People in Ansonia, CT, outside of New Haven, are worrying that schools cannot handle an influx of refugees brought to the area by the USCRI’s International Institute of Connecticut (see the Valley Independent Sentinel article here). People voiced other concerns back on March 3 (here).

School officials are worried they won’t be able to adequately educate a group of refugees that have arrived in Ansonia from Nepal.

This week the city’s tax board recommended a zero-percent increase for the school district.

At a school board meeting Wednesday, school Superintendent Carol Merlone worried about the combination of low funding and refugee students in the district.

School officials said the school district only has one English as a Second Language teacher per school. They’re worried about the ESL teachers being overwhelmed due to the arrival of the refugee students who do not speak English.

While the new students have been welcomed with open arms into the district, “We don’t want to overburden the school system,” the superintendent said. “I’m worried about children getting gypped.”

Refugee families have been arriving in the lower Valley since March. In all, about 10 families are expected to arrive by June.

Merlone’s comments came after Jeremy Marshall, a case manager with the non-profit International Institute of Connecticut, made a presentation to the school board about his organization and the arriving families.

So far, 15 people have arrived in Ansonia, Marshall said, including eight children in the school district.

Another family is expected to arrive next week.

Many of the new residents have spent 20 years confined to refugee camps. Marshall urged the board to support the new arrivals.

“[The Nepalese] are very much dependent on some institution to help them out,” he said.

He said volunteers would be on hand so the school district wouldn’t have to should the responsibility alone.

Marshall’s organization uses several sources of funding, including government grants, to support the families as they transition to a new life in the U.S.

The goal is to make the families self-sufficient within six months.

“Within one year they can have a green card,” Marshall said.

School officials wanted to know why it seems all the families are arriving in Ansonia, where the school district already faces a number of challenges, including large class sizes.

To date, no refugee students have been placed in the neighboring Derby school district.

Marshall said there is an oversight committee has strict criteria in deciding where to place refugees. Number one on the list — “Housing rates have to be low,” he said.

Representatives from Marshall’s organization told the Valley Indy in March that they were looking to place people outside major cities. The refugees assimilate better in smaller communities that have accessible public transportation.

“There is an overflow of refugees already set up in Waterbury and Bridgeport,” Marshall told the school board.

While there is another refugee family due to arrive in Ansonia next week, Marshall said it is unclear whether more families will be coming to Ansonia.

About four members of the public spoke on the refugee issue. Most of the speakers expressed concerns about the situation.

Ken Plavnicky, co-chairman of Axe the Tax, a citizen group, said the city cannot afford to absorb the refugees.

“Bringing families into Ansonia is going to cost a lot of money, why couldn’t they reach out to a more wealthy community, such as Fairfield or Darien?” he asked.

Terri Goldson, the principal of John C. Mead School, asked the school board to “have an open mind and have an open heart,” concerning the refugees.

Of course USCRI’s International Institute of Connecticut lost its State Department refugee resettlement contract just two years ago in May 2008 due to repeated severe neglect of refugees, including placing Burmese refugee clients in poor housing, fractious relationships with volunteers, missed immunizations for refugee students, and insufficient help for refugees with daily tasks (here). The State Department inspected the agency in 2006 (here) and warned them to clean up their act, but apparently they were unable or unwilling to do so.

Then, why are they resettling refugees again when they proved repeatedly that they could not be entrusted to care for vulnerable refugee clients? It makes me think that the State Department’s cancellation (now revealed as a temporary revocation) of the Institute’s contract was just a dodge to divert attention away from this agency after the series of newspaper articles documenting the repeated neglect of refugees, and do little government oversight agencies (see a series of articles under CT in our Document Library page, here).

By the way, in 2007 the International Institute of Connecticut board of directors approved the agency’s executive director, Myra Oliver (now deceased), paying herself $99,893 (see 990 form), while she placed her refugee clients in squalor, even though the State Department had just admonished the group for doing the same thing just a year earlier. In 2006 the board approved payment to Oliver of $100,016 (see 990).  According to these 990 forms the International Institute of Connecticut in 2006 was getting 90% of its operating funds from the government, and 87% in 2007. So the great “public/private partnership” was a 9 to 1 split in this case, with refugees going wanting for basics while the board paid the executive director handsomely with our public funds.

In addition, the current Board of Directors officers listed at the group’s website (here) are the same people as listed on the 2008 form 990 when the Institute lost its refugee contract due to the abuses — Sharon Kish – President, Robert Maresca, Esq.- Vice President, Fr. Richard Ryscavage- Secretary, and Jorge Atencio.

So why did the International Institute of Connecticut get their refugee resettlement contract reinstalled so soon and with the same people overseeing it? Why should we ever trust this group again?