Former Weast Admin. Quits Norwalk after 2 Years

Susan Marks quits as the Norwalk, CT Superintendent amid a major budget crisis.  But, not without bringing MCPS no-bid contractor Wireless Generation to Norwalk.  
Susan Marks was on Superintendent Joshua Starr's transition team.  Norwalk, CT is right down 95 from Stamford, CT.  Is Marks heading back to MCPS to be one of Starr's administrators? 


Norwalk Citizen:  Marks: 'It's been a privilege to be here'

..."It's been rumored that she would take a leave of absence...so it's not exactly a surprise. On the other hand, the timing of it is absolutely shocking," said Barbara Smyth, a former Norwalk teacher who has been organizing rallies to show support for the schools before BOE and BET meetings the last couple of months.
"As someone who has been involved so much in the last couple of months, I feel deeply concerned," Smyth said. "I feel concerned because of what we are dealing with right now, in terms of this profound budget crisis. And in addition needing to move forward with looking deeply into accounting practices and things that have been problematic that need to be fixed. There is so much work to be done and to think about moving forward without a leader is quite scary."
The $4 million deficit was caused by overruns in the insurance and other post-employee benefits...
..."We brought in over a million dollars worth of public-private partnerships for programs and initiatives," Marks said. "We are on the cutting edge of the Common Core State Standards... . I think we have raised the focus on ensuring that children are college ready. We've given the PSAT for the first time to all the 10th and 11th graders. We brought in the wireless generation automated system for assessing literacy in two of our schools, and it will be extended to a third school."...

The Hour:  Dr. Susan Marks resigns as Norwalk Public Schools superintendent

... “Personally, I think it was the lack of being able to do some things,” she said.Norwalk Federation of Teachers president Bruce Mellion was not surprised by Marks’ resignation and said she did not have the support of teachers, with 70 percent giving her a D and 30 percent an F in a May 2012 survey.
“She was over her head before she even started. The one compliment I’ll give her is she tried to get out to the schools to see what was happening,” he said. “At the end of the day, we have nothing to show for the 25 months we were here and we’re further behind than we were when we started.”
Mellion said Marks picked the wrong battles and worked with the wrong people.
“She shot her mouth off about things. She picked battles that she shouldn’t have had and she didn’t listen to people who have been here. She was really, really lost,” said Mellion, adding that Marks did not respond as well to the needs of the city’s 11,000 students. “I think she pandered to the mayor and the Board of Education and the Board of Estimate.”...