traveling in interstate commerce for the purpose of attempting to have and having illicit sexual contact with a minor.

MySpace, a division of NewsCorp., offers a free way for users to meet any of more than 60 million members. Searching by hometown, alma mater or interest, old friends can reconnect, musicians and filmmakers can find audiences and donors can find causes.

But authorities nationwide have expressed concern that the searching options that make the site popular also put children at risk for abuse.

Police in Middletown are investigating recent reports that as many as seven local girls were sexually assaulted by men in their 20s who contacted them through MySpace pretending to be teenagers.
Teens at Risk on Web Sites, Experts Say
By MATT APUZZO, Associated Press Writer
Sun Feb 19, 11:20 PM ET

NEW HAVEN, Conn. - On MySpace.com, teenagers can find kindred spirits who share their love of sports, their passion for photography or their crush on a Hollywood star. They can also find out where their online friends live, where they attend school, even what they look like.

And so can adults.

Parents, school administrators and police are increasingly worried that teens are finding trouble online at sites like MySpace, the leader of the social-networking sites that encourage users to build larger and larger circles of friends.  Police in Middletown, Conn., are investigating recent reports that as many as seven local girls were sexually assaulted by men in their 20s who contacted them through MySpace pretending to be teenagers.

One girl allowed a man into her room while her parents were home, police said, underscoring just how in the dark parents often are about one of the most popular Web activities for teens today.

There are other reports like these scattered around the country, prompting some parents and schools to equate the likes of MySpace with the Internet's red-light district, even as many experts believe that the worries are greater than the actual dangers.

Joseph Dooley is among those who has heard it all before. A retired FBI agent who supervised the agency's first undercover Internet task force in New England, Dooley remembers when America Online chat rooms were the rage. Teens posted detailed profiles of themselves and chatted with any of AOL's subscribers.

Chat rooms soon gave way to services like MySpace, but Dooley said the rules haven't changed and parents need to become more engaged.

"Let the kids know, on the Internet, you don't know who you're talking to," Dooley said. "Parents aren't the friends of their kids. Parents needs to know and observe what their kids are doing."

That can be daunting for working parents. Keeping tabs on the kids used to mean knowing where they went after school, not whom they talked to in their bedrooms.

So when they hear of a new fad among teens, their instinct is to worry.  And the horror stories are indeed terrifying.

Last month, for example, 14-year-old Judy Cajuste was found strangled and naked in a Newark, N.J., garbage bin. Police seized a computer from her bedroom after friends said she told them of a man in his 20s she met on MySpace. The death remains unsolved.  Beyond the threat of abduction, bullies who once made the rounds on playgrounds are using Web logs and home pages to spread rumors and lies faster than the schoolyard grapevine ever could.

MySpace profiles have been used to threaten classmates and in at least one case, to mock a school principal.

Many schools have responded by restricting Internet access from school computers. One private school in Newark, N.J., ordered students to remove all personal blogs from the Internet, even if accessed from home, to protect them from online predators.  Some parents, like Ululani Stauffacher of Eureka, Calif., forbid their children from using MySpace. Stauffacher said her 17-year-old daughter ran off for two days with a 19-year-old man she met online.

"I was going crazy," Stauffacher said. "I was just hearing things about MySpace and incidents of girls missing and some don't get returned to their families. All that I was thinking about was that my daughter was going to be another statistic."

The concerns aren't limited to MySpace, but the News Corp. unit gets the attention because of its sheer size — 54 million users, a quarter of them registered as teens.

MySpace forbids minors 13 and under from joining and provides special protections for those 14 and 15 — only those on their friends' list can view their profiles. Nonetheless, kids lie when they sign up, and many of their profiles carry photos of themselves in suggestive poses, along with personal information against the site's recommendations.

"They're licking their lips and arching their back for the camera because they can, and they have no idea of the consequences," said Parry Aftab, an Internet safety expert.  But Aftab said most MySpace users aren't getting themselves in trouble.  Experts say that banning children from using social-networking sites is akin to forbidding them from going to the mall or the movie theater for fear they'll be abducted.

"I wish I could hover over my children 24-7, but the best I can do is teach them that there are ways to keep themselves safe," said Steve Jones, a communications professor who studies new media at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

In a statement, MySpace said it has developed safety tips for parents and children and devotes scores of employees to monitoring the site around the clock. The site also has ways for users to report inappropriate behavior. The company says it removes inappropriate images and closes accounts that violate its rules.  Chris DeWolfe, MySpace's chief executive, encourages parents to talk to their kids about Internet safety, but Aftab said many parents ignore advice until it is too late.

Connecticut Chief State's Attorney Christopher Morano, who has strictly limited the information his 10- and 12-year-old children put on the Internet, said he was surprised to learn that they had been contacted by strangers they believed were pedophiles. His kids ignored it, Morano said, but parents need to closely monitor Internet activity.

"You wouldn't leave your kid on the side of the highway without supervision," Morano said. "You shouldn't put them on the Internet highway without the same type of supervision."



Blunder by test's contractor hits 15 students
Greenwich TIME
By Keach Hagey
Published February 18, 2006

Because of a processing error, about 15 Greenwich High School students received incorrect scores on the state test they must pass to graduate, the state's education commissioner announced yesterday.

They were among 355 students across the state affected by a processing error in the reading portion of the 2005 Connecticut Academic Performance Test, administered to sophomores each spring.  Harcourt, the Orlando, Fla.-based contractor that administers the CAPT for the state, reported that members of its staff used incorrect data files to generate reports and thus reported incorrect scores for the students.

"This situation is inexcusable," State Education Commis-sioner Betty Sternberg said. "I have directed that Harcourt be fined the maximum amount allowable under our contract."

State education officials are imposing an $80,000 fine on Harcourt. The fine is the maximum allowed under the state's contract with Harcourt Assess-ment Inc., which will be replaced after administering the 2006 CAPT starting March 1.

Terry Turner, a Harcourt senior vice president, said in a letter to Sternberg that the company takes full responsibility for the errors and has added safeguards to prevent similar problems with the 2006 tests.  The company also assured Connecticut officials that it has verified the scores for all students in the math, science and writing portions of the test, state officials said yesterday.

Of the 355 students whose reading scores were reported incorrectly, 130 will see their proficiency levels changed, with 110 moving into higher performance brackets. Twenty students dropped into lower proficiency brackets, and the remaining 225 students were unaffected.

There are five performance levels reported for CAPT: Below basic, proficient, goal and advanced. Of the GHS students affected, only three changed from one level to another, going from proficient to goal, according to John Curtin, assistant superintendent for curriculum, research and evaluation. None of the errors affected the student's graduation qualifications, he said.

"We will go back and amend our record and make corrections in our database," he said.

CAPT scores were first reported last summer. Harcourt has taken full responsibility for the error, according to state officials. The company is the contractor for the state through 2006.

The mistakes caused some worry among education officials, because they occurred during a normal testing cycle. Next month, the state will significantly increase its volume of standardized testing, as it begins to follow federal No Child Left Behind requirements that students be tested every year, rather than every other year.

"The concern is, with the extension of that program, a lot of the vendors that are designing and scoring these tests are dealing with volumes of tests that they have not experienced before, as the testing program in essence doubles this spring across the country," Curtin said. "It's a high-stakes test, and accuracy is so important."

CAPT scores are one component used to determine whether schools and districts have made adequate yearly progress under NCLB. The Connecticut Mastery Test is another component, used for elementary and middle school students. The state's vendor for that test is the Durham, N.C.-based Measurement Incorporated , which will be the state's vendor for the CAPT beginning in 2007.

This is the second major testing problem in Connecticut in two years. Last year, delays and scoring problems on the Connecticut Mastery Test prompted state officials to cancel a contract with CTB/McGraw-Hill.  Measurement Inc., a North Carolina company hired to replace CTB/McGraw-Hill in scoring the Mastery Tests, also will start administering and scoring the CAPT test in 2007. That decision was made before Harcourt's recent errors were discovered.

About 41,400 students in Connecticut took the CAPT in 2005, and the scores on about 800 reading tests were changed after a standard post-scoring review, Harcourt company officials said in a letter to state education officials.  State education officials said the errors will not affect the districts' annual progress reports for the federal No Child Left Behind law.

Sternberg said some districts may have to retest some of the 20 students whose scores dropped, if the lower proficiency bracket jeopardizes their chance to graduate.  She also said she is concerned about the federal government's stepped-up focus on annual mandatory testing, and whether errors will result from the increased load on the small number of national academic-testing companies.

"There are a finite number of vendors who are now having to issue and score exams for every single state in the nation," she said. "In this coming year, I would not be surprised if many other states see the same situations arising with their tests."

The federal No Child Left Behind (NCLB) law mandates that, by next year, public school children in grades three to eight nationwide must be tested annually, and high school students must be tested at least once.

The Connecticut Academic Performance Test already is administered each year to all high school sophomores in the state's public schools. A small number of juniors also take the test, usually if they need to improve their scores to meet their district's graduation requirements.

School districts use the results to track the progress of individual students and also to assess whether the schools are meeting state and federal performance goals, including compliance with the federal No Child Left Behind Act.

The test is separate from the Connecticut Mastery Test, exams given each year to students in 4th, 6th and 8th grades to test their proficiency in reading, writing and math.

CHECK OUT LWV OF WESTON "SPEAK UP 2006" HERE...

Perez May Step Into Sheff Case;   Says Neighborhood Schools Key To Equality
By EDMUND H. MAHONY, Courant Staff Writer
January 29, 2006

Mayor Eddie A. Perez said Saturday he might expand the city's role in trying to reduce inequalities between Hartford's school system and those in the suburbs, perhaps by intervening in the landmark Sheff vs. O'Neill school desegregation case.

"It may have been a mistake for the city to sit on the sideline while the state and the plaintiffs worked out an agreement," Perez said. "I certainly am not someone who will sit on the sideline."

In an interview after a three-hour meeting of the Sheff Movement at city hall, Perez said he was considering an attempt to become a party in the case.

The Sheff Movement is committed to ameliorating racial, financial and learning inequalities between urban school systems such as Hartford's and those in wealthier suburban and rural towns.

Although there was discussion about school reform in New Haven and Bridgeport, the movement's meeting Saturday focused on Hartford, ground zero in the landmark 1989 lawsuit. Hartford City Councilwoman Elizabeth Horton Sheff - mother of Milo Sheff, the lead plaintiff in the desegregation suit - was one of the organizers of the meeting, which she said was called to keep educational reformers focused on the suit's goals.

Horton Sheff said the United States is becoming a nation "of color," and unless there is an equalization of educational opportunity "we will become in effect the new old South Africa."

"What is at stake is the future of our nation," Horton Sheff said.

Martha Stone of the Center for Children's Advocacy and one of the plaintiff's lawyers in the suit, told the gathering that a legal milestone in the Sheff litigation is approaching in 2007 and the plaintiffs will have to think about the improvements they hope to force the state to finance in coming years.

She said the plaintiffs are now in the third year of a four-year agreement with the state to improve educational opportunities for Hartford public school students. Stone and other speakers said many of those new opportunities negotiated in the agreement with the state involve the establishment of themed magnet schools. Stone called progress on the agreement "frustrating."

The Sheff agreement calls for Hartford to open two new magnet schools a year, each with a racially integrated student body of about 600 students. Under the agreement, the city is supposed to have eight new magnet schools and enroll at least 30 percent of its schoolchildren in integrated magnet schools or in suburban schools under a parental choice program by 2007.

But Stone said that in year three of the agreement, Hartford's magnet schools have achieved slightly less than half the target student body figure. What's more, comments by other speakers - supported by research - show that Hartford magnet schools are not meeting goals in attracting white students.

Stone said the Sheff plaintiffs are now talking with state educators about how to pursue the suit's educational goals when the four-year legal agreement expires.

Perez said he wants to focus on "quality" at existing city neighborhood schools as well as continuing to augment the school system with magnet schools. Parents of school-aged Hartford children, as well as educators, said there is intense competition among minority children in Hartford for places at integrated magnet schools. Lotteries typically determine who gets to enroll.

"There is no way that we ought to continue to promote magnet schools when you are walking by a neighborhood school," Perez said.

Horton Sheff said negotiations between Sheff plaintiffs and the state have moved the city toward magnet schools. But she said the goal of the suit has always been to provide equitable educational opportunities - not solely through magnet schools - to the children of poor Hartford families.

After the meeting, Perez, who recently orchestrated his appointment as chairman of the Hartford Board of Education, said he will become more aggressive in trying to make Hartford children's education as good as their suburban counterparts'.

He said he is considering another attack on the state's educational funding formula, as well as efforts to regionalize school funding.

"I'm not going to wait for the state and the Sheff plaintiffs to come up with a solution and then say, `OK, Mr. Mayor. Now you go and figure it out,'" Perez said.

Other speakers sounded as frustrated.

Sam Saylor, a member of the president's council of the Hartford Parent Teacher Organization, said Hartford parents should be allowed to enroll their children in wealthy and predominantly white suburban towns such as Avon and West Hartford. He compared his experience with black families in Little Rock, Ark., who tried to enroll children in cross-city white schools in the period leading to the U.S. Supreme Court's desegregation decision in Brown vs. Board of Education.

"Our children, like children of 50 years ago, have a right to cross the boundary, to cross the color line," Saylor said. 
 
Lawsuit Seeks More State Funds For Schools;  Coalition calls for change in current funding system
By DAN PEARSON Day Staff Writer, Education Reporter
Published on 11/23/2005

Hartford - A broad coalition of Connecticut towns and cities sued the state Tuesday, claiming it violates its constitution by failing to provide adequate educational resources.

The Connecticut Coalition for Justice in Education Funding wants to force the state to replace its current education funding system with one that would make schools less dependent on local property taxes.

If successful, the suit could cost the state an additional $2.1 billion a year, more than doubling its current annual contribution of $1.6 billion to public education.

"This is a response to the annual season of diatribe and division, when municipal budgets are crafted, which is too often a time of negativity and mean-spirited finger-waving when it comes to the well-being of children," said New London Superintendent Christopher Clouet, a coalition member.

"Too often, folds with legitmate grievances regarding the burden of local property taxes on their family, or business, or budgets, take aim at schools and children,” Clouet said. “Maligning schools and bad-mouthing kids does not solve the problem of inadequate funding.”

Joining a growing number of groups nationwide that are filing “adequacy” suits, the coalition filed CCJEF V. Rell in Hartford Superior Court. The suit names as plaintiffs 15 students and their families from diverse communities. The Jerome N. Frank Legal Services Organization at Yale University Law School will represent the plaintiffs.

Adequacy lawsuits date back to the 1977 Connecticut State Supreme Court ruling in Horton v. Meskill, which found that public education is a state responsibility; children have an equal right to education; and a system that relies on local property tax without regard to varying municipal wealth is unconstitutional. Twenty-three adequacy suits have been filed nationwide.

The state's current system, the Education Cost Sharing Grant (ECS), grew out of this ruling. The suit claims ECS fails to enable students to meet the state's and federal government's learning standards and sets children up for “economic, social and intellectual failure.” The suit also claims a disproportionate impact on minority students.

The state's contribution to school funding through ECS has decreased from 46 percent in 1989 to 38 percent in 2003-04, forcing towns' increasingly to rely on property taxes to fund education.

This year ECS will total $1.6 billion, with a base rate, or “foundation” amount, per student of $6,068. If funded as originally devised, the ECS foundation level would be $9,560. The difference between that and what it does provide is about $780 million a year.

The coalition wants to replace ECS with a system based on calculating what it costs to ensure that any student under any circumstances could meet state and federal performance levels, particularly those required by the No Child Left Behind law.

Maria Santiago of New London is a plaintiff in the case along with her daughter, Carimarie Colon, 6, a student at Edgerton Elementary School. Santiago, who formerly taught in Pueto Rico, now teaches at Bennie Dover Jackson Middle School. She said she has seen how annual budget cuts have reduced art, music and technology offerings, increased class sizes, and eliminated or threatened programs essential to teaching English.

Santiage said she was compelled to advocate for the growing immigrant population, particularly in cities. She noted that the federal No Child Left Behind law subjects new arrivals, just learning English, to take standardized tests in English. At the same time, the under-funding of state and federal mandates forces districts to cut language programs.

