Woodstock CT Café

“We need a Woodstock Ethics Ordinance!”

Please copy these two petitions into a WORD document, sign them, collect signatures, if possible, and then either fax them to 508-303-0579 (fax), or email them to krapoport@eecnet.com, or, best yet, snail mail them to Ken’s home address in Woodstock -Ken Rapoport, PO Box 625, Woodstock, CT 06281.

PETITION
February 2006

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Name Address Phone Signature

To answer Debunker’s comment (“Another Perspective by Debunker…” and comments) – the town has grown significantly enough to allow impartial people to serve on boards- rather than expect people to “recuseâ€? themselves when conflict arises. Read the rest of this entry »

“…secrecy can be accomplished … by making it difficult…for the citizens to gain access to the decision-making process”

Rapoport and Debunker appear to be on the opposite sides of the fence when it comes to openness of the civil proceedings of our Town government. Like many others in Town, I have often wondered how Town initiatives get started – like the initiative to find a new high school to replace Woodstock Academy – and the role of the First Selectman in pursuing new initiatives. Wouldn’t the pursuit of new initiatives begin with the First Selectman and the Board of Selectmen rather than in some Town committee? If a Town committee conceived of a new initiative, wouldn’t pursuit of this new initiative have to receive approval by the Board of Selectmen?

In this context, I have often wondered about the limits of authority of the Board of Selectman, and the role of the First Selectman as defined in the Woodstock bylaws. I have been curious about this because it’s my, perhaps naive, impression that many of the auxiliary Town Boards and Agencies function autonomously without oversight by the Board of Selectmen. Woodstock’s Web site sheds no light on this subject – nor any information on the roles of other paid staff, elected Board members, and committee appointees (see the comments section in “Another Perspective…” by Debunker for more on this subject). It seems to me that we ought to be continuously reminded as to what these roles and limitations are. Read the rest of this entry »

“Minor screw ups probably get blown way out of proportion when you have people running to the attorneys and the paper”

Having watched the Pulpit Rock Road situation rather closely, I am stunned by the apparent result that “he who yells the loudest must be correct.” There are so many things wrong or only partially right with the Villager’s coverage of the Pulpit Rock Road/Douglas Builders question that it is really hard to know where to begin. Let me try to establish some things that I believe to be true, both factually, and subjectively, based on my conversations with many of the principal parties (town officials, elected officials, board members, the Douglases, and Ken Rapoport):

1) There was no way for the Town to win this issue going in. If the Boards denied the application, Douglas was going to sue (as he did). If they approved the application, Rapoport was going to sue. He promised that. The Town will be defending their decision either way. They, I hope, tried to follow the rules and do things the right way. They haven’t really been pushed on this stuff before, the stakes and the scrutiny haven’t been this high before. Minor screw ups probably get blown way out of proportion when you have people running to the attorneys and the paper with every move of the boards. Read the rest of this entry »

“The pattern that Rapoport describes is the systematic exclusion of town citizenry… “

Ken Rapoport’s Letter to the Editor in the Woodstock Villager in the Jan. 13th (2006) issue mimics examples of questionable leadership described in previous WoodstockCtCafe articles. He points out the inadequacy of ‘consultants’ selected by our town government officials, …or is it the inadequacy of Town officials in managing these consultants? … or is it the manipulation of the Town and its citizenry through the use of ‘consultants’? The example Rapoport describes is the failure of Woodstock’s engineering consultants, “Design Professionals, Inc”, to uncover critical omissions in the application by Douglas Building to develop an 8-lot subdivision of 47-acres on Pulpit Rock Road. Read the rest of this entry »

“The biggest payoff of the new football program… will be in the mentoring”

“A Night on the Town” Sponsored by Woodstock Academy Project Graduation & Football Committees – Saturday, March 11, 2006, 7 PM – Wright’s Mill Farm in Canterbury, CT – Only 20 minutes from Woodstock – Tickets $30 – Available at Woodstock Academy Office – Town Clerks Office Or Call 860-974-2943, 860-928-3404 – Hilarious Comedy, Great Music & Sports Auction

See Addendum: From the Woodstock Academy Football Booster Committee at the bottom of this article.

To examine this subject I read academic literature – journal papers and theses – that I found in various electronic databases like Psyche Abstracts and the Dissertation Abstracts. Psyche Abstracts covered sociology journals like Sociology of Education, Sociological Perspectives, and Adolescence to name a few. I found literature reporting research attempts to address the issue of the impact of high school and college athletics on academic performance. For the most part these studies indicated that there is a positive relationship between sports and academic achievement, though other studies failed to find this positive impact.

In his Ph.D. thesis, Michael Allen at the University of Connecticut, Humanities and Social Sciences (1997), indicated that the success of athletic programs hinges on the role of coaches, teammates, and support personnel who promote academic involvement by athletes. His thesis also pointed out that one of the primary reasons for poor academic achievement of athletes is the “immersion in team subcultures that emphasized athletic achievement as opposed to academic achievement”. I tend to agree with Allen. Furthermore, I believe that high school (academic) performance and achievement should not JUST be measured by the grade point average – remember, Einstein failed Botany. Read the rest of this entry »

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