May 16
jonpeltoBridgeport, Kenneth Moales, Mayor Bill Finch, Paul Vallas, Stefan Pryor Bridgeport, Kenneth Moales Jr., Mayor Bill Finch, Paul Vallas, Stefan Pryor
The last agenda item at this week’s Bridgeport Board of Education meeting was entitled “School Readiness Grant Program, Priority School Districts, July 2013 – June 2014”.
According to the agenda and board packet, the Board of Education was being asked, as it has for more than a decade, to authorize the City of Bridgeport to submit a grant application for federal and state funds to run the City’s early childhood education and day-care slots. This time the grant totaled just over $11.4 million for the next two years.
However, what made this year different is that a major controversy surfaced because over $1 million a year of those funds are targeted for daycare facilities owned and operated by the family of the Chairman of the Board of Education, Kenneth Moales.
In what could only be called a bizarre move, when the Board reached the daycare agenda item, rather than confront the conflict of interest that is facing Moales, Chairman Moales and the other 4 members of the Bridgeport Board of Education who are aligned with Mayor Bill Finch simply adjourned the meeting, claiming that they had discovered that no vote was actually needed in order to allow the city to submit the grant application.
Bizarre indeed because a quick search of news articles about the School Readiness Grant Program will reveal that over the last month, boards of education and town councils across Connecticut have been voting on whether or not to submit their school’s own School Readiness Grants. In just the last few weeks, “yes” votes have taken place in Waterbury, East Haven, Thomaston, Vernon, Middletown, Winchester, Canterbury and dozens of other communities.
So how is it that Bridgeport suddenly determined that its Board of Education was free to simply walk away from the issue rather than vote on whether to authorize the grant application?
At least a portion of the story can be found in a recent article in the CT Post.
When the agenda item in question was reached, Board of Education member Maria Pereira appropriately demanded that Moales relinquish the chair for the debate and recuse himself from the vote on this year’s grant since he and his family would directly benefit from the Board’s action.
Instead, Moales refused to hand over the task of running the meeting to the vice chair and, instead, announced that a vote on accepting the grant was not needed,
When his statement was challenged, Moales asked for a motion to adjourn and on a vote of 5 to 4, with the 5 board members loyal to Mayor Bill Finch voting to end the meeting, the Bridgeport Board of Education voted to go home rather than fulfill their longstanding responsibilities related to the grant.
According to the CT Post story, the decision to forgo any vote was based on the news that Bridgeport’s director of early childhood education had explained that according to a communication she had with the State Department of Education, since the city itself was receiving funds for daycare slots, the Board was actually prohibited from voting on the distribution of the grant.
No documentation related to the conversation with the State Department of Education was provided.
Nor was there any mention as to how the Mayor and the Superintendent of Schools had the authority to sign an $11.4 million contract without Board or Council approval.
In fact, there was no substantive discussion, whatsoever, about how Connecticut and Bridgeport’s laws and regulations related to the grant process.
Instead, Moales, a prime beneficiary of the grant, simply assured the Board that they could go home and Connecticut taxpayers would still send along the $11.4 million.
Of course updates will be posted, as they become available.
To read the CT Post story on the Board vote go to: http://blog.ctnews.com/education/2013/05/14/no-one-votes-preschool-slots-get-awarded-anyway/
May 13
jonpeltoBridgeport, Kenneth Moales, Mayor Bill Finch, Paul Vallas Bridgeport, Bridgeport Board of Education, Kenneth Moales Jr., Mayor Bill Finch, Paul Vallas
(Written by Jonathan Pelto and Carmen Lopez)
In about 100 days, Reverend Kenneth Moales, Jr. and his Cathedral of the Holy Spirit and Prayer Tabernacle Church of Love, Inc. may well be facing the foreclosure and public auction of property owned by Moales’ church, located at 1231-1243 Stratford Avenue.
The loss of the church property would mean the loss of the space that Moales’ mother and sister use for their taxpayer-funded daycare centers.
But despite the very real possibility that the centers would lose their space, Bridgeport “Superintendent of Schools,” Paul Vallas, is recommending that the Bridgeport Board of Education renew the grants to the Kingdom’s Little Ones Academy and the Kingdom’s Little Ones Christian Daycare.
That grant is expected to provide Moales and his family with more than $1 million in taxpayer funds, a growing portion of which goes to Moales’ church as rent.
Of course, Moales will have to recuse himself from the debate and vote at tonight’s Board of Education meeting, due to his conflict of interest.