As an example, she cited Edgerton's dual-language preschool program, which introduces 3- and 4-year-olds to English. The program was cut earlier this year, but restored after parents and educators said it was integral in preparing students for testing under NCLB.

"(NCLB) requires increasing proficiency on exams, so they are demanding more and more, but every year they are cutting more and more from the budget," she said. "It's crazy. What are they going to do? Close the district? It just doesn't make sense. We have to do something."

Coalition members called on Gov. M. Jodi Rell on Tuesday to acknowledge that ECS is unconstitutional, refuse to fight the lawsuit and agree to work with them on a new system.

Rell said the "best approach" to study school funding resides in the bipartisan Commission on Education Finance she recently formed.

"I hope this lawsuit does not become a distraction to the important work of this commission. The governor and General Assembly are in the best position to address ECS issues, not judges," she said. "It's premature to talk about an absolute dollar amount for funding, and the best way to distribute those funds to cities and towns. That is precisely what the commission will examine."

Rober Solomon, director of the Education Adequacy Clinic at Yale Law School and CCJEF legal counsel, said Tuesday the coalition can show legislators how to craft a new system because of the coalition's recent "adequacy studies." Released this spring and summer, the studies established new foundation figures for adequately educating all students."

Looking at a district of 4,970 students, for example, the study established a base cost of $10,037 per pupil, then set standards for special situations, such as $44,776 for a student who has severe learning disabilities, such as autism, and $7,005 for a student requiring English instruction.

The studies found the state would need to pay up to $2.1 billion more annually for 95 percent of students to achieve performance standards by 2013, a target required by NCLB.

Connecticut has a suit pending against the federal government over NCLB. The suit says state law makes it illegal for the state to be required to pay to comply with the unfunded mandates of NCLB.

Hamden Mayor Carl Amento, a coalition member, said the coalition would not expect the legislature to immediately grant the entire increase, but would seek it in increments.

"We know we can afford this. It's a question of political will," said Solomon.

Nekita Carroll-Hall, aparent of two elementary school stduents in Bridgeport, and a plaintiff in the suit, said legislators must understand that an increased investment in education is the "key to a healthy community" with less crime and more economic activity.


State Education Funding Challenged In Court
Hartford Courant
Associated Press
12:47 PM EST, November 22, 2005

HARTFORD, Conn. -- The Connecticut Coalition for Justice in Education Funding planned to file a lawsuit today charging that Connecticut has failed to meet its obligations to provide students with a good public school education.  Fifteen students and families from eight communities are also part of the lawsuit.  The plaintiffs said they want to show state legislators that the suit is being brought on behalf of students who attend all types of schools, including large urban, suburban and rural schools.

"There's a huge discrepancy between the idea of a decent education and the everyday realities that students, parents and teachers face in Connecticut classrooms," said Rosemary Coyle, president of the state's largest teachers union, the Connecticut Education Association.

CEA is supporting the lawsuit. The union argues that Connecticut needs a new school financing system that better matches the amount of state education funding to the actual cost of educating students.  Plaintiffs in the case planned a noon news conference to discuss the lawsuit.

The complaint alleges that the state has failed to adequately and equitably fund public schools, and that has irreparably harmed schoolchildren. Also, the complaint alleges that inadequate school funding has disproportionately affected minority students.

Public schools rely on funding from both local property taxes and state grants, namely the Education Cost Sharing grant. ECS funds are doled out to cities and towns using a complicated equation that takes into account poverty, tax bases and other factors.

The formula was created in 1988 after a judge ruled that Connecticut has a a constitutional obligation to adequately fund public schools. But the state has been unable to fully fund the grant, forcing school districts to rely more heavily on local revenues. 

ERGs may be obsolete: State school board will discuss the idea at November meeting

Oct 20, 2005

 REDDING PILOT:
Redding, Region 9 and all the other school districts in the state may all be in the same boat, so to speak, in that none of them would have an Education Reference Group (ERG) classification.

In a turn of events, the discussion of the proposed reclassification of school districts in ERGs has been eliminated from the state Board of Education’s November meeting. Instead, a discussion about whether or not the concept of ERGs are a practice worth continuing is on the agenda, said Schools Superintendent Allen Fossbender.  The state education department is working on reclassifying school districts in ERGs for the first time in 10 years. Among the proposed changes is moving Redding and Region 9 (Joel Barlow High School, which serves students from Redding and Easton) from ERG A, the top classification in the state, to ERG B.

However, Easton is not being considered for reclassification. Redding and Easton’s K-8 schools are in separate districts, but they, along with Region 9, share administrators, including the superintendent.   The state department’s proposed changes in ERG A, which also include moving Avon, Simsbury and Woodbridge out of ERG A and into ERG B, also remain. If the changes were adopted, it would leave seven schools in ERG A — Darien, Easton, New Canaan, Ridgefield, Weston, Westport and Wilton.

Building a case

When Dr. Fossbender learned of the possible reclassification of the Redding and Region 9 school districts from ERG A to ERG B, he built his case for the districts to remain in ERG A. At last week’s Redding school board meeting, Dr. Fossbender announced the districts’ appeal had been denied by the state, and the recommendation of moving both Redding and Region 9 to ERG B is moving forward.

First Selectman Natalie Ketcham said she is in the process of asking state legislators to intervene in this issue.  The driving force for the possible change may be based on the socioeconomic component of the formula, which takes into account the median family income of parents of students enrolled in the school districts, not the income of all people in Redding.


According to the state education department, the median family income for parents of students enrolled in the Redding school district is $110,376, and $120,375 for parents of students enrolled in the Region 9 district. For Easton, it is $163,072, and neighboring towns in ERG A in Fairfield County, such as Ridgefield ($139,772), Wilton ($169,201), and Weston ($186,915) have a higher median family income of parents of students enrolled in the districts, according to the state education department’s numbers.

Although the income level sets Redding and Region 9 districts apart from other ERG A school districts, Dr. Fossbender has said he believes the difference among high median income, $110,000 and above, doesn’t warrant different expectations for student performance, especially on state-mandated criterion reference tests.

“I believe that parents of Redding and Region 9 students can afford, and do provide, the same education, opportunities and enrichment that parents even in the wealthiest districts in proposed ERG A provide their children with,” Dr. Fossbender has previously said.

Besides building a case for not changing Redding’s and Region 9’s ERG status, he also proposed that the whole concept of ERGs be abolished or at least reviewed. “I believe it’s an artifact of outdated thinking. When one considers that in 2013 that all school districts in the nation must meet the universal standards of performance mandated by the federal government, the explicit  perpetuation of the different levels of student performance, is, in my opinion, illogical,” Dr. Fossbender, told The Pilot last week.

Components of an ERG

ERGs were created by the state education department in order to compare school district data. They were designed to compare groups of districts that have similar characteristics, and are used in reports to place district resources and district-level student achievement into perspective, according to the education department. Because both the socioeconomic status and needs of people in neighborhoods or schools within a district may vary significantly, ERGs are used only to compare data that are aggregated to the district level, according to the education department.

The formula behind an ERG includes three measures — socioeconomic status, indicators of need and enrollment. There are nine ERGs, ERG A being the highest and including the most affluent towns in the state, through ERG H, which includes the large cities in the state.

There are seven components in the formula to come up with rankings for towns in ERGs.

The measures of socioeconomic status are median family income, percentage of children with at least one parent with a bachelor’s degree or higher, and percentage of children’s parents holding jobs in executive, managerial or professional occupations.

Indicator of need is another component, which includes three parts; percentage of children living in families with a single parent or non-family household, poverty level,  and percentage of children whose families speak a language other than English at home.

Lastly, there is also the size of the district, or student enrollment to consider.

Using these criteria and weighting each component produces a ranking that determines which ERG classification a school district will fall under, said Mr. Goranson.

The current ERG classifications were updated in 1996 when the 1990 Census data was available and analyzed. The department will be using information from the latest Census in 2000 and additional information from the school districts.

School Districts Feel Sting Of B-Status: Soaring Gold Coast Incomes Lower Some Towns' Rankings
By ROBERT A. FRAHM, Courant Staff Writer
October 18, 2005
 
In the upscale suburbs of Avon and Simsbury, where public education is a matter of civic pride, schools soon could lose their status among the state's elite.  They were once mentioned in the same breath with some of the nation's wealthiest school systems - such as Darien, Westport and New Canaan along Connecticut's Gold Coast - but schools in Avon, Simsbury and three other districts are tentatively slated to be dropped one notch in a state classification.

At issue is a state Department of Education proposal to reclassify all 169 of Connecticut's public school districts based on new census and demographic data - placing school districts in nine separate categories known among educators as Education Reference Groups, or ERGs.  Aside from bragging rights, does it really make a difference?

Not everyone agrees, but some educators think it does - contending the standards schools set can be influenced by the company they keep.  The reclassification, the first in nine years, has prompted so many questions that officials are debating whether to scrap the system altogether.

"It has raised a lot of angst," said Frances Rabinowitz, an associate commissioner in the education department.

A draft plan for reshuffling the districts drew appeals from some, including the five - Avon, Simsbury, Woodbridge, Redding and the Joel Barlow High School district in Easton - that were removed from the A-list of the state's most affluent school systems. The chief reason they were placed on the B-list was that their median family income had not kept pace with that of the A-list towns.

"It's a hot issue here right now," said James A. Connelly, interim superintendent in Woodbridge, where the median family income of $106,506 was well below the median of $175,479 for towns in ERG A.  Though the classification carries no official weight, it matters, Connelly said, because educators use it as a gauge to set standards for everything from school budgets to teacher salaries to student achievement. Even some real estate agents pay attention to it, he said.

"If we go to [a new classification], the bar is going to be lowered," he said.  Some believe the debate is largely confined to the education bureaucracy.

"I hadn't heard of ERG A and ERG B" until recently, said Pam Callahan, the PTO president and mother of a second-grader at Simsbury's Latimer Lane School. Callahan's family moved to the area a year ago and "did a lot of research through our Realtor" but did not discuss the ERG ratings of various school districts. "We basically compared test scores and the percentage [of graduates] that went on to college," she said.

The classification system was first used by state officials in 1989 as a means of comparing student performance on the Connecticut Mastery Test by placing school systems in categories with other districts of roughly similar demographic characteristics.  At the time, educators complained it was unfair to compare test scores of a wealthy district such as Westport with those of high poverty districts such as Hartford or Bridgeport. Research has shown a strong link between socioeconomic status and school achievement.

The ERG classifications are based on seven characteristics, including family income, parents' occupation and education levels, and percentage of single-parent households.  Although the classifications are used as a guide in interpreting performance on the Mastery Test, the SAT college entrance exam and other exams, they also appear to be viewed in some cases as a measure of status, said Peter Prowda, a state education department researcher who is reworking the classification system.

"It has become a substitute for excellence - and it's not," he said. "It's just a composite measure of the background of kids. ... It's a good way to put data into perspective."

The numbers are plugged into a formula, but there is room for subjective judgments in assigning districts to a specific category.  Towns such as West Hartford, Mansfield and Windsor, for example, defy easy categorization because they include wide ranges of family income and structure - from wealthy, two-parent households to poor, single-parent homes.

Connelly, the Woodbridge superintendent, said his town received a lower classification even though it is comparable to those on the A-list in every way except for family income - a factor he says is misleading because of the high cost of housing in A-list towns, which are part of the New York housing market.

"Most of the [income] differential is eaten up in housing costs," he said.

In Simsbury, Superintendent Diane Ullman lost her appeal to remain in category A but said the district's test scores remain among the highest in the state. "I don't care what letter is next to our name," she said. "We know who we're going to compare ourselves to."

Avon officials, too, had appealed to stay on the A-list, but Superintendent Richard W. Kisiel said he has had a change of heart about the entire system and that districts can draw conclusions without it. "I think we should eliminate [it]. I think it's a useless classification."

Officials at the state education department have postponed a decision on the new classifications and are debating whether to keep the system.  "The thought bothers me," said Rabinowitz, the associate commissioner, "that we could put out anything that could lead to different [performance] expectations for different kids."



Oxford school over budget; $2m pool may be removed to bring numbers in line
ANTHONY SPINELLI tspinelli@ctpost.com
Article created: 07/12/2005 04:25:14 AM

OXFORD — The swimming pool that voters approved for Oxford High School appears to be pushing the project's budget into the deep end.
It would cost roughly $2 million to build the pool, and that could be better used to help bring the overgrown budget back into line, according to Brian Holmes of O&G Industries.

Holmes, the project's construction manager, addressed members of the High School Building Committee Monday night at Town Hall.

"Right now, cutting out the pool is the only way to get this project within its budget without going back to the voters for more money," Holmes said.  He estimated that the total cost of the project as envisioned more than a year ago is now $7.9 million higher, including $2 million for the pool and $5.9 million in amenities that have already been placed on an alternates list.

The alternates, such as an industrial arts class and athletic field fixtures, would only be built if it is affordable after construction bids are received. The Board of Education must prioritize the running list of alternates by Sept. 12.

The total $43.9 million project off Quaker Farms Road — scheduled to break ground in November and open in September 2007 with features including a 670-seat auditorium — has been hit by rapidly rising steel and petroleum-based building materials costs.  Numerous school projects around the country face the same problem, and some have gone back to the voters for more money.

Before that could happen in Oxford, the school board and building committee must work together to trim the project as much as possible, said First Selectman August Palmer III.  It would ultimately be up to the voters in a referendum early next year, if need be, to deduct the pool or spend more money.

"We have to work together," Palmer said.  The prospect of a high school without a swimming pool was scary to some committee members and observers at the Town Hall meeting.

"We'd like to have the pool," Samuelson said. "We need a high school. If we don't get the pool, we'll still have a high school."

Voters approved a 145,000-square-foot academic space, with a 10,000-square-foot pool building.



CT DEP Commissioner Gina McCarthy
New program - "no child left inside" (and if the kids are in good shape, they won't be left behind, either).

The great outdoors
 Stamford ADVOCATE
By Mark Ginocchio, Staff Writer
Published November 30 2006

STAMFORD - Gina McCarthy believes one way a child may be left behind is if they're left inside.

Since March, McCarthy, 52, commissioner of the state Department of Environmental Protection, has spearheaded an initiative called "No Child Left Inside," geared toward encouraging Connecticut families and visitors to enjoy the state's outdoor resources like its parks and forests.

The effort has garnered national attention, especially from neighboring states looking to start similar programs.  It will be the featured topic when McCarthy addresses SoundWaters members today at their annual meeting in Stamford.

"Getting children outside again will make them happier and healthier," McCarthy said during a telephone interview. "We can try and teach them about the outdoors."

The meeting is open to the public and will run from 6 to 8 p.m. at the SoundWaters center in Cove Island Park.  Finishing her second year at the DEP, McCarthy called the effort to get children and families outdoors an "international challenge." With indoor diversions such as television, computers and video games on the rise, and state park attendance on the decline, the need for "No Child Left Inside," has never been more prevalent, she said.

"Families are not outside as much as they used to be," she said. "There are a lot of cultural differences . . . and not everyone knows about our state parks and forests."

McCarthy said she is thrilled to talk about the initiative with SoundWaters, an organization that educates children about Long Island Sound, including taking them aboard the SoundWaters schooner.

"SoundWaters is a great organization that does a lot of environmental education," she said. "It appeals to me because they fit in with our initiative."

McCarthy also has been active working with other projects that coordinate with "No Child Left Inside." Earlier this year, the state launched the "Great Park Pursuit," an eight-week game that took families to eight state parks.  At each location, teams were asked to complete various activities such as scavenger hunts, hikes and fishing contests. At the end of each task, families received a clue to the following week's park or forest.

More than 400 teams and 1,000 people signed up for the event.

The activities help create a society that cares more about the environment and their health, McCarthy said.

"If we really want people to care about the environment, they have to be outside to make that connection," she said.
Election Outcome Leaves Education Officials Optimistic
DAY
By Karin Crompton
Published on 11/12/2006
 
A day after the election, amid talk of Iraq and future presidential candidates and congressional change, another buzz was also emerging.
“Dems' victory could be good for schools,” proclaimed a midweek article from eSchool News online.

The conversation and articles focused on potential changes to the federal No Child Left Behind Act, which is up for reauthorization next year.

