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NORWALK, Conn. — Norwalk schools Superintendent Susan Marks has resigned, Board of Education Chairman Jack Chiramonte announced Friday.
Do you think Norwalk schools improved under Superintendent Susan Marks?
View ResultsDo you think Norwalk schools improved under Superintendent Susan Marks?
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Yes, the schools are better
30% -
No, things are about the same
24% -
No, the schools are worse
46%
Marks' last day will be Aug. 17. She said she was for leaving for personal reasons, Chiramonte said.
Marks demonstrated leadership during her two-year tenure despite “challenging financial circumstances largely beyond her control," he added.
“Student test scores have been up across the board. We were rated the school system that made the most progress of the 18 largest school districts in Connecticut in systematic use of data and staff professional development, according to Warren Logee of the State Board of Education," Chiramonte said.
Neither Marks nor Norwalk Mayor Richard Moccia could be immediately reached for comment Friday.
Norwalk's public schools have struggled over the past few months to close a multi-million budget gap. Marks' resignation comes a day after Chiramonte and the Board of Education approved a new spending plan with $6 million in cuts, including teacher lay-offs.
Parent and schools activist Barbara Smyth called the timing of Marks' announcement "shocking."
"We’re dealing with a profound budget crisis and to be leaderless at a time like this is deeply concerning," said Smyth, who organized a series of recent rallies against the budget cuts. “I’m really concerned about our district moving forward.”
Lisa Thomson, another parent and schools activist who runs the website www.redapples.com, said students were always Marks' primary focus.
“Susan was a quiet leader. She knew all the things to do and she was building a foundation for Norwalk, and that’s going to come out,” Thomson said.
Marks had considered taking a leave of absence in September, again citing personal reasons.
Until her last day, Marks will help the board of education on a transition plan, Chiramonte said.
Comments (35)
Lets not slam anyone but the people who run this city they have a death hold on it as if it was some cash interest who is elected.
You read all these comments and wonder if the advocates who are involved in the schools and care about the kids do they have a timeline on Radon testing in the schools?Last time they were tested Rowyaton needed a system to remove bad gas from the classrooms.This test once Radon is found happens every few years and Norwalk has missed two deadlines.So if they care about the kids as they state they do lets hear about money eramarked for this problem at more than one school.Its might be nice to add when Norwalk decided to fix Rowyaton they did it themselves and not a licensed contractor so now that its been maybe working all these years I'm sure those high end taxpayers have a plan on taking care of a problem that doesn't go away.Kids have small lungs radon effects them first and are exposed hours each day hate to think we have humans instead of radon detectors in those schools effected.Last time this subject came up the school kept the windows open and called it bad heating system controls it was too hot in Dec.So with that thought has the Radon at the schools been checked school starts soon and those kids deserva safe place to learn.Closing Rowaton would save the city a lot of money portable classrooms have taken over Rowayaton those can be moved.
Norwalk has become a circus the Mayor has new clowns this year proving why more should vote.Maybe if Rowyaton simply becomes part of South Norwalk gives up its beaches and fire station and parks changes the way its treated as a elite community and folds itself into the city it belongs to maybe we will see more interest in Norwalks woes.
Over her head useless and many other words doesn't make sense she came and did her job,no one ever told her the mess the city was in.Now that she is leaving she is going to miss murders outside her Avalon perch she will miss all the fumes from pulsepoint and her take on the city must of been what others are finding as you drive past numerous empty storefronts with bars nightclubs and dives mixed in,the city sucks.I'm sure after this short time she learned what Norwalk was actually all about including the crime that happened in the schools(like we all read about it in the Hour) so yes we will miss her but will she miss Norwalk?
Maybe now that Mickey D has been sold at Avalon to yet another unsuspecting owner thinking Norwalk is the place to invest into she also thought maybe its time the lease has run out its time to exit stage left.
Sal wasn't loved his term here was sadly to say filled with dirty politics and lack of police support,whenever there was trouble at a school or on a bus he would read about it or get called from a parentdays later for the most part he was never like Marks the first called.
