A deal that could have saved dozens of teaching jobs in Norwalk could be back on.

The Norwalk Board of Education released a statement on Thursday night, saying that changes to the original agreement were necessary because the language in the superintendent's contract mandates an extension vote by July 1 of this year.

The full statement from the BOE and a response from Sen. Bob Duff is available below:

Sen. Duff's response:

"I am satisfied by this statement that the BOE will honor the original agreement from their Tuesday evening caucus when they unanimously accepted the terms/conditions Mayor Rilling and I set forth Tuesday morning in our meeting with the Superintendent.

To be clear, we never said the BOE could not vote on the Superintendent's contract if that's what is legally required. However, it's not legally required since the Superintendent, per her contract, can waive that provision. If she refuses to do so and a vote occurs, I've been assured an extension will fail.

It's important that all of us move forward now as a community in the best interests of the students, staff and parents.

In the final analysis, transparency, community voices and common sense won the day.

Thank you to all who stood by us during this challenging time."

State Sen. Bob Duff and Mayor Harry Rilling have been working on a deal that would provide an additional $6 million toward the Norwalk school budget in exchange for certain conditions.

Norwalk parents were upset about the last-minute change to a deal for additional funding to possibly save teachers from losing their jobs. It comes after parents said the superintendent told them she wanted to work to save jobs.

"She gave us some hope that she was fighting for more funding for the students as well, and we really asked for a lot of transparency, which I feel we have completely lost," said Norwalk parent Vanina An-Ning Lesko.

The agreement from Duff and Rilling depended on the Board of Education agreeing that no contract extension for the superintendent would be done until after the 2026/2027 budget reconciliation and that was voted unanimously by the board. But when Norwalk Public Schools loaded the document up to its website, board leadership at the urging of the superintendent changed the date back to 2025/2026.

"I think, you know, Norwalk parents and the public should be calling for some sort of independent audit or investigation," said Norwalk parent Mike Stenger.

This latest move puts dozens of jobs, many in the art and music programs, at risk once again. Duff said the Board of Education is putting the superintendent's interests over teachers, parents, students and administrators.

"We had said we can't do that contract extension until next year's budget is reconciled so that there's not drama again like we've had this year. So unfortunately, there's no deal. We have no deal. I'm very disappointed," said Duff.

School officials expressed concern that several of the conditions of the agreement, particularly the direct involvement of the mayor and Duff in district staffing and cuts, may exceed their statutory authority. Parents said the superintendent and the Board of Education have made discussions difficult.

"Their communication style needs to be a little bit more effective and targeted to the appropriate people at the appropriate time and it seems like its fallen on deaf ears," said Rabito.

The Norwalk Board of Education vote on the budget has already been postponed. The Board of Education hopes to reschedule a meeting for this Tuesday.