However, considering Moales serves as Chairman of the Bridgeport Board of Education and was Mayor Bill Finch’s campaign treasurer, it is unlikely that the Democrats on the Board of Education who are loyal to the Finch operation will take action to ensure Connecticut taxpayer funds are properly protected.
The Kingdom’s Little Ones Academy and the Kingdom’s Little Ones Christian Daycare are two of a dozen community organizations that provide Bridgeport with 1,158 subsidized daycare spaces.
These daycare spaces are funded through Connecticut’s School Readiness Grant, which brings in a total of $11.4 million to Bridgeport. Ironically, the Bridgeport School System is the “fiduciary agent” for the grant program, meaning it is their responsibility to take all necessary steps to ensure that the funds are spent appropriately.
However, rather than separate out the money for Moales and his family to ensure the day care spots are available for the full two-year period of the grant, Paul Vallas and his Chief Administrative Officer, Sandra Kase, have recommended that the Board of Education simply approve the entire grant program that runs from July 1, 2013 through June 30, 2014.
In addition to the potential loss of daycare spaces, there is the very real concern about how the money is being spent. According to the most recent IRS forms on file, of the $1 million that is expected to go to the Moales day care facilities, approximately $83,000 is passed along to Moales’ church in the form of rent.
The rental payment to Moales’ church has more than tripled since 2006 when the amount spent for rent was only $25,000.
Overarching the entire controversy is the fact that the spaces Moales rents to his mother and sister are part of a property this is facing potential foreclosure due to non-payment of loans, bills and taxes. More
May 12
jonpeltoBridgeport, Family Urban Schools of Excellence (FUSE), Jumoke Academy, Malloy, Mayor Bill Finch, Paul Vallas, Stefan Pryor Bridgeport, Fuse, Jumoke Academy, Malloy, Mayor Bill Finch, Paul Vallas, Stefan Pryor
Fresh off Malloy’s “victory” of getting the Chief Operating Officer of FUSE/Jumoke Academy on to the State Board of Education, the Malloy Administration, Mayor Bill Finch and “Superintendent of Schools,” Paul Vallas, have apparently concocted a deal to hand Bridgeport’s Paul Lawrence Dunbar Elementary School over to Hartford’s Family Urban Schools of Excellence (FUSE)/Jumoke Academy to run.
FUSE/Jumoke Academy is best known for its complete failure to provide educational opportunities to Latino and non-English speaking children, children who go home to households that don’t speak English or children who need special education services.
In fact, since Jumoke Academy opened its doors in Hartford, it has failed to admit ANY non-English speaking students or ANY students from non-English speaking households. In addition, less than 4 percent of Jumoke Academy’s students receive special education services.
All this despite the fact that the Jumoke Academy is located in Hartford; a city in which more than 1 in 4 students aren’t fluent in English, where more than 4 in 10 go home to households where English is not the primary language and where more than 1 in 10 require some type of special education services.
As a result of this new deal, FUSE/Jumoke will be given control of the Dunbar School where, according to the State Department of Education’s School Profile Database, at least 18 percent of the students go home to households where English is not the primary language and about 12 percent of the students receive special education services. Thus Team Vallas is proposing to turn a Bridgeport school over to a company that has absolutely no meaningful experience with two of the most important populations that attend Dunbar. More
May 07
jonpeltoBen Barnes (OPM Secretary), Bridgeport, Malloy, Mayor Bill Finch, Paul Vallas, State Budget Ben Barnes, Bridgeport, ECS Formula, Malloy, Mayor Bill Finch, Paul Vallas
Connecticut’s taxpayers cover more than 80 percent of the costs associated with running Bridgeport’s Schools.
For more than twenty-five years, Connecticut’s primary funding mechanism has been called the Education Cost Sharing (ECS) formula. Underfunded by about $2 billion dollars, the money is distributed to towns based on a variety of factors including the number of students living in poverty and the town’s ability to come up with their own funds via their local property taxes.
Every town gets some state aid; the poorest towns get the most.
There are three criteria that towns must meet to get their state aid;
First, the entire amount of the ECS state-grant MUST be spent on education
Second, any increase in the ECS grant CAN NOT be used to supplant local funding for education.
Third, the town must invest a minimum amount of its own money, a system that is called the ECS Minimum Budget Requirement (MBR).
As the CT Post is reporting, “Mayor Bill Finch’s administration is negotiating feverishly in Hartford to shrink a state-mandated $3.3 million spike in education spending that the mayor inexplicably left out of his proposed budget.”