Moccia runs this city! Why after all these years is he still here? It's beyond comprehension. Are you enjoying the crime, poor schools (look at Norwalk schools' ratings' online), high taxes, and poor business climate? Look to him! He's in charge, supposedly.
The School System was broken well before Dr. Marks came along yet there is still no accountability.
The system was broken before Dr. Marks ever got here. But she established relationship with corporate donors to make up for shortfalls in the budget and opened things up to those parents who wanted to know. Red Apples has asked for many things that are FOIA-able and we now have copies of contracts and suspension rates and out of district transfers and class size lists, etc and soon to be published seniority lists (that I don't think the union has shared with their people.) The shroud of secrecy that K-12 has operated under in this town and others is coming to a close.
Perhaps that will be her legacy!
Dr. Marks was an upstanding and decent educator who was not ready for the barrage of attacks from the status quo gatekeepers in this town. Until the teachers and administrators change their leadership (which only they control) we are all being held hostage.
I wasn't super happy about the tabloid-type headline of my letter to Stefan Pryor 'Norwalk is Out of Control' but as a parent, I feel that we need to bring in the state. As we face our 6th superintendent in 10 years, yet have the same union leadership, it's pretty clear who's ruining the reputation of our education system.
The information she gave you could have been found with 10 minutes on google.
http://sdeportal.ct.gov/Cedar/WEB/ResearchandReports/SSPReports.aspx
She didn't stand up to the unions, the BOE and the leaders. She stayed quiet rather than taking the lead. She undersold the district with budget requests twice. she was going to leave after one year but was talked into staying. I apperciate your work but your loyalty to Dr. Marks seems to more as her friend and maybe a bit misguided. She was not a leader. Until someone stands up to the "status quo" there won't be success. Until someone fits the points you made in your letter things won't change. Dr. Marks did not fit the bill of what you proposed in your letter. Also, this will not be the 6th change in a decade. Interm people don't count so it will be out third. All that said, there is still a lot of truth to the headline, tabloid as it may be.
Please make a clear distinction between the Union, it's very well off "leadership" and actual teachers.
Not all teachers agree with the union, the people they protect, or how the relate to the public.
If you want this to change.... vote in the fall. End CT laws that mandate participation in Unions, that enable Unions to take the money from teachers pockets and put it in the hands of politicians and PACs.
I don't think she was a good fit from the start. But she worked hard and tried to be everywhere. She did try to overcome Dr. Corda's biggest flaws. Let's give her credit for effort and wish her well.
Now we have to make sure that the Board of Ed doesn't make the same mistakes they made when they were picking the last superintendent. The played for months under Rosa Murray as Chairperson and then decided to get no input from the community until the selection was a done deal.
Teachers Union President Bruce Mellion had this to say in the Hour regarding Dr. Marks, after she resigned:
“She was over her head before she even started. The one compliment I’ll give her is she tried to get out to the schools to see what was happening,” he said. “At the end of the day, we have nothing to show for the 25 months we were here and we’re further behind than we were when we started.”
“She shot her mouth off about things. She picked battles that she shouldn’t have had and she didn’t listen to people who have been here. She was really, really lost,” said Mellion, adding that Marks did not respond as well to the needs of the city’s 11,000 students. “I think she pandered to the mayor and the Board of Education and the Board of Estimate.”
I already had a low opinion of Bruce Mellion and the Teachers Union, but it just sank lower. What a completely classless move. What purpose does it serve to attack Dr. Marks, now that she has resigned for personal reasons? Way to go Bruce, kick her while she's down! How ironic that Mellion accuses HER of shooting her mouth off about things when he himself is the biggest offender in that category. If I were a teacher, I'd question whether or not Bruce Mellion is the person I want representing me in the media. Taxpayers are already plenty mad about the 85% of school spending that goes to wages and benefits, and Mellion isn't winning anybody over with his nasty, classless remarks.
Iwitherspoon
Of course we understand now that your example of classy comment is the one we should all follow. Anything else is unacceptable and expecting people to keep their word and honor contracts is just too much. If only somebody as wise as you had explained that to the teachers before they re-elected Bruce Mellion.