But publications like eSchool News also pointed to interest rates on college loans, work-force preparedness and funding for educational technology.

Others hoped the federal education department took personally the so-called message sent to Congress in Tuesday's election.

“I think for public education, it's a positive that this shift has taken place, and we're certainly hopeful,” said David Larson, executive director of the Connecticut Association of Public School Superintendents. “And we hope that the people in the (federal) education department take note of this, because, frankly, I haven't seen much coming out of that department that has been helpful to schools in Connecticut.”

With a new House and Senate, many hope for changes in the No Child Left Behind law — first in funding and eventually in its punishment-as-incentive approach.

“President Bush has indicated that he would like to see it reauthorized before the end of his administration,” said John Yrchik, executive director of the Connecticut Education Association. “Whether that happens or not, there will be active discussion and dialogue about how to properly fix the law right now. So this is a very critical moment for the shift in power to have occurred.”

Democrats will take over as chairmen of all committees, meaning that the Education and the Workforce panel, the Subcommittee on 21st Century Competitiveness, and the Appropriations Committee will have new leadership.

Many in education feel Democrats will be more responsive to educational issues.

“I think it was no secret that, as a body, the Republicans were very conservative,” said David Larson, executive director of the Connecticut Association of Public School Superintendents. “As a body, the Republicans felt that they were looking toward vouchers and privatization of public schools. And consequently, they were not giving public schools the resources they needed to do the job.

“As a body, a Democratic Congress is going to be much more amenable and socially conscious with what should be done with education and providing the funding necessary for funding public education.”

That could be good news, Larson and others said, for Connecticut's schools — and, by extension, for property tax reform.

Larson offered some figures:

• By law, the federal government is supposed to fund approximately 40 percent of the cost of special education but has never paid for more than 18 percent. Connecticut alone is entitled to $365 million more per year, he said.

•Connecticut spent $500 million on special education in 1989-90; by 2003-04, that figure had climbed to $1.2 billion.

• Even with that increase, the state had dropped its own contribution toward special education funding to 30 percent — and then also closed the Mansfield and Salisbury training schools, which meant those students instead went to public schools, with the cost shouldered by municipalities.

•Connecticut has also lost $13 million in federal Title I funds, Larson said.

“The administration has reduced the amount it was going to fund education, and Congress went along with it,” he said.

Those in higher education were also mulling the shift in power this week.

Their issues include the renewal of the Higher Education Act, legislation that authorizes the federal government's major student-aid programs; and how Democratic control would influence the 19-member Commission on the Future of Higher Education, created in September by Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings.

An article in InsideHigherEducation.com also questioned what will happen to a Democratic plan that calls for cutting in half the interest rates for many student loans; making permanent a tax deduction for college costs borne by middle-income families; and significant increases in the maximum amount that can be awarded through the federal Pell Grants to students.

“The changes would be hugely expensive, estimated as much as $100 billion in total over five years,” the article read, “and it is not at all clear that the Democratically controlled Congress would be able to find the discretionary funds to pay for them.”

----------------------------

Potential Impact

Sources: “Inside Higher Ed”; “eSchool News online”; “Education Week”
  
State Test Scores Decline
By ROBERT A. FRAHM, The Hartford Courant
3:03 PM EST, March 2, 2006

Connecticut's opposition to a federal school reform law may be one reason it is among the only states to report recent declines in reading and math scores, according to sponsors of a national study released today.

Most states reported gains between 2003 and 2005 on statewide elementary and middle school tests under the demands of the federal No Child Left Behind Act, but Connecticut did not, said a study by Education Trust.  Connecticut was the only state to report a decline in performance in mathematics at both the elementary and middle school levels and one of only a handful of states showing declines in reading.

"They're trying to get out from under the federal law," said Kati Haycock, director of Education Trust, a Washington, D.C.-based advocacy group. "That kind of public opposition … is often interpreted by local educators as permission not to try."

Last summer, Connecticut officials filed a lawsuit against the federal government, contending that the expansion of testing required under No Child Left Behind is an unfunded mandate that will cost state and local taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars. The case is pending.  The claim that the lawsuit may be linked to a decline in test scores "is just incorrect," state Education Commissioner Betty J. Sternberg said.

"We've had a downhill trend," she said. "We've been concerned about it and are probing more deeply to try to understand what's happening," she said. But, she added, "I don't think it's for lack of anybody trying to work very hard for these kids."

Connecticut lost ground between 2003 and 2005 in the proportion of fourth-graders deemed proficient in reading and mathematics on the annual Connecticut Mastery Test.  In reading, 79 percent were judged as proficient or better, and in math 67 percent -- a 2 percentage point decline in each subject.  Similar declines occurred in eighth grade, where 76 percent met the state's proficiency standard in reading, a 1 percentage point drop, and 75 percent met the math standard, a 3 point drop.

Several states were excluded from the Education Trust's analysis because of incomplete or unavailable data.

In states where data could be analyzed, nearly all showed progress, and several states posted large gains. In elementary school reading, for example, the proportion of students meeting proficiency standards grew by 10 percentage points or more in Florida, Hawaii and Idaho. In elementary math, seven states posted double-digit gains.

"The news in elementary schools is very good," Haycock said. "Achievement is up in almost every state." Middle schools generally reported encouraging improvement, but the results at high schools were mixed, she said.  In Connecticut, high schools reported modest overall improvement, including gains by black and Latino students that helped them close the performance gap with white students.

Across the nation, however, high schools generally made little progress in closing the achievement gap that finds many minority and low-income students lagging behind white or more well-to-do classmates, Haycock said.

Closing those gaps is a key goal of the No Child Left Behind Act, the centerpiece of President Bush's school reform agenda. The law calls for a broad expansion of testing and a shake-up of schools that fail to make adequate progress with all students, including low-income children, special education students and members of minority groups.  At the elementary level, 22 of the 29 states in the Education Trust analysis narrowed the reading achievement gap between white and black children. Connecticut was among the states where the gap narrowed even though the test scores of both white and black students declined.

"It's just that white students fell faster than black students," said Daria Hall, one of the authors of the report. "This is absolutely the wrong kind of gap closing."

The study also found that many states, including Connecticut, set a much lower proficiency standard than the standard on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, a nationwide test given in all states.  For example, 67 percent of Connecticut's fourth-graders met the state's reading proficiency standard but only 38 percent met the national proficiency mark on the most recent tests.

In states where many fewer students reach the national standard than are able to reach the state standard, "It's a sign that something is wrong," Haycock said. "It's a reason for people to ask questions whether their state standards are rigorous enough." 

8 Schools Given Lowest Grades;  Persistent Problems Cited In State's Three Largest Cities
 December 8, 2005
By ROBERT A. FRAHM, Courant Staff Writer
 
Despite extensive reforms, eight of the state's most troubled public schools still have too many ineffective teachers, weak academic standards and low expectations of students, a new state report says.  The eight schools - three each in Hartford and New Haven and two in Bridgeport - were the first in the state to be identified as needing improvement under the federal school reform law known as the No Child Left Behind Act.

The independent review was conducted last spring, when all eight were in their fourth consecutive year on the government's warning list, meaning they were required to develop plans for a complete overhaul.  The reviews were unusually blunt, with some of the sharpest criticism directed at teachers and curriculum.

"There is a significant number of teachers who lack the skills necessary to provide quality instruction to the degree necessary. ... Further, many teachers are unable to manage student behavior appropriately," said a review of Hartford's Milner School.  Details of the review were issued Wednesday to the State Board of Education, but local school officials questioned the report's timing, saying many of the schools, including Milner, have made significant changes since the review was conducted in May.

The No Child Left Behind Act, the centerpiece of President Bush's school reform agenda, calls for a broad expansion of testing and a shake-up of schools that fail to make sufficient progress with all students, including low-income children, special education students and members of minority groups.

The eight schools under review all have large numbers of low-income, minority and special education students.

In addition to Milner, the other schools were Roberto Clemente Leadership Academy, Jackie Robinson School and Hill Central Music Academy in New Haven; Moylan and Kinsella schools in Hartford; and Beardsley and Columbus schools in Bridgeport. Six of the eight were required to begin a major overhaul this fall under the No Child Left Behind law while the other two - Moylan and Clemente - made sufficient academic progress to avoid a full overhaul, at least temporarily.

All eight schools, including Moylan and Clemente, have made major changes. At some, that includes the replacement of principals and significant numbers of teachers.

"I think [the report is] so untimely in terms of what has taken place since then," said Reginald Mayo, superintendent of schools in New Haven. "There were some things we didn't agree with, and many of the [recommendations] we had in place to do anyway over the summer." Robinson School, for example, replaced its entire administration, and Clemente replaced two assistant principals, Mayo said.  In Bridgeport and Hartford, too, schools have adopted many of the report's recommendations, officials said.

"We've got a new administrative team," said Sheryle Jackson, the new principal at Hartford's Milner School, where 19 of the 33 teachers also are new to the school this fall.  The report cited serious discipline problems at Milner, but Jackson said the administration is not overwhelmed, as the report suggests. "We do have discipline problems, but it's not all-consuming," she said.

Some of the schools drew praise for their decorum. At Kinsella School in Hartford, for example, "Students and staff were quite polite, respectful and accommodating," the review said.  Nevertheless, students at the eight schools, on average, still score well below state averages on reading and mathematics tests, and the reviews suggested that part of the problem is the ineffective use of curriculum.

"The key features underlying the poor overall quality of teaching lie in the inappropriate way in which the curriculum is used," said the review of New Haven's Clemente Academy. "Too often, teachers slavishly follow the written curriculum with little or no regard as to the way it is matched to students' needs."  State officials have made efforts to help the eight schools, including a new series of online computer quizzes, based on the state Mastery Test, which will be available in January and can be used to take frequent measures of student progress.

"There needs to be a more directed focus on curriculum and instruction" in those schools, said state Education Commissioner Betty J. Sternberg. "We need assurance the curriculum is actually being used." 

Standards under the No Child Left Behind law will gradually become more rigorous until 2014, when all students are expected to reach a level of proficiency on state tests. As the standards become more rigorous, more schools will be required to undergo restructuring. The report to the state board projects that another 110 schools in Connecticut could require restructuring within three years.

U.S. Acts To Dismiss School Funding Suit;   Response Says State Took Money But Wants To Forsake Obligations
By ROBERT A. FRAHM, Courant Staff Writer
December 3, 2005

The U.S. Department of Education filed a motion in federal court late Friday to dismiss Connecticut's lawsuit against President Bush's school reform law, contending the state has no grounds to sue for additional money to pay for the reforms.  The motion comes a week after another court in Michigan dismissed a similar lawsuit by the nation's largest teachers' union, the National Education Association, which had sought to block the federal No Child Left Behind Act on the argument that the law was insufficiently funded.

Although many states have raised objections to portions of the federal law, Connecticut is the only state to challenge the law in court.  Attorney General Richard Blumenthal filed a lawsuit in August against U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings, contending the law's requirement for additional testing of students will unfairly cost state and local taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars.

In their motion for dismissal, U.S. officials said Connecticut has already accepted more than $750 million since 2002 based on its pledge to comply with the law but now is seeking "to keep the funds while jettisoning the accompanying obligations."

According to the motion, the state seeks "not a mutual release from the federal state partnership ... but a one-sided release wherein the federal government continues to provide the same level of federal assistance to Connecticut regardless of whether the state meets the [law's] conditions."

Because the motion to dismiss was filed shortly before Friday's midnight deadline, Blumenthal said he had not had a chance to review it and would withhold comment until Monday.

Educators and politicians across the nation are watching the case closely to gauge its impact on the most sweeping federal education law in 30 years. The law calls for a broad expansion of testing and a shake-up of schools that fail to make sufficient progress with all students, including low-income children, special education students and members of minority groups.

Blumenthal based the lawsuit on legal provisions, including a clause in the No Child Left Behind law itself, that prohibit the government from ordering new programs without providing enough money to support them.  However, the U.S. Department of Education's motion Friday said Blumenthal's argument amounts to "a fundamental misreading of the statute," which, the motion says, was not intended "to excuse states from their voluntary decision to comply with Congress's conditions in exchange for federal funds."

For 20 years, Connecticut has tested children in grades four, six and eight, but No Child Left Behind also requires testing in grades three, five and seven - an expansion that state Education Commissioner Betty J. Sternberg contends will cost millions of dollars more with little additional benefit.

The federal government, however, says the additional expenses incurred by Connecticut are the result of the state's own decision to reject a less expensive form of testing. Friday's motion says, for example, that some of the expenses stem from the state's decision to modify tests for disabled students and to translate tests for non-English speaking children into other languages.

State officials also plan to include a section on writing in the new tests as well as other questions requiring written answers even though the federal government only requires tests of reading and mathematics.  Like other states, Connecticut has seen a sharp increase in federal education funding under the Bush administration, but state officials contend the extra money does not cover the full cost of improvements required by the No Child Left Behind Act.

The state will get about $178 million this school year in federal grants related to No Child Left Behind, about one-fourth more than the $142 million it received in 2002, the year the federal law was signed.  Still, even with the increased funding, a study by the state education department estimates that the additional testing alone will cost Connecticut taxpayers another $8 million over the next two years.

In addition, local school districts will have to spend millions of dollars more to restructure schools, train teachers and provide required extra help for students, another state study says.

"I don't question that they gave us more money," Sternberg said. "They just didn't give us enough."

In Michigan last week, a judge threw out a lawsuit by the National Education Association after the union, along with several of its state affiliates and local school districts, had argued that the law cost more than schools received in federal funds.  Judge Bernard A. Friedman said Congress appropriated significant funding and has the power to require states to set educational standards in exchange for federal money. The union said it will appeal.

Blumenthal last week called the decision wrong and said it is not binding on the Connecticut case.




Federal Judge Tosses Out No-Child Suit;   Blumenthal Says State Will Pursue Its Own School-Accountability Action `Vigorously'
COURANT Staff And Wire Report
November 24, 2005

WASHINGTON -- A judge threw out a lawsuit Wednesday that sought to block the No Child Left Behind law, President Bush's signature education policy. The National Education Association said it would appeal.  The NEA and school districts in three states had argued that schools should not have to comply with requirements that were not paid for by the federal government.

Chief U.S. District Judge Bernard A. Friedman, based in eastern Michigan, said, "Congress has appropriated significant funding" and has the power to require states to set educational standards in exchange for federal money.  The NEA, a union of 2.7 million members and often a political adversary of the administration, had filed the suit along with districts in Michigan, Vermont and Bush's home state of Texas, plus 10 NEA chapters in those states and Connecticut, Illinois, Indiana, New Hampshire, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Utah.

The school districts had argued that the law is costing them more than they are receiving in federal funding.  The law requires states to revise academic standards and develop tests to measure students' progress annually. If students fail to make progress, the law requires states to take action against school districts.

"Parents in communities where school districts are financially strained were promised that this law would close the achievement gaps," said NEA President Reg Weaver. "Instead, their tax dollars are being used to cover unpaid bills sent from Washington for costly regulations that do not help improve education."

In August, the state of Connecticut filed its own lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Education, claiming that the 2001 No Child Left Behind law is illegal because the Bush administration has not provided enough money to pay for the testing and programs the law requires.  State Education Commissioner Betty J. Sternberg has argued that Connecticut already tests students in grades 4, 6, 8 and 10 and that adding tests in grades 3, 5 and 7 would provide little new information about student performance in the state while costing an additional $8 million to administer. The state applied for a waiver but was rebuffed.

Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal said Wednesday that the decision by the federal district judge in Michigan is "wrong and in no way legally binding on our lawsuit in Connecticut."  Blumenthal also said Wednesday's ruling "creates a preposterous loophole, holding that federal officials purportedly do not impose unfunded mandates, but Congress does."

Blumenthal said Connecticut will continue to pursue its own claims "vigorously. We await a response to our complaint by the government, which has already sought two extensions of time and now is due Dec. 2."

The lawsuit in Michigan alleged that there was a gap between federal funding and the cost of complying with the law. Illinois, for example, will spend $15.4 million annually to meet the law's requirements on curriculum and testing but will receive $13 million a year, the lawsuit said.  Friedman said the law "cannot reasonably be interpreted to prohibit Congress itself from offering federal funds on the condition that states and school districts comply with the many statutory requirements."

