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Monday, December 28, 2009

Administrators File Grievance Over Appointment of Dir. of Elementary Ed

The Norwalk Association of School Administrators (NASA) filed a grievance on December 18, against the BOE due to the process used in hiring Carol Marinaccio, the new Director of Elementary Education.  NASA wants the position re-posted and the hiring process to begin anew.

Documents obtained by NorwalkNet show that NASA filed a grievance during the hiring process and revised it after the BOE voted to hire Ms. Marinaccio. NASA contends that the BOE violated its contract with the Administrators’ union because present administrators are supposed to be given a preference for promotions.  According the grievance during the Central Office’s screening process a current employee, with the highest qualification, was eliminated from consideration.

Additionally, NASA contends that the BOE also violated its own Diversity Employment Plan and Commitment to Affirmative Action because the committee that was formed to interview the candidates for the position is not identified in the contract as being part of the process.  (Two Elementary Principals, an Assistant Principal and an Instructional Specialist interviewed candidates for the Director of Elementary School position).

Finally, the grievance states that Ms. Marinaccio was hired without any parent involvement, which the Board had deemed an essential part of the process the last time this position was filled.

NASA President Tony Ditrio, who is also the principal of Kendall school, filed the grievance on behalf of the Administrator's union.

Board Chairman, Glenn Iannacone said in a phone call that the grievance must follow a "chain of command” before it is addressed by the Board.   It must be brought first to the assistant superintendent and then to the superintendent, according to Mr. Iannacone.

Mr. Ditrio could not be reached for comment and Fay Ruotolo, Director of Human Resources, and Assistant Superintendent Tony Daddona are on vacation.

Ms. Marinaccio was voted in as Director of Elementary Education at the December 15th BOE meeting.  The Board voted 7-2 in favor of Ms. Marinaccio, with Steve Colarossi and Sue Haynie voting against her appointment. 

Ms. Marinaccio, who is scheduled to start her new position on Jan. 11, has been the grants coordinator for the BOE for the past five years.  Prior to that, she was a school administrator for the Naugatuck Public Schools.  According to an October story in the Hour, Ms. Marinaccio is pursuing a doctorate in education and is completing her dissertation on: "Creating a mentoring program for school superintendents."
Posted by Moina Noor

28 comments:

  1. I don't understand the grievance, and I hope someone can enlighten me. If the complaint is that s present administrator is supposed to be given preference, how is there a problem? Ms Marinaccio is a present administrator. However, even if she weren't, the statement is that a present administrator is given preference, not that he/she is guaranteed the job. Actually, I'm not even sure that they are given preference; I think a Norwalk administrator is merely guaranteed an interview for the job. I will appreciate any clarification.
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  2. I have lots of questions, some about the process -- which is the subject of the girevance -- and some about qualifications.

    From what I have heard and read, this candidate, who may have a variety of other qualifications, would not have qualified to be an elementary level instructional specialist, though she may have to supervise such specialists in the future.

    A related question: Does our new director of elementary education have the credentials, experience and certification requirements to become an elementary school principal? Since I assume she will be supervising these principals, I would hope she does have this type of certification, even if she does not have the experience.

    Once last point: How does one do research on a dissertation about "creating a mentoring program for school superintendents" and then land a job as director of elementary education? That's kind of a wide disconnect from one's "area of expertise" and her current position.
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  3. It has been reported that she has the 093 endorsement (superintendent of schools), and so she first had to have the 092, which is the endorsement that covers any administrative position other than superintendent. I can't speak to her qualifications, but she is legally certified.

    The dissertation is interesting. Could I do research on mentoring nurses if I have never been a nurse? Get the point?
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  4. 1:57pm... One could do a dissertation with no experience! It may not be worth much though!
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  5. and how can the superintendents interview process be transparent?
    ok we have hired a hot shot to tell us we have no hardware to run the software and we slip a grants writer that just didnt quite fit right with the challenges to LOCATE and WRITE GRANTS, so we made her a boss, Logical. Shall we crank up the music and play musical chairs? Now Papallo is out the door and we must hire another interim super, which may be the best option at this point rather than just taking what we can get and crossing our fingers.