The story goes on to read, “Since Finch did not include the money in his 2013-14 fiscal plan, Bridgeport officials are now trying to convince the state they should not be on the hook for the $3.3 million because of all the unreimbursed “in-kind” school expenses the city covers.”
Connecticut’s entire school funding system is based on the notion of shared expenses. Bridgeport is at the very top of the list of towns that benefit from the state system.
Although the ECS fails to allocate sufficient funds to cover what the state should be paying, rather than pay their share, Bridgeport officials claim that they should be allowed to duck their responsibility to pay their required share.
Adding insult to injury is the fact that Bridgeport appears to have any ally in Ben Barnes, Malloy’s Secretary of the state Office of Policy and Management.
Barnes worked for Malloy when Malloy was the Mayor of Stamford. When Malloy left the Mayor’s office in Stamford to run for governor, Barnes landed in an administrative position in Bridgeport. Soon after, he transferred over to become the chief financial officer for Bridgeport schools.
Barnes knows very well that Bridgeport’s schools are underfunded and he knows the requirements of the local Minimum Budget Requirement law.
However, instead of demanding the Bridgeport, like every other Connecticut city, meet its MBR Requirement, Barnes is quoted in the CT Post article as saying, “If a city takes over some $1 million activity for the (school) board, they get a credit, or vice versa…So we’ve agreed to look for some additional information from them. (And) we’ll provide them with some additional clarification of how we’re interpreting the statute.”
But Barnes knows that history and intent of the law and there was never the notion that a city’s “in-kind” support for its schools was meant to take the place of the city’s fundamental requirement to meet its Minimum Budget Requirement.
Last month, the school budget proposed by the Paul Vallas, Bridgeport’s “Superintendent of Schools,” counted on the additional $3.3 million the law requires Bridgeport to spend.
Now Vallas is changing his tune. According to the CT Post article, at a recent Bridgeport Board of Alderman meeting, Vallas said, “Do we need $3.3 million more? Yeah…Can we live without it? If we have to, we will find a way to do that.”
So here is the person heading up Bridgeport’s schools backing off his own budget proposal and the need for the state and the city to properly fund Bridgeport’s schools.
Meanwhile, the CT Post reports that, “Finch and his office have refused to discuss the matter publicly, instead issuing the same terse statements that the administration is focused on a resolution.”
This isn’t the first time the Bridgeport has attempted to duck their local funding requirement. A major Connecticut State Department of Education Audit in 2003-2004 and 2005-2006 raised extremely serious problems with Bridgeport’s unwillingness to fulfill its legal obligations when it comes to properly funding education.
Here we are, almost ten years later…
And we are left with the realization that the more things change, the more the stay the same.
Once again, Bridgeport officials want us to believe that Connecticut’s education funding laws applies to everyone but them.
For the full CT Post article go to: http://m.ctpost.com/connpost/db_43463/contentdetail.htm?contentguid=hcRAd05N&full=true#display
May 06
jonpeltoBridgeport, Mayor Bill Finch, Paul Vallas, Special Education Bridgeport, Easy IEP, Mayor Bill Finch, Paul Vallas, Special Education
It was one of the first non-bid contracts that Bridgeport’s “Superintendent of Schools,” Paul Vallas pushed through. Using a half-baked “sole-source” rationale, Vallas hired a company that he had worked with in Chicago and Philadelphia without using any bidding process.
The contract promised Bridgeport a state-of-the-art special education software program “for free,” as long as the Public Consulting Group was given a lucrative Medicaid reimbursement contract.
The new software was scheduled to come on-line July 1, 2012.
Soon, free became $100,000 plus with more “option costs” to come.
July 1, 2012 came and went…with no Easy IEP software
Then August, September, October, November, December 2012 and still no software.
January, February and March 2013 came and went without a working version of the Easy IEP special education software.
Finally, Easy IEP was scheduled to go live on April 1, 2013 with a complete shift by the end of April.
Here we are in May 2013 and multiple Bridgeport teachers and professional staff have reported that the “state-of-the-art” software is such a mess that special education teachers are relegated to hand-writing their IEPs and producing reports in the same way they were doing it 40 years ago.
This is the most important part of the year for updating IEPs and meeting state and federal mandates for special education reporting.
Instead of the promised comprehensive system, teachers and staff are reporting chaos.
Not only are students in need of special education services being short-changed but the cost to Bridgeport and Connecticut taxpayers could be astronomical.
Just take a look at the news out of New York City when the software system implemented by the Bloomberg Administration fell apart;
“NEWS: Overtime bill for staff using special ed system totals $38.5M
The city doled out $38.5 million in back pay to schools staff who were wrongly required to work overtime on a buggy special education data system, according to payment details released today by the education department.