Education Secretary Margaret Spellings said, "This is a victory for children and parents all across the country. Chief Judge Friedman's decision validates our partnership with states to close the achievement gap, hold schools accountable and to ensure all students are reading and doing math at grade-level by 2014." 
State's Lawsuit Called `Red Herring' - Education Secretary Criticizes Challenge To No Child Left Behind Act
By DOUG GROSS, Associated Press
August 25, 2005

ATLANTA -- U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings on Wednesday called complaints that the federal No Child Left Behind Act isn't fully funded a "red herring" contrived by states such as Connecticut, which filed a lawsuit this week challenging the program.

Connecticut's lawsuit, filed Monday in U.S. District Court, claims the law is illegal because the Bush administration has not provided enough money to pay for the testing and programs associated with the 2001 law.  Spellings, speaking to the Atlanta Press Club, said the lawsuit "does trouble me a little bit" and, afterward, suggested states balking at the law simply fear the results of its accountability measures.

"I just see that as a red herring," she said of Connecticut's claim this year's federal funds will fall $41.6 million short of paying for staffing, training and testing for No Child Left Behind.

"What are they afraid of knowing, I guess, is one of the things I'd like to know."  Connecticut was the first state to challenge the law. But lawmakers in other states have complained about its funding and expect that other states could join Connecticut's lawsuit or file their own.  Connecticut tests students in grades four, six, eight and 10. State officials say they don't believe there is added benefit in expanding testing to grades three, five and seven. Education Commissioner Betty Sternberg said the state already knows where its problem areas are, and it is working aggressively to fix them.  Spellings said annual testing is a cornerstone of the federal program and needed to assess student achievement and help struggling students catch up with their peers.

"Parents want to know where their children stand," she said. "That's a reasonable expectation for Connecticut and Georgia and Texas and every other state in the land."

Sternberg disputed that.

"I'm a parent myself," she said. "And in fact, in my whole career here in Connecticut in 25 years, I have never heard nor been asked by any parent to provide more of that kind of testing information."  Wednesday's comments renewed months of sometimes-bitter dialogue between Spellings and Connecticut officials.  In April, Spellings called the state's attitude toward its minority students "un-American" and repeated a Bush line, accusing the state of "soft bigotry of low expectations" for not supporting the plan. Sternberg called the comments outrageous and cited her Jewish heritage when demanding an apology.

Connecticut estimates it will have to spend $41.6 million of its own money to comply with the law through 2008. Spellings said the federal government has already sent $750 million, but the state says the costs of implementing the law are much higher.  Attorney General Richard Blumenthal said the law itself says that the government must pay for extra expenses.

"Three words for federal officials: Read the law," he said. "Under the law, the federal government must pay for any additional testing. They have not done so."  Spellings toured an Atlanta elementary school before the speech. She plans to visit several cities promoting national test results she said have improved since the inception of No Child Left Behind.

No Child Lawsuit Disputed
By ROBERT A. FRAHM, Courant Staff Writer
August 23, 2005

As some of the state's leading educators and politicians hailed Connecticut's filing of a lawsuit against a controversial federal education law Monday, two national civil rights leaders called the action ill-advised.

The criticism from civil rights advocates, including former Connecticut lawyer John C. Brittain, came as Connecticut became the first state to go to court challenging the No Child Left Behind Act, the centerpiece of President Bush's education agenda. 

The disagreement reflects a national debate over the most sweeping federal education law in 30 years. The law calls for a broad expansion of testing and a shake-up of schools that fail to make sufficient progress with all students, including low-income children, special education students and members of minority groups.

The state filed suit in federal district court in Hartford against U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings, contending the law will unfairly cost state and local taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars.

"Our message today is: Give up the unfunded mandates or give us the money," said state Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, flanked by about a dozen politicians and representatives of the state's education establishment.

A spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of Education said the lawsuit "sends the wrong message to students, educators and parents."

"The funds have been provided for testing," said Susan Aspey, "but Connecticut apparently wants to keep those funds without using them as intended."

A key goal of No Child Left Behind is to close the achievement gap that finds many low-income and minority students lagging academically behind white, middle-class children.

Although educators across the nation have complained that the law does not provide enough money for schools to make the necessary improvements, some observers, such as Brittain, believe it has focused long overdue attention on low-income and minority children, whose academic performance generally has lagged behind that of other students.

"We believe poor children will suffer if the state of Connecticut wins" its lawsuit, said Brittain, who for years was a central figure in the Sheff vs. O'Neill school desegregation case that sought to improve racial balance in Hartford's public schools.

"No Child Left Behind keeps the accountability on the states, where it belongs," said Brittain, chief counsel and senior deputy director of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law in Washington, D.C.

In a letter to Blumenthal, Brittain and noted civil rights lawyer William Taylor took no position on whether No Child Left Behind has been funded properly but alleged that Connecticut has failed to comply with the law's requirements to help local school districts meet academic standards.

That failure, the letter said, cannot be excused by the state's claims that the law is under-funded.

Taylor, chairman of the Citizens' Commission on Civil Rights, questioned the strategy of basing a lawsuit on claims of unfunded mandates. "There is no basis for thinking those lawsuits have been successful," he said. "I'm afraid lawsuits of this kind ... may encourage other states to resist. That cannot help this major effort to help poor kids."

Blumenthal said the state doesn't object to the goals of No Child Left Behind, but "with the failed implementation."

The federal government has repeatedly rejected Connecticut's requests for flexibility in interpreting the law, including waiving a requirement to add three grades to Connecticut's annual testing program at a cost to the state of nearly $8 million over the next two years.

The state - which for years has tested children in fourth, sixth, eighth and 10th grades - will add tests in third, fifth and seventh grades in the spring to meet federal requirements even though the additional tests "have questionable merit," said state Education Commissioner Betty J. Sternberg. She rejected the contention by Brittain and Taylor that the state had failed to help local school districts comply with the law.

Sternberg also has disagreed with the federal government over how to test special education students and children who speak little or no English.

Connecticut is one of many states that have clashed with the U.S. Department of Education over No Child Left Behind. Nevertheless, Blumenthal, despite months of effort, was unable to persuade other states to join the lawsuit.

"That's because almost every other state is in the process of asking the U.S. Department of Education for changes" in the interpretation of the law, said Jack Jennings, president of the Center on Education Policy in Washington, D.C., a private nonprofit group that monitors education policy. "I think they're afraid that if they file suit they won't get the changes they're asking for."

As for Connecticut officials, "I think they're fed up," he said. The lawsuit "is a clear signal there is a great deal of discontent with the law."

That discontent was evident at Blumenthal's press conference, where educators and politicians blasted the federal law.

State Rep. Andrew Fleischmann, D-West Hartford, compared the federal education department to a playground bully.

"While there are not other states that are currently joining us in this litigation, they are cheering us on because we are taking on the bully," he said.

One official noticeably absent from the press conference was Gov. M. Jodi Rell. The Republican governor has expressed reservations about challenging Bush's chief education program in court, but she did recently sign a bill authorizing Blumenthal to file the lawsuit.

Judd Everhart, a spokesman for the governor, said Rell was not invited to attend Monday's press conference.

The governor, however, issued a statement supporting Connecticut's existing school testing program.

"We need accountability. Our children deserve it," she said, "but we in Connecticut do a lot of testing already, far more than most other states. Our taxpayers are sagging under the crushing costs of local education. What we don't need is a new laundry list of things to do - with no new money to do them."

Rell Backs Lawsuit By State;  Agrees To Challenge Federal School Law

July 26, 2005
By ROBERT A. FRAHM, Courant Staff Writer

Despite some reservations, Gov. M. Jodi Rell has signed a law authorizing a legal challenge to a controversial federal school reform law that is the centerpiece of President Bush's education agenda.  Until now, Rell, a Republican, had been noncommittal about signing a bill challenging the President's No Child Left Behind Act, saying that she prefers negotiating with federal officials instead of suing them.

"I know this was difficult for her to do because, after all, she's a Republican governor, and the President believes [No Child Left Behind] is the right thing," said state Education Commissioner Betty J. Sternberg.  Rell's decision to sign a bill passed by the legislature in a special session last month gives added weight to Attorney General Richard Blumenthal's threat to sue the U.S. Department of Education.

Blumenthal said Monday he plans to file the suit by the time schools open next month.  Even though the proposed lawsuit has not won the endorsement of the State Board of Education, the governor took into account Blumenthal's assessment "that it was extremely and profoundly important that this bill be passed in special session," according to a statement from Rell's press office.

"While the Governor feels fighting the Act is better left in the hands of the state's congressional delegation, she fully understands the attorney general's motivation and is interested in the outcome," said spokesman Adam Liegeot.  A spokesman at the U.S. Department of Education said Monday the department would not comment on the matter.  Blumenthal continues to seek support from other states after pledging three months ago to make Connecticut the first state to file a lawsuit challenging the federal law, contending it will unfairly cost state and local taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars.

"I am enormously pleased and thankful to the governor and the legislature for this measure strengthening our planned lawsuit against the illegal unfunded federal mandates," said Blumenthal, a Democrat. "The stakes for Connecticut are huge."

The State Board of Education, however, last month refused to support the planned lawsuit, postponing a vote on the matter after some members said they were opposed to legal action.  Connecticut is one of many states that have clashed with the U.S. Department of Education over No Child Left Behind. The law calls for a broad expansion of testing and a shake-up of schools that fail to make sufficient progress, including low-income children, special education students and members of minority groups.

The federal government has repeatedly rejected Connecticut's requests for flexibility in interpreting the law, including Commissioner Sternberg's appeal for a waiver of a requirement to test three additional grades in the state's annual testing program next spring. She said the additional testing will cost millions of dollars but will produce little benefit.

Sternberg praised Rell's decision to sign the law authorizing a lawsuit.  "Rather than taking a political stance, I think she considers what's right for the citizens," Sternberg said.

"I, too, shared her concern about jumping in too quickly, but ... I think we have no recourse. We're really being asked to spend a tremendous amount of money on programs that ... I don't think are in the best interest of students."

Blumenthal said he plans to file the suit "before the first day of school." About half the state's public schools start on Aug. 31, according to the state Department of Education. The earliest starting date is Aug. 24 in Groton.  Blumenthal said he remains hopeful that other states will join a lawsuit and expects to get final answers from them within weeks but added, "We will stand alone, if necessary, in this fight."  One of the states contemplating similar legal action is Maine.

"I have spoken with Attorney General Blumenthal a number of times on the potential for litigation," Maine Attorney General Steven Rowe said Monday.

"We in Maine are still evaluating the extent of the unfunded mandates contained in the federal law," he said. "We hope to be in a position to file suit within the next few weeks."


 
 

Saturday, May 7, 2005 Hartford Courant:
`No Child' Law Backed;  Cabinet Member Says It Works
By ROBERT A. FRAHM
While a handful of states, including Connecticut, challenge a federal school reform act, others are making promising gains under the law, U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings said Friday.

From Massachusetts to Wyoming, schools are showing progress in helping low-performing students catch up as a result of the No Child Left Behind Act, Spellings said.

Connecticut has threatened to sue the federal government over the cost of expanding student testing under the law. The National Education Association, the teachers' union, has already filed such a suit. Utah and Texas also have fought some of the law's provisions.

"For every one of these states in the news, there are dozens of others that are quietly going about their business, implementing the law and getting results. ...The contrary actions of a couple of states and one union do not constitute a grass-roots rebellion," Spellings said.

Spellings' remarks to reporters at the national Education Writers Association's annual seminar came two days after she rejected Connecticut's request to waive a requirement to test thousands more children under the state's annual Mastery Test.

For 20 years, that test of reading, writing and mathematics has been given to fourth-, sixth- and eighth-graders, but No Child Left Behind requires that the state also test children in grades 3, 5 and 7. State officials contend such an expansion will cost state taxpayers millions of dollars more.

A key reason for the extra cost is that the mastery test asks students to submit writing samples, which cannot be scored by machine and are more expensive to grade. No Child Left Behind requires states to test children in reading and mathematics, but not writing.

Connecticut's inclusion of writing on the exam "is certainly instructionally sound and well within their prerogative," Spellings said Friday in response to a question. "But the issue is: Who should pay for that?"

If Connecticut does not want to drop the writing exam, one possibility would be to test for writing only in alternate grades as long as the state measures all children every year on the law's required tests, including reading and mathematics, Spellings said.

Allan B. Taylor, chairman of the State Board of Education, said the idea of using a scaled-down test in alternate grades is something that can be considered, but "we want to understand what that would mean." Even the reading and mathematics portions of the mastery test include some open-ended questions requiring students to write their answers, and Taylor said the state does not intend to use tests that are strictly limited to multiple-choice questions.

"We don't think Congress intended for all states to adopt lowest common denominator testing," he said.

The No Child Left Behind Act was signed by President Bush three years ago as a means of improving achievement for all groups of students, including low-income and minority children, who generally have lagged behind white children in standardized test scores.

Spellings cited the large achievement gap in Connecticut between white and minority children, but mentioned one school, the Amistad Academy charter school in New Haven, as a success story. Nearly all Amistad's students are black or Hispanic, and most are poor - yet the school consistently scores above state averages on the mastery test. The school includes a longer school day, a strict code of conduct and rigorous curriculum.

"The hard work and long hours they put in are proving that it can be done," Spellings said.


No Apologies At `No Child' Meeting

April 19, 2005
By ROBERT A. FRAHM, Courant Staff Writer  WASHINGTON, D.C. -- U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings and state Education Commissioner Betty J. Sternberg had what was called a cordial meeting Monday, but Sternberg left without an apology or a concession on annual student testing.

The two have had sharp disagreements over the interpretation of the federal No Child Left Behind Act, the centerpiece of President Bush's school reform agenda. Last week, Sternberg asked for an apology from Spellings, who had accused Connecticut of trying to find a loophole in the law and implied that the state's attitude toward black children is "un-American."

After meeting for about an hour, Sternberg said "there wasn't an explicit apology" though she said both she and Spellings agreed "we are on the same playing field ... understanding that we embrace the goals of No Child Left Behind."

Many states have been watching the dispute to see if Spellings would grant Connecticut - and ultimately them - more flexibility in implementing the law. Although Sternberg expressed hope for a waiver on expanded statewide student testing - something she says will cost the state millions of dollars without any additional benefit - Spellings appeared unlikely to budge.

"The secretary hasn't changed her position on that," said Assistant U.S. Secretary of Education Raymond Simon, one of the several top-level department officials who sat in on the meeting. "Annual testing is in the law. That's the bottom line."

The meeting, held at the request of Gov. M. Jodi Rell, apparently was free of the rancor that has marked the dispute.

Spellings made what many considered an insulting characterization of Connecticut during a recent TV interview. Sternberg wrote to Spellings that she was outraged by Spellings' comments in a television interview, especially her use of the phrase "soft bigotry of low expectations" in discussing the state's approach to educating black children in cities.

While Sternberg's description of the meeting was positive, Attorney General Richard Blumenthal gave a more blunt assessment in a statement he released after talking to Sternberg.

"Better manners, same message," said Blumenthal, who did not attend the meeting. "This meeting yielded vague, soothing happy talk, but no specific commitment to end unfunded mandates."

Connecticut's 20-year-old mastery test of fourth-, sixth- and eighth-graders is regarded as among the most rigorous in the nation, but Spellings has said it is not sufficient to meet the requirements of No Child Left Behind. Last month, Spellings rejected the state's request for a waiver of the law's requirement to expand testing to also include grades 3, 5 and 7.

Monday's meeting follows a pledge by Blumenthal last week to make Connecticut the first state in the nation to file a lawsuit challenging the federal law, contending that it will unfairly cost state and local taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars.  As long as the federal government insists on imposing unfunded mandates under No Child Left Behind, Connecticut will continue to pursue legal action, Blumenthal said.

No Child Left Behind calls for a broad expansion of testing and a shake-up of schools that fail to make sufficient progress with all students, including groups such as low-income children, special education students and members of minority groups. The law is designed to close the academic gap that finds many low-income minority children lagging behind middle-class white students.

Monday's meeting lasted about an hour as education officials from Spellings' office and Sternberg's staff sat around a large conference table.

Participants briefly acknowledged some of the recent public rhetoric surrounding the dispute but then exchanged views on issues such as annual testing requirements and the approach to testing special education students and non-English speaking children, according to those at the meeting.

