From the Mind of Jason Zandri

By Samaia Hernandez
Record-Journal staff
shernandez@record-journal.com
(203) 317-2266 

As published in the Record Journal Thursday January 21, 2010

Follow all the news directly on the Record Journal Website for the most up to date information. www.myrecordjournal.com

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WALLINGFORD — As school budget talks advanced into the third week, the strategies of those op­posed to the district’s plan to cut jobs and reconfigure the elementary schools has also evolved.

While representatives of a newly formed parent group collected adults’ signatures for a petition and passed out fliers Wednesday oppos­ing the proposal, a handful of stu­dents from Moran Middle School protested the changes, holding handmade signs in the rear parking lot at Sheehan High School.

Stevens School parent Chris Stra­howski handed board members a paper asserting, among other points, that most of the roughly 20 school districts in Connecticut that have switched to a K-2, 3-5 makeup of ele­mentary schools are in much smaller communities, and that too many transitions in elementary school have a negative impact on student achievement.

School Superintendent Salvatore Menzo responded by saying that school size is amore relevant matter to consider.

Strahowski is one of nearly 700 parents who have joined a Facebook group against the plan. They had collected nearly 1,000 signatures as of Wednesday.

The meeting, held in Shee­han’s auditorium, was to be the final budget workshop before a vote during Monday’s monthly Board of Education meeting. However, due to the complex nature of the pro­posal, talks will continue well into February, at which time the board will approve a budget to be turned over to the mayor’s office.

Meeting times will be up­dated on the district’s Web site in the coming days.

With about 50 people in at­tendance, board members re­quested that central office offi­cials:

- consider a charge for ac­tivities and high school park­ing instead of pay-for-play;
- hire part-time custodial workers rather than outsourc­ing cleaning services;
- reinstate or consolidate curriculum resource jobs and high school department chair positions;
- consider consolidating athletic directors; and
- make more use of the Web and e-mail for communi­cation.

Students and parents also had a request: “Maybe a way that we could save more money could be having more fundraisers … We love to have dances and it’s a good way to raise money, so that’s a good idea,” said Mar­lena Prast, a freshman at Shee­han, who thanked school officials for considering student suggestions brought up in pre­vious meetings. Several residents encour­aged the district to work with the Wallingford Education As­sociation, the teachers union, about concessions, given that the union is under contract to receive a 4.2 percent salary in­crease.

Still others felt their voices were not heard at Tuesday night’s focus group for Parker Farm and Cook Hill parents.

“Once the presentations were made, there was very lit­tle time before you changed groups to actually process what you heard,” said Carolyn Hall, a Yalesville parent.

Parent Gina Cewe-Barrett, who has spoken out against the plan at prior meetings, would like the district to spend more time looking at the idea of maintaining a K-5 structure in its eight elementary schools.

“I am not for reconfigura­tion whatsoever,” Cewe-Bar­rett said. “I want to talk about preserving K-5. I believe in that model. I don’t believe in tran­sitions at a young age.”

By Samaia Hernandez
Record-Journal staff
shernandez@record-journal.com
(203) 317-2266 

As published in the Record Journal Wednesday January 20, 2010

Follow all the news directly on the Record Journal Website for the most up to date information. www.myrecordjournal.com

Write a letter to the editor letters@record-journal.com

WALLINGFORD — Par­ents who attended the first of four focus groups at Parker Farms School Tuesday night learned how logistics of the el­ementary school reconfigura­tion plan would play out be­tween two school buildings that are two miles apart.

For some, the idea no longer sounded far-fetched.

About 80 people gathered in the school’s gymnasium for several minutes before follow­ing color-coded schedules moving them from classroom to classroom for 25-minute dis­cussions on topics from class size to student transitions. School officials and Board of Education members led the groups.

While some parents voiced a flat-out distaste for the idea of uprooting many students, the more intimate focus groups lacked the emotional outpouring of opposition seen at previous budget workshops. Displaying enrollment data on an overhead projector as parents sat in the small student seats, School Superintendent Salvatore Menzo illustrated the disparities in class sizes, which would be neutralized under the reconfiguration plan. The reconfiguration would maintain class sizes be­low the school board policy of 20 students in kindergarten through grade 2 and 25 stu­dents in grades 3 to 5, he said.

“People have asked what’s plan B,” said Menzo, address­ing a group of about a dozen parents with notebooks and pens in hand. “Plan B would basically be to raise class sizes.”

Menzo said redistricting and closing of one or two elemen­tary schools would be costly because Wallingford would then owe the state about $2 million for each school to re­pay grants used for recon­struction projects.

Frank Ricci, parent of a stu­dent at Parker Farms, says the plan isn’t so bad when the other options, such as raising class sizes, are considered.

