HARTFORD – State Representative Gail Lavielle (R-143), along with Weston Superintendent Dr. Colleen Palmer, hosted a public meeting last night designed to help identify state mandates that may be detrimental to teaching and learning in Connecticut's public schools. More than 150 educators, parents and students from towns across the state attended the meeting held at Bedford Middle School in Westport.
Attendees came from a range of towns, including Fairfield, Greenwich, New Canaan, New Haven, Newtown, Redding, Ridgefield, Shelton, Stamford, Stratford, Trumbull, Weston, Westport, and Wilton.
Lavielle and Palmer are two of the appointees to a task force created during the 2013 legislative session by PA 13-108 to identify opportunities to offer relief to public schools from mandates that may be negatively affecting their ability to provide the best possible education to students. Lavielle authored the section of the bill that required the creation of the task force. With two vacancies yet to fill, the full task force has not yet convened.
"As this evening's turnout clearly demonstrated," said Lavielle, "the issue of mandate relief is too important to too many people in too many districts to wait. I thought we should get to work. I want to thank the Westport Public Schools and Superintendent Elliott Landon for hosting this very important public meeting. The testimony from superintendents of schools, principals, teachers, parents, school board members, union representatives, elected officials, and members of the general public will be useful in crafting legislation for the upcoming legislative session. This will go a long way toward the ultimate goal of ensuring that our schools can provide the best possible learning environment and education to our students."
Possible opportunities for mandate relief raised by speakers included administrative processes and procedures related to teacher evaluations and student success plans, aspects of the implementation of Common Core State Standards, in-school suspensions, regional school calendars, and administrative procedures related to special education programs.
"The meeting provided a meaningful forum for educators, municipal leaders, and citizens to express their concerns regarding the ways that many state educational mandates ultimately result in forcing districts into a one-size fits all approach to meeting the needs of their students, limiting local innovation and unnecessarily wasting the precious resources of districts," said Dr. Colleen Palmer, Superintendent of Weston Public Schools.
"We, in the education community, are very appreciative that Rep. Lavielle provided us with the opportunity to express our views on a multitude of issues concerned with Education Mandate Relief and the state of education in Connecticut," said Westport Superintendent Dr. Elliott Landon. "As a member of the General Assembly's Education Committee and the state's legislative Mandate Relief task force, Rep. Lavielle clearly demonstrated her receptiveness to the concerns of parents, teachers, administrators and community members on these two vital issues. Speaking for all who were present at the hearing she conducted, we are all pleased for her willingness to give the education community a full hearing on matters that we believe need to be addressed to enhance and improve education for all of Connecticut's school children."
"Superintendents in our region have been concerned about the proliferation of state mandates for years and I believe that this concern is shared by the teachers, community members, board of education members who spoke at last night's hearing," said Wilton Superintendent Dr. Gary Richards. "I applaud Rep. Lavielle for organizing this hearing and sincerely hope that the Education Committee will put forth legislation that will address some of the concerns that were expressed last evening."
Elected officials in attendance at the meeting included State Senator Toni Boucher (R-26), State Representative Jonathan Steinberg (D-136), and Shelton Mayor Mark Lauretti.
"The need for mandate relief has grown over the years as the education cost sharing formula has shifted state reimbursements from more affluent towns to schools with high percentages of families living in poverty," said Boucher. "Many towns now receive only 1 to 2 cents from the state for every tax dollar sent to Hartford. Many of these are also high-performing districts and feel that they should be relieved of most state mandates as a result. It is imperative that the state convene the full task force immediately and take the issue of unfunded mandates seriously in next year's session."
"The size and geographic breadth represented by the attendees at the meeting was a real testament to how important this issue is to our communities," said Lavielle. "Many of them traveled considerable distances to attend, and a number of speakers were very passionate in their remarks. I have also received many follow-up e-mails from attendees who did not speak at the meeting. I hope that this high level of interest will help convey the urgency and importance of dealing with these issues to the Education Committee during the upcoming session. I look forward to contributing what we learned last night to the work of the task force."
Those who could not attend the Westport meeting or would like to submit written comments or discuss the issue may contact Representative Lavielle at gail.lavielle@cga.ct.gov, 860 240 8700.
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State Representative Gail Lavielle represents Wilton, Norwalk, and Westport. She is Ranking Member of the General Assembly's Commerce Committee and a member of the Appropriations, Education, and Higher Education Committees.