Woodstock CT Café

See and update on visitation to WoodstockCtCafe for the month of April

“I disagree with Mr., pardon me, Dr. Goodkind about the issue of “Trust�.

I read Mr. Goodkind’s Letter to the Editor of the Villager entitled “Trust, not Prop 46, problematic in town.â€? Putting aside the bad title, I was intrigued by the idea that “Trustâ€? is the problem. In addition, I was skeptical about his mindset in signing the article, “Thomas B. Goodkind, Ph.D.â€? What does having a Ph.D. have to do with his letter or his political position? In some regions of the country, PHD stands for “post hole diggerâ€?, so I’ve been told. So, Mr. Goodkind probably turned some readers off by invoking the apparent fact that he has a Ph.D, a title that should only be invoked in a profession. What does his use of “Ph.D.â€? mean? Does it mean that he should be automatically viewed as smart and that his ideas are always on target? I don’t think so. Read the rest of this entry »

“I became dizzy…almost puked…temporal artery almost blew…lost bowel control…”

Personally it was just another reminder to me why I shouldn’t go to meetings… I lost a good night’s sleep over nothing. Perhaps I am just a sore loser. Although there were some bright points made, there was also much grandstanding. The moderator appeared smart and sassy, but I think she forgot to drink her coffee. She was one sided at times and was condescending to Mr. Rapoport. I almost puked when Barbara Rich quoted “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.� I became dizzy when Mrs. Snow stood up and began evoking sympathy for her great husband Charlie. My temporal artery almost blew when we were blessed with the philosphy of Mr. McCrillis who to sum it up stated “what’s right isn’t always right�. I almost lost bowel control when it was implied that human error was natural and shouldn’t be confused with unethical behavior.

It amazed me to watch everyone actually believe all their Bull*&#! and walk away patting themselves on the back. There was little acknowledgemnt that perhaps, just maybe, there was something unethical that happened. Marjorie Wholean tried hard, God bless her soul, but she comes across as a mix between a 2nd grade teacher and the absent-minded professor. P.S. She raised her hand both times to vote down the motions. Oh, did anyone get the same feeling I did about Dan Very? No, not that he looked like he ate 10lbs. of old stale pastries before the meeting, but that he seems to be positioning himself, hhmm…do you think that just maybe he wants to run for the First Selectman in 2007??? Who wants to make a bet?

Despite my sourness and negativity which I apologize for, I want to congratulate members of the IWWA, builders and the other good ‘ol boys who manage to find the time to bring themselves and their spouses to the meeting. Despite my differences in opinion from theirs, Read the rest of this entry »

See Ken’s comment below, Admin.

“For our system to continue to work and improve… we (should) maintain a sense of appreciation for the willingness of those who serve, to serve.”

In the wake of all the tumult over the past several weeks – which will likely continue forward into the next few months as the annual budgets are worked through – the report on the left by “Lone Citizen” is an encouraging account and reminder of how Town matters can be civilly addressed and resolved in the Town Meeting format that has served the Town for many, many years. Read the rest of this entry »

Every day a Town meeting occurs at this website. The number of commentors is a low percentage of the number of actual visitors who read the articles at this site. There are no harangues and no glaring stare-downs. Consider the possibilities.

“…lets maintain a civil environment within (Woodstock).”

Last night, in Woodstock, we had a town meeting to consider (1) establishing an Ethics Ordinance, rather than having just a Code of Ethics, and (2) establishing the IWWA as an ‘elected’ body, rather than a committee formed by appointment. Both motions failed. As town meetings go, this meeting was well attended. There were at least 117 people present (as evidenced by the number of votes tallied), but I think it was probably closer to 130-145 people in attendance. I marveled at the process and the behavior of the participants, sensing the hard feelings in the room. People in attendance were respectful and the shouting, characteristic of the CPS’ers, was not there.

It was pretty clear from the beginning as the room filled with familiar faces, with long-time ties, that the eventual result would be to keep the status quo. On the face of it, the items on the agenda seemed to be somewhat innocuous. The town already had a ‘Code of Ethics’ as a policy, so it would have been a small step to make this “Code� into an “Ordinance.� Likewise, changing the IWWA from appointed members to elected positions would not have changed very much. One would guess that many of the current members of the IWWA would be elected anyway.

