May 10,2009 Dear Board of Education Members, As I shared with you, very appropriately, in Executive Session, (where all agreed to keep this personnel matter among Board Members until I had time, over the weekend, to put those words on paper and not cause undue stress to an already stressful year to my employees and families of our school system), I will not be looking for an extension of my contract when it comes time to do so in June. I was letting you know this information early so that you would have an opportunity to decide, amongst yourselves, if you would like me to tender my resignation at the end of this school year or have me do so in 2009. Although I do have a job offer for this year, I turned it down because it was never my intent to leave this system without a Superintendent and without an Associate Superintendent at the same time. I care too much about the students and adults under my charge to do so. It is very important to me that you have the opportunity to do a thorough search for my successor to allow for a smooth transition. You all seemed stunned and genuinely upset that I have chosen to resign but you did seem to clearly understand my reasons. You asked me to remain, at least. through June 2009 and I gave you my word that I would do so - just as you gave me your word that this was our discussion until I wrote this letter. This letter to you will be much longer than it ever should have been but, due to the way this has played out, I am forced to clearly articulate my reasons for my decision. Of course, there was never a question of whether or not I would abide by my contractual obligations but it was very nice of the Record-Journal to poll the public on that matter in order to help me make my decision! I do not know the result of that poll but I assure you that even if people offered an opinion that I should not abide by my contract I would have done otherwise. I also appreciate the fact that the Record-Journal has marketed my availability for future employment - that gets me two steps ahead of my employment search. As you are well aware, I have a three-year contract. However, as stated in my contract with you, "The Superintendent may terminate her obligations under this contract upon one year advance notice in writing to the Board." I have thoroughly enjoyed our relationship, no matter the individual members on the Board at any particular point in time. Our relationship has been based on mutual respect and we have never been afraid to share and discuss ideas, as individuals or as a Board that affected our students and staff. Although we have not always agreed we have had healthy discussions around issues that affect our students and have an effect on instruction. My evaluations for each Board I have served under have always been very good. I need to let you know that I am very upset and disappointed that I was not able to let the school community know in the way that I specifically spelled out to you and all agreed it was the right thing to do. I am not pleased that I have been made a pawn in this unpleasant "game" of Politics 101. I expected more of you because I know what you expect of me. As I explained to you, my reasons for not seeking an extension are as follows: The first reason is very selfish and simple: it is for the quality of life, my life. I had fully intended to retire from the Meriden School System in June of 2013 and although I absolutely love my job as Superintendent I do not know how NOT to do my job. As you know I have felt it important, as an extension of the Board, to be very visible in the school community and in the community-at-Iarge. I am, without exaggeration, out of my house on any given day, September through June, twelve to fifteen hours. During July and August I do get a break - I am only at work ten hours per day. I have never taken my fully allotted vacation days or sick
days because there is just never a convenient time, work-wise. I am well compensated and I am not complaining, by any means. Frankly, I need to get my life back and enjoy life with my family but, as I stated, I would have preferred to have retired from Meriden in 2013. And, this comes to my second reason for telling you why I will not be requesting an extension of my contract at this time. I don't need to tell you that these are extremely tough times in our city, state and country and, as a former City Councilor, I fully understand why, in preparation for this year's budget exercise, the City Council charged Atty. Kendzior with presenting a budget with a no-tax increase. I also know as a former City Councilor that it is the responsibility of each member of the City Council to go through that entire budget and to responsibly decide how to provide services to the town while maintaining a safe, healthy, and well-educated community. If the Council simply stated that we can no longer afford to educate our students I would have understood that. Instead, the majority of the members of the Council made the decision to fund education at the bare minimum required by law in a very mean-spirited manner with the message, "Just deal with it." Since January there has been a reasonable doubt placed on the Board of Education budget and called into question the integrity of our Assistant Superintendent to the point where people actually believe that we have $4 million "hidden" in the budget!
This is an irresponsible budget - one that will not advance the good work that we are doing. You know that we have a school system that has, over the last five years, been focusing, solely, on improving student achievement. It is the first time in my career here that this has been the case. I was given that charge when I began and we are now seeing the results of that paradigm shift. I know that you realize it takes three to five years of consistent, continued practice to result in a change and we have been seeing positive growth in scores. I am quite certain that we will see the CMT and CAPT scores increase when we get the results from this year's assessments. There is no doubt in my mind that, with appropriate and responsible resources, in four to five years we would have seen a very healthy and secure education system, one that continued to show individual positive student growth annually. If this year's budget is an increase by 1.27% then I would predict the next couple of years to be close to the same or with a slight increase. This will put the school system back ten years. We are always playing catch-up. We have an opportunity with the work that we have begun to make this system great. The only way that I know of to secure appropriate funding for this school system in the future, in order to continue to work toward our common goal of increasing student achievement, is to leave my position in June 2009 and hope that the Council will understand that, to attract a new superintendent, they need to offer a responsible budget. Now that this letter is written I certainly hope this puts this issue to rest so that we can get on with our very important and necessary work of educating our students. Sincerely,
C: All Employees of the Meriden Board of Education Meriden Record-Journal