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The long-time Republican fixture takes over the chairmanship from Jack Chiaramonte, and he said that first among his priorities as the new chair is getting through the upcoming budget process “in much less dramatic fashion” than last year.
“Last year was very stressful and distressing,” Lyons said of the budget process that turned up a $4 million shortfall, contributed to the resignation of former Superintendent Susan Marks and helped usher in significant layoffs in the district. “None of us ran for the Board of Education to lay off teachers. So, we hope this year will be smoother, better planned and less contentious.”
To help with that, the school system is undergoing an extensive audit to help determine where the district can save money, and it hired a new chief financial officer, Richard Rudl, on Oct. 1, and he will report to director of operations, Elio Longo.
Lyons acknowledges that the city’s purse strings remain tight due to the ongoing economic woes that plague the state and the country, so he is not offering budget projections for next year. Additionally, the implementation of the state-mandated common core curriculum will necessitate the board coming to the city for a capital expenditure to help finance the transition.
“It’s an unfunded mandate,” Lyons said of the new curriculum, which features a new, robust approach to early reading education, among other criteria. Implementing it in the Norwalk school system is another of Lyons’ priorities. “But I’m confident we’ll make it work.”
Despite the occasional philosophical differences between individual members of the board, Lyons, whose three children all graduated from the Norwalk system, said he does not see a partisan divide among those on the board. And he said he is keen to keep that spirit of cooperation intact.
Yet he also acknowledged that there needs to be some bridge-building between the board and the teachers union leadership, led by Bruce Mellion, following arbitration over the most recent labor contract and the layoffs.
“I can work with anyone who’s reasonable,” Lyons said. “The union leadership was uncharacteristically antagonistic to the last superintendent, but I think they missed an opportunity to help us if they had accepted a hard wage freeze for one year, but they didn’t.”
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