The passion that the attendees felt about the matters before them became very clear. This was not a hypothetical exercise about differing philosophies – it was personal. Some individuals in the room felt some had been attacked, their personal integrity challenged, and their place in the community besmirched. But, there was almost no mention of these unhappy thoughts in the debate of the motions before the assembly. A few comments (unrecognized by the moderator) leapt uncontrollably from the lips of some, revealing how close to the surface the emotions were in the room. There was an undercurrent in the room detectable from the strain in the voices of some participants that spoke volumes about how deeply injured some participants felt. However, the participants support of the status quo was never combative or offensive. Read the rest of this entry »

See ‘Interested’s’ comment after the article “The Defeat of Reason…” and other like comments that he (almost certainly not a she) has left.

“Have you read any books on educational theory?”

‘Interested’ I’d like to answer your question and ask you a few in return. You ask why parents of school children did not support the Amendment. I’m sure parents did support the amendment- the question really is, why does it appear as if some parents voted “no” at the polls? Part of the answer to that question is that parents have limited information. The only newspaper in town is littered with inaccuracies. Both sides of an issue are never explored in any depth. Parents can’t get accurate Minutes to town meetings because they are not posted on web sites or easily obtainable. All the parents I know work for a living and can’t attend meetings that run to midnight. They hear (or hear about) uninformed ranting citizens at Town Meetings who have a questionable level of understanding of what Prop 46 actually says. This is about communication; this is not about parents sharing your opinions and questioning accountability. Read the rest of this entry »

“…lets elimininate (some) costs…”

Here’s an opportunity for all of us to unite on one cause – shouters and non-shouters, CPS’ers and non-CPS’ers alike. There is one significant cost of the Town of Woodstock that we can do away with without any loss in services. We need to put together one more petition – not one of those puny 25-signature petitions, but a 200-plus (why not 400-plus) signature petition. I would sign my name at the top. This petition is intended to cut as much as $200,000 from the town budget thereby reducing the mil rate and lowering the tax burden of the tax-paying citizens of Woodstock.

I propose that we circulate a petition to convert the three Selectman positions to non-salaried Board positions just like the positions on the Board of Education and Finance. When you look at the hefty work of the Board of Education with a budget three times that of the Town operation budget, one has to wonder why our Selectman positions are salaried and the BOE positions are not. Furthermore, during the reign of our last First Selectman, her salary was raised 40% but I never heard anything about this until it was a done deal. It seems to me that there should have been some public discussion of these significant increases in compensation of all three Selectmen. This dialogue might have elicited some interesting discussion about what these people actually do. It also seems to me that all we really need is a Town Clerk, a Treasurer preferably with strong financial expertise, a Town Assessor, and the remaining miscellaneous positions that we have to manage the day-to-day business of the Town.

I say lets eliminate these costs – the Selectman salaries, their fringe benefits, and the position of Executive Administrative Assistant, their office supplies, and the cost of the useless Town web site that is an embarrassment to all and save the taxpayers as much as $200,000. By doing this we may also avoid expensive pet projects like reduction of taxes for the elderly (yikes, that’s me!), the Town cop, the Town planner, bird feeders, and bird feeder supplies, etc. Who knows… we may even save more than $200,000. Read the rest of this entry »

Election Results – The amendment fails 673 YES, 1536 NO!

The failure to amend Proposition 46 is a stain on Woodstock.

Since no other Town in Connecticut has a similar Proposition, Prop 46, itself, is also a stain on Woodstock. The Proposition should not exist for the simple reason that the Town Budget ultimately has to be approved by the electorate. Now, valued teachers will lose their jobs and others will lose funding for classroom supplies that will be less than adequate… without any debate over the specifics. Why don’t we put the laid off staff in a horse-drawn cart and parade them through town like the witches of Salem – after all, they are inherently evil as one well known nay-sayer has intimated. We might add carts for the school age children as well. We will now continue our slide into the third world below towns like Eastford, Killingly, and Brooklyn that rank higher in standard test scores and that are willing to donate more to their youth than Woodstock.

Who do we have to thank for the defeat of this amendment? One person that stands out is our First Selectman, Margaret Wholean, who provided no support for the amendment… although stating that she supported this amendment. I noticed that she had a YES sign tactfully positioned upstream from her house as though she wished to disassociate herself from the sign. I wonder how she actually voted? Ms. Wholean also failed to show up on the WINY talk show with Steve Adams and Everett Shepherd.

