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NORWALK, Conn. – The Oak Hills Park Golf Course, which has struggled over the past couple of years, will receive a $150,000 loan from the city to meet operating costs, a move that Norwalk Common Council members reluctantly approved Tuesday night.
The number of rounds played at the course has declined in recent years, and it is already saddled with debt service payments on a problematic restaurant on the property.
But the council voted almost unanimously to give the Oak Hills Park Authority the loan because without it, the course would likely have shut down before the summer.
And the city would still be on the hook for debt service payments with no revenue coming in.
Councilwoman Anna Duleep was the only vote against the loan. “If city is going to take a tough love approach with groups like Norwalk Economic Opportunity Now, we should hold the golf course to the same tough love standard.”
Several residents who spoke out against the loan agreed, stressing that the golf course can’t consistently meet its financial obligations. They said the city should take that as a sign that it might not be able to pay back the $150,000 loan.
“You’ve already restructured their other loans,” said Paul Cantor, who lives near the course and opposes the loan. “It’s highly unlikely the authority will be able to pay it back.”
“If we don’t do this, they will have to lay off people and we’ll have to close Oak Hills,” Councilman Michael Geake said. “Debt service will still be there whether we loan them the money or not.”
Oak Hills Park Authority member Shannon O’Toole Giandurco said that although mistakes were made in the past, the group believes it is turning the corner.
“We’ve learned from our mistakes,” she said.
Comments (14)
Temperence, one last thing:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dd7FixvoKBw&feature=youtu.be
Hilarious! My Mom was a sub. If she were alive today, I think she would laugh.....and sympathize!
"So, what the Council is saying is it's ok to withdraw support from a longstanding successful Headstart program . . ."
Connected, you might want to reexamine that argument. President Obama's own Department of Health and Human Services recently completed an exhaustive review of the Head Start program. The basic conclusion: It's a bust.
Don't take my word for it. Here is the key statement from the HHS report:
"[T]here were initial positive impacts from having access to Head Start, but by the end of 3rd grade there were very few impacts found for either cohort in any of the four domains of cognitive, social-emotional, health and parenting practices. The few impacts that were found did not show a clear pattern of favorable or unfavorable impacts for children." The full report is here:
http://www.acf.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/opre/head_start_report.pdf
Of course, few people with any knowledge of federal govt programs will be surprised. Ringo Starr, my favorite political scientist, put it in a nutshell. He said, "Everything the government touches turns to sh*t."
Head Start itself is not a bust. In fact, it is one of the remnants of "The Great Society" programs created under LBJ that has shown the greatest success with under privileged, under educated poor children. The problem is the education/schools available after the children have gotten off to a good start.
Think about it: Head Start programs teach basic skills in life and in learning: the kids thrive. Then, they hit the public schools where many fall through the cracks, inadequate staff and supplies short change learning, discipline is lacking and, then, surprise!, the skills that they learned in Head Start through consistency and persistance fall away. Of course they do! That's how children learn: consistent practice and reinforcement. If those elements are missing in subsequent public education, and they often are, any gains made through Head Start programs are lost.
The Obama study is not new: this was determined in the 80's when I was teaching Head Start programs in California. Nationwide, Head Start was still considered a gem and a good idea but the efforts were frustratingly futile because of the state of public education. Not surprising that by 3rd grade, and, yes, I did read the study saying the same thing I learned in the 1980's, or four to five years AFTER Head Start, these students could not retain the advantages of an excellent program in the face of public education deficiencies.
Whether this Head Start program is successful by a nationwide study measure or not, it still says something about the City of Norwalk's values that they would give money to a golf course over supporting an education program for poor children.
Temperance, conflating Head Start funding with a loan for the golf course is a weak rhetorical trick and it makes no sense. There was never an either-or connection between the two. And "give money" is not quite the right word for a loan. But may I infer from your comment that you're a proponent of school choice? That is, introducing some competition with the public school system?
Adding more to a problem in order to solve the original problem does not solve the problem.
That's like giving a 150,000, you are right, "bridge loan" to an OHPA that has mismanaged so much, their responsibility, Oak Hills Park, more money to mismanage even more. It's the old saying, paraphrasing, performing the same thing over and over again each time expecting a different outcome than the original: insanity.
I see taxpayers' money as all arriving at the same office in the same place in City Hall. How it is distributed reflects what the City either needs to do or feels is important. It is not a conflation to compare Oak Hills with Head Start at all: rather, it is saying that this City, shifting around dollars from fund to fund, budget item to budget item, partially funded to mostly funded, is a Kafkaesque exercise that belies a clear perspective: poor children or a golf course?
By that logic, aren't you saying that the $150k for OHPA must come out of the Head Start budget? What if the BoE says no, it's coming out of the BoE budget? What if the Police Dept. says no, it's coming out of the police budget? See the problem?
By the way, I'm still wondering, since you laid the blame for the Head Start results on the poor-performing public schools, what you think about the idea of school choice.
No, these are false choices. What I am saying is that we can make choices as to how funds are distributed that reflect the values of children over golf. I presume that is what our City Council, Budget and Finance Commissions and Mayor are for. If you are saying this does not come without sacrifice, so am I. Golf Courses that are supposed to pay for themselves might have to sacrifice the $150,000 "bridge loan" from the City in order for, say, a high school arts program to exist. The Golf Course could always go to a bank or other lending institution like the self-supporting entity it is supposed to be, just like you and me.
