Woodstock CT Café

from Kevin

From WA Parent: Curious about Kevin’s (and others’) response to Connecticut receiving a C- and ranking of 26 out of the 50 states on the national report card that was published in the Bulletin and many other sources yesterday. Connecticut has one of the highest average teacher salaries in the country. (I believe only California is higher.) Is it reasonable to expect better results? Tops in spending for an average grade doesn’t seem right.

From JK: WA Parent, I believe the C- rating for teachers was a bit misleading. The rating was for laws related to teaching and teacher evaluations.

That’s a fair question. For those of you who may not have it, here is a link to the report in question:

http://www.edweek.org/media/qualitycounts2012_release.pdf

We are listed as a B+ and ranked fourth for school finance so that is certainly true. As you state we are also a C- in K-12 Achievement as well. Looking at that, two questions immediately come to mind:

- Is a C- particularly bad for K-12 Achievement when compared to the other states?
- What exactly does K-12 Achievement mean in this paper?

To answer the first question we find our C- K-12 Achievement rank is 16th in the nation. Not great but well about the nation’s average score. Most states were in the Ds with only three states in the Bs.

The second question is much more interesting. How does this paper define K-12 Achievement? The paper states:

The K-12 Achievement Index, which evaluates state educational performance on 18 individual indicators that measure: current achievement, improvements over time, and poverty-based disparities or gaps.

So this isn’t just test scores. It is things like funding distribution disparities and improvements over time. Everyone also may not know this but each state has their own standardized tests. That means for any the NCLB tests it is impossible to try and compare scores because the tests are of different difficulty levels.

What I do find very interesting is the category of “Chance for Success.” This is defined as:

The Chance-for-Success Index, which grades the nation and states on 13 indicators capturing the critical role that education plays as a person moves from childhood, through the K-12 system, and into college and the workforce.

Wow, that’s the category I’m interested in. Test scores and funding distribution is all well and good but I want to know how successful we are being in moving the children through the educational system, college and ultimately into their careers. Incidentally Connecticut’s score is a B+, ranked #4 in the nation.

It has always been my position the adequate funding is necessary but not in and of itself sufficient.

Thanks,

Kevin

This post represents my personal opinions and in no way should be considered an official act of the BoE or that I am speaking on behalf of the BoE in any way.

This is from an email I received this week. If you are able and inclined, please support this cause. Thank you. – Becki

from Kevin

It’s 2012 and I’m going to make a few predictions on what is going to happen on the Board of Education this year. I’ve been watching the issues and votes of the members for several years and have a good idea of the direction that the RTC has been pushing. This is the first year that they will be able to implement their agenda.

1) The Woodstock Academy contract will be passed with the Woodstock Academy substantially getting everything they want (chance of occurring: 80-90%). This will be a travesty for the town.

– The current version is for ten years and keeps auto-renewing for another ten years. It will be very hard to get out of once we realize how large a mistake we made.
– The current version does nothing to protect the town financially. In fact it is much worse as it has a clause that essentially allows them to charge back any capital cost to the town whenever they want to outside of normal tuition cost. They want a new $45M building? Just charge the town. According to the latest version of the contract they can do exactly that. (the contract allows us representation on such a planning committee but says nothing of the makeup of that committee)
– Still no more representation. I unfortunately think that will never change.

2) To the extent that there are any positions that need to be eliminated, the coordinators will be on the chopping block (chance of occurring: 50-70%). I’ve heard time and time again from teachers and administrators how crucial these positions are but they have been a favorite target.

3) The superintendent’s contract will not be renewed or the position will in some other way be eliminated (chance of occurring: 99.9%). They almost did this last year but were thwarted by one vote. This will be one of the last acts in Craig Powers revenge on Dr. Baran for doing his job in relation to SPED and Craig’s child. If he can’t win in court, he will get revenge by going after Dr. Baran. For years Craig has been using Mr. Rosendahl, member of the BOE and the RTC nominating committee, to only allow Republican RTC candidates who are hostile to the Superintendent. Now they have all the votes they need. They will at least not renew his contract and if they can get away with it they will try a more permanent solution earlier before the next election.

Those are my predictions. None of these things will be good for Woodstock. We’ll see if I’m right.