Nearly 30,000 therapists, special education teachers, paraprofessionals, guidance counselors, social workers and psychologists received the overtime payments this month after an independent arbitrator ruled in January that the Department of Education violated the United Federation of Teachers’ contract. The first round of payments, on April 12, totaled $2.6 million for 1,700 occupational and physical therapists and the second and final payment — $35.9 million — went out to the rest of employees today.
The total number of educators who qualified for overtime far exceeded UFT’s estimates, which hovered at around 10,000. The UFT filed the labor complaint in mid-2011, charging that staff should not have been required to work outside of their contractual school day.
The unintentional overtime centered on time that educators spent plugging data into the Special Education Student Information System. According to teachers and union staff, the program does not have basic functions that are routinely found in other computer programs, such as an ‘auto save’ feature.
In a statement today, UFT President Michael Mulgrew said that SESIS continues to be unnecessarily time-consuming for teachers and a wasteful example of the city’s pricey technology contracts.
“Thousands of hours that teachers could have spent helping kids were wasted trying to get this boondoggle of a computer system to work,” Mulgrew said. “But just as CityTime cost the city millions of dollars year after year, until SESIS is fixed or scrapped it will continue to be a money pit.”
Department of Education officials defended SESIS, which tracks student attendance and keeps a record of services that special education students receive.
“Keeping accurate and complete records on services provided to special needs students is necessary to ensure that we are providing quality services, and we are working to ensure that all staff are properly compensated in accordance with the arbitration award,” Connie Pankratz said.”
Meanwhile in Connecticut, neither Mr. Vallas nor the Bridgeport Board of Education has explained what is actually happening with Vallas’ “no-bid” special education software system in Bridgeport.
May 02
jonpeltoBudget Cuts, Excel Bridgeport Inc., Malloy, Mayor Bill Finch, Nate Snow, Office of State Ethics, Paul Vallas, Steven Adamowski, Teach for America Excel Bridgeport Inc., Malloy, Mayor Bill Finch, Nate Snow, Paul Vallas, Stevan Adamowski, Teach for America
Yup, the Connecticut Director of Teach for America has submitted an application to open a charter school in Bridgeport.
Nate Snow arrived in Bridgeport in 2007 as a new TFA recruit.
Today he serves as the Executive Director for the Connecticut Chapter of Teach for America and President of the Board of Directors of Excel Bridgeport, Inc., a corporate funded education reform organization that he co-founded with Meghan Lowney, an aide to billionaire, hedge fund owner Steven Mandel.
Excel Bridgeport serves as the primary advocacy group supporting Governor Malloy, Mayor Bill Finch and “Superintendent of Schools” Paul Vallas’ education reform policies.
After graduating from Texas A&M University, Snow joined TFA and taught for two years in Bridgeport. He then joined TFA’s fundraising operation and then made an unsuccessful bid as a Republican candidate for the Bridgeport Board of Education.
Snow and Vallas recently signed a three-year contract between the Bridgeport Board of Education and Teach for America for $777,000, although the contract was never provided to the Board for their review and approval. Team Vallas is claiming he has the authority to sign the contract without Board involvement.
And meanwhile, despite having no experience in school administration, Snow is the lead name on a charter school application that is pending before Paul Vallas and the Bridgeport Board of Education.
Snow’s proposal is to create a Montessori Charter School for children between the ages of three and thirteen.
As to Snow’s connection to TFA and Excel Bridgeport, a recent CT Post article reported that “The charter school idea, he said, is his own.”
According to their proposal, “Whittier’s Montessori program is inspired by the design and implementation of Annie Fisher Montessori Magnet School (AFMMS), a high-performing public Montessori school in Hartford, Connecticut. Annie Fisher Montessori Magnet School has distinguished itself by meeting high standards of student achievement through a meticulous, fully implemented Montessori program.”
Stephen Adamowski, who according to emails acquired through a Freedom of Information request, worked with Snow around Malloy’s education reform bill, was a strong proponent of Hartford’s Montessori school and now, as Malloy’s Special Master for Windham and New London has been working hard to get Windham to switch one of its elementary schools over to a Montessori school.