@Old Timer
So you think it was appropriate of Bruce Mellion to trash Dr. Marks in the media the day after she resigned for personal reasons?
I think he is entitled to say what he believes. I would have worded it a little differently. She was forced to pander to the mayor and some other politicians.
Moccia has never done well with strong women and, in my opinion, a lot of this recent budget problem was the last straw in his effort to make sure she knew who was boss.
We need to remember his performance throughout this fiasco, at least until November. When a school superintendent announces there is a shortfall in the budget for an almost finished year and a bigger one projected for the next year, suggesting the city should lend the school system money to be promptly repaid was a cruel joke, and it is a wonder she hung in as long as she did after that.
Now Moccia, who does not like nation wide searches, will need to get one started as soon as he can unless he has already decided who he wants to give the job to. Let us hope he doesn't try to give the job to Chiaramonte.
@lwitherspoon I couldn't agree with you more!! If anyone really left things in worse shape it would be Bruce and the union. All this ass had to do was put a VOTE to the membership and vote on the freeze. The worst that could have happened was they voted it down. OK, fair enough majority rules, but he didn't even have the balls to ask for the vote and now a bunch of his members are no longer employed..Great Job Bruce you should feel proud! I am asking or demanding that the NFT membership take a "No Confidence Vote" in him and demand a new president. A president that actually cares about the needs of our children and community like Dr. Marks did. I will reserve my comments on Dr. Marks in another posting later after I have had a chance to digest this all. It truly is a sad day in Norwalk.
Its simple. The union and BOE have a contract. Both sides should honor it. After the contract expired they can negotiate for changes. The city and BOE continually want concessions from the union. The city or BOE have never agreed in good times to reopen the contract and give the union more than agreed upon. Why should they agree to less just because times are bad?
You are absolutely right. It's not about what is best for the 11,000 students in Norwalk, it's about honoring the contract. It's not about keeping all the teachers on the payroll, it's about insuring that those with seniority get their raises and tough luck to the new hires. It definitely is not about a pay freeze or closing the BOE budget shortfall, it's about showing everyone that the second highest paid teachers in the State are not to be messed with.
Uh, the message came through loud and clear.
Livinsteady I don't know what school you have worked in but we are not teaching a 60 yr old model.We have constantly changed methods and strategies.Schools have computers in all rooms,labs,smart boards,movies etc. I'm sorry that your particular school has " bad" teachers and administrators who don't listen to you.Perhaps you should ask for a transfer!
I believe that the people who are leveling personal attacks against Dr. Marks are out of line and just plain mean spirited. Dr. Marks came into a city that she believed valued the education of its children, above all else. What she found out was that this is not the case.
In her two years, she was never given the amount of funding that she requested in order to do the job she had envisioned doing. I can only assume that in the process of choosing her as a superintendent, that those who made the decision, approved of her vision for the future of Norwalk Public Schools. And from the outset that vision was compromised by our city's decision not to fully fund it.
She came into a situation where the union contracts had been negotiated and approved before she arrived, yet she was blamed for not getting concessions out of the unions. When faced with the information that there was a shortfall in the accounts due to practices that had been in place long before she arrived, people called for her head. That would be like arresting the person who calls the police to report a crime.
When it came time to make tough cuts, the children, parents, teachers, and community came out to voice their worthy opinions. And if she didn't save your program, she was "being unfair."
I do not claim that Dr. Marks has done a good job. She may not have been the best person for the position in the first place. But she deserved a chance to implement her vision and that never happened.
As we go forward we are going to be in a difficult position as a city. Qualified candidates from around the country will look at our city and question whether we really value education. They will wonder if they will be given an opportunity to work toward their vision or if they are going to be hired and then told that there are no funds to make their vision a reality.
It's certainly easier to criticize than to administer a $160+ million school system in which you're forced to balance the demands of parents and the teachers union while making significant cuts. I don't envy Dr. Marks one bit, especially for all the grief she took from parties affected by cuts she was forced to make due to tight finances.