“Unfortunately it’s an incon­venience for a lot of parents, that’s what people are com­plaining about,” Ricci told Menzo. “But I applaud you. You guys are taking innovative approaches to make it work for our kids.”

After 25 minutes on one topic, announcements by Parker Farms Principal Michael O’ Neill informed par­ents to move to the next ses­sion. The tight structure kept question-and-answer sessions short, but there was still time for concerns to be addressed.

Several parents wanted to know if their children would continue to have access to paraprofessionals. Others were more concerned with bus schedules and transitions.

“A para might work with a group of regular ed and special ed … the delivery of services really is not going to be that different,” said Jancie Lautier, director of pupil personnel services, including special ed­ucation, who led a breakout session on student transitions. Under the plan, Cook Hill School, serving kindergarten to grade 2, would start its day about 15 minutes earlier than Parker Farms, to help with buses, drop-offs and pickups. While the plan would elimi­nate nine teaching positions, saving $1.8 million in staff costs, it would also require four additional school buses, which cost about $40,000 each per year.

Stacy Crowell, parent of a fifth-grader at Cook Hill, would not be directly affected by the change. What bothered Crowell about the proposal was that it seemed to come out of left field when it was an­nounced Jan. 5.

Had parents been included in the process, it might have gone over better, she said.

“The thing that bothers me the most is no one talked about it,” she said. “No one told us anything about it.”

A focus group for Yalesville and Highland schools will be held Jan. 27 at Yalesville. E.C. Stevens and Pond Hill schools will host discussions Jan. 28 at Pond Hill, and Moses Y. Beach and Rock Hill schools will have meetings Feb. 3 at Moses Y. All meetings start at 6 p.m.

By Samaia Hernandez
Record-Journal staff
shernandez@record-journal.com
(203) 317-2266

As published in the Record Journal Tuesday January 19, 2010

Follow all the news directly on the Record Journal Website for the most up to date information. www.myrecordjournal.com

Write a letter to the editor letters@record-journal.com

Upcoming District meetings:
Tuesday Jan. 19: 6-8:30 p.m., Parker Farms/Cook Hill focus group at Parker Farms School

Wednesday Jan. 20: 6:00 p.m., Board of Education meeting, budget workshop – Sheehan Auditorium

Jan. 27: 6-8:30 p.m., Yalesville/Highland focus group at Yalesville School

Jan. 28: 6-8:30 p.m., E.C. Stevens/Pond Hill focus group at Pond Hill School

Feb. 3: 6-8:30 p.m., Moses Y. Beach/Rock Hill focus group at Moses Y. Beach School

WALLINGFORD — In re­sponse to an outpouring of concern over the proposed el­ementary school reconfigura­tion, the district has scheduled focus groups at four of the eight elementary schools for parents to discuss just how a plan might play out.

The meetings will take place at one of the two schools that would be paired under the pro­posal to convert Highland, Cook Hill, Stevens and Moses Y. Beach schools into kinder­garten through grade 2. Yalesville, Parker Farms, Pond Hill and Rock Hill schools would serve only students in grades 3 through 5.

The first meeting will be held from 6 to 8:30 this evening at Parker Farms for parents of both Cook Hill and Parker Farms students, part­ners under the proposal. Both school principals plan to at­tend.

A general presentation will take place in the gymnasium before the group is split into four classrooms to discuss a variety of educational topics, mostly the pros and cons of the plan, including transporta­tion, logistics and class size.

“We’re going to talk about some of the transition issues that children might have,” Parker Farms Principal Michael O’ Neill said. “I know that was a big concern.”

In the first three budget workshops, dozens of parents spoke out against the proposal, which school officials say would better distribute re­sources and maintain small class sizes. About a dozen lay­offs would result, saving the district $1.8 million.

“We always wanted to try to get input,” said School Super­intendent Salvatore Menzo. “I think that we were trying to look at what would be the best conduit for the best input.”

As a doctoral student at the University of Connecticut, Menzo wrote his dissertation about the Baltimore County School District in Maryland, examining student perform­ance in mathematics and ways to encourage school and parental involvement.

A key point of his findings was that educators have fallen short in terms of marketing lessons to parents. He then proposed algebra workshops for families in Baltimore, which increased parental in­volvement.

The workshops at Walling­ford’s elementary schools are scheduled through Feb. 3 and will allow parents the opportu­nity to have a voice at the school level, Menzo said.

As of Monday, 647 residents had joined the Facebook group “Concerned Parents Walling­ford CT Board of Educ. Budget” and had posted and discussed information related to the budget proposal, focus groups and the budget work­shop that will be held Wednes­day evening at Sheehan High School.

The Board of Education must approve a budget for the mayor’s office by the end of February.