I don’t know how anyone else in town feels about this, but I would like the citizens of the Town to demand a First Selectman who stands for something. For that matter, I would like to have three Selectmen that are willing to let their positions be known; then follow up with clear-cut advocacy one way or another. If a Selectman is willing to take a position, any position, and state their reason for their position, then one can respect them for doing so even if one doesn’t agree with their position. However, Woodstock has three Selectmen that hide in City Hall remaining mute on the issues to the populous of Woodstock. This is about as low as an elected official can sink – mute to the citizens who elected them.

Why do we pay these people? We do not pay the members of other Boards and committees. Delpha orchestrated a very large raise for herself and her successor, in spite of the well-known fact that she saw herself only as an administrator (of what, I don’t know). Given their non-performance over the issue of Prop 46, we must work hard to remove all three of these people from office in the next election. We need to start now to expose these losers by educating the citizens of the Town about what should be expected from town officials (I use the term loosely). We can start by pointing out their shallow performance at every instance, and do everything possible to squash their pet projects like tax relief for the elderly, the town cop, etc, that only create problems like further loss of needed tax revenues, initiation of a crime wave, and, oh yes, those ridiculous bird feeders. And, why have a Town Planner if there is nothing to plan?

Who else do we have to thank for the defeat of this amendment? There is an element in Town whose specialty is abuse. I’m not necessarily talking about the Citizens for Prudent Spending (CPS’ers) per se. They have a right to organize and express their views, and they have done so effectively. Just as I would ask Ms. Wholean to come forth and advocate her position, either way, and explain why, I would have to grant the CPS’ers their right to take a position and publicize their views – so I am not speaking about the NO’s in particular. I am talking about the ABUSERS (who may or may not be CPS’ers). They could also be called the town bullies. These people are easy to spot. These are the people who try to shout down their opposition at Town meetings. Thank goodness the voting is anonymous. You may recall the pugilistic behavior of one candidate at the last election. These same people abuse others around them obsessively for different reasons. These are people that have lost all power in town, and perhaps in their personal lives, accept for the shred of control that they hang onto through their installation of fear, through dissemination of mis-information, and through their transmission of anger and incitement among their dimwitted cadre.

One of these people persuaded our First Selectman, Ms. Wholean, to hold a referendum with a petition of twenty-five people. Ms. Wholean announced in the Villager that she preferred to have a referendum rather than a Town meeting because she did not like the negative exchanges that occurred in these Town meetings. The irony of all of this is that she was persuaded to go to referendum by the very people who incite the shouting at Town meetings. I don’t think that she is capable of realizing that she was manipulated with the singular goal of manipulating the Town citizenry. By sending the petition to repeal Prop 46 straight to referendum without the necessary number of signatures, she, more than anyone, ineptly and unwittingly undermined the attempt to amend Prop 46 before this amendment was ever conceived. Read the rest of this entry »

“…he fails to recognize that NO Towns in Eastern Connecticut have a Prop 46 except for Woodstock.�

Mr. Bird, Editor of the Villager, spoke about “loosening of the reigns (sic)� in his editorial this Friday (Apr 21st) in telling Woodstockians that they should “Keep Prop. 46 as it is in Woodstock.� He says, “…loosening the reigns would spell financial disaster.� Was he trying to tell us that we should or should not eliminate the reigning clique that has controlled Woodstock for the last decade? It’s never clear what is actually being said in the Villager articles because its articles are filled with inaccuracies, mis-spellings, and grammatical errors…not to mention ignorance of the issues facing Woodstock managers.

For example, he goes on to talk about Prop 46 as a “safeguard for wild spending� as though wild spending was a sure thing – this is the straw man for his argument that Woodstock should “Keep Prop. 46 as it is in Woodstock.� Does he even know what IS is? Stating a premise that does not exist and is not possible, then knocking it down is a downright stupid exercise, given the fact that the Woodstock electorate ultimately approves the budget.