However I strongly disagree with your assertion that Norwalk as a City doesn't value education. Our teachers are the best compensated in the state of CT, after Greenwich, and we spend $160+ million per year on schools. Your argument seems to be that because the City administration drew the line and refused to spend any more money before obtaining some very small concessions from the Teachers Union, Norwalk doesn't value education. Perhaps it is the Teachers Union who doesn't value education, if they steadfastly refuse to even vote on a wage freeze in order to save teaching jobs.
Iwitherspoon
What really wasn't fair to Dr Marks was the refusal to fund her carefully prepared budget until there were concessions from the teacher's union. You do understand she did not even have a vote in what the union did and the token raises you, and Chiaramonte, argued they should give back were negotiated by this administration and were considered a pretty good deal for the city at the time.
The administration played "chicken" with the teachers union and lost another superintendent in the process. You people who are so quick to want to back out of commitments you made and blame somebody else, sound like the wrong people to do business with. Isn't your word worth anything ?
No wonder you find it hard to get a mortgage.
@Old Timer
I disagree with your position that whatever budget Dr Marks prepared had to be 100% funded by the City. It's the responsibility of our elected officials to decide how much they will take out of taxpayers' pockets to fund education. Educators naturally believe that their chosen profession is the most important one in the world, and if left to themselves they will find millions of ways to spend more money on schools. It's up to elected officials to look at the big picture and make the decision of what the limit should be.
My position is that taxpayers already sacrificed when they got hit with a tax hike earlier this year. The vast majority of those taxpayers did not receive a pay increase, and many don't even have jobs in this difficult economy. Therefore before asking taxpayers for more money, it's reasonable to ask teachers to consider a wage freeze, for the benefit of the children. Please, enough with your alarmist language about backing out of commitments. Nobody backed out of any commitments - they simply asked the question of whether or not teachers would be willing to consider postponing next year's modest pay increase to improve schools. The answer from Teachers Union President Bruce Mellion was a resounding NO - he wouldn't even allow the Union to vote on the issue. I guess this means that Bruce Mellion doesn't care about the young teachers who will lose their jobs, or the students who will have larger class sizes in the fall - 1.35% raises for teachers take priority over all of that.
Is it your position that it was wrong of our elected officials to even ask the question of whether or not teachers would help the City by postponing a wage increase? If so, we disagree. I think it would have been irresponsible NOT to ask the question. Where exactly do you think the extra funds should come from? How much of a tax increase do you feel is fair for Norwalkers to pay?
I'm not sure what you mean when you say that I find it hard to get a mortgage. I can assure you that I would have no problem whatsoever in this regard, were I to need one. The reason is that I live within my means and never spend money that I don't have or won't have in the future, which is more than I can say for government these days.
@lwitherspoon @Old Timer, I think it is fair to say that Norwalk does not value education and here's why. The city elects a BOE to whom the Superintendent reports to. The goals of the NPS are to educate the student population and do so under an operating budget that sets to accomplish those goals. Year after year, we have witnessed a BOE that does not work with the City in terms of preparing an educational budget based on the unique predicament that operating costs are co-mingled between parks and rec and dpw. All schools are city assets, and should be managed under a city contract that is not then cost allocated back to the BOE when parks and recs runs sports leagues on fields, and DPW is responsible for streets and sidewalks etc.
Then there is the mess that is the insurance issue, Norwalk self insures, countless health insurance contracts because of past special carve outs to accommodate nepotistic situations etc. Strip all of that out of the education budget and then you can start talking about per pupil allocations and whether Norwalk funds adequately or not.
The latest round of asking the teachers for a wage freeze in the last year of the contract was a distraction and waste of energy that would be better spent on examining operational costs and revenues from scratch. Fuel, electric and consumable expenditures should not be mired in dozens of contracts billed from every department predicated on a carbon copy form that gets manually processed by the City's finance department.