Thanks,

Kevin

This post represents my personal opinions and in no way should be considered an official act of the BoE or that I am speaking on behalf of the BoE in any way.

An entertaining video about coffee, apparently NOT from Starbucks or the Coffee Lobby – provided by a frequent Cafe’er.

from John

Since I drink a large Dunkin’ Donuts coffee (2.5 cups) almost every morning and became hooked on coffee, espresso and regular, in 1981 when I moved to Palo Alto CA, I have often wondered about the health effects of coffee. To make matters worse (or better), I usually have two cups of caffeine-laden tea a day. I finally got an opportunity to look into this in the past week. Here is what I learned from reviewing a large body of clinical studies on the health effects of coffee. Everything stated below can be backed up with high level publications of clinical studies and systematic clinical reviews.

Printers’ Inc was the first Coffee House/Book store, just a few blocks from the Pauling Institute and Stanford University. This is where Becki and I hung out on Sunday mornings and where I wrote grant proposals and research papers before power books. We enjoyed the brainiacs and other interesting writers and readers that surrounded us there.

Coffee is a complex mixture of chemicals that provides significant amounts of caffeine and chlorogenic acid to the consumer. Unfiltered coffee such as boiled coffee or espresso coffee is also a significant source of cafestol and kahweol, substances discussed below which are associated with elevated cholesterol. These two latter compounds are removed during paper filtration of percolated coffee. Overall, there is little evidence of health risks and some evidence of health benefits for adults consuming moderate amounts of coffee (3–4 cups/d providing 300–400 mg/day of caffeine).

Impact of coffee drinking on risk of type-2 diabetes

Six out of nine prospective cohort studies found a significant inverse association between the risk of type-2 diabetes mellitus (DM) and coffee intake.

A prospective study of more than 17,000 Dutch men and women found that the risk of developing type-2 DM was 50% lower in those who consumed at least 7 cups of coffee daily compared to those who drank 2 cups or less.

In Finland, where coffee consumption is among the highest in the world, a study that followed more than 14,000 men and women for an average of 12 years found that men who drank at least 10 cups of coffee daily had a 55% lower risk of developing type-2 DM than men who drank 2 cups or less, while women who drank at least 10 cups daily had a risk of type-2 DM that was 79% lower.

In a cohort of more than 10,000 Finnish twins, those who consumed at least 7 cups of coffee daily had a 35% lower risk of type-2 DM than those who consumed 2 cups or less.

In a smaller cohort of Swedish women followed for 18 years, those who drank at least 3 cups of coffee daily had a risk of type-2 DM that was about 50% lower than the risk for those who consumed less than 2 cups daily.

The two largest prospective cohort studies to examine the relationship between coffee consumption and type-2 DM were the Health Professionals Follow-up Study (41,934 men) and the Nurses’ Health Study (84,276 women) in the USA. Men who drank at least 6 cups of coffee daily had a 54% lower risk of developing type-2 DM than men who did not drink coffee, and women who drank at least 6 cups of coffee daily had a 29% lower risk than women who did not drink coffee. A more modest inverse association between decaffeinated coffee consumption and the risk of type-2 DM was also observed in both men and women, suggesting that compounds other than caffeine may have protective effects. In contrast, tea consumption was not associated with type-2 DM risk in the Dutch or American cohorts.

Impact of coffee drinking on risk of Parkinson’s disease

Overall, the results of case-control studies suggest that coffee and caffeine intakes are inversely associated with the risk of Parkinson’s disease. Several large prospective cohort studies have also found inverse associations between coffee and caffeine intakes and Parkinson’s disease risk in men. A study of more than 8,000 Japanese-American men found that those who did not drink coffee were 3–5 times more likely to develop Parkinson’s disease over the next 24–30 years than those who drank at least 28 oz daily. Caffeine intakes from coffee and other sources were also inversely associated with Parkinson’s disease risk. Similarly, in the Health Professionals Follow-up Study, men who regularly consumed at least one cup of coffee daily had a risk of developing Parkinson’s disease over the next 10 years that was about half that of men who did not drink coffee. The consumption of tea and other caffeinated beverages was also inversely associated with Parkinson’s disease risk. In contrast, inverse associations between coffee and caffeine consumption and Parkinson’s disease risk over a 16-year period were not observed in the Nurses’ Health Study. Similarly, in the Cancer Prevention Study (CPS) II cohort of more than 500,000 men and women in the US, coffee consumption was inversely associated with Parkinson’s disease mortality in men but not women. The failure of prospective studies to find an inverse relationship between coffee consumption and Parkinson’s disease in women may be due to the modifying effect of estrogen replacement therapy.

