Norwich Board of Ed continues investigations. What to know after rally by parents, teachers

Normally, Board of Education meetings in Norwich will have a small group of people gathering in the meeting room. On Tuesday, there was a sea of teachers, union representatives, and parents donning red and filling to room to overflow capacity.

A rally was held outside the Norwich Board of Education special meeting Tuesday night at Kelly STEAM Magnet Middle School. Well over 100 people showed up in support of Norwich educators. They all wanted change, and many, if not all, wanted Superintendent Kristen Stringfellow out of the district.  

However, the only action the board took in public Tuesday night was to expand the scope of the district’s climate and culture consultation and investigate personnel complaints. The board met for nearly three hours in an executive session.

Board Chair Robert Aldi had no further comment.

After the meeting, Board members Christine Distasio and Heather Fowler spoke to disappointed parents and teachers, telling them to email about anything relevant to the investigation, and urging them to have patience as the district goes through the process.

“That’s what we’re here for,” Distasio said.

The next Board of Education meeting is scheduled for Sept. 19 at 5:30.

Kate Dias, the president of the Connecticut Educators Association, the teacher’s union in Connecticut, was disappointed in the result.

“They’ve conceded that they believe there’s been wrongdoing going on, but they’ve left the person in place to continue that,” she said.

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If the CEA acknowledged a teacher was doing something wrong, they would remove the teacher, and would not leave anyone in place, pending an investigation, Dias said.

“It’s an egregious choice,” she said.

The union will continually monitor the situation to protect their teachers, and make sure anyone who stood up won’t “fall victim to any of the actions we’ve seen employed by this administration,” Dias said.

Why Norwich teachers say there is a culture of fear

The CEA conducted a survey this summer where 95% of staff fear retaliation if they speak up about issues, and 89% of Norwich teachers stated their job depends on remaining silent on the issues, the CEA states in an Aug. 1 post on their website.

The district lost 160 staff members in the 2022-2023 school year, with 48 in May and June alone, the post states.

Issues the CEA heard about from their survey include worsening student behavior from a lack of paraprofessionals and social workers, to a respondent saying Stringfellow and Assistant Superintendent Tamara Gloster operating “a system of fear,” the CEA post states.

Stringfellow was under investigation in her prior school district when she was hired by Norwich, the CEA post states.

Who was at the rally outside Kelly Middle School

Many people arrived at Kelly before the scheduled Board of Education meeting. Rally attendees, ranged from teachers, parents, and the CEA to Norwich City Councilmembers Tracey Burto, Joe DeLucia and Stacy Gould, and State Senator Cathy Osten.

They gathered outside of the school, chanting and getting drivers by to honk in support.

Norwich Board of Education member Kevin Saythany was seen talking to people at the rally before the meeting.

What happened when the Norwich Board of Education meeting started

When the meeting started, it seemed twice as many people were outside the meeting room than who could fit inside. The board’s attorney, Peter Maher, sat in Stringfellow’s regular spot.

Stringfellow was not present.

After Board Vice Chair Mark Kulos held a moment of silence for the 22nd anniversary of 9/11, the board moved into executive session, and attendees were asked to leave the meeting room and the brick hallway beside it.

Norwich Police officers monitored while rally attendees outside were trying to show signs to the board members through the school windows during the executive session.  At one point, the rally-goers were cheering for Fowler, as she appeared to scold the rest of the board members, from what the crowd could see.

A paraprofessional from Moriarty had pizzas delivered to the crowd outside Kelly Middle School. After the nearly three-hour executive session, only a couple dozen of the over 100 rally attendees remained.

Parents and teachers speaking out against the superintendent

Attendees had different reasons why they wanted their voices heard.

Brandon Cook, a new first-grade teacher at Uncas Elementary, wanted to show solidarity with the teachers who were treated unfairly. The district is losing “good people and good teachers,” he said.

“It’s a profession I’m new in and I want to be in for a long time, so I want to help those who helped me become a better teacher,” Cook said.

It was disappointing that Stringfellow didn’t show up, Cook said.

“As a leader, whether right or wrong, you should be here to face the music,” he said.

Cook said there should be change, and that teachers should be able to speak up for what they believe in.

“We’re trying to model that for our kids, and not to be able to do that as adults is really kind of sad,” he said.

Parent Melisa Bell was upset with cuts to the district budget and lack of communication. She wanted to enroll her son in Norwich’s preschool program. She registered her son for preschool in May and did the evaluation in June. However, June is also when Norwich Public Schools decided to close the Bishop Early Learning Center to save money. Since then, nobody’s given her answers or been able to help her, Bell said.

“I’ve been in contact with them all summer, and still I have yet to get him in the door,” she said.

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Bell was glad to see all the support on Tuesday, as people “understand there’s a lot going on that needs to be fixed.”

Speaking before the meeting, Bell said if nothing ended up happening, the community needed to keep making its voice heard.

Rebecca Reynolds was another parent attending the rally. She held a sign saying “Bring Our Teachers Back!” She’s confident that teachers would come back to Norwich if Stringfellow was gone.

“A lot of the teachers were terminated for unfair issues,” she said.

Reynolds has a second-grade son attending Wequonnac Elementary School. She said he had a good year last year, but things were different back then. With all the staff who left since the start of last school year, Reynolds doesn’t want her son to be taught by inexperienced teachers.

Former Norwich bus driver Angelica Zaporta said she was forced to leave the district because she had to work 12 hours a day if she wanted to keep her job in the district.

Zaporta, a mother of four Norwich Public Schools students, said after she left her job, she was removed from all volunteer duties she did for the school district.

“There’s a lot more people listening to what’s going on, especially to hard-working people coming into work every day.” she said, with the rallying cry of “Enough is enough” emanating from the crowds. “There’s certain things that happen that should not happen because she doesn’t like you.”

Having school issues escalate this much is something Shannon Ozkan, a family-peer support specialist with Favor. Inc., has never seen before. Her organization connects students with mental health services in school. She has never worked in or with a district that was so difficult in getting students mental health services, she said.

“We have asked for support services that we were denied, and that has come from the administrative power of Stringfellow,” she said.

Ozkan was direct with her sign, stating “The leader of the pack should have EVERYONE’S back! It’s time to cut the String-fellow out of the equation!”

This article originally appeared on The Bulletin: Norwich Board of Education investigates complaints about superintendent