He touts the importance of Prop 46 and the Massachusetts Prop 2 ½ as safeguards against “wild spending.â€? He is apparently ignorant of the fact that Mass Prop 2 ½ has an annual escape clause, or annual over-ride, that can be approved by the electorate whereas Prop 46 does not. He apparently does not understand that no annual over-ride exists so it’s pointless when he asserts that, “displeasure with the (inadequate) school budget can be registered.â€? The only way possible that I can think of expressing displeasure is to take a leak on the side city hall. Read the rest of this entry »

Woodstock ranks 164th out of 169 Connecticut towns in per pupil education expenditures.

This information comes from the State of Connecticut. The State reported expenditures per pupil (NCEP) of $8,587 for Woodstock in the 2004-2005 school year (the Connecticut State Department of Education) and the same for all school districts in the state (combined elementary, middle, and high school). Woodstock ranks last in NCEP among the towns in Windham County and other nearby towns. Comparable data for 11 surrounding towns are as follows (state ranking):

Eastford ranks 34th (NCEP of $11,749);
Windham ranks 35th (NCEP of $11,630);
Putnam ranks 37th (NCEP of $11,562);
Willington ranks 39th (NCEP of $11,526);
Ashford ranks 81st (NCEP of $10,283);
Killingly ranks 98th (NCEP of $10,058);
Pomfret ranks 126th (NCEP of $9,479);
Brooklyn ranks 144th (NCEP of $9,179);
Tolland ranks 145th (NCEP of $9,116);
Thompson ranks 160th (NCEP of $8,768); and
Woodstock ranks 164th (NCEP of $8,587).

We extended this information to include a comparison with school rankings based upon 2005 standard Connecticut test scores and demographic information on family household income in these school districts.

Family Poverty Levels in These Towns

Woodstock was third best in families living below the poverty line at 1.9%. Tolland and Pomfret were first and second among these 11 towns with 1.1% and 1.7%, respectively. The four worst towns with regard to poverty line were Eastford, Killingly, Putnam, and Windham with 4.4%, 4.8%, 6.2%, and 12.7% of families living below the poverty line, respectively (source).

Tolland 1.1% (families below poverty line)
Pomfret 1.7%
Woodstock 1.9%
Thompson 2.8%
Willington 2.9%
Ashford 3.4%
Brooklyn 4.2%
Eastford 4.4%
Killingly 4.8%
Putnam 6.2%
Windham 12.7%

Median Incomes per Household in These Towns (same website as above)

Woodstock was forth best among the 11 Towns in median household income at $55,313 per household. Tolland, Pomfret, Eastford were higher at $77,398, $57,938, $57,159, respectively.

Tolland $77,398 (median household income)
Pomfret $57,938
Eastford $57,159
Woodstock $55,313
Ashford $55,000
Willington $51,690
Brooklyn $49,756
Thompson $46,065
Putnam $43,010
Killingly $41,087
Windham $35,087

Elementary School Rankings Based Upon CT Test Scores. (http://www.psk12.com/rating/index.php)

This ranking was determined by averaging the three test scores in math, reading, and writing of 4th grade students – level 5 only. Woodstock was 7th out of 8 for the school districts for which this number could be found (Windham, Ashford, and Thompson were not found). Woodstock’s score was 45. Only Putnam was lower at 23. The highest ranking school districts were Willington, Pomfret, and Killingly with scores of 87, 82, and 63.5, respectively. Eastford, Tolland, and Brooklyn had scores of 50, 55, and 55, respectively.

Willington 87 (average level 5 score)
Pomfret 82
Killingly 63.5
Tolland 55
Brooklyn 55
Eastford 50
Woodstock 45
Putnam 23 Read the rest of this entry »

“The lines of authority in Woodstock can be envisioned as a chaotic pile of pick-up-sticks.�

Tony Soprano quipped to his cohorts last night that “Our ‘shit’ is dragging me down!� I did not hesitate to write this down as it evoked the thought that Woodstock has accumulated a lot of political baggage over the years. In a town without a Charter, leadership has become a free-for-all of pet projects and progress has been stymied by inertia. The faces of our elected and appointed officials change occasionally but in reality they represent an entrenched bureaucracy that has changed little since the early 1990’s and perhaps long before then.

Because we are a Charter-less Town there is no line of authority or oversight other than the spinning-wheel voting that goes on every two years and with each referendum. We have had no real choices among the candidates running for top offices (except possibly with the now-disappointing tenure of Ernest Wetzel). Progress is thwarted by inertia like, for example, when desirable ‘elected’ candidates, like Mr. Breen, can not take a position on the Board of Finance due to a technicality. Mr. Breen has had a sustained career in finance unlike many, if not all, of the elected and appointed members of the BOF (F stands for Finance). And, the NO’s usually win in referenda that do not give some tangible reward to a power group in Town.

