A report on Steven Adamowski and Windham – Because Parent’s Voices Matter
The announcement that Steven Adamowski would be forced to release his grip on Windham’s public schools was met with a variety of emotions in the community. The huge sigh of relief was combined with an overwhelming sense of anger and bitterness on the part of many parents, teachers and public education advocates who had watched in horror as Adamowski, Governor Malloy’s point person when it comes to taking over local districts, engaged in a campaign of disruption and confrontation leaving parents, teachers AND local officials stunned.
The voters of Windham were saddled with a Special Master as a result of some legislative language that was inserted deep within the 2011 State Budget bill. Malloy’s political appointees on the State Board of Education then named Adamowski as Windham’s Special Master without an open process that even allowed for the community’s input. The process was a sad reminder that even the most sacred notion of local control can be destroyed in a moment.
There are numerous stories about Steven Adamowski’s arrogant and authoritarian “leadership style” and how he squandered a significant amount of money that the General Assembly had set aside to help improve educational opportunities for Windham’s children.
The CT Mirror wrote two major stories about Adamowski’s tenure as Windham’s Special Master. CT school reform: 2 years under ‘special master’ and Connecticut sheds daily operations of Windham schools. The articles are informative, but as parents and teachers out here in Eastern Connecticut will tell you, they only scratched the surface about the damage Adamowski did to the very schools he was sent to “save.”
The announcement that the Norwalk Board of Education is on the verge of appointing Adamowski as that community’s next superintendent of schools has re-ignited the bad memories that people in Windham have about Adamowski and his record.
A series of weekend conversations among those most knowledgeable about Adamowski’s time as Special Master in Windham produced the following article
Windham’s Experience with Special Master Steven Adamowski
There are those, some of whom apparently serve on the Norwalk Board of Education, who are enamored with the notion of “Education Reform” as trumpeted by non-educators like George W. Bush, Barak Obama, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, former Governor Jeb Bush and Governor’s such as Chris Christie, Andrew Cuomo and Dannel Malloy.
Rather than recognize that lack of educational achievement is driven by poverty, English A report on Steven Adamowski and Windham – Because Parent’s Voices Matter - Wait What?:
Can Adamowski be named Norwalk’s Superintendent on Tuesday?
On Tuesday, the Norwalk Board of Education plans to name the controversial Steve Adamowski as the district’s next superintendent of schools, but Adamowski lacks the state certification necessary to become a superintendent of schools as required by Connecticut law.
Adamowski’s educator certification lapsed in 2007 and he never saw fit to take the necessary steps to renew that certification.
Adamowski’s unwillingness to take the appropriate certification tests and participate in the required professional development training has, to date, prevented him from adding the time he has worked in Connecticut (since 2007) to his teacher retirement pension.
As previously reported here, Governor Malloy engaged in a failed attempted to change Connecticut’s teacher pension law in 2012 to bend the rules to allow Adamowski to add up to seven years of time to his Connecticut teacher pension.
The Malloy administration returned to the issue of Adamowski’s pension in the contract they provided him when he was retained as Windham’s Special Master, a contract that was funneled through the quasi-governmental agency SERC in order to avoid the State’s competitive bidding laws. However, once again, the maneuver failed to get Adamowski extra years for his pension.
Journalist Mark Chapman has been covering the Adamowski developing story in Norwalk for the news site Nancy on Norwalk.
In his most recent article entitled, BoE release of super choice’s name greeted with mixed reaction, Chapman followed up on the Wait, What? observation that Adamowski does not have the certification necessary to be a Connecticut superintendent and that he would need another waiver from Malloy’s Commissioner of Education in order to take the Norwalk job.
Chapman writes,
“Board of Education Chairman Mike Lyons said the allegations are not true. ‘The ‘nonrenewable certification’ that Pelto refers to (which expired on 11/7/07) was replaced by a new certificate issued the day before its expiration (on 11/6/07). That certificate remains in effect. I’ll get a copy of it for you.’Adamowski responded to a late email and elaborated further:‘Connecticut laws allows ‘highly qualified’ superintendent candidates to receive a waiver of CT requirements (in my case I exceeded the Supt requirements but my CT elementary teaching certificate from the 1970’s had lapsed). There are requirements for this in the statute – you have to hold certification in another state and have at least 15 years experience as a superintendent. I received the waiver from then-Commissioner Mark McQuillan on 11/7/07.’”
While we wait for the Norwalk Board of Education Chairman Mike Lyons to produce the