"I do think the tenor of the conversation changed, but I don't think anything else was conclusive," said Allan B. Taylor, chairman of the State Board of Education.

Sternberg said, "We had a cordial conversation. ... We both understood each other's perspective."

One key issue, Sternberg said, is the cost of testing. She said her department will have to ask the state for nearly $8 million more over the next two years to cover the cost of new tests under No Child Left Behind - despite a state law that says any additional testing costs that result from the federal act must be covered by federal funds.

"We're in a Catch-22 situation," she said, contending that federal funds do not cover the additional cost.

Sternberg also said she told Spellings that the large achievement gap in Connecticut is partly the result of exceptionally high performance by white students and that black students perform at about the same level as in several other states, where the achievement gap is smaller.

Education observers around the nation say they do not expect that Spellings will bend on annual testing requirement in grades 3-8 - a bedrock principle of the federal law.

"The law is pretty clear here. This is not an area where the secretary has much discretion," said Kati Haycock of Education Trust, an advocacy group working to close the achievement gap.

Haycock disagrees with Connecticut's request to continue testing children only in alternate grades. "If I were the parent of a fourth-grade child who got below basic [scores], I'd be very worried about my child's future and would not want to wait another two years to see if my child is making appropriate progress."

Other states, too, are seeking changes in how the law is applied, but none so far has joined Connecticut's legal challenge.

"From our perspective, school boards across the nation are following this closely," said Reggie Felton, a lobbyist for the National School Boards Association. "I think you'll see more and more requests for these changes. The concern is there simply aren't sufficient funds to fully implement the law."

In addition, he said, the law's method of singling out schools even if only one group, such as special education students, falls below standards "suggests to the community that a school's performance might be worse than it actually is."

Connecticut is also one of many states that have lodged complaints about other provisions of the law, including its requirements for testing special education students, but Spellings announced this month that the U.S. Department of Education will allow more flexibility in testing those students in states that are committed to the No Child Left Behind Act and that show academic progress.

On Monday, Donald E. Williams, Connecticut's senate president pro tempore, called on other states that have effective testing systems to join forces to fight for reforms in the law.

Sternberg will remain in Washington for a few days to meet with Connecticut's congressional delegation about education issues, including No Child Left Behind.

Defining, Disciplining Bullies: A Dilemma For Schools
By KATE FARRISH,
The Hartford Courant
November 23, 2008

In many ways, Joél Olmeda is a typical 11-year-old boy. He likes social studies, plays shortstop on his baseball team and serves as an altar boy at his church.  He's also a bully, according to East Hartford school officials.

Nine months ago, the school system officially labeled Joél, who was 10 at the time, as a bully after documenting a string of four incidents, including throwing food, name-calling and shoving. When Joél told a classmate that his sneakers were "ugly," he was suspended for three days, and a "bullying" letter was placed in his file. Officials initially said the letter would stay there until Joél graduates from high school. They've now agreed to take it out next June if he behaves.

But the boy's parents, José Olmeda and Nancy Ortiz, have been fighting ever since to get the letter removed. The letter is "making Joél sound like a convict, instead of a typical 10-year-old that just made poor choices," José Olmeda said.

Joél's case — documented down to handwritten statements from fifth-grade witnesses — highlights the increasing pressures school districts face in combating and proving bullying. Experts say the definition of bullying in the state's 2002 law was hazy — one reason the state legislature toughened the law this year. Previously, the law defined bullying as overt acts of harassment repeated against the same student "over time." Now a student can be labeled a bully after only two incidents against any student.

When it comes to interpreting the state law, schools districts are often confused about what constitutes bullying and how to discipline students for bullying, experts say. Is a student who retaliates after being provoked by another student a bully? When is a child too young to be labeled a bully? What is the appropriate discipline and how long should a bullying charge follow a student?

All these questions were raised in Joél Olmeda's story.

Joél's Story

Olmeda and Ortiz say hardly anyone has listened to them.

They insist that Joél retaliated only because the classmate whose sneakers he called ugly had bullied him for months and nothing was done.  They were so frustrated last spring that Olmeda filed a complaint with the state Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities, contending that Joél was labeled a bully because he is Hispanic. The complaint was dismissed in September, but documents provided to The Courant by Olmeda detail the East Hartford district's case against Joél.

In response to the CHRO complaint, school officials said Joél "has refused to participate in classroom assignments, thrown food in the lunchroom, called other students names and shoved other students."

In September 2007, Joél threw a bag of chips at another student. His father says Joél threw the bag because the other student had thrown it at him.  Trouble started again a month later, when a new student moved into Joél's fifth-grade class at Thomas S. O'Connell Elementary School. By November, Joél was clearly having problems with the new kid.

"Every day was a struggle to get him to go to school," Ortiz said.

Olmeda said Joél told him the other boy was "screaming in his ear, poking and pushing him." Joél moved his classroom desk behind a bookcase to get away from the boy, Olmeda said.  In January, Olmeda said he asked Principal Scott Nozik to do something about the boy's bullying, but nothing was done.  The district, however, presents a different view.

The new student's behavior "could be described as an annoyance. …However, unlike Joél, the new student never exhibited aggressive behavior," officials wrote. "Joél singled the new student out and began to tease him."

School officials and the Olmedas declined to identify the boy. Superintendent of Schools Marion H. Martinez said she and other officials could not comment on Joél's case.  In their written response to the CHRO complaint, school officials denied treating Joél unfairly because he is Hispanic, and pointed out that the new student also is Hispanic. They also denied that the boy had poked, pushed or bullied Joél.  But Olmeda said Joél became fed up and retaliated, pushing the boy on Jan. 9. On Feb. 5, Joél and a different student were given detention for shoving each other.

Then on Feb. 11, the confrontation that came to be labeled the "sneaker incident" occurred. A library aide and other students "overheard Joél harassing the new student by calling the new student's sneakers ugly," according to school records.

Nozik interviewed Joél, the aide, the new student and five other students. The students provided handwritten statements that they heard Joél teasing the boy. Nozik determined that "Joél's behavior was squarely within the definition of bullying" — defined in the district's policy as "any overt acts by a student … directed against another student with the intent to ridicule, harass, humiliate or intimidate the other student … which acts are repeated against the same student over time." The wording reflected the state law in place at the time.

Nozik suspended Joél and put the "bullying" letter in his file.  Joél's parents said they were stunned because no one had warned them that he was suspected of being a bully. They admit Joél pushed the boy and teased him about his sneakers, but say that didn't meet the state's bullying definition of harassment repeated over time.

"If we had any indication he was bullying kids, we wouldn't be so worried about this letter," Ortiz said. "I don't think what he did and the punishment fit."Domingo Delgado, a deacon at St. Lawrence O'Toole Church in Hartford, where Joél is an altar boy, said he was shocked that the boy had been labeled a bully.

"He's polite. He's obedient," Delgado said. "I'd believe this about anybody else, but not Joél."

The Experts Say

Connecticut was one of the first states to pass a school anti-bullying law; now at least 36 states have them.

But confusion over the definition of bullying led Connecticut legislators to change the law this year so that a student can be labeled a bully after two incidents, instead of bullying behavior "over time."

The change — which took effect in July, months after Joél was labeled — makes it easier to intervene quickly and counsel both bullies and their victims, experts say. They say bullying can lead to lower grades, isolation, depression and even suicide among victims.  But the bullies also need help so their behavior doesn't escalate to criminal acts, experts say.

"The bullies are crying out for help just as much as those being bullied," said Marji Lipshez-Shapiro, who runs an anti-bullying program for the Anti-Defamation League in Connecticut.

In a 2005 Connecticut survey, 40 percent of the state's ninth-graders reported having been bullied on school property in the past year, according to the Connecticut Commission on Children. Though some experts said they thought Joél was young to be labeled a bully, William Howe, a consultant with the state Department of Education, said educators are starting to get complaints about bullying in the second grade.  Experts who heard a summary of Joél's story suspect he retaliated after being bullied, since that is so common.

"My hunch is he probably was provoked and nobody saw it," said Jo Ann Freiberg, a state Department of Education consultant on bullying.

Lipshez-Shapiro said school officials have a tough job proving bullying.

"The school's job is really hard when it comes to deciphering these situations," she said.

The experts disagreed on East Hartford's use of the bullying letter and whether it will taint Joél in the long run.  Freiberg said Joél's case is "very upsetting on both ends." But she praised the East Hartford school system for giving Joél an incentive to behave.

"I credit the district for putting the letter in and leaving it there for a while. It's a good move," she said.

"Practically speaking, it won't hurt him too much," Freiberg said. "I really believe that teachers want to do what is best for kids. They don't comb through files searching for labels."

But Faith Vos Winkel, an assistant child advocate for the state, said she wasn't sure why the letter was used.

"Putting a letter in a file for such a little kid — what does it serve?" Vos Winkel asked. "This is not about dogging kids."

The state's law may place too much emphasis on zero tolerance for bullying, Lipshez-Shapiro said.

"We have to be nuanced in our approach," she said. "We need to help the schools deal with bullying."

'My Son Is Not A Bully'

At home in East Hartford, Joél was polite during an interview in his living room, which was decorated with photos of him with Santa.  The other boy probably bullied him to be popular, Joél said, adding that he was "sad" school officials didn't help him.

"It felt weird," he said. "It felt like the principal didn't like me."

Joél has had no behavior problems in sixth grade this fall, but when a slot opened at an out-of-town magnet school in late October, his parents decided to transfer him there because it was a good opportunity.  It is unclear what East Hartford school officials will do with the bullying letter now that Joél has left the district, but his parents are still fighting for its removal.

"My son is not a bully," Olmeda said. "This haunts me."


School System Hit With Bullying Lawsuit
By Ivan H. Golden
Greenwich TIME, Monday, Dec. 27, 2004:

In a case that is among the first of its kind in Connecticut, an Old Greenwich couple has filed a lawsuit against the Greenwich Public Schools and several school administrators for failing to protect their daughter from excessive bullying over a period of several years.

The lawsuit, filed earlier this month in state Superior Court in Stamford by Theodore and Patrice Anibal on behalf of their daughter, accuses school officials of several counts of negligent and intentional infliction of emotional distress. The lawsuit also cites Connecti-cut's anti-bullying statute, a 2002 law that requires all public schools to establish plans to address bullying.

According to the couple's lawsuit, their daughter, a student at Old Green-wich School, suffered severe emotional distress and her ability to obtain an education was compromised by relentless bullying that school officials failed to stop.

The girl is named as a plaintiff in the Anibals' lawsuit, but Greenwich Time chose not to identify her because of her age. The girl's mother, Patrice Anibal, said the family filed a lawsuit only after exhausting all other means of resolving the issue.

"We did not want to do this," she said. "But the administration has just refused to address the problem. It was absolutely our last resort."

Superintendent of Schools Larry Leverett, who is one of the defendants named in the lawsuit, said he was familiar with the case but could not comment on any of the incidents or accusations.

"Those are the issues before the court, and they will be determined by the appropriate judiciary authority," he said.

The Anibals' lawyer, Alyce Alfano, of the West Hartford law firm Klebanoff and Alfano, said bullying lawsuits are somewhat unusual, though not unheard of, in Connecticut.

"It's certainly not something that we do a lot of, and our firm does solely education law," she said. "I think what brought this one to the stage of filing a lawsuit was that, with this particular situation, it went on and on for years, and the parents continually tried to address it and were blown off and rebuffed."

Ann-Marie DeGraffenreidt, an attorney at the Center for Children's Advo-cacy at the University of Connecticut School of Law, said bullying-related lawsuits are rare in Connecticut. But with the state's anti-bullying statute, she said such complaints may become more common.

"It's still a developing area of the law," she said. "And that's partly because of the impact . . . bullying can have on children and young adults and adolescents has only recently been recognized."

A growing body of evidence suggests bullying is bad for victims and victimizers alike, DeGraffenreidt said. Studies also show schools can reduce and even eliminate bullying, she said.

"It is possible to have schools where this does not occur," she said, "(but) it requires the school to create an environment where bullying is not tolerated and children are taught to respect one another."

According to the lawsuit, the Anibals complained repeatedly between 1999 and 2004 that their daughter was being bullied, but school officials did nothing to remedy the situation. Before filing the lawsuit, Alfano said she tried to intervene with school officials on the Anibals' behalf.

"I just got nowhere," she said. "I just got no complete or respectful response."

The Anibals' lawsuit seeks compensatory and punitive damages, as well as reimbursement of medical and other costs. But Alfano said money is not motivating her clients.

"This was not about retribution or about money," she said. "This was about having Greenwich acknowledge what happened and apologize for it."

Alfano said she did not file suit against the students who she said teased and bullied the Anibals' daughter because the family felt it was school officials, not students, who should address the problem.

"We really didn't feel that that was the appropriate place to go because they're all young children," Alfano said.

In addition to the Board of Education and Leverett, the lawsuit names Assistant Superin-tendent Maria Melendez, Board of Education Chairwoman Sandy Waters and Old Green-wich School Principal Marge Sherman as defendants.

Sherman said she would not comment on the case. Valerie Maze, the assistant town attorney who is handling the lawsuit, was out of the office yesterday and could not be reached for comment.

According to their complaint, the Anibals' daughter, who still attends Old Greenwich School, has been taunted, teased and bullied almost daily since 1999, both in school and out of school. As a result of the bullying, the lawsuit claims, the girl suffers from, "anxiety, withdrawal into fantasy, extreme fear, hypersensitivity (and) extreme difficulty in social situations."

The Anibals' 13-page complaint describes dozens of specific incidents in which they say school officials failed to stop other students from taunting, teasing and even assaulting their daughter. Among them:

* In September 2001, the Anibals' daughter was placed in a class with one of the three students who were most aggressive in teasing, harassing and bullying her.

* The following school year, the girl was placed in a class with two students who bullied her on a daily basis, despite school officials' knowledge that the students had a history of harassing the girl.

* In March and April of this year, Patrice Anibal complained repeatedly to school and district officials, including Leverett, about other students bullying her daughter, but did not receive a satisfactory response.

Despite the rift between the Anibals and school officials, Alfano said she hopes the parties can reach a settlement in the case.

"I have no desire to play it out publicly," she said. "The things that the family is looking for from the district are certainly things that can be resolved." 



Group seeks to reform state education funding
By Tobin A. Coleman, Stamford ADVOCATE
December 1, 2004

HARTFORD -- A new statewide coalition wants the Legislature to change the way Connecticut doles out education money.

Stamford Mayor Dannel Malloy and Norwalk Mayor Alex Knopp were among two dozen municipal, education and labor leaders at the state Capitol yesterday to announce formation of the Connecticut Coalition for Justice in Education Funding.  Both mayors sit on the coalition's 18-member board.

The goal is to replace state Education Cost Sharing grants with a system that better matches funding to the cost of educating students. The state relies too much on local property taxes to fund education, the group said, strangling municipal budgets and holding back student achievement.

The coalition is commissioning a $140,000 study that will pinpoint the cost of education, including variables for disadvantaged and special-needs students. Similar studies in Maryland and New Jersey led to changes in state funding formulas, said Dianne Kaplan deVries, project director for the group. The study by Augenblick, Palaich & Associates of Denver will be released in March.

Malloy said the Education Cost Sharing formula -- which he has strongly opposed for years because he thinks it under-funds Stamford -- makes it difficult for Connecticut students to remain competitive.

"Classroom size, training of teachers, whether a school system can retain teachers in a competitive environment, are all issues that this formula, as it currently exists, is causing to defeat, system upon system, child upon child, generation upon generation. And that ultimately makes our state less competitive," Malloy said. "The days of running away from issues should be behind us. It is time to embrace this one to make a difference for this generation and to future generations."

Knopp said implementation of the federal No Child Left Behind Act and a recent requirement that students pass the Connecticut Academic Performance Test to graduate from high school require the state to find different ways to fund education.

"We can't have a funding formula that's divorced from whether or not students are in schools that achieve the standards of No Child Left Behind, or are in high schools that don't pass the CAPT tests and therefore can't graduate," Knopp said.

Coalition members hope parents will join them in the push to change the formula, he said.

They don't expect final action in the upcoming legislative session, members said, because the study won't be finished until halfway through the session. The study could conclude that new taxes are needed, they said, because no district is asking for less money.