In the new Montessori charter school application, the proponents explain how they developed the plan saying, “Prior to preparing for this submission, none of the founders had worked with a Montessori school, but they knew that it was a good brand with an excellent reputation. Starting with a visit to the acclaimed Annie Fisher Montessori Magnet School in Hartford, then undertaking conversations with parents who have children in private Montessori school in Fairfield County, and ending with informal consultations with Montessori leaders from around the country, the Founding members became convinced that Montessori should be an option for all children in Bridgeport. Nate Snow contacted the National Center for Montessori in the Public Sector (NCMPS), located in Hartford, for further information on what was necessary to start a public Montessori school. These discussions led to an eventual contract with NCMPS to assist in school design and to aid in writing the charter application.”
The charter school proposal aims to start with 69 students next fall and reach 209 students in its fifth year. Their budget calls for expending $1.7 million in year one and at least $3.8 million in year five.
While state charter schools get their money primarily from a state grant, Snow and his colleagues are trying to open a “local” charter school, meaning the funds would come mostly from Bridgeport’s school budget, with an extra $3,000 per student coming from a new state “local charter grant” that was part of Malloy’s education reform law. Malloy’s education reform law also included a series of $500,000 “start-up grants” that charter schools could get from the state. Snow and company are counting on getting one of those grants, as well.
In addition, the cost of transportation and special education costs would be paid for by the Bridgeport Board of Education.
Bridgeport is already well into the 60 day local charter review process. The application, if approved, would then go to Connecticut Commissioner of Education Stefan Pryor and the state Board of Education.
As to the various players behind the proposal, Wait What? readers may recall that starting in January 2011, Meghan Lowney, Nate Snow and Excel Bridgeport worked to persuade the Connecticut State Board of Education to take over the Bridgeport School System. Over the course of the six months leading up to the State Board of Education’s illegal takeover, Lowney, Snow and Excel Bridgeport engaged in numerous communications with state officials.
Despite their ongoing lobbying, both before and during the illegal takeover and throughout the effort to persuade legislators to support Malloy’s education reform bill, neither Lowney, Snow nor Excel Bridgeport registered to lobby with the Connecticut Office of State Ethics, as required by law.
More than two weeks after the end of the 2012 Legislative session, Excel Bridgeport finally filed the required papers, listing Jorge Cabrera as the organization’s lead lobbyist.
Excel Bridgeport, a group initially called the Bridgeport Partnership for School Success, Inc., was created in December 2010 and then changed its name to Excel Bridgeport Inc. in September 2011.
According to its incorporation papers, Meghan Lowney, the Executive Director of the Zoom Foundation, (the personal foundation of Fairfield County billionaire Stephen Mandel), was registered as Excel Bridgeport, Inc.’s founding president and Nathan Snow, the Executive Director of Connecticut’s Teach for America Chapter served as the organization’s founding vice president.
Snow then took over the role as Excel’s president. A board was also created made up of Jonathan Hayes (Executive, Meetinghouse Productions), Joel Green (Partner, Green & Gross, PC), Robert Francis (Executive Director, RYASAP), Carl Horton, Jr. (Consultant, Accenture), Scott Hughes (City Librarian, Bridgeport Public Library), Meghan Lowney (Executive Director, ZOOM Foundation) and Joseph McGee (Vice President, Fairfield County Business Council). Like Snow, Francis, the Executive Director of RYASAP, also has a contract with the Bridgeport Board of Education.
As of now, Lowney and Snow have still not registered to lobby despite their ongoing efforts to influence public policy.
Meanwhile, faced with inadequate state resources, and Mayor Finch’s need to come up with $3.2 million more just to meet the state’s minimum local expenditure law, it will be interesting to see if Paul Vallas, the Bridgeport Board of Education and Commissioner Stefan Pryor divert dollars to their colleague Nate Snow and his proposal for a new Montessori charter school.
Apr 30
jonpeltoBridgeport, Kenneth Moales, Mayor Bill Finch, Paul Vallas Bridgeport, Kenneth Moales Jr., Mayor Bill Finch, Paul Vallas
“I have the financial means to give my children the best. Why would I not give my children the best? … The best for my sons is at Fairfield Country Day,” said Moales, adding that he has 400 children from his church, the Cathedral of the Holy Spirit, in the public school because he doesn’t have the means to send them all to private school.” (CT Post 4/9/2013)
Humble is certainly not a word one might use to describe Kenneth Moales, Jr., who served as Mayor Bill Finch’s campaign treasurer and now serves as the Chairman of Bridgeport’s Board of Education.
On the other hand, a bully might be more appropriate considering that when one member of the Board disagreed with him a few months ago, Moales asked if she was “special ed,” while calling another Board member Tonto. And those were relatively mild displays of his aggressive behavior considering that doesn’t even count that time he returned to a meeting in March to tell a fellow Board member, “I assure you, you will regret doing that in front of my wife and kids.”