What Norwalk lacks, not just in the NPS system but also with the city is an chief operational officer, or the like. You can't manage anything by a spreadsheet, you have to have operational experience with the product or services you are engaged in. Then maybe we'd have a handle on what is actually spent on education versus the accounting games that we currently have.
If only Moccia and Chiramonte had the same class and resigned we would be all set.
Okay, Tim, I'll bite - who would you want to see as mayor and who as BOE chair?
What a snake to get all her damaging cuts passed and then abandon her position. A very cowardly move. Having said that it's good to see her go so she can't mess things up some more. And I also have to laugh at the attempt of trying to attribute improved test scores to the super intendent.
What makes ME laugh are teachers who post anonymously pretending to be parents, when in fact it's obvious to all that they're really teachers. Talk about your cowardly snakes...
You know what spoony I'm editing my post. I constantly see you accusing people of being other people. So I went on a rant breaking down what person you must be Based on your posts. But I decided you're not worth it.
I know you make those accusations when you have no better response to a persons post, so that's your strategy to avoid looking speechless.
In any case, you can believe I am whoever you want, because you just don't matter.
Accusing me of being a cowardly teacher doesn't change what Marks did. So try again :)
How interesting that you didn't deny being a Norwalk teacher. Thanks for that confirmation. It became obvious to everybody here that you were more than just a fed up parent when you anonymously attacked fellow teacher Jeff Beckley in highly personal terms, after Beckley dared to suggest that teachers sacrifice a small pay raise in order to solve the district's funding crisis. Obviously, no parent would have opposed a move by teachers to end the crisis and reduce class sizes for kids. When questioned on why you would do such a thing, you had no explanation, and my guess is you still can't explain it. Just know that you're not fooling anybody. I respect your profession, but not the way you're behaving here.
Your repeated comments about Dr. Marks betray breathtaking ignorance. You seem to think that she wanted to push through these cuts. She didn't WANT to make any cuts at all. Her original budget was significantly larger than the one that was finally approved. A lack of funds FORCED her to make cuts. It's obvious that making the cuts was not easy, considering all the passion they stirred up. It would have been much easier to resign earlier, rather than stick around to finish what was a painful and thankless budget reconciliation. She showed bravery by seeing the process through to completion. How ironic that when you ignorantly accused Dr. Marks of being a cowardly snake, you described yourself a lot more accurately than you described her.
Iwitherspoon
There is an appropriate time to negotiate a school system budget, and it is not months after it has been set by the city and a shortfall is discovered and a projected shortfall for the following year is discovered. For whatever reasons, the school system lacked an effective CFO for quite a while and, when they finally found one, he found these "shortfalls" . They were not caused by the superintendent. It seems they were caused by sloppy bookkeeping and practices resulting from a history of sloppy budgets, with a little wiggle room to deal with occasional shortfalls. As Chiarmonte has told us repeatedly, there is no fat, no slush fund, the schools budget has been trimmed to the bone. Dr Marks came back to the city for help and was offered a short term loan. The shortfall for the following year, starting July first, was only discovered after a budget had already been negotiated and a tax rate set with bills mailed. It was too late to fix it any other way but make significant cuts, and that is what happened. The cuts were not as bad as originally expected, and the city found some money, but cuts were made. Cuts that might have been avoided if the school system had a better CFO sooner. You and I will never agree on what else could have been done, but expecting the teachers to volunteer to give up token raises to help fix other people's mistakes was never a realistic proposal and pushing it the way Chiarmonte and Haynie did, going direct to teachers as if there was no union and no contract, is going to cost somebody unnecessary expense. There is a time and a procedure agreed on to negotiate contracts and this is not that time. Trying to push somebody like Bruce Mellion around was, at best, ill advised, if not downright stupid. Trying to blame any part of this fiasco on the teachers union is offensive to those who know better.
Many of us long for the time when a man's word meant something and it was not fashionable to advocate breaking contracts.
Can't blame her. She tried hard, but they kept cutting away at budgets, as if to tell her her own board did not believe her numbers. It is a wonder she didn't quit when the mayor floated the proposal to LEND the BOE several million to be repaid out of the next year budget. Where did he suppose she was going to get money to pay back a multimillion dollar loan, bake sales ? Running any dept within the city is not easy when you have the full support of your board or commission. Without that full support, it is impossible and she realized that when the "shortfalls" became public.