At the least, the state should pick up 50 percent of education costs, as the state Constitution calls for, not the 37 percent it pays, Middletown Mayor Domenique Thornton said.

In the past eight years, Middletown's budget has increased $30 million, Thornton said.

Of that, "$25 million went directly to education and only $5 million accounted for increases on the city side," she said. "With inflation . . . and the cost of living increases . . . we are actually limiting the resources we are applying to the city side of the budget."

Malloy said that since he became mayor of Stamford nine years ago, the amount of property taxes and fees devoted to education increased from 44 percent to 62 percent.

"You can only push that so far," he said.

Knopp said Norwalk spends 60 percent of its operating budget and 91 percent of its capital budget on education. That has increased much more than spending on city services, he said.

Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton acknowledged that previous efforts to reform state education funding were dismissed.

"We have a vision for the 21st century in funding education," Boughton said. "Right now, we use a 20th-century formula. . . . It's old, it's antiquated, it's outlived its usefulness."

But it could take years to enact reforms, he said.

Dennis Schain, spokesman for Gov. M. Jodi Rell, said she favors a review of state education funding.

"The Education Cost Sharing formula has been tinkered with by the Legislature time and again throughout the years," Schain said. "Frankly, it bears little resemblance to the formula that was originally put in place by court order. Inequities do exist. A review is warranted, but the review must be open and honest with favoritism and political agendas set aside."



CONNECTICUT  POLICY  AND   ECONOMIC  COUNCIL (CPEC):
On-line tool to help evaluate your community!  How to measure the "value" of your child's education?
CPEC offers this link:  http://www.schoolguide.org/
Across the pond school located on "Weston Road" sends sixth form students out for more advanced work.

Link above to early news of synthetic fields!


"About Town" Unofficial Highlights of Weston School News
(most recent at the top, through April 1999, at the bottom)


Five Weston teachers announce retirements      
Weston FORUM
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
 
Jerome Belair, superintendent of Weston schools, reported that five teachers have announced their retirement at the conclusion of the 2008-09 school year.

Each of these individuals has made a significant contribution to the Weston school system, Mr. Belair said, adding that they have a combined total of 159 years of teaching service among them.

Those who have announced their retirement include:

•    John Billus, teacher of French at Weston High School.

•    Edward Siegal, teacher of English at Weston High School.

•    Frances Ryerson, instrumental music teacher at Weston Middle School and Weston Intermediate School.

•    Robert Mitchell, art teacher at Weston High School.

•    Linda Froschauer, K-5 science/math curriculum instructional leader.

Ellen Uzenoff, school board chairman, said her children have had many of these teachers over the years and “we all have been very fortunate to have their skills and special talents here in Weston.”

Ms. Uzenoff extended her congratulations and commended the teachers on their outstanding teaching and many accomplishments. 

Special Meeting of the Board of Education, November 17, 2008 at 7pm at the Weston Library Community Room - report on Transportation Study

From the Board of Education website...
Welcome to the Weston Public Schools,

The success of Weston Public Schools is directly connected to a dedicated and talented staff, active and strong parental involvement, and a supportive and generous community. As an award-winning school district with a long tradition of excellence in education, the Jerome Belair, Superintendent of SchoolsWeston Public Schools values a system of continuous improvement that permeates every aspect of its work in order to become a center of educational excellence. We are committed to providing a challenging curriculum, skilled instruction, and a learning environment that responds to individual student academic needs. Our work is guided by research and the belief that every student is capable of attaining high levels of educational achievement in preparation for meeting the rigorous demands of the twenty-first century.

We believe in the unlimited potential of our students by respecting and developing their unique learning styles and interests. We set challenging and demanding expectations for performance and support all students to achieve high standards. We foster a culture of civility where students and adults are treated with fairness, are respected for their contributions, and are celebrated for their successes. We believe in using data to guide decisions and to improve student learning, differentiate instruction, and promote social, emotional and physical growth.

Our work together requires teamwork, collaboration and dedication. We believe in the value of collaboration and communication. We believe that commitment to and implementation of continuous learning lead to improved student performance. We believe in the power of personal connections and relations between staff, students, parents and the community.

I am fortunate to be part of a professional community that approaches its work with optimism and a tremendous sense of possibility.  I lead a team of dedicated administrators, talented teachers and committed support staff, involved families and supportive community members, working in partnership to strengthen educational excellence.

As we look to the future, we need to set clearly defined goals and measure how well we are meeting these goals. Great organizations have clarity of purpose, common goals, shared commitment, and are results-oriented. I look forward to working with each of you to provide the best educational experiences for our youth.

In the words of John Bartlett, "The secret of success is constancy of purpose.

I am excited about the opportunities that lie ahead for the Weston Public Schools!

Respectfully,

Jerome R. Belair (NEW SUPERINTENDENT)
Superintendent Lynne Pierson resigns
Weston FORUM
Jan 29, 2008

In a letter dated Jan. 27, Lynne Pierson, Weston's superintendent of schools, submitted her resignation to the Board of Education.

Dr. Pierson was granted a one-year unpaid leave of absence in July 2007 to take on a position with the Abu Dhabi Education Council in the United Arab Emirates. John Reed has been serving as interim superintendent since that time.

Dr. Pierson will continue her work in Abu Dhabi where she holds the title of head of the schools' development unit for the Council.

THE LETTER OF RESIGNATION:

January 27, 2008

Dear Ellen and Members of the Board of Education,

 It is with much reflection, a sense of anticipation along with a wistful sadness that I submit this letter to you announcing my resignation as Superintendnt of the Weston Public Schools, effective June 30, 2008.  The past six years have been exhilarating for me as I have had the privilege of leading an outstanding school system in a comunity that cares deeply about the quality of education for its children.  

I am grateful for the opportunity that the Board provided to me during the current 2007-2008 school year by granting me an unpaid leave of absence to pursue a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to improve the education of children in a vastly different part of the world.
  Uncertain as to what I might encounter or what my contributions could be, I have found my experience here in the United Arab Emirates to be beyond anything I could have imagined.  The work is both immensely challenging while at the same time rewarding.  The Abu Dhabi Education Council has recently begun a massive transition to become the core of a new Department of Education rsponsible for all schools, including higher education, throughout the Emirate of Abu Dhabi.  I feel a commitment to continue to offer my expertise, experience and skills to this endeavor, which will provide the foundation for all educational change and improvement throughout the country.  It is for these reasons that I have decided to remain in the U.A.E. for a second year.

During the time that I have been privileged to serve as your superintendent, I have enjoyed my relationships with each Board of Education, with the community leadership, town staff and with our representatives at the State level.  I have had the distinct honor of working with an amazing and capable teaching staff and a unique and superior administrative eam.   Within the Weston school community we are also blessed with capable secretarial and clerical staff, committed paraprofessionals, caring nurses, essential custodial and maintenance staff, all working with a focus on children. 

Over the past six years we have seen many wonderful changes accomplished through teamwork, collaboration and commitment.  Weston shines as a beacon of educational excellence throughout Connecticut.  By initiating and completing complicated construction projects, emphasizing literacy strategies, increasing advance placement opportunities for high school students, promoting quality fine and performing arts education, increasing interscholastic sports, changing the emphasis to problem solving in math, and expanding world language offerings, we have persevered and taken the kudos and criticisms together.  What a team, led during these times by three superb and selfless Board of Education Chairpersons, Les Wolf, Don Gary and Ellen Uzenoff.  I am deeply appreciative of their wise counsel and support. 

While Emerson believed that “an institution is the lengthened shadow of one person,” Weston today is far greater than any individual.  There is strength within the system and in those supporting the system and I believe that my departure will provide the Boardwith the opportunity to seek a new leader for the next generation of learners.  New leadership that I know will continue to move the Weston Schools to a level of heightened teaching and learning experience that will support Weston’s children who are the leaders of tomorrow.  

If I have learned anything in the five months that I have been working in the Gulf region, it is that all children should be granted every opportunity to access an education, for without education no nation or community can flourish and prosper.  

Please know that I will do whatever you believe is necessary and appropriate to assist the Board of Education in this transitio process.

Sincerely,    

Lynne B. Pierson, Ed.D.  
Weston names a new interim superintendent
Weston FORUM
by TERRY CASTELLANO
Aug 2, 2007

With Weston Superintendent of Schools Lynne Pierson about to begin a one-year leave of absence, the school board voted unanimously on Aug. 2 to hire John R. Reed as Weston’s interim superintendent of schools.

Dr. Reed retired in 2002 as superintendent of schools in Newtown. He held that position for 20 years.  Since retiring, Dr. Reed served as interim assistant superintendent in Darien and interim superintendent for finance and personnel in Middletown.

“I am very pleased that Dr. Reed will be joining us in Weston,” Ellen Uzenoff, school board chairman, said. “He will be a tremendous partner in delivering services to our children.”

So, what caused Dr. Reed to continue to put off his retirement and accept the position of school superintendent in Weston?

“I am at a point in my career where I can work selectively,” Dr. Reed said Thursday afternoon. “Tom Jakubaitis [Weston’s interim superintendent during the 2001-02 school year] had nothing but good things to say about the community and asked me to meet with the Weston school board.”

Dr. Reed believes he will enjoy his time in Weston as the skills and attributes he will bring to the position are closely aligned with the needs of the school district.

“I believe in sustained, continuous improvement and a culture within a school system which supports that,” Dr. Reed said.

Dr. Reed’s contract with the school board begins Aug. 27 and ends June 30, 2008. Included in the contract is a clause permitting either side to terminate the contract with 30 day’s notice.  Dr. Reed will not be receiving sick, vacation or personal days, nor will he receive medical benefits. He will be paid on a per diem basis at a rate based on Dr. Pierson’s annual salary of $198,000 divided by 223 days, the number of official work days of the superintendent for one full school year.

Dr. Reed began his career as a social studies teacher. By age 26, he was named an assistant principal and at age 29, a principal. At the age of 32, he accepted the position of superintendent of schools in Margate, N.J.’s kindergarten through eighth grade school district. He served there for eight years prior to his accepting the position as superintendent of schools in Newtown.

He is the recipient of the Achievement Award from Education Connection for his leadership in founding and developing the regional internship program.

He was named Educational Leader of the Year, 2001-02 by the Connecticut Association for Supervision and Curriculum. In 2002, the Newtown community honored Dr. Reed by naming its new intermediate school Reed Intermediate School.

Dr. Reed is a graduate of Westchester State University and earned his master’s degree and doctorate in educational administration from Temple University.  Dr. Reed lives in Newtown with his wife of 43 years, Christina. He has two grown children.
Weston Board of Education Meeting
Weston Library Community Room
July 16, 2007

This was the last Board of Education meeting before Dr. Pierson departs on a one-year, unpaid leave of absence to develop a school system in one of the United Arab Emirets.  It is of note that another class was added to Kindergarten (the 8th), only 19 or 20 new teachers have been hired (a low number), a movie was being filmed on School Road and its nearby neighborhood, and some policies were reviewed, some for the first time, others for the second.  Progress is being made on the high school roof, contracts signed for the designer for the auditorium project (architect/engineer to be signed on soon).

Discussion of the improved technique used to more accurately obtain numbers of incoming kindergarteners took place.


School superintendent:  Board grants Pierson leave of absence
Weston FORUM
by TERRY CASTELLANO
June 20, 2007

The school board approved a request by Lynne Pierson, superintendent of schools, for a one-year leave of absence to begin mid-July to early August of this year.

Dr. Pierson, who has served as Weston’s superintendent since 2002, has accepted an invitation by the United Arab Emirates to consult in creating a better school system for the city of Abu Dhabi. She will be serving as the head of the schools development unit for the Abu Dhabi Education Council.

The approval of the leave came at the July 18 school board meeting. The vote was five in favor of approval with one abstention (Melissa Koller). Board member Dick Bochinski was not present at the meeting.

According to Ellen Uzenoff, school board chairman, Dr. Pierson and the board agreed that she will advise the board no later than Jan. 31, 2008, as to whether she will return to Weston at the conclusion of her one-year leave of absence. Also, should they wish, the board members will have the right to terminate the leave no later than Jan. 31, 2008, thereby ending any employment relationship with Dr. Pierson.

While she is on leave, Dr. Pierson will receive no salary or health benefits from the town.

“While I am confident that such a leave and my return can be implemented smoothly, this option would assure that the Board of Education could terminate the leave and find a new superintendent, should the board discover that the leave presents it with unanticipated difficulties,” Dr. Pierson stated in a letter to the school board dated June 9.

“The opportunity presented to Dr. Pierson is an honor to her that will be professionally and personally rewarding,” Ms. Uzenoff said in a prepared statement.

“We will work with Dr. Pierson and the staff to make a smooth transition to an interim superintendent for the period of her leave. We wish her the best and look forward to her return next year.”

Ms. Uzenoff said that while the board would prefer to have the benefit of her leadership in the coming year, Dr. Pierson leaves the district in excellent shape.

“Dr. Pierson was instrumental in assuring successful completion of the district’s extensive building projects, which are now concluded. Moreover, Dr. Pierson has assisted the board in hiring highly qualified staff, including Mr. Belair [assistant superintendent], Dr. Keating [director of finance and operations], Mr. Clarke [director of facilities], Mr. Anderson [director of human resources], and, now, Mrs. Pernice [director of pupil personnel services], who can carry on the work of the district in her absence. Third, Dr. Pierson has helped launch important curriculum work, which is ongoing and which will help improve student learning,” Ms. Uzenoff said in her statement.

“The decision to accept this offer was one of the most difficult decisions of my life because I have found my work with you and the Weston public schools community incredibly fulfilling,” Dr. Pierson told the board in her June 9 letter.

Dr. Pierson went on to state that the job in Abu Dhabi offered her a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity” to expand her knowledge as an educator. Further, she emphasized that her decision was not based on any dissatisfaction or concern with her current position as Weston schools superintendent.

“Our first concern is what is good for the kids,” school board member Les Wolf said.

“We are happy for Dr. Pierson. She and the board have worked diligently and have focused on what is best for the school district. I believe the system is in good hands.
Whatever happens, happens. A plan is in place in the event that Dr. Pierson does not return,” he said.

“Over the last five years, Dr. Pierson has done a wonderful job of pulling things together for our kids,” First Selectman Woody Bliss said Tuesday. “She has been a leader in all aspects of school operations. I have the highest respect for her and we are going to miss her. My hope is that she will return to Weston and we will be welcoming her back.”

“I am very disappointed and upset by Dr. Pierson’s leaving,” said Richard Miller, selectman. “She is an outstanding administrator. “It is understandable that she would want to take on this challenge, but it is a great loss for Weston.”

Phil Schaefer, school board vice-chairman, made a motion at the board meeting to appoint the school board members to serve as the Personnel Search Committee to identify a qualified educator to serve as interim superintendent during the period of Dr. Pierson’s absence. This motion was unanimously approved.
 
According to Ms. Uzenoff, it is the board’s intention to have an interim superintendent in place prior to the beginning of the upcoming school year.

Department chairmen:  In split vote, school board approves reorganization
Weston FORUM
by Terry Castellano
Jun 9, 2007

The school board voted 4-2, with one board member absent, to support central office’s proposal for restructuring the district’s organization of department chairmen and mentor teachers.

The department chairmen will now be called curriculum and instructional leaders.

Those in support of the proposal presented by Lynne Pierson, superintendent of schools, and Jerome Belair, assistant superintendent for curriculum, were Ellen Uzenoff, Phil Schaefer, Lyn Kimberly, and Joe Fitzpatrick. Those who opposed the proposal were Melissa Koller and Dick Bochinski. Board member Les Wolf was absent from the meeting.

The vote came at a special board meeting June 1, which followed two two-hour workshops.

When it comes to organizing department chairmen, “There is no perfect structure,” Dr. Pierson said. “One size does not fit all... I believe we are going in the right direction.” Dr. Pierson added that she realizes these changes will create some anxiety and confusion, but excitement as well.

“The driving factor is to create what is best for the children, first, adults second,” Dr. Pierson said, referring to the restructuring of the present department chairmen organization.