Further analysis of the Nurses’ Health Study cohort revealed that coffee consumption was inversely associated with Parkinson’s disease risk in women who had never used postmenopausal estrogen, but a significant increase in Parkinson’s disease risk was observed in postmenopausal estrogen users who drank at least 6 cups of coffee daily. In the CPS II cohort, a significant inverse association between coffee consumption and Parkinson’s disease mortality was also observed in women who had never used postmenopausal estrogen, but not in those who used postmenopausal estrogen. Caffeine is largely metabolized by hepatic CYP1A2, and the use of postmenopausal estrogen replacement therapy has been found to inhibit CYP1A2-mediated caffeine metabolism.

Possible mechanism for the effect of caffeine in Parkinson’s disease

Recent research supports the idea that chronic caffeine consumption could reduce Parkinson’s disease risk. Parkinson’s disease is characterized by the degeneration of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra at the base of the brain. Studies in animal models suggest that caffeine consumption decreases the risk of Parkinson’s disease by protecting against dopaminergic neurotoxicity. The effects of caffeine in the central nervous system are related to its activity as an antagonist of the A1 and A2A subtypes of the adenosine receptor. The expression of A2A-receptors in the brain is restricted almost entirely to the striatum, the target of the dopaminergic neurons that degenerate in Parkinson’s disease. Acute toxicity with the neurotoxin, MPTP, can induce Parkinsonism in humans. This story was well documented in the book The Case of the Frozen Addicts and memorialized in the Public Television series NOVA under the same title. Dr. William Langston (a former colleague of mine), the discoverer of the link between MPTP and Parkinsonism, developed a well-established animal model of Parkinson’s disease uses MPTP to induce dopaminergic neurotoxicity in squirrel monkeys that was extended to mice. Caffeine, at doses comparable to typical human exposures, has been found to attenuate MPTP-induced losses of striatal dopamine and dopamine transporter binding sites in mice. Specific A2A-receptor antagonists mimicked the effect of caffeine as did the absence of functional A2A-receptors in A2Areceptor knockout mice. At present, it is not known exactly how A2A-receptor blockade reduces dopaminergic neurotoxicity. Read the rest of this entry »

Lawyer: [reading from Walt's will] And I’d like to leave my 1972 Gran Torino to…
[the lawyer pauses and looks up at Ashley, who smiles expectantly]
Lawyer: …my friend… Thao Vang Lor. On the condition that you don’t chop-top the roof like one of those beaners, don’t paint any idiotic flames on it like some white trash hillbilly, and don’t put a big, gay spoiler on the rear end like you see on all the other zipperheads’ cars. It just looks like hell. If you can refrain from doing any of that… it’s yours.

Novel Stem Cell Treatment for Type I Diabetes.

from Jeff Gordon

As a Hematology-Oncology physician, caring for people with blood disorders, including malignant blood disorders, is what I do. The whole field of bone marrow, peripheral blood stem cell and cord blood transplantations is quite fascinating and has offered for many people the opportunities for either long-term control of their cancers or outright cures. It is not a panacea, however, and there are morbidities and moralities to consider. Not every person is a candidate for a transplant.

Hematopoietic cells in healthy adults come from the bone marrow. Before birth, the spleen and even the liver make such cells, but there is a shift from such soon after birth.

There are different types of levels of stem cells, some “uncommitted” to a defined hematopoietic pathway (such as to make white blood cells, red blood cells or megakaryocytes [these through a process of budding make platelets]) and some more committed.

There are a lot of internal processes in the bone marrow. It is an active organ system and since there is a lot of bone marrow in adults, it is a big organ system. I think technically the skin is the largest organ system. There is a lot of interesting processes outside of the bone marrow that interact with the bone marrow.