Whether it is his connection with Mayor Finch, his role on the Board of Education or his position as Pastor for the Cathedral of the Holy Spirit and Prayer Tabernacle Church of Love, Inc., there is no doubt that the term self-assured is applicable in describing Mr. Moales.
In addition, when it comes to Bridgeport politics, Moales is certainly recognized as an important political player.
What is less known is that his financial empire appears to be on the verge of collapse.
According to foreclosure documents filed with Connecticut’s Judicial Branch, less than 72 hours before Moales took the helm as the chairman of the Bridgeport Board of Education, his church was scheduled for Public Auction.
Just hours before the auction was to take place, a deal was reached pushing off the pending foreclosure until the fall, giving Moales a chance to start paying back millions in unpaid principal, interest and penalties that have accrued to the property.
The Church, located at 1231- 1243 Stratford Avenue in Bridgeport is just one of ten properties Moales lists as part of Prayer Tabernacle of Love, Inc. and the Cathedral of the Holy Spirit operation.
According to the church’s website, the properties include the Bishop Moales Fine Arts Center and Kingdom’s Little Ones Academy which are both located at 1243 Stratford Avenue, Kingdom’s Little Ones Christian Daycare, which rents space from the church at 1277 Stratford Avenue, Love Christian Academy, the church’s religious day school which is at 729 Union Avenue, and the House of Virtue which is on Central Avenue in Bridgeport.
The two daycare facilities are the ones run by Moales’ mother and sister and are the entities that received the massive increase in state funding thanks to Governor Malloy’s early education initiative. With the new contracts, the daycare facilities are expected to see taxpayer -funded revenue in excess of $1 million.
The Chuch’s website goes on to explain that the Cathedral of the Holy Spirit / Prayer Tabernacle Church of Love, Inc. operates “a 1,500-seated sanctuary for praise & worship with a joining recreational facility,” a Christian Daycare and School for academic and spiritual excellence. Pre-K – 12th grade,” as well as, affordable housing units, a financial literacy program and Mary Moales’ senior citizen assisted living facility.
But lurking behind that façade of success are significant financial problems.
The City of Bridgeport’s Water Pollution Control Authority brought the foreclosure action as part of its attempt to collect over $4,000 in outstanding water and sewer fees that haven’t been paid.
But more shocking than the failure to pay the City is the fact that behind that debt stands a number of other lenders and companies seeking money from Moales and his church. Leading the list are three mortgages totaling over $8.2 million with a lender based in Missouri, at least five local contractors who haven’t been paid for services rendered and at least four federal IRS liens for nearly $400,000 for failure to hand over payroll taxes.
In addition, Moales and his Prayer Tabernacle Church of Love, Inc. are facing a separate action brought by Bridgeport’s Community Bank for failure to pay over $225,000 on an outstanding line of equity that was taken out on his mother’s house, but guaranteed by the church corporation.
Considering the appraised and assessed value of the ten properties owned by the Prayer Tabernacle Church of Love, Inc. is only a fraction of the $8.2 million owed to just one of the parties seeking money, an initial review of the court records raises far more questions than it answers.
Check back for more on this expanding story in the coming days.
In the meantime, Mayor Bill Finch, “Superintendent of Schools” Paul Vallas and Board of Education Chairman Kenneth Moales will continue their efforts to authorize more charter schools, distribute more high cost contracts and further undermine Bridgeport’s public education system.
Apr 29
jonpeltoBridgeport, Mayor Bill Finch, Paul Vallas Bridgeport, Mayor Bill Finch, Paul Vallas
No?
Well you need a contract like Paul Vallas, Bridgeport’s “superintendent of schools.”
According to the legal version of his contract, “…Mr. Vallas shall be paid a salary of $4,500 per week…It is understood and agreed that Mr. Vallas may engage in other employment and/or volunteer activities during the term (e.g. volunteer efforts in Haiti), the specific days of which will be taken in coordination with the Board Chairman and that he shall not receive compensation from the Board (at a debit of $900 per day) for days on which he engages in such activities.”
Simple enough…
According to his contract, when Mr. Vallas is off doing consulting for his company, The Vallas Group, or away from the district for any other reason, his $234,000 is reduced by $900 a day.
And not surprisingly, Vallas is away a fair amount of time.
According to the last schedule posted by Vallas’ staff on the Bridgeport Schools website, a schedule that covers the period from August 22, 2012 through January 25, 2013, Vallas was away from the school district at least one day for six of the weeks covered by the report.
