Why is this taking place at NCC, instead of at one of the much larger venues in Norwalk? The NEF should grant admission to anyone who wants to attend, but NCC doesn't have the capacity for the number of people, including teenagers, who will want to attend.

SteveColarossi, I hope you can find the time to work even harder at communicating your message because there are so many uninformed people who will vote for people only on the basis of name recognition within the community. I wish you the best because I am certain that you would raise the level of conversation on the board of education to new heights.

Let us not forget that this game of musical chairs is being played on the deck of the Titanic -- after hitting the iceberg.

My instinct tells me that this stated concern about confidentiality is a smokescreen for some hidden board agenda. Anyone who applies for a key administrative job in any community does so with the understanding that there is the chance that people will find out; the search committee's due diligence requires checking into a person's record with his/her current school district, and such reference checks require talking to people. There is no way that this process can be kept secret.

The water is up to my ankles now. Did the orchestra playing the music for this game of musical chairs just begin playing "Nearer my God to Thee"?

It is a sad commentary on the dysfunction of this board of education that it quickly moved to file a complaint against the NFT for what may or may not have been a breach of the contract negotiations agreement (although not one that will make any difference to the outcome), but the same board of education has still taken no action in even planning a search for a new superintendent.

At the eleventh hour, i.e., just before the deadline for Dr. Papallo's departure at the end of the year, the board will make hasty and politically-motivated decisions that will lead to yet another major mistake.

For further information on this story, go to norwalknet.com. The woman who runs that site has already become critical of the board.

No problem, NwlkSpectator. You are someone who is paying attention, and you didn't know about Mr. McCain. I worry about all of the voters who aren't at all aware of much that is going on with the board of education because they will go along their merry way, voting back into office the people who have been causing such dysfunction for years. Mrs. Jimenez concerns me because of her arrogance but there are others who concern me because they are just plain stupid.

No argument, NwlkSpectator. I don't know the political affiliations of some of the board members, but I don't even care what they are. Both parties have blundered badly, some of them for longer (and more often) than others. The Naramake issue is the least of my concerns about Mrs. Jimenez. She is not a nice person and she doesn't respect others' views. The Republicans you mentioned were among those who denied a highly qualified man, Bob McCain, the assistant superintendency. They are also part of a board that continues to allow some administrators to run wild.

The Democrats may be in the majority on the board of education, but they don't have a solid lock on stupidity. They share that very nicely with the Republicans. I would vote for almost anyone other than one of the board of education incumbents.

NwlkSpectator, just to clarify, Karen Ocaski is principal of Naramake, not Nathan Hale.

NwlkSpectator, we can only hope that the majority of voters are paying attention and that the new candidates will educate those who are not.

Will they even go into negotiations with the lawsuit on the horizon?

Under the binding arbitration law, there is no choice in the matter. All negotiations, mediation and arbitration must conform to a timeline that is imposed on the board and the bargaining unit. The loss of a superintendent and the complaint by the board don't matter.