Apologies for not addressing the "school choice" issue. Vouchers granted to students to go to "better" schools or private schools seems like the final defeat to make existing public schools better. It is not just in Norwalk that there is a heavy, expensive administrative layer in education that contributes very little to the classroom. It is a national problem and, thus, spoken of all the way to the White House.
Clearly, in this area, where there are the financially successful communities hard by poorer communities, the education, paid for by municipalities, reflect the amount of funds either poured into these schools or meted out. My wish (and it is idle, I know) for Norwalk schools would be to cut out this wide ranging administrative budget and place it back into good teachers, adequate supplies, i.e., the classroom. In other words, instead of sending our children outside the community through "school choice", make what we already have better.
Temperence, I'm afraid you have yourself in a Catch-22 world. You acknowledge that our public school system is flawed. That's good, cuz the first step toward a solution is to recognize there's a problem. But then you simply "wish" that the system will improve . . . How? Of its own accord? If people like you and I just keep bitching about it? Hoping beyond hope that the unions will suddenly realize that they're in it only for themselves and will now change their ways?
The reality is that government schools are a monopoly that, like all monopolies, deliver inferior goods at exorbitant prices. That's just the nature of the beast. The only effective solution is to let the money follow the students. That way, public schools will have to improve if they want to retain their customers. Right now, public schools don't have customers; they have captives. Without competition, they will never improve. With competition, you will get your wish.
I'm under no illusions about how I might personally change the education system. What have you done lately to improve education in Norwalk? Honestly, give me a hint. Because if there was something one citizen, sans children, could do I would try it.
What kind of school did you go to ? If you were fortunate enough to go to private schools, congratulations. I, however, was one of many children (twelve) and our choice was but one and that was public. We were all expected to go to college and all of us have multiple degrees from fine institutions (we had to pay for that ourselves.)
Unions have their place but I don't think they guarantee good teaching. Remember the tenure system? Longstanding teachers were protected from sudden firing by being secured a place. I had some pretty awful teachers under that system.
I don't think students are "customers." If we are guaranteed a decent public education, we are recipients of a product, yes, but I don't see where kids should have to go "shopping" for the best institution.
Bottom line: Teachers count. Take care of them. (I think the unions serve that purpose insofar as they provide certain salary levels and health care. There is no profession nor business that can immunize themselves against what healthcare costs these days.) Teachers need to take care of the kids. Take care of the kids. The secretary, the janitors, the principal, all good. The thick layer of administration at some central office dictating curriculum and purchase? Not so much sympathy for them.
Schools should not be competing against one another unless it is an academic fair or in sports. Kids should be able to feel secure enough to have exercises in academic rigor and imagination right where they are. Norwalk needs to strive for the highest standards, even with the troubled children and kids who don't fit into a convenient slot. I can see where that would require more teachers and aides but not more top-heavy administration.
Dunnebster, we have ended up conversing about a topic far from the title of this article. I guess that is the way blogging goes???
Indeed we have. Allow me one last thought though. You seem to dislike the idea of students being thought of as customers. But that's exactly the way they should be thought of. And a school system is a supplier or vendor. In a competitive environment, the customer has the freedom to shop among multiple suppliers for the best product -- in this case education. A vendor that provides a poor product will take steps to improve his product if he doesn't want to go out of business. The result is a high level of product quality for customers in general. Today our system delivers the educational equivalent of Yugos. And the most tragic victims are the poorest, most disadvantaged kids who aren't allowed a choice.
"Teachers count." Totally agree. That's why we should encourage the better teachers with higher salaries.
BTW, your family's story sounds amazing. Twelve kids! College educated! Wow. Sounds like material for a documentary. Me, I'm an only child, educated in Catholic schools in the Bronx.
Cheers.
But, but, but....it's for the kids!
Dunnebser, I agree with you. Actually, the findings have been around for awhile.
One thing I will say, though, is that the Head Start program helps the little ones transition from home to a classroom setting. And sometimes that is critical. One preschool teacher I know said that some of her students simply didn't know how to use a fork since most of the food they got at home was finger food like chicken nuggets and fries. Other stories I've heard would bring tears to your eyes. So, in one way, I see Head Start as providing some normalcy in some children's very chaotic lives. But the long term effect is, as the study indicated, zip.
Good points, Paige, and I sympathize. Those problems can be better addressed with programs at the state and local levels, in my humble opinion, and not by a grossly mismanaged bureaucracy out of Washington that wastes most of the money.
"Tough love" is right, Ms. Duleep and how the Council cannot see this in the wake of the economic pressures already plaguing Norwalk, I cannot understand. The option is NOT $150,000 or close down. Rather, there are very reputable management companies that manage golf courses successfully in partnership with cities and towns. There is no reason Norwalk could not be a candidate for that option.
It is amazing how much reward is being given to the OHPA who repeatedly fail in their decision making and strategies in managing Oak Hills Park. So, what the Council is saying is it's ok to withdraw support from a longstanding successful Headstart program for underprivileged kids and GIVE support to a game and the privileged few who play that game.
I hope every golfer who gets on that course knows they are doing it at the expense of others far needier than they to hit a ball around a sequestered and beautiful place only they have access to. Council: reward privilege and mismanagement. Council: deny needed resources to children. Is there a prick of conscious anywhere about this?