New model

The new model includes:

•    One full time position, each, for K-5 grade language arts/social studies, and K-5 grade mathematics/science;

•    A 0.6 FTE (full time equivalent) position, each, for 6-12 grade language arts and 6-12 grade social studies;

•    A 0.5 FTE position, each, for 6-12 grade mathematics and 6-12 grade science;

•    A 0.4 FTE position, each, for K-12 grade world languages and K-12 grade fine and performing arts;

•    A 0.2 FTE position for high school guidance;

•    The addition of 6-12 grade physical/health education curriculum and instructional leadership to the athletic director’s duties, with a K-5 grade physical/health education monitor, who will be given a stipend.

In addition, there will be a 0.2 FTE program improvement allocation for 6-12 grade language arts and the same for 6-12 grade social studies, which are undergoing a curriculum renewal process next year.

Library and media will be included under language arts department leadership; business and technology education will be included under mathematics and science department leadership; and family consumer science will fall under the leadership of the physical/health education department.

The total full time equivalent equals 5.6 certified staff positions.

The current department organization is described in detail in the May 31 issue of The Weston Forum, and is available online at www.theWestonForum.com.

What’s driving reorganization

Dr. Pierson said the recommendation for department chairmen reorganization is based on the following:

•    The NESDEC findings

•    Long-term goals and anticipated needs of Weston public schools (program improvement initiatives)

•    Degree of K-12 curriculum articulation in specific areas

•    Demands of the expected performance responsibilities

•    The present degree of preparedness among faculty to deliver differentiated instruction

•    Attracting teacher leader candidates (providing adequate time to be effective and accomplish the leadership responsibilities)

•    Matching the needs of the district with the strengths of the teacher leaders

•    Reducing the 2007-08 budget by $50,000

The recommendation also included the positions as two-year terms with an interim report on the effectiveness of the reorganization to be provided to the board after the first year of implementation.

Dr. Pierson said “clear criteria and expectations will be identified in order to measure the effectiveness of the proposed reorganization.”

At the end of the two years, a more detailed analysis will be completed by the administration and be presented to the board.

Second attempt

This was the central office administrators’ second attempt at a proposal. Both proposals were variations of the options offered by the New England School Development Council (NESDEC), which, at the board and administrators’ request, completed a study of the present department chairmen organization.

The first proposal concerned several board members, including Ms. Koller, Mr. Bochinski, and Mr. Schaefer, school board vice chairman, in large part because it combined more than one subject (i.e. math and science) under one leader.

During workshop discussions, Ms. Koller raised the distinction between the position and the person, saying that at present the school district may be very well served by one person in a dual position, but if and when that person leaves, having the curriculum and instructional leadership position for mathematics and science on the middle and high school levels combined might not be successful.

Mr. Bochinski asked for a “base organization” that would not necessarily need to be modified on a yearly basis, which he felt the first proposal would demand since it included single-year initiatives.

“Curriculum enhancement can be done through the budget process,” Mr. Bochinski said.

Mr. Bochinski also said he wanted to see the leaders of the world language and fine and performing arts departments on a par with language arts and social studies, rather than being served by lesser FTEs.

Mr. Fitzpatrick said, “I respect Dick’s comments... but we should use the best judgment of the administrators... We can come back and ‘tweak’ the proposal after a review of its effectiveness.”

Referring to Mr. Bochinski’s continued focus on asking the administration and board to look further into equal FTEs, Mr. Wolf said, “We are not in the business of micro-managing the administration.”

At the end of the second workshop, the board agreed to give the central office administrators an opportunity to review their original proposal in light of the discussion held.

“I think it is only fair to give us an opportunity to review what was discussed here today,” Dr. Pierson told the board.

Mr. Wolf, once again, said he believed some members of the board were micro-managing.

Day of vote

Prior to the vote, Ms. Kimberly told Dr. Pierson and Mr. Belair, “You have done a yeomen’s task,” and then added, “These were very good workshops.”

Ms. Uzenoff said, “I would like to acknowledge the amount of time it took to put this together. I appreciate all your efforts.”

Mr. Bochinski, when casting his vote of No, reiterated that he felt the distribution of FTEs was unfair in terms of the responsibilities associated with the positions.

After the meeting, he said, “This was an outstanding opportunity to review structure. I congratulate NESDEC on their study, but I don’t feel we took full advantage of it. Designing a structure like [the one that was approved] will be unfair to the people who ultimately fill these positions.

Mr. Bochinski also disagreed with Mr. Wolf’s “abrupt use of the term, micromanage.”

“This was a good discussion of a very important subject,” Mr. Bochinski said. “Mr. Wolf and I have a philosophic difference as to the responsibilities of the board. Since Mr. Wolf was not at the first workshop, I thought he was not fully informed on this matter.”

Ms. Uzenoff said after the meeting that she strongly disagrees with Mr. Bochinski’s comment that the approved proposal is unfair.

“This is a very well thought out plan,” Ms. Uzenoff said. “This has been devised from the bottom up and talked through. We have to distinguish between people and positions, and the positions put in place are for the betterment of the system. The system we had was not working and we needed to improve it. As I said in the meeting, we may need to ‘tweak’ it; we may need to increase [the FTEs]; we may need to decrease [the FTEs]. But we are good where we are now going. We need to advance the system... This is huge step forward.”


Board of Education "Budget Workshops" for FY2008 -  budgetprocess08.html

Board of Education meeting, Monday, August 21, 2006, 7:30pm, Weston Library

Weston Board of Education approves fees (below) and policy related - final OK on $$ May 16, 2005.

 


Weston Board of Education Budget "Tutorials"--Q&A, FY2005:
Monday, Tuesday and Thursday (Jan. 12, 13 and 15, 2004) 7pm Monday and Tuesday; at 7:30am in the Weston Library (Special Ed on this last date) all scheduled for Channel 79 live broadcasts.
"About Town" notes-taken from watching these meetings on Town TV (no copy of budget to work from):

On the first evening, it lasted 2 hours and the school population increase was announced as lower than projected overall, but still an increase (especially at W.H.S.).  However, Finance person from the Board staff indicated that overall inmigration was "flattening out" vis a vis births in Weston, and families were more than in the past moving in and out of the community mid-year.  Over-all increase recommended by staff is 6.05 (?) percent over last year (5.9 being required increases if standards are maintained and contracts fulfuilled).  Big increases coming for next budget, when new 3-4-5 school comes "on line" and needs furniture and other things not included in Bond issue.  Tuesday evening will be school by school presentations, Thursday morning Special Ed, among other things.
On the second evening, Board of Education members noted how cold it was in the Community Room.  The meeting lasted three hours.  Schools' budgets were presented by the administration of each of the three buildings.  Hurlbutt is somewhat below the average system increase for next year.  Nothing particularly stood out other than everyone seemed to be conscious of NOT bulking up their budgets...in consideration of the new school building that will have to be built and furnished soon.  NOTE:  the weather forecast is for snow Thursday (beginning Wednesday evening) - if there is a school delay, the third "workshop" will be delayed to 10:30am Thursday...if schools are closed, the third budget workshop will be at 7:30pm Thursday evening at Weston Library.
The third evening brought special ed (big increase) and discussion of how and where you can cut a budget that is already trimmed.  The Superintendent pointed out that staff (new) might be one place;  two Board members suggested cutting the Zenon Plant.  More is needed to be considered before the budget can be transmitted to the Board of Selectmen (by February 3rd, according to the Charter).


Board of Education debate televised on Town TV Channel:  photos HERE.
Board of Education Meeting, Monday, September 15, 2003:  Executive Session 6:30pm, Town Hall Commission Room;  Public Session, 7:30pm, Town Hall Meeting Room.
Agenda (modified for this Internet Page):

Board of Education Meeting, Monday, April 21, 2003 (6:30pm, W.M.S. Library)
AGENDA
1.  Call to Order...
2.  Executive Session
3.  Resume Public Session (7:30pm)
4.  Recognition
5.  Personnel
6.  Approval of Minutes
7.  Public Comment
8.  New Business (including Budget Forecast)
9.  Old Business (Policy)
10. Superintendent's Report
11. Committee Reports
12. Adjournment

SPECIAL BOARD OF EDUCATION MEETING, Tuesday, December 17, 2002 (6:30pm, Weston Middle School Library)
AGENDA
1.  Call to order
2.  Strategic Planning Report/excellent presentations by committee leaders on six topics (human resources, facilities, curriculum, communication, character, goal setting);  Superintendent pointed out need for realistic goals for the Board to agree on, and soon...
3.  Comments from the public/great arrangement of tables, great sound system and concise speakers.
4.  Adjournment (at 8:10pm)

FOR THE RECORD:  IN LAST YEAR'S BUDGET PROCESS (FY2002)...
School Budget approved at ATBM graced by only 223 voters voting (some remained in their seats)--what would have happened if pro-School Board budget cut protestors succeeded in holding the whole budget hostage?  The possibility of Board of Finance changing their mind introduced by Town Attorney--"About Town"  took his remarks to mean that if deadlock continued at one after the other adjourned ATBM sessions, over and over, he might decide (since Charter is silent) to advise sending the budget back to the Board of Finance...with this background, the standing count held on whether or not to have a secret (paper) ballot on just the School Budget FAILED ("yes" for secret ballot 106, "no" against secret ballot 117).  Overwhelming voice vote in favor of School Budget in the end.

NEW SUPERINTENDENT HIRED (2002) - signed on the dotted line!
Dr. Lynne Pierson hired at $144,000 salary and benefits.  "We are delighted and would have liked for her to start yesterday" Chair. of Weston's Board of Education stated to the Norwalk HOUR Tuesday.  According to the HOUR, Pierson was present at the three (3) days of Strategic Planning session held recently.  She was able to hear from school officials and community members (half from each--these were individuals selected by the consultants, Cambridge Group...we think)--to revise the quote from the HOUR report on page three of Tuesday's paper.  Welcome to Weston!

New Superintendent candidates interviewed by the community on three (3) dates--one candidate at a time--at Norfield Church...Board ranks Pierson #1
From a news report:  "...Parents and members of the community may meet the candidates from 4:30-5:30 p.m., Jan. 23, 24 and 31 at the Norfield Congregational Church. Carmelich will be on site Jan. 23; Pierson, Jan. 24 and Matusiak, Jan. 31. The sessions will be moderated by board members and those attending will be able to ask questions.  After the final interviews are completed, the board will make a site visit to the district's of the selected candidate and then make a decision..." as reported in the Westport NEWS Wednesday 1/16/02. Weston FORUM reports on interviews - Chair. of the Board of Education, in opening remarks, announces on-site interviewing for background, etc. of Dr. Pierson went well in Wethersfield when he presented budget of Board of Education to the Board of Selectmen on Thursday evening.
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YES...YES...YES...the voters spoke...and now the School Building Committee and its Design Sub-Committee are off to the races (this is not meant as a snide comment on any activity this hard working Committee undertakes...BUT IT IS A REMINDER THAT THIS APPOINTED BODY IS NOW CONTROLLING MANY MILLIONS OF DOLLARS OF PUBLIC FUNDS and as such is especially responsible for keeping the public informed--perhaps by meeting with the Board of Selectmen on a regular basis at a Public Meeting, time charts and spread sheets at the ready, to explain where the projects stand and what the Selectmen need to do to help with the success of construction efforts) :
December 4, 2001, School Building Committee Meeting on design, 7:30pm in Town Hall...Regular Board of Selectmen December 6, 2001, 7:30pm in Town Hall


CT Legislative Program Review and Investigation Committee in Weston...
PUBLIC HEARING NOV. 1 BRINGS OUT TOWNS, UNION, PARENTS AND BOARDS OF EDUCATION...no answers yet--will make report in December on findings.  It seems as if SPECIAL EDUCATION FUNDING is the biggest problem--speakers concerned about mandates (Federal) and shrinking State reimbursements, too.
Special Town Meeting for discussion only now set for November 7, 2001 (Wednesday) at 8pm in the Weston Middle School Cafeteria...
REFERENDUM set for Thursday, November 15 all day (vote at W.M.S. from 6am to 8pm)...


Link toPlanning and Zoning 8-24 receipt and scheduling of PUBLIC HEARING  as ultimately continued to November 13:

SELECTMEN'S PUBLIC HEARING, Monday, October 1, 2001;  second-hand account:
Several reliable school-community individuals indicated that the WHS auditorium was 1/2 (300+) to 2/3 full; most speakers, it was reported, were in favor of the comprehensive project;  some parents said they would bring their children back to the public school system if the bond issue went through;  some people said they would not stay (?) if it did;  and WILD THINGS (ladies' softball team) Co-Captain spoke in favor of new fields for adults as well as children, community responsibility for education, etc.  Public Hearing over early: next stop, Special Town Meeting on November 7...then Referendum (machine vote) NOVEMBER 15.



AT THE SEPT. 6 MEETING...a "trial vote" (this WEBsite's interpretation) resulting in a 2-1 vote in favor, as a separate item, the Board of Selectmen recommended a Middle School Auditorium (for @$2 million);  also, 2-1 (but two different Selectmen) voted in favor of a $45 million bond effort WITHOUT RECOMMENDING A NEW 3-4-5 SCHOOL be included on the "call" to a Town Meeting later in the year...THEN A PETITION OF CITIZENS GARNERED MANY MORE THAN THE 300+ NEEDED TO REQUIRE THE BOARD OF SELECTMEN TO CALL A TOWN MEETING TO DECIDE ON "REVERSING THE ACTION" IT TOOK (DID IT REALLY TAKE AN ACTION?)...and now the Board of Selectmen will reverse the 2-1 vote against the 3-4-5 school's inclusion in any future bond issue brought to the Town Meeting...tune in tomorrow for another episode in "As The World...of Politics...Turns."  Click HERE for report of September 17 Special Meeting "rescinding" a non-action;  the town is trundling towards a Referendum perhaps as early as...ELECTION DAY NOVEMBER 6 (?).

For the best information on school construction at this point, go to the Building Committee page.

Board of Education meeting, August 20, 2001:
Lengthy report given by B.O.E. Director of Finance (due to retire this year) regarding 10 year projection of operating budget, school needs.  OF SPECIAL NOTE: Big increase in a few years when new school building comes on line (just under 10%).  At this time, budget for maintenance @triples.  At the early part of the meeting, gift accepted to fund teacher award on an on-going basis;  resignations and new hires, notice that Superintendent search consultants hired--work to begin in a couple of weeks.  "Focus groups" for community and education community to describe the kind of superintendent needed in the early phase of planning for the "new hire."  "About Town" did not stay past "new business" part of the agenda (@9:35pm)...

Board of Education meeting July 16 announces departure of long-time teachers, primier teacher/administrator (to go to Fairfield system);  acting Superintendent, new hires, introduced.  C.E.S. representative discusses plans for The Turning Point Academy (est. 120 9-11th graders) and Mianus Academy for the Performing Arts (1/2 day, tuition).  Both are hoped to open September 2002.  Kindergarten enrollment 157 as of now (projected the Fall, 185).  Internet Policy and WEBsite policies get 2nd reading--next time on the agenda, vote to be taken (we think).

News of school planning process:
School Community not out in force at Special Town Meeting June 21--petition with 200 signatures filed before that meeting requiring a machine vote one to two weeks after the 21st--"Adjourned Town Meeting" was at regular voting hours (6am to 8pm) on June 28.  Results on school planning Items #3 and #4 were negative--the Bisceglie substitute fields drawings went down by 25 and the architect's fees for schematics on new 3-4-5 school and high school renovations lost by 15 votes.

School Community ATTENDED - no empty seats...
Special Town Meeting approved "Kindergarten Village" Thursday, May 24, 2001
HERE CAN BE FOUND THE ASSOCIATED PRESS REPORT OF THE TRAGIC NEWS OF OUR LATE, SORELY TO BE MISSED, SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS

Among the 10,037 people counted by the U.S. Census on April 1, 2000 were the gridiron stars on the left...

PICTURED (L) Football team of the future; Board of Education (R):  Of the Westonites of 2000 are 16.1% more bodies than ten years before;  also, a 65% increase in Hispanic population (to a total of 206 people);  and a reduction of 10% of Black population (98 to 88)...and an 88% increase in Asian Westonites from 104 to 195--according to the Norwalk HOUR article of Tuesday, March 20.  But most significant perhaps is the fact that 33.2% of all Westonites as of April 1, 2000 were under the age of 18 (data published as early as possible to support redistricting for national, state and local offices).