Our last First Selectman, Delpha Very, viewed herself as just an administrator (of what I don’t know) according to a comment submitted to this web site. Yet she managed to raise her own salary by about 40% with no additional responsibilities. Our current First Selectman, Margaret Wholean, had no agenda and was surprised by her election since she was only a token candidate…so that Delpha would not run unopposed. So we now have a higher paid First Selectman who furthers the inertia with pet-projects that do nothing to enhance the performance of Town services. Her initiative for tax relief for the elderly reminds me of the ‘campaign savvy’ initiative by Governor Rell to eliminate automobile taxes that towns collect even though the towns remain responsible for maintaining the roads – a major budgetary component. No wonder there is negativity in Town, at this web site, and by organizations like the ageless CPS’ers whose mission is to sap all lubricant from the Town’s machinery in order to maintain inertia.

If there is no need to fund maintenance of our roads by collecting an automobile tax, maybe this is a real justification for increasing the relative cut for our education budget … relative to the Town operating budget. Read the rest of this entry »

“Revaluation really isn’t as scary at it seems if you understand how it works.�

Revaluation (reval) is a process by which we periodically update all property values of the Town. We all live in a world of revaluation, but most of us don’t look at it from that perspective. Every time we go to the grocery store or the gas station and the prices have changed, we’re witnessing revaluation. A pound of hamburger is still a pound and a gallon of gas is still a gallon. The cost of acquiring them has (in most cases) gone up because the changing costs of raw materials, labor, production and a whole host of other supply costs – a phenomenon called inflation.

Most importantly, the actual act of reval of properties (adjustment to current market values) does NOT, by itself, change the amount of tax dollars received by the town overall. Read the rest of this entry »

“…for each $100,000 in assessed value…your property tax will rise $69…”

The Town fiscal year that we are currently in (2005-2006) has a budget that allows $18,467,083 in spending. Because of Prop 46 the Town is only able to increase its budget by $738,193. This number is determined by averaging the budget increases for the last three years. Thus, the budget is $19,205,276 for the next fiscal year (2006-2007) according to the guidelines of Prop 46.

Under the amended Prop 46, the increase in budget allowable for 2006-2007 would be equal to last year’s budget increase or the average of the last three years, whichever is largest. In this case the largest was $1,318,323 (last year’s budget). Thus, the allowable budget under the amended version of Prop 46 would be $20,117,708.

The proposed budget for 2006-2007 consists of the education budget of $14,566,120 (proposed) and the General Government budget of $5,144,489 (proposed) which adds up to $19,710,609 (proposed). Thus the increase for 2006-2007 would be $1,243,526, $74,797 less of an increase than in 2005-2006.

If the increase indicated by the proposed 2006-2007 Town budget is allowed by amending Prop 46, then the mil rate will increase from 16.45 mils to 17.14 mils. This means that for each $100,000 in assessed value of a property, your property tax will rise $69 because of the amendment of 46. Likewise, if your property is assessed at $200,000, then your property tax would increase $138. Read the rest of this entry »

An editorial in the Norwich Bulletin urges amendment of Prop 46 in the upcoming referendum

“…to achieve the ’65% solution’ for optimal in-classroom education funding, we would have to inject an additional $319,350 into the classroom side of our preK-8 education budget …”

Some of our readers may have noticed the ever-so-brief lead headline in USA Today “States sign on to ’65% solution’ for funding schools.â€? This educational solution for public schools was also described in the Christian Science Monitor in January 2006. The ‘65% solution’ (adopted by some states) is simply that 65% in education funding should go directly to the classroom such as salaries for teachers, classroom supplies, textbooks, computers, etc. According to Standard & Poors, Connecticut public school budgets average 63.8% of funds directed to in-classroom teaching. Other states scored as low as 55.5% and the District of Columbia scored 52.5%. One criticism of this ‘solution’ – “intended to cut the fatâ€? – is that if the school system is under funded in the first place, then a higher percentage of costs may be sequestered in infrastructure costs. Furthermore there is no strong statistical argument in support of the ’65% solution’ although there is a rational argument that higher investment on the teaching side should help to better educate students. There is an economy in scale and so once the proper fundamental infrastructure is put in place, this infrastructure can be held static in cost as student numbers increase – for example, the electricity and heating oil budget should remain constant (if the price of these commodities does not increase) as the student population grows within the building and more money is invested on the teaching side.

