By Jacqueline Rabe Thomas

www.ctmirror.org

Following backlash from teachers across the state surrounding the rollout of two education reforms, Senate Minority Leader John McKinney is calling for the governor’s education commissioner to resign.

Senate Minority leader John McKinney, whose district includes part of Westport, talks to reporters today in Hartford. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Ctmirror.org photo

“They need a voice and a leader that they can trust, and it’s clear they have lost trust in him,” the Fairfield Republican who is seeking the nomination for governor said today of Education Commissioner Stefan Pryor.

The state is in the process of requiring that every teacher be evaluated in accordance with state guidelines and implementing the new Common Core State Standards that will change what students are tested on each year.

Last week, state Democratic leaders decided to slow down the rollout of evaluations and set up a task force to help with implementation of the new standards.

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The Westport Board of Finance’s Audit Subcommittee today heard an update on control issues related to the external review of the Board of Education’s $1.9 million Health Insurance Fund shortfall. The shortfall is currently under review by a committee established by the Board of Education. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Dave Matlow for WestportNow.com

By James Lomuscio

During more than three hours of grueling numbers crunching tonight, the Westport Board of Education in a joint special meeting with the Board of Finance and other committees tried to fathom how the school system wound up $1.9 million in the hole this year and how to avoid future health insurance shortfalls.

The shortfall consists of a projected cash equivalent of $595,009, plus $1,307,400 of incurred but not reported (IBNR) claims.

Members of the Representative Town Meeting’s (RTM)  Education and Finance committees, the school board’s Health Insurance Fund Review Committee, and Robert Pernicka, senior vice president of Segal Co., the school system’s actuarial consulting firm, all dug deeply into the school board’s intentional draw downs of health insurance reserves and a sharp increase in unreported claims since 2012.

Elio Longo, the school system’s business manager, noted earlier this week that for 2012, six claims exceeded $100,000, one of them more than the stop loss of $225,000. For 2013, the number of six-figure claims jumped to 16, he said, with six exceeding $225,000.

By Keith M. Phaneuf and Jacqueline Rabe Thomas

www.ctmirror.org

With the 2014 General Assembly session one week away, House Republican lawmakers and the leader of the state’s largest teachers’ union today called for a public review of the controversial Common Core education standards.

Rep. Noreen Kokoruda of Madison and other House Republicans want a review of new school curriculum standards. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Ctmirror.org

But a nonprofit education reform group backed by business leaders in the state quickly responded with a cautionary note, warning that nothing should delay the implementation of new curriculum standards, calling any push-back “unnecessary and counterproductive.”

Some districts began testing its students on these new standards this school year, and they will be in every district by next school year. The standards require that 50 percent of a district’s reading materials for students be nonfiction. While opponents of Common Core refer to this shift as the “death of fiction,” proponents say the heavy use of fiction in classrooms doesn’t help students prepare for the real world.

The new standards also will encourage teachers to really dig into teaching the fundamentals of math rather than glazing over everything quickly. Proponents say the present U.S. curriculum is a mile wide and an inch deep.

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By James Lomuscio

Intentional drawdowns of health insurance reserves and a sharp increase in unreported claims since 2012 left Westport’s Board of Education more than $1.9 million in the hole, the board’s Health Insurance Fund Review Committee announced today.

Members of the committee meeting today with Charles Haberstroh (3rd l) and Kevin Connolly (l) attending for the first time.n (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Dave Matlow for WestportNow.com

Initial shortfall projections were close to $2 million of the school system’s current $104 million operating budget, but today that number was reduced to $1,902,409.

“The projections keep moving,” said Brett Aronow, school board member and chairwoman of the ad hoc review committee.

The shortfall consists of a projected cash equivalent of $595,009, plus $1,307,400 of incurred but not reported (IBNR) claims. Aronow noted that IBNR claims are an accounting item.

Francesca (Frankie) Garofalo, 18, a senior at Greens Farms Academy in Westport, was named a semifinalist in the Intel Science Talent Search, the nation’s most prestigious pre-college science competition. She was cited for her research entitled “Chemosensitization of High-grade Serous Ovarian Carcinoma via Calcium Signaling.” Frankie began the research while part of the Discovery to Cure Internship program at Yale School of Medicine last summer. The Intel Science Talent Search chose 300 semifinalists this year, nine of whom are seniors in Connecticut schools with Greenwich High School having four of them. Frankie will be attending Columbia University in the fall. See complete list here. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Contributed photo

By Jacqueline Rabe Thomas

www.ctmirror.org

State investigators have concluded that Bridgeport, the state’s largest public school system, “systemically violated” state laws created to ensure students with special education needs are promptly identified and provided services.

“It is concluded that, over the last year, the Bridgeport Public Schools systemically violated its Child Find mandate,” Mary Jean Schierberl, with the state Department of Education’s Bureau of Special Education, wrote the district’s special education director this month.

“It is therefore concluded the District has no policies in place to monitor students’ behavior and performance to ensure all students with disabilities are located and identified. The District does not have an effective screening mechanism or policy in place to ensure that all students who need or are suspected to need special education and related services are identified, and evaluated.”

These findings are the result of a group of Bridgeport parents’ filing a complaint with the state alleging that the district failed their six children for years as the parents struggled to get them evaluated for special education services. And once identified as needing special services, the students faced delays, parents complained.

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