"Son of Code Compliance"...
Remember when the mandate on "indoor air quality" first came into view?  Well, it was added to the health and human services omnibus bill at the last moment during the race to end the Special Session...revised and, if you pardon the pun, "watered down".

Earlier in the Long Session...
Looking more likely every day as State Senate bounces it around... we thought we were dealing with fixed costs on school construction, but let "About Town" warn you that more mandates may be coming...for example in proposed bill SB1265 ("An Act Concerning Indoor Environmental Air Quality in Schools") below, please find this bad news...in part, as it was proposed initially (there is now a paper trail including a VERY negative report on unfunded mandate characteristics, fiscal impact, etc.):

(From a new Section 7 -10-291)"...Prior to approving a school building project, the state Department of Education, the town or regional board of education and the building committee of such town or district shall require (1) in the case of a school building project which is a construction, extension or replacement of a building to be used for public school purposes, a Phase I environmental site assessment in accordance with the American Society for Testing and Materials Standard E1527, Standard Practice for Environmental Site Assessments: Phase I Environmental Site Assessment Process, or similar subsequent standards, and (2) a report of how the school building project will affect indoor environmental health in the facility."  And it goes on for 10 pages.
"Unless we drastically change housing patterns in Connecticut, I don't think we're going to have all districts integrated," said Patrice McCarthy, general counsel for the Connecticut Association of Boards of Education.  From COURANT 1/14/01
Look out for VOUCHERS again...Hartford COURANT editorial HERE
THE SELECT TEAM IS NEXT!!!  clickHERE for notes of Dec. 16, 2000 opening public meeting prior to official establishment...look for Select Team to organize support for some solution to the school facilities problem.

Latest on school facilities planning...quorum of Board of Education present, quorum of Board of Selectmen, at early meeting:
An interim solution (for 3 years) is proposed by the Board of Education--voiced at the Dec. 5 SELECT COMMITTEE meeting--for temporary structures on the site of the Field Hockey field next to the Administrative Offices on School Road.  These would hopefully connect to septic fields at North House of Hurlbutt and be for Kindergarten and pre-K only.  Decision yet to be made by Board of Education (but SELECT COMMITTEE must have an answer ASAP) about the final resolution of what kind and where new facilities are to be built PERMANENTLY.

From the Weston FORUM editorial of November 30...
"Local educators have gone from the frying pan to the fire thanks to the recent ethics flap concerning Superintendent of Schools Dr. Janet Shaner" it begins.  It ends by saying:
"But what this town needs is a public hearing, during which each board member can state his or her beliefs about the situation...and a clear reason why the details of the investigation were not revealed to local leaders during the initial interview process last year...With these answers, maybe this town can quickly put aside this issue and refocus on the needed septic solutions before our classrooms, already lacking sufficient space with additional enrollment projected for next year, spill onto the playing fields."


EDITORIAL IN SUNDAY November 26, 2000 NORWALK HOUR

TWO MEETINGS MONDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 2000:
"Press Conference" by five (NOTE:  others have stated that only four members were present--"About Town" arrived late from an out-of-town meeting and was in the back of a very crowded room...we thought there were five, but in any event, four is a quorum) members of the Board of Education shows support for Superintendent of Schools:
Testimonials given as to the effectiveness of the Superintendent over the past 16 month by staff and others;  questions asked by members of the community regarding future confidence as we go into expensive and complex new construction...
FOR THOSE WHO MIGHT WANT TO VIEW "ABOUT WESTON'S" NOTES ON CHRONOLOGY RE: PERSONNEL HAPPENINGS AT BOARD OF EDUCATION, 1999...in reverse chronological order(copied from reports below on this page):
New Superintendent On-Board!!!
Dr. Janet Shaner began work Monday, July 26, 1999 as the new Superintendent of Schools in Weston, CT.
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PREVIOUSLY...
"About Town's" indirect information (we were not at this meeting), reveals that Dr. Janet Shaner was formally and unanimously approved as the next Superintendent of Schools in Weston by a unanimous vote of the Board of Education.

According to the Weston FORUM, the Board of Education has selected Dr. Shaner of West Chester, Pennsylvania's 11,000 student school system to take over Weston's somewhat smaller system (under 3000 students), beginning in September.

Dr. Shaner holds a Master's Degree from Smith College and a Doctorate in Education from Temple University.


Appointment to Board of Education
On the agenda for the Special Board of Selectmen's meeting Tuesday, April 27, 1999 at 7:30pm in Town Hall is the consideration of an appointment to the Board of Education, filling the vacancy noted below.

Chairman of Board of Education Resigns
The Weston Board of Education received the resignation of its Chairman at the April 19, 1999 meeting. "About Town" did not attend the meeting, but received word, and confirmed the above information by telephone with the Education main office
Superintendent of Schools Resigns
At the Monday, April 5, 1999 Board of Education Meeting, K. David Trigaux, Superintendent of the Weston Schools resigned. Mr. Trigaux had completed 30 years working in the public schools of Connecticut and would next be assuming the leadership role (Headmaster) at a private school in Darien.
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Special Education Study Report conclusions here:
Conclusions of June 2000 Report
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TESTING ALL CHILDREN...CT Board of Education policy statement (part), September 13, 2000:
"Defining standards, measuring success and reporting the results are important steps in the process of improving education. However, the most important step is using this information to make good decisions about adjusting curriculums, improving teaching, designing new programs and providing more specific and more effective instruction for each student."
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On the Special Education and testing front...it is reported that the inclusion of all students in the Mastery Testing this Fall, and the CAP tests in the Spring will bring anxiety to many districts:  since Weston does not exempt out (we think) many challenged students, this should not be a global problem here.  In the eastern part of the State of Connecticut there is concern...educators, as reported in the Internet version of The New London DAY, are wary of the following release of data sets:  "...One set will include test results for all students, including regular and special education students and bilingual students. Separate figures will show results of just bilingual students, special education students, regular education students and other groups."
AND TESTING THE WATERS..."CONTINGENCY PLANS FOR SCHOOLS" - Review O,R&L Plan.
SOME OPTIONS:
Dr. T and his committee came up with OPTIONS for KINDERGARTEN and moving the FOURTH GRADE BACK--and the impact on art, P.E., Computer Lab, Library and Cafeteria.  Also, in response to question re: ERG 1/2 day Kindergarten programs, only Simsbury, Ridgefield and Avon do this, with Simsbury and Avon having class size of 20.
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According to COMMENTARY in the June 15 FORUM, all systems are "go" for putting in application for reimbursement from the State of Connecticut whether or not we ever figure out which part or parts we would like to build of the School Facilities Plan:

"...FACT: The submission to the state of our proposed projects is not dependent upon the decisions needing to be made on septic/sewers."

Odds that what is ultimately constructed will resemble "Final School Plan" widens, however. In the same COMMENTARY:

"...FACT: While the Board of Education endorsed the master plan presented by O,R&L to build a fourth school on School Road, the statements made subsequently by DEP personnel will preclude doing anything (including building an additional school on campus) that brings more students on to School Road without first finding a resolution to the failing septic system."

Sewer plan now on "hold" until new "Select Committee..." comes up with an alternative to sewers in perhaps 90 days...K-2 new school on off-site location gaining in popularity...along with new high school.  Superintendent remarks at Kiwani's Breakfast (6-17-00) that "...either end" of the school system is most efficient way to go as tenant for off-site location for new school.



MAYBE THE BIGGEST CHANGE FOR SCHOOL ROAD IN O,R&L's PROPOSED PLAN (click above left) WAS FOR CIRCULATION--SCHOOL ROAD REALIGNMENT:
Remember Club Weston?  School Road was closed on Sundays in August for the afternoons in 1994 (?)

THE PLAN AS APPROVED BY THE BOARD OF EDUCATION IN WINTER/SPRING '00:
The road itself may be the spine of the Final School Plan now on hold.  Massing the High School with a two-story addition, and setting it away from the viewer (who is almost always in a motorized vehicle) is important to traffic planners who worked on the School Plan.  Centralizing the kitchen function at Weston High ("prep" kitchens only at other buildings) is another major idea.  To see the whole plan enlarged, click here.

What are some controversial aspects of the O,R&L Plan?
Taking down trees, paving over most flat, unpaved surfaces and proposing a soccer/football stadium and indoor fieldhouse, is much of the rest of the change unanimously endorsed to be done in one fell swoop by the Board of Education! (NOTE:  Since this time, the Board of Education has changed their endorsement, now allowing for a "fall back" position, necessitated by findings from other investigations of septic/sewer matters.)

Defining what Weston education is all about in the 21st Century may mean bringing an end to the Weston persona established over the years...we have always wanted to be alone in the woods.  Changes are in the wind for our little community...or are they?


June 22 SPECIAL MEETING continuation of "OPTIONS" for facilities in 2001-2002 and beyond discussed;  detailed notes of this meeting found on Final School Plan (now on hold) sub-page.
June 19 Regular Board of Education Meeting included discussion of Special Education evaluation...Conclusions of Special Education Study
Selectmen's PUBLIC HEARING continuation (June 13):
"Silent majority" of parents want action to relieve school overcrowding, states representative of that group;  First Selectman indicates that there will be a pattern of study by "Select Committee," report to the Board of Selectmen in 90 days or so;  then meetings, then Public Hearings, then Town Meeting and then Referendum.  This might come down to the following schedule--but most probably will not make these deadlines because of time constraints around formalizing ballot (just my guess): NOTE:  Fall religious holidays are September 29 and October 8 (beginning at sundown for two days each) this year.

OBSERVATION:
The most significant comment at the Board of Selectmen's meeting June 1 came from Fuss&O'Neill, who offered the suggestion that a "Master Plan" for the Heady property should include all work needed to obtain data for new 3-4-5 school plus septic for that structure (as well as fields plan for Parks and Recreation).  The engineer also noted that parts of the Heady site were promising for septic fields.

SCHOOL DEFICIT TOWN MEETING:  Not a problem this year.
Selectmen approved covering the FY99-00 Board of Education deficit Tuesday, May 30...Board of Finance approved, June 8...Special Town Meeting June 21 at 8pm in Town Hall approves in 30 minutes.

ARCHITECT SELECTION:
INTERVIEWS OF ARCHITECTURAL FIRMS CONTINUING (TO IMPLEMENT FINAL SCHOOL PLAN) EVEN AS SEPTIC/SEWER ISSUE CLOUDS THAT PLAN'S FUTURE, AND BOARD OF EDUCATION BACKPEDALS ON Final School Plan.
HOW LONG HAS WESTON'S SCHOOL PLANNING GONE ON???  WE'VE BEEN PLANNING SO LONG THE CTDOE WEBMASTER IS AHEAD OF US!!!  Click HERE for data current and back as far as...1993-94.

Symposium Summary

A Special Education Symposium, sponsored by the Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations (ACIR) was held on March 12, 1999 in North Haven's excellent Holiday Inn. Most conveniently located for a statewide event, with well-appointed meeting rooms, helpful and attentive staff, etc., the North Haven Holiday Inn proved a central-but-close-to-Hartford site for a meeting of this type.

SUMMARY

The Symposium featured a keynote address by CT Commissioner of Education Theodore Sergi. Representative Cam Staples, Co-Chairman of the Joint Education Committee in the CT Legislature followed Commissioner Sergi on the program.

The Commissioner urged all present to raise expectations and address the needs of 3 and 4 year olds (in order to achieve the goal of first grade reading achievement). Sergi reminded the 90 people in attendance that Connecticut had begun dealing with the Special Education situation in the 1960's, long before there was national recognition of the need to address this situation or develop a program to deal with it.

In response to a question from the Executive Director of the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities (CCM), Rep. Staples confirmed that the budget for education programs was not yet set this session. (The Legislature has the option to make changes to the vision expressed by the Governor in his budget proposals.) The demands of funding efforts satisfactory to implementation of the Sheff-O'Neill decision may overshadow Special Education needs right now.

Dr. Sergi noted that after 30 years and being a leader in the field, Connecticut was ready to make changes to its approach, to take a "minor turn" in the road...the Connecticut Mastery Tests will, by the year 2000-2001, be required to be taken by all children.

A document distributed to all in attendance, "Special Education in Connecticut 1997-98" in Appendix A ("Prevalence Rates of Students with Disabilities") provided a clarification of Weston's comparative "special ed" history. This table shows the "prevalance rates" for all school systems and the State of Connecticut over the past six years--1993-94 to this year (estimated for 1998-1999 as of February '99). With a really, really big increase estimated, Weston might be going out of character (that character being usually a much lower "prevalance rate" than our neighboring Educational Reference Group ["ERG"] public school systems) this year!!!

Panel discussions at the ACIR Symposium included: "Working with the System" as well as "Best Practices." Further summary will follow in the near future of these panel discussions mentioned above.

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This event was videotaped for later broadcast. Copies of the two (2) tapes covering the speakers (a) and the panels (b) are presently being prepared for CT Public Access Cable Television. Copies will be available in the near future.
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Some extra, education-oriented meeting notes taken by ABOUT WESTON:
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THREE YEARS AGO...
 

FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL...CIRCULATION:
The school bus fleet prowled the highways and byways of Weston Wednesday, September 1, 1999. A new academic year began for Weston's young people, and the following observation on traffic flow was made:

Last year, it was observed at the High School, when the bus fleet loaded at 2:10pm (or 7:45am unloading), the parking lot was used as a secondary route to avoid having to stop for flashing school bus lights--to keep automobile traffic flow moving. Is this still the case?
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STEERING COMMITTEE MET SATURDAY, AUGUST 28...so long ago that we do not keep records of their meetings on line!!!

The third meeting of the Steering Committee saw scenarios presented for four options--a new 3-4-5 school in two difference places on campus, no new buildings (just additions to all three existing structures) or a campus strengthening program. It was felt that after this preliminary stage, the planners would go to each Board/Commission in September and review their needs prior to the "workshops" for the community on September 25 and October 2. Next STEERING COMMITTEE meeting is set for FRIDAY, September 24, 1999 at 5:30pm in Town Hall. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

BACKGROUND...
School Facilities Planning took place July 31, 1999 (Saturday) at 8am in the Commission Room at Town Hall.
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PREVIOUSLY...
This second meeting in the Saturday morning "Steering Committee" series had initially been planned for July 17, 1999 at 8am in the Commission Room at Town Hall. It was postponed--due to the fact that interviews with all Boards and Commissions involved had not been completed.

The architect/planner for the School Facilities project reported to the Board of Education at the Monday, July 12, 1999 regular meeting, according to an "About Town" source. This was a visit that O.R & L had scheduled to meet the various full Boards represented on the Steering Committee...

At the first meeting the members of the Steering Committee were introduced and organizational arrangements were made.
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New Superintendent On-Board!!!

Dr. Janet Shaner began work Monday, July 26, 1999 as the new Superintendent of Schools in Weston, CT.
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PREVIOUSLY...
"About Town's" indirect information (we were not at this meeting), reveals that Dr. Janet Shaner was formally and unanimously approved as the next Superintendent of Schools in Weston by a unanimous vote of the Board of Education.

According to the Weston FORUM, the Board of Education has selected Dr. Shaner of West Chester, Pennsylvania's 11,000 student school system to take over Weston's somewhat smaller system (under 3000 students), beginning in September.

Dr. Shaner holds a Master's Degree from Smith College and a Doctorate in Education from Temple University.

TECHNOLOGY TOWN MEETING JUNE 23rd OK's FUNDING!

The Wednesday, June 23rd Special Town Meeting approved funding for TECHNOLOGY upgrades for the Town/School Complex (i.e. telephone, data, video--all the wiring, plugs, etc.) unanimously after discussion for approximately one half hour. The cost should be under one million dollars.

SPECIAL TOWN MEETING OK's SPENDING TO COVER SCHOOL DEFICIT '98-'99

Special Town Meeting-goers, on May 27, OK'd transfer of funds to cover $611,000 deficit in the 1998-1999 school budget (due to special education over-run). The vote was 50 - 1. A question about why the Board of Education did not put a "freeze" on spending when they became aware of the possibility of this over-run was answered by the Superintendent of Schools. That answer was that the quality of education for all students in the system should not be held hostage by mandated Special Education costs. However, the value of making special needs students into fully effecti