In fact, Vallas was off consulting or engaged in non-Bridgeport work for a total of at least 12 days during the period, not counting holidays and vacation time.
These consulting days came on top of an additional dozen days he was away between January 1, 2012 and June 21, 2012.
Vallas’ failed to post his summer schedule, so we don’t know how many days he may have been way consulting over the summer. He also hasn’t posted his schedule since January 25th of this year.
In any case, what we do know is that he was away consulting at least 24 days between January 2012 and January 2013.
So let’s see; at $900 a day, that would come to a salary reduction of $21,600.
But, in fact, Bridgeport documents appear to indicate that his salary was only reduced by one day.
How is that possible?
Because Paul Vallas reports that he works no less than 10 hour days and when he works on weekends and holidays, he swaps those out for the “school days” he isn’t around.
Some might ask why taxpayers would pay Paul Vallas $1,800 to work on a Saturday and Sunday when there is no one in the Board of Education offices or schools for him to direct.
Others might wonder why taxpayers pay for weekend work when the contract clearly states that, “Mr. Vallas shall be paid a salary of $4,500 per week… [AND] he shall not receive compensation from the Board (at a debit of $900 per day) for days [he is off doing consulting].”
Nowhere in the contract does it say he can “make up the lost time” by working weekends and holidays.
By that doesn’t stop Paul Vallas.
Laws, contracts, regulations, rules…
You can almost hear Mayor Bill Finch and Paul Vallas saying right now… “What? You think we’re violating the contract or breaking the law?
Fine, sue us.”
Meanwhile, taxpayers will keep shelling out $900 for Saturdays, Sundays and Holidays that Paul Vallas “works.”
You can find Vallas’ latest schedule and rationale at: http://www.bridgeportedu.com/docs/HomePage/2012-2013/SuperintendentWorkSchedule2012-2013.pdf
Apr 26
jonpeltoBridgeport, Malloy, Mayor Bill Finch, Paul Vallas, School Funding/ECS, Stefan Pryor Bridgeport, ECS, Malloy, Mayor Bill Finch, Paul Vallas, school funding, Stefan Pryor
Connecticut’s Education Cost Sharing Formula:
“Three requirements apply to towns receiving state ECS grants. The first is that they spend their entire ECS grant for education. The second is that they not use an increase in their ECS grant in any year to supplant local funding for education (the nonsupplant requirement). The third is the MBR. The MBR requires towns to budget at least a minimum amount for education in each fiscal year.” (Office of Legislative Research)
According to a recent story in the CT Post, when Mayor Finch met with the Connecticut Post’s editorial board he “criticized the state’s minimum budget requirement” saying;
“Why is there an MBR? The assumption is the only way you can get my kids to have a better education is just keep pouring more money on it…Doesn’t really matter how you spend it, it’s just got to go up every year. It can never go down. That’s the craziest thing I ever heard.”
Recall Connecticut’s Education Funding Formula is approximately $2 billion under-funded and the Minimum Budget Requirement is designed to ensure that towns provide at least a minimum level of funding for local education. At last check, Bridgeport funded the smallest percentage in the state.
Meanwhile, although “Superintendent of Schools,” Paul Vallas, has failed to fulfill the legal requirement of getting the local Board of Education to review and adopt a school budget in a timely fashion, Vallas recently provided the Bridgeport Board of Education with a $231.8 million school budget that included a $4.2 million increase in ECS funding from the state and a $3.2 million increase from the City of Bridgeport.
The $3.2 million increase is what is required under Connecticut’s Minimum Budget Requirement law.
When the concept of Alliance Districts was created in Malloy’s “education reform” bill last year, the Minimum Budget Requirement law was modified to require that an Alliance District municipality must allocate what they appropriated the previous year AND, in no case, can their contribution fail to “meet minimum local education funding percentages of 20% for FY 13, 21% for FY 14, 22% for FY 15, 23% for FY 16, and 24% for FY 17.” (PA 12-1, June 12 Special Session, §§ 287 & 288)
As confirmed by the State Department of Education, that means Mayor Bill Finch must provide an additional $3.2 million in next year’s budget.
So how did Finch respond?
See the recent blog post of CT Post reporter Brian Lockhart who wrote;
“Following his meeting with East Side community leaders Wednesday night I attempted to ask Finch to explain his administration’s position on the $3.2 million.
As usual his spokesman (and former Connecticut Post employee) Elaine Ficarra was at his side.