    "Gosh Beaver you really messed it up this time."

    "But Wally I, I guess I did. Do you think I can still get paid and my pension and my health insurance and a new car and get my cake?"
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  6. I came to Moina Noor's new site because of the Roman colliseum ethics of commentary on the yourct.com site. We've given the two new directors (elementary and IT) a fine orientation to Norwalk with all of the insulting innuendo that has been posted about the two of them. God forbid the new guy stumbles upon this site and realizes what he is in for. If I were either of these two people, I'd high tail it over to a district with a less toxic working environment. I'm hoping Moina will set the truth out there for us regarding some of these questions and accusations that have been raised. All I care about is whether or not my daughter gets the quality education that my taxes are paying for. That's the only dog I have in this fight.
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  7. As unpleasant as some of the postings may be, maybe they do reflect the truth.
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  8. I think it is unfair to blame Moina for simply putting up the facts there for us to see, think and comment upon. I don't see anything objectionable that she has written in the article - she has just posted on the facts. Fact is, a grievance was filed. We, the tax-paying residents of Norwalk who have kids attending Norwalk Public schools, have a right to know what is going on and why. I am glad to have at least one source of bare information about the Norwalk School System.

    I don't see any personal opinions of hers anywhere in the article. I think she has tried hard to present the facts just as they are.
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  9. It appears that the Administrator's Union does have a point. If rumors prove to be true, and if the Union wins the grievance, one of "their boys" will get the position. Can anyone confirm the rumor?
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  10. Hi, Charu K.
    Just want to clarify my comments at 9:42 p.m.
    I value Moina's reporting very highly. I was being critical of our responses to her well-written column. I just think that it is not fair to stir the pot with a lot of the innuendo that passes for well-intentioned questioning by some of the posters. As a parent in the district, I'd like to see us be a little more ammenable to working with these new candidates instead of slandering them without a lot of fact behind what some of us are saying and inferring. That's all though. I know some might find that view offensive, so I will hold my peace now. Once again, thanks to Moina for the great job in reporting.
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  11. The public deserves to know who the members of the interview committee were. We should all be told by the Supt. why no parents were invited to be on the interview committee.
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  12. 6:27 PM, don't assume that there are no facts behind what people are saying. I happen to know that many of the posts on this forum are factual. I think staff members are just being cautious about what they write, so they post their real knowledge as rumor or innuendo. The past administration and some of the principals put fear into the hearts of the staff if they utter the truths that need to be heard. Bravo to those who speak up and tell the truth.
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  13. You might have a good point there, 2:24 p.m.
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  14. Fear of speaking the truth isn't due solely to fear of the past administration.
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  15. So if we are after the truth, who is the president of the administrators' union defending? Could it be his buddy at Tracey? That is the only one I can think of who fits the description and who would want to move up.
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  16. I don't know if 5:16's assessment is accurate or not, but maybe there are too many troubled individuals and troubled relationships among individuals in the NPS. I suggest hiring only from outside the district until a healthy environment develops.
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  17. Yes, it is the "buddy" at Tracey who thinks he should have gotten the position. You should check into his prior applications that he has applied for (NHS and BMHS). He did not make it past the first interview committee at those positions. So why should the Administrator's Union think he could get the Director of Elementary Position now!
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  18. Here is what I've heard about why the Administrator's union is so freakin' torked off. 1. Marilyn Libatore was the "interim" director for far too long-- the Supt. should have posted the position about 10 months ago, but no one on the then Board of Ed forced him. 2. When the Admin. union grieved the delay in posting the position, the HR director lied about how long Liberatore had been the interim director. 3. The selection of the interview committee was hand picked by Papallo who is clearly backing Dadonna for supt. and who is trying to assemble a team around his boy who will support him. The interviiew commitee included no parents and no teachers-- had one principal with less than one year of elementary experience, two other elementary school administrators, Dadonna and Janie Friedlander. Clearly, the fix was in.
    Whether the Tracey principal was a good pick is anyone's guess-- but it's pretty obvious, right, that the grant writer with NO ELEMENTARY TEACHING OR PRINCIPAL EXPERIENCE was the wrong pick.
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  19. 10:33 -- Yours is a very interesting posting because I know only a couple of people who would know about that history.