At a basic level, I have always found it a wonder that cytotoxic chemotherapy can be given at basically lethal dosing to blank out the bone marrow (and hopefully the malignant blood process as well) and that someone’s own (autologous) or someone else’s (allogenic) bone marrow or stem cells can be given via infusion and these cells know where to go, how to set up shop, and how to repopulate the marrow. Read the rest of this entry »

from LibDem

While the banter between liberals and conservatives in this website is at times interesting and enjoyable, we must begin to recognize that these divisions are obsolete and meaningless. We need to recognize that both political parties are beholden to armies or corporate lobbyists who write the legislation while corporate media controls what we read, watch, and hear. It has imposed on us a relative uniformity of opinion that pits us against each other, while the real elephant in the kitchen is hidden away- cleaning out our refrigerator. The old arguments refer conservatives back to nazi fascism and the liberals back to soviet communism. In these totalitarian states, economics were subordinate to politics. Today, in America, we have a different kind of totalitarianism where economics control politics. Prominent political philosopher Sheldon Wolin refers to this in his newest book Democracy Inc. as a “Reverse Totalitarianism”. This inverse totalitarianism is created by our military-industrial-corporate structure that essentially has bought our government and are beginning to subvert our democratic values while pretending to cherish democracy, patriotism, and the Constitution. President Obama and all other politicians are just street punks who are puppets to the real powers that be who pull the strings. When we go after politicians and play into the old tiresome rhetoric between liberalism and conservatism, we are fighting the wrong battle.

But have at it gentlemen, I suppose its better than the majority of Americans who are subdued by the spectacles and diversions of our corporate entertainment industry. I used to say that religion is the opiate of the people, but now I find myself saying that football is the opiate of the people. Ah, and isn’t it just priceless that Woodstock Academy just spent a fortune for new football fields. Its just what our students need to succeed in this world-more football, more diversion, more tools to keep our future generations politically passive while the corporate elite quietly but steadily widdle away at our freedoms, our finances, our resources, and our environment. The progressives,the socialists, and the intellectuals have been predicting this for many many years while the corporate propaganda machine successfully marginalized them, making real debate nearly impossible. Read the rest of this entry »

We saw Ernie Wetzel’s success story (below) in the Marines (WA 2008). Here’s our daughter, Mariah (WA 2006) in a business meeting dressed in a business suit at MN8 near Cincinnati OH yesterday (blue arrow). It would be nice to have information on other WA graduates. MN8 is recruiting individual firefighters.

Here is Danielle Frate (WA 2005), Mariah’s cousin – a Graphic Design Artist at Davis Advertising in Worcester MA. She majored in Graphic Design Art at the Academy. She graduated with high honors from ESCU in 3.5 years.

Taylor Wentworth’s Story in the Bull.

Community members are invited to visit the gymnasium at Woodstock Academy Jan. 31 from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. to sign up for the marrow registry. People ages 18 to 60 are eligible.

The testing, which involves a cheek swab, is covered by most insurance carriers, and people are asked to bring insurance cards. A private fund will cover the cost for people who either do not have insurance or whose insurance does not cover the testing.

For more information, call (401) 248-5720 or email marrow@ribc.org.

from John

Just a few thoughts:

• The Right-wing conservatives and the Tea Party element which has a religiosity component has so alienated the electorate that Mit Romney will skate to the nomination.
• I don’t know in which of these groups Newt Gingrich fits but he doesn’t fit in his clothes and his Bain Capital stance will destroy this issue for Obama and strengthen Romney.
• Santorum and Perry have pursuaded everyone who has listened to what they have said that they are not viable candidates.
• Ron Paul is endearing but too old and fundamentally unelectable.
• Bachman and Palin have disqualified themselves because of their stupidity – a nationwide insult to women.
• Cain is an example of what can go wrong in Republican politics – Pizza anyone.
• Cantor will loose favor after the election.
• The sour cream has risen to the top.

The national Republican Party will have great difficulty recovering from this indelible campaign in 2016. Enter Hillary and the rotund Christie.

When delayed openings are necessary the Woodstock Public Schools will be using a 2 Hour Delay. This synchronizes the WPS and the WA.