Of course there will be a search, but candidates will look at Dr Marks' experience and either look elsewhere or look for a longer term contract with some assurance of BOE support, including the mayor (de-facto chairman of the BOE.). Whatever your opinion of Dr Marks, she will not be easy to replace. On the other hand, the administration that hired her and drove her away will not be hard to replace in November.
As a teacher who knows what is like to have decisions made with out their voice being heard, I thank Dr. Marks for allowing teachers to voice their opinions often, while only few teachers showed up to these events- she at least put in the effort. So thanks for that.
Unless any other commentators are teachers, or in possession of experience in administration, please refrain from extreme remarks. The bottom line is that the problems with "our" schools goes way beyond one woman. The problem lays in every facet of our culture and community. It is easy to sit and type and rant about problems or solutions, but that does nothing to address the real problems.
As a teacher in the system through the last two superintendents and three principals I feel as though it is easy to see what the problem is. The problem is that 'we' as a whole have been unable to come to terms with the problem.
The problem is not money. The problem is not Dr. Marks. The problem is not test scores. The problem is not a curse placed on Norwalk. The problem is not politics. The problem is not teachers. The problem is not the students, parents, race, poverty, religion, or facebook.
Yes, there are bad teachers, too many in fact. There are students that don't care, which is totally normal. There are bad politicians, maybe more in Norwalk than else where. There is poverty, and the gap between the have and haves not is large. There are bad parents, yup... there are.
None of these are the problems with our public schools. What Norwalk has goes beyond public schools. The local media perpetuates anxiety about the issue by misrepresenting issues. Local communities within the city stay isolated and do not allow others to assist in solving their issues. Our schools are running on a system that was designed to educate 60 years ago and the current youth can not be expected to march to a 60 year old drum the same way others did.
The bottom line is this isn't working. The system as a whole is the problem, so even if a nationwide search is launched for a Super Superintendent who can remedy all the city's problems, even a curse; if the system, the people, and our culture do not change, then they will last two years and leave as well.
Other commentators are right. This should be looked at as a chance for the city to move forward. Do not allow old bearers of the reigns to regain power. Take swift action, and find a person to come in for a year to run the show.
As a whole, the best chance this city has is in November. Regardless of you affiliation with parties vote out every member of that is up for election and choose new people to guide Norwalk through the next years or all you get is more of the same.
What a complete loss of two year and millions of dollars. She was in over her head and was pushed around. The good thing is the chance for the city to start over. Get someone in to clean house of people who have been here and ineffective too long. People like Dadonna, Moore and others who bully people and have no respect and have been part of the failures of this district for too long. This this the chance to do a true seach and not settle for someone who was in human resources before becoming a first time supt. like Marks. This is not a surprise it is an oppertunity the make a positive change.
The test scores Improved because of the teachers!!The very people whose jobs they are cutting!!!! It had NOTHING to do with her.It was the teachers hard work !!! These people have no clue !
ouch! that one took me by surprise as well.
WE AS PARENTS NEED TO BAND TOGETHER MORE NOW THAN EVER TO SAVE OUR SCHOOL SYSTEM.....EVERY CITIZEN IN NORWALK FROM EVERY SOCIO-ECONOMIC BACKGROUND, RACE CREED AND COLOR HAS A VOICE IN THIS TOWN AND IT IS TIME FOR SOME ACTION......
Good riddance! And I am shocked she was in Human Resources prior to her appointment, she was not a people person in opinion, very aloof and insensitive.
She has known for a long time that she was in over her head in this job. Unfortunately for us, we have another superintendent that has left things in WORSE shape then she found them. I hope that when it comes to choosing a new superintendent, the BOE and the public will take a closer look and make sure that the individual has the skills that are needed to perform this job. She worked in Human Resources and really had no qualifications to do this job.
Whoah! I did NOT see that coming.