    11:39 -- Knowing what I know and reading your posting, I conclude that the fix was indeed in, quite possibly for the reason you stated, but I don't know how anyone would prove it. However, I wouldn't want to be the person who had to explain the board's choice of someone who has absolutely no elementary experience over candidates with quite a bit of it. If the candidates with quite a bit of experience were not desirable for the job, the board could have reposted. There is nothing that says that the candidate has to be from Norwalk, no matter what the prevailing sentiment of the unions might be.

    As for Dr. Papallo, he shouldn't be setting up anyone to be superintendent; he should be the one objective person in the bunch who is there to help the board meet its responsibility to provide the community with a superintendent of the highest quality and character. I hope your charge about Dr. Papallo's prejudice is mistaken.
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  20. Carol M. is more than a "grants writer." The grants writer position is just one of the positions in which she has served. To reduce her qualifications to her most recent role as a grants writer is a joke. Pull out the resume and take a look before slandering a person. By the way, it is a plus to have someone in that role who also knows the grants side of how things work. Only in Norwalk would we throw good people to the dogs before getting our facts straight. Case in point, everyone is already dooming the new IT guy to failure based on what they read in one silly article on the blog. Tell you what to do. Why don't you round up all the angry villagers and tell them to light their torches and gather outside the castle walls? Norwalk is becoming a parody of itself.
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  21. Hate to tell you, 12:29, Norwalk is a parody and more. If you want a laugh, just take a peek at what the "downtowners" are "earning" from the local coffers. Most people thought we got rid of the deadwood with Opdahl and Lang, but alas, the line is much longer! Your attempt at the Frankenstein allusion would be funny if it weren't so true. This town is far too "inbred" as far as how the educational system is run. The real insiders make all the big bucks, and they will protect this fiefdom to the bitter end, which, by the way, is imminent. One of their own will not run this system. If I am wrong, then the parody truly becomes reality. Sorry, kids. There really are some folks out there that care about how you get an education. Let's give these new appointments a chance to do just that.
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  22. I agree that she is not merely a grants writer (and I'm not the person who wrote that in the earlier posting), and I recognize her experience as an assistant principal elsewhere. The difficulty for me is understanding how someone who has never worked in an elementary school and who has never been a principal can be put in charge of 12 elementary school principals. I am not supporting anyone else's candidacy for the position; I am only asking for an explanation. I am not saying that it makes no sense, but I am saying that I don't understand how it can make sense.

    If the board made this move, I can only guess at the move they will make in appointing a superintendent.
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  23. I believe she did work in an elementary school.
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  24. 8:33 -- Upon what did you base that statement? Do you have specific information, or is that just what you would like to be true?
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  25. When will we see the interview with the new director of elementary?
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  26. Why are there so many $100K+ administrators in the Central Orifice?
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  27. Well many of you don't know is the man against ms.marinaccio only filed a greivance because the board did not think he interviewed well and qualified for the job. Ms.Marinaccio was voted 7 to 2. Why is there a need to complain and be a cry baby if you don't get your way in life. She has the crudentials then move on and let her make a change for once in Norwalk.Norwalk tax payers always complaining, so you put a guy in your favor who has done much of absolutely nothing in years.Be optimistic, she has the crudentials and experience.
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  28. People need to realize she has been a prinicipal in elementary and high school and is well certified. Many can make cracks and jokes of a disertation, especially ' norwalk mom' but if you have completed one, you would know much reseach and experience goes into a disertation its not all writing. Many seem to be bashing her instead of looking for qualities and experience she has. Many respect her from State of CT, and she has made a difference in Norwalk from previous articles. So hey, why not just give the lady a chance!
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