You can’t tread water forever. Eventually you’re bound to start sinking. And that’s what happened to the Norwalk public school system and, by extension, the future of the city. Even though there’s a lot going on that bodes well for the future — new housing, transit oriented districts, the SONO Collection, to name a few — all of it will be for naught if the city does not have a first-rate school system.
For too many years, the city tried to have it both ways vis-à-vis our schools. On the one hand, we railed against the inequities of the state’s Education Cost Sharing Formula, which severely shortchanges the city when it comes to funding education. But on the other, our school budgets have never come close to compensating for the inequities of the formula. We seemed to be treading water, but all the while we were slowly sinking.
Fortunately, a couple years ago, Superintendent Adamowski and Mayor Rilling, along with the Board of Education, Common Council and Board of Estimate and Taxation, began a budgetary collaboration that has already begun to turn things around. As a result, we are in the midst of a variety of long overdue education initiatives.
Some examples of what’s been happening:
In 2008, the BOE recognized that many of our high school students were attending multiple study halls every day — at a time when districts across the country were getting rid of study halls altogether. But nothing was done to rectify this problem until last year when funds were approved to begin the transition from multiple to zero study halls. We are in the first year of that transition; ninth graders have no study halls, and no students have more than one.
Coupled to the study hall issue was a high school graduation requirement of 20 basic courses, when the recommended number today is about 26 courses. Our limited graduation requirement undermined the ability of high school students to compete with their peers across the state and nation. Last year and this year, funds were budgeted, finally, to hire the personnel necessary to increase our high school graduation requirement to 26 courses.
And of course, there are the multiple problems we’ve experienced in the area of special education. After three independent reports on the seriousness of the problem (2008, 2012, and 2015), the BOE and the city agreed, finally, to set aside sufficient funds for a three-year turnaround of our special education programs. We are now in its second year, and the data indicates we are finally succeeding in what was once considered an insurmountable problem. Once the turnaround is complete, Norwalk will probably become a model for other districts.
One last example of how the district was slowly sinking. As of two years ago, Norwalk did not have the various intervention programs most districts have long-used to address the needs of students who were falling behind academically. These programs are costly, but they are imperative to ensure every student has a fair chance to ultimately succeed. The funds were budgeted two years ago, finally, and we are in the midst of providing this type of critical academic help across the district.
It is important to note that the superintendent and the mayor, working with the council, BOE and the BET, have embarked on a five-year facilities plan that not only includes construction of two new schools and the “renovation as new” of two others, but also sets aside funds each year for priority repairs in all of our other schools. Our students, living in one of the richest counties in the nation, deserve to be educated in state-of-the-art facilities.
Interestingly, these long-overdue investments in education are already beginning to pay off. Last year’s data indicated our students closed the achievement gap in testing by about one-third, and that was accomplished in a single year. Last year, we were among the top districts in the state in terms of student growth on standardized tests.
We often talk about the future of our city in terms of land use issues. But let’s not forget that Norwalk’s future depends first and foremost on the quality of its schools.
Bruce Kimmel is a member of the Norwalk Board of Education.