Roughly one month after resigning amid state findings that Darien Schools broke state and federal special education laws, Steve Falcone has taken over as head of the human resources department for Stamford Public Schools.
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School lawyers claim the work performed by a public relations firm should not be made public.
The lawyers, Shipman & Goodwin, a firm that represents the majority of public school districts in Connecticut, including Darien, decided that the discussions between the district and Duby McDowell Communications will not be disclosed, citing an exemption clause under the Freedom of Information Act known as lawyer-client privilege.
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Auditors CohnReznick will begin its audit into Darien’s special education excess cost grants sometime in the coming days. Performing the audit will be CohnReznick partner Joseph Centofanti and manager Melissa Ferrucci.
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Town financiers hired one of the nation’s largest accounting firms to perform a forensic audit into the school district’s expense reimbursements from the state for special education costs.
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A desk audit conducted during the summer by state officials found Darien Schools were out of compliance in 16 areas related to bullying, sexual harassment and gender equality in school sports. These findings have opened up a litany of other management issues going back to 2011, as a lack of information from the district administration has prevented the problems from receiving public scrutiny.
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A flood of information has drowned a once-parched parent community that is now trying to unravel an assortment of issues that could have harmed the town’s most vulnerable students, and perhaps also, its most creative.
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A year of tumult sparked by an illegal special education program has cost Darien more than $390,000 to fix, according to invoices and salary information obtained through the Freedom of Information Act.
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The silence has died.
In the wake of a growing and deepening public school crisis, current and former Darien Schools employees are stepping forward to shine some light on an assortment of problems that happened last year and which ended in findings of illegal activity and the resignation of the district’s superintendent.
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“It was the most difficult job of my career.”
The words of attorney Sue Gamm, said to The Darien Times, speak volumes to the depth of problems that took place in Darien’s special education program last year. If there were any doubts that the 25 parents who signed a complaint with the state Department of Education had been melodramatic with their concerns, it’s likely that Gamm’s summary report could dispel that assumption.
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While the town teemed with ghosts and goblins making their trick-or-treat rounds, a room full of Darien’s most powerful public figures sat to discuss how to engage a forensic audit into the school district’s special education grant applications.
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David DesRoches 