Finch is perfectly able to field a reporter’s questions, and he should be well-versed on this school funding issue because it’s been around for about a year.
But the mayor’s staff prefer the questions be posed to Ficarra and the answers come through her as well. It’s message-management 101.
I asked the mayor to explain his rationale for not providing the extra $3.2 million to the Board of Education.
“Well, we’re formulating an answer for you. We’ll probably get it to you tomorrow (Thursday),” Finch said.
I pressed, since it’s what I get paid to do.
“Okay,” I said. “But tell me – just give me your initial understanding…”
At which point Ficarra – as she gets paid to do – interrupted, “No, I think he gave you the answer. He gave you the answer, Brian. That’s it. He gave you the answer. C’mon.”
So would they get me a comment Thursday?
“It looks like, yeah,” Finch said.
“We’ll get back to you,” Ficarra said.
I wasn’t reassured.
“Well, I need something tomorrow (Thursday),” I said.
“That’s good. That’s your schedule. We’ll get back to you,” Ficarra said, adding: “No. No. No. You’re not going to put him on the spot over here, Brian, to talk about it, okay?”
At which point the mayor chimed in, “Actually, we’ll get back to you when we want to.”
After our exchange I emailed Ficarra later Wednesday with my specific questions about the $3.2 million, why the mayor kept it out of his budget, whether the administration was negotiating with state officials on the matter, and what happens if any talks fail?
On Thursday Finch’s answer arrived via Ficarra in a very short email: “We are incredibly focused on this issue and we are working diligently to resolve it. In the end, we hope to be as effective as we were in 2012 in working with the state to close the Board of Education’s multimillion dollar deficit.”
Apr 25
jonpeltoBridgeport, Carmen Lopez, Malloy, Mayor Bill Finch, Norm Pattis, Paul Vallas, Stefan Pryor Bridgeport, Bridgeport Board of Education, Carmen Lopez, Malloy, Mayor Bill Finch, Norm Pattis, Paul Vallas, Stefan Pryor
The state law Governor Malloy pushed through allowing his Commissioner of Education to waive the certification requirements for Paul Vallas had two simple provisions. To become Bridgeport’s permanent superintendent Vallas would have to complete his “probationary period” as Acting Superintendent and pass an Education Leadership Program at a Connecticut institution of higher education.
In early March, the members of the Bridgeport Board of Education loyal to Mayor Finch voted 5-3 to grant Vallas a three-year contract despite the fact that Vallas had not completed his probationary period or even begun his education leadership program.
The move was illegal and former Connecticut Judge Carmen Lopez brought a lawsuit to have the decision ruled illegal and to prevent Stefan Pryor, Malloy’s Commissioner of Education, from waiving Vallas’ certification requirements.
Instead of debating the merits of the case, lawyers working for Attorney General George Jepson and for the City of Bridgeport tried to have the case dismissed, based on the fact that the state marshal hired to deliver the lawsuit had failed to serve the papers correctly.
The individual hired to serve those papers was State Marshal Charles Valentino, a long-time Bridgeport political operative who served as one of Mayor Finch’s representatives on the Bridgeport Charter Revision Commission that had recommended that the democratically elected Board of Education be eliminated and replaced with one appointed by Finch.
Well, to make a long story short, State Marshal Valentino told the lawyer and the judge that he had served the defendants as required by the law.
The only problem; Marshal Valentino’s statement was a complete and utter lie. He had never delivered the paperwork in the way the law requires.
And now, as the CT Post is reporting, Finch’s Marshall is, “facing possible arrest for statements he made on the witness stand Wednesday in a civil case involving city Superintendent of Schools Paul Vallas.”
The CT Post article explains, “’I have never had this happen in a case I have been involved with,’ said Norman Pattis, attorney for the plaintiffs, after Valentino, on Pattis’ advice, asked to consult with a lawyer before testifying further. Pattis then urged state Superior Court Judge Barbara Bellis to notify the state’s attorney for possible criminal action against Valentino.”
Since Valentino failed to serve Stefan Pryor correctly, the judge was required to dismiss the portion of the case against Commissioner of Education Stefan Pryor and the case was continued to June 3, 2013 to give the plaintiff’s time to serve Pryor correctly.
The Marshall’s failure to do his job properly allows Vallas, Pryor and the majority on the Bridgeport Board of Education another month before they will have to face a judge on the Board’s illegal move to grant Vallas a long-term contract.
You can read more at the CT Post: http://www.ctpost.com/local/article/Marshal-faces-possible-perjury-charge-4461065.php
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