Woodstock CT Café

‘Its time to stop carving up education and the town’s infrastructure and services’

Few things are more dangerous than free-spending politicians… except perhaps, a disengaged, non-thinking citizenry. This applies especially to formulaic spending solutions such as our Proposition 46. No one really wants to pay taxes and surely, nobody wants to pay more taxes. Though spending caps may initially address the problem of run-away spending, the automatic nature of their application creates the illusion of responsible financial management. Read the rest of this entry »

“what has been forgotten is… … it IS the public’s business“

In October 12th’s Worcester Telegram and Gazette is an article entitled, “Officials cited for meeting violation”. The header of the article as it is continued on page B3 is “Woodstock meeting violated law”. To sum up the article… the CT freedom of Information Committee found town officials in violation of the Freedom of Information Act. Now, I supposed we should start off noting that it is election season, Read the rest of this entry »

…concern about lack of an educational service contract…

It was like a family get-together where you discover that there had been a fight just before you arrived - everyone had on their smiley faces, but their body language said that they were not happy campers. In this meeting it seemed like the Academy representatives were the parents and the representatives of the BOE were the irritated teenage children. This was my impression.

Last night, I attended a meeting focused on the current contract impasse between the Woodstock BOE and the Woodstock Academy Board of Trustees. The meeting was well attended, being called by a group of citizens concerned over the lack of resolution of contract negotiations. The Woodstock BOE was represented by four members, including the Chairman. Woodstock Academy had their Headmaster, Business Manager, Board of Trustee President and between eight and ten Trustees, most of whom live in town. Also attending were many candidates in the upcoming election. Delpha Very represented the Board of Selectmen. Three reporters from various media were taking notes and pictures. Noticeably absent, though, was any representative of the Board of Finance. Read the rest of this entry »

Just Do It!

If you would like to make a comment about any article on this page, just click on the comment icon near the title and follow the prompts. Also, any ‘cafe’ suggestions would be appreciated. If you’d like to publish at this site please send your article or commentary to… Read the rest of this entry »

http://www.peets.com/
We recommend Guatemala for optimum blogging.
This coffee is superbly aromatic, well-balanced with medium body, and has lively acidity with overtones of spice and chocolate Read the rest of this entry »

“the Town missed a payment to the Academy in July”

On September 21st Headmaster of the private Woodstock Academy, Richard Foye, delivered a letter to Dr. Frank Baran, Superintendent of Woodstock Public Schools. The purpose of this letter was to outline six steps that must be taken by the Town of Woodstock (Town) to satisfy the Academy in the absence of a mutually acceptable contract for the future between the Academy and the Town. The tone of this letter was “lawyered” and clear. It began by reminding the Town and the Board of Education of their unprecedented threat to remove 9th grade students from the Academy and replace the Academy with a new high school either in town or through a deal with another regional high school. I remember the tone of the announcement on the removal of 9th grade students from Woodstock Academy at a public Board of Education Meeting six months ago. It was no less stern or threatening than the Headmaster’s letter of Sept. 21st. Superimposed upon these threats by the Town is the fact that the Town has missed tuition payments to the Academy since July. Read the rest of this entry »

“Education, is consistently told to name the child that they will sacrifice“

As the first leaves start to turn their bronze and golden colors and the sky takes on the crystal clear, azure blue of autumn most of us turn our attention to putting the garden to bed, raking leaves and figuring out where we put our ice scrapers. But for some, this is time to start anticipating the annual Budget Dance. While the “dance” formally starts in February, the planning and strategizing commenced some weeks and even months ago. Read the rest of this entry »

“All the players were stars on this day…”

On Monday evening, September 26th, 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. Read the rest of this entry »

“Lets talk about what we think“

What is Woodstock? It is sixty-some-odd square miles of beautiful real estate. We don’t have a gas station, a full-serve grocery or a main street. We have several “villages”, but they seem more relevant to long-time residents than to the newly arrived. Though the “villages” don’t function as entities, they are quaint and quite distinct. We have one sidewalk and one traffic light. We don’t have many streetlights, though that seems to be changing, not that the town is putting more up, but some people use them as yard lights. Recently more driveways are being paved as opposed to being graveled. We have oodles of trees (and tree-lovers), the result of a change from mainly wood heat 100+ years ago to oil heat and the declining focus on agriculture. We still have a lot of farms compared to other towns but, sadly, those left are dwindling. We have water, lots of water, at least compared to other parts of the country and we have the “green” to prove it. Read the rest of this entry »

In 1979 I was ensconced in Building 29A in the center of the NIH campus with a career appointment at the FDA’s Bureau of Biologics. My friends and colleagues, Carl Merril and David Goldman at the Institute of Mental Health across the street, and I were on a roll. I had made a discovery that was going to fuel my research for the next 15 years by exploiting protein profiling using high-resolution 2-dimensional electrophoresis. The three of us were heavily invested in this technique and applying it to many different areas of investigation. The technique had been developed by Patrick O’Farrell at the University of Colorado. A year later Greg Milman demonstrated elegantly that this technique could detect point mutations in genes. At the same time Dr. B. Deal (pseudonym) was starting to swing his weight around in this field. He had started publishing numerous papers on the many different applications of 2-D gels, in effect ‘wallpapering’ over the historical facts in development of this technique.

Read the rest of this entry »