In light of the two weather emergencies experienced in the beginning of the year, the Academy has modified their calendar as follows:

Jan. 23 – Regular school day
Jan. 31 & Feb 1 – EXAMS Dismissal 12:00 PM
Feb. 2 – Transition Day – 2 Hour Delay (start time 9:40)
Feb. 17 – PD Day – Dismissal 11:32
Feb. 21 – Regular Day
Mar. 23 – Regular Day – not PD Day

We wish we had more opportunities to talk about the directions and accomplishments of Academy graduates after leaving Woodstock. Admin

See the article in the Villager on page 3 – an interview with Ernie Wetzel Jr who joined the Marines after graduating from the Academy in 2008. Ernie and brother, Zack, were on the first WA football team in the fall of 2005. Our daughter, Mariah, was the team manager at the time. Father Ernie Wetzel (right) was elected Woodstock First Selectman in November 1999 and served two terms from 1999 to 2003.

The following article was published in August 2006 in anticipation of the first Varsity Football season at the Academy. In the first season in the fall of 2005, only Junior Varsity Football was played.

‘All the players were stars on this day…’

On Monday evening, September 26th, 2005, Woodstock Academy Centaurs launched its first football team in 80 years kicking off the season against football stronghold, Fitch Falcons of Robert E. Fitch Senior High School from Groton CT. This was a junior varsity game composed of Freshman, Sophomore, and Junior student players. The inauguration of our football program was made possible, in part, by the fundraising activities of the WA Booster Club. Through their tireless efforts, $30,000 was raised to purchase the necessary equipment for the football team.

Becki and I, both avid college football fans, attended the game uncertain of what kind of football we would see. For the last three years we have attended nearly all of the UConn home football games at Rentschler Field to watch UConn quickly emerge as a top-notch college football team. Over the years we have also attended many football games at other high-powered colleges like Stanford, Air Force, and Pittsburgh to name a few. So we braced ourselves primarily out of concern for our untested players.

Our team kicked off to Fitch to start the game. Within a few minutes Fitch had moved the ball 70-yards down the field by completing three long passes to score the first touchdown. Then Fitch kicked off to Woodstock. We then proceeded to move the ball back up the field grinding out yardage in a long sustained drive that reached the Fitch 30-yardline before stalling. This pattern more or less set the tone for the night in a game that ended with Fitch winning by 45-13.

This score did not reflect the quality of the game played by the Centaurs. Fitch was obviously a solid, seasoned team with a top-notch quarterback who could pass like a varsity starter. But Woodstock matched up well in grit against Fitch for most of the game. My impression throughout the game was that we were seeing high quality play. Our quarterback John Norman (#4) and tailback Adam Gumula (#20) impressed all with a solid ground game through the center of a much larger opposing line. Adam also punted and kicked field goals/extra points. The sound of players colliding on each play was impressive yet no player on our team struggled to get off the ground play after play. Defensive high points came when Zach Berquist (#56) single-handedly downed the larger fullback at the line; then Ernie Wetzel (#57) sacked the quarterback in similar fashion and intercepted a pass; and then Zack Wetzel (#30) wrapped himself around the legs of the Fitch halfback in a flying tackle to force a fumble right in front of us. Martha Wetzel jumped up and down in sheer joy as the Wetzel boys impressed us all with their outstanding play. Many other parents were also watching their sons intently as they performed on the field. In spite of the fact that we were losing throughout the game, the prevailing attitude along the sidelines by the team and the 50 or so fans was that this was a win for Woodstock. All the players were stars on this day and their satisfaction and joy in their accomplishments was obvious to all.

Hats off to Head Coach, Jemal Davis and his coaching staff, Bernie Norman, Jonathan Knowles, and Greg Smith, for putting together a solid team that will grow into a strong varsity program in its second year. John

Other football stories.

We took these pictures today (Saturday Jan. 7th).
1. From the west end of the field on the south side. Note the terraces for seats that are unfinished. The field has been covered with synthetic turf with lines for all of the possible sports.
2. The center of the field with the WA logo.
3. The west end of the field.
4. The stone barrier on the edge of the woods at the west end.
5. Looking to the west end of the field from the east end.
Read the rest of this entry »