If the school system goes below the 65% figure for in-classroom educational spending, this problem could indeed be caused by ‘fat’ in the non-teaching budget. Alternatively, going below the 65% could mean that the Woodstock school system is not investing enough funds in teachers, classroom supplies, textbooks, computers, etc. The outcries of those (like Mr. Wetzel) in Woodstock that are complaining about the education budget are saying that we have too many teachers and they are paid too much. On the other hand, contributors to this site have pointed out that our education budget is already one of the lowest in the state for in-classroom teaching supplies – a budget held prisoner by an archaic Proposition 46.

On a weekly basis, the news from interviews by The Villager also indicates that if major education budget cuts occur, this will mean that a significant number of teachers will have to be let go. I have not heard anyone suggest that we should turn the thermostats down to 55 degrees or let the kids walk to school. One person (Mr. Wetzel again) who is hypercritical of the Woodstock education budget has suggested that Woodstock should retain Laidlaw to bus our students because he was driving behind a bus that was half full … or was it half empty. Since Laidlaw would cost more than our current busing system, this change would tip the scale away from the 65% threshold of optimal funding since buses are not in the classroom (although I would argue that school buses can be a classroom in a sense, and they prepare kids for the classroom).

After reading the USA today article, I thought that I would calculate where Woodstock stands in relation to the ‘65% solution’ as there may be some merit to this rule, although I believe the ‘65% solution’ is too simplistic. Nevertheless, many states are adopting this rule.

If I look at classroom teaching expenses in the proposed budget for preK through 8 (not including tuition to other schools), the in-classroom budget is $5,786,495 out of a total preK-8 budget of $9,392,641 or 61.6%. One can argue about what percentage of the WA and out-of-town tuitions is actually in-classroom costs but the fact is they are essentially fixed costs and the out-of-town tuitions are mandated by the State. Read the rest of this entry »

“The idea of trying to form some sort of ‘panel’ of local interested citizens of differing perspectives to look at things from a detached persepctive has much merit.”

Randy’s Statement
No one, particularly the BOF, has HAD to question the budget line-by-line BECAUSE of Prop 46. The benefit of repealing it is to allow for the hard work of scrutinizing each item. Regardless, ‘Interested’ is right, this needs to be done. However, why the assumption that none of us have done this? Why the assumption that no one in any God forsaken corner of this town ever thought of that bright idea except for you (speaking to ‘Interested‘ under Queenie’s statement below)? In fact, it has been posted on this website and still the same rhetoric is spewed. Face it already, Woodstock is on the bottom rung of spending in the state. Perhaps, it is a state issue? Did you ever think of that? Perhaps your anger should be redirected toward the tax and spenders in Hartford who give us a penny back for every dollar in income taxes we pay them to fund education. Guess where the other 90 cents goes and guess who wants a piece of that pie? (Hint) Turn on the TV and watch the thousands of illegal immigrants. ‘Interested‘, don’t be so quick to polarize, no one wants exorbitant taxes. We are more alike than not.

Ed’s Statement
That is an excellent point that Randy makes with regard to the State. Read the rest of this entry »

See WoodstockCtCafe’s statement about visitation to this website at this link.

I was driving south on Rt. 169 today, and spotted the HUGE sign on Racine’s front lawn (the Red house on the corner of 169 and 197). It said, “Don’t fix what ain’t broke- prop 46 worksâ€?, and I began laughing. It NEEDS fixing and it DOESN’T work- and your grammar is what we can expect from our kids if we dont save our school system! Is there anyone out there who can tell us EXACTLY what we may expect if we do indeed succeed in getting this stupid and archaic ordinance amended? I think more open minded and intelligent people agree that it needs amending, but many (including myself) are in the dark and are a little fearful about “whatâ€? we can expect with an amendment. I can’t believe that it could be as moronic and simple as just jacking everyone’s taxes “through the roofâ€?- I just don’t buy that. Someone answer- Read the rest of this entry »