Woodstock CT Café

(See Curious’ comment under “Giant Fart…”, Admin)

Tadpole speaks
I do not agree CURIOUS. The parents I know do not want to see their children’s k-8 education sacrificed to keep a very average high school just plain average.

Great high schools have great middle and elementary schools that feed into them. Great schools are great because of the caliber of student AND the quality of programs. In Woodstock, the Academy’s programs appear to be very good, but the quality of the entire student body is sadly, just average. You just can’t have a great Academy without a strong k-8 system underneath it. Your thinking is flawed and will yield diminishing returns! The stripped down funding in this town has an overall weakening effect on the quality of the student as that student moves through the system up to the Academy. When kids are short changed in k-8, they arrive at the Academy unprepared and unable to take full advantage of any program designed to prepare them for post secondary education. Some kids are able to compensate and rise above, but unfortunately many can not. Additionally, you don’t put a bandaid on the problem by putting in a program at the Academy to prepare an 8th grade student for the 9th grade. To prepare a child to learn for life starts in the home, followed by an adequately funded and FREE preK program. This should be followed by aggressive educational support and funding for k-8 by all stakeholders. These include parents, teachers, administrators, municipal leaders, Board of Finance members and all taxpayers. If you want a great Academy, then Woodstockers need to wake up and fund k-8. Until then, you will always have just an average Academy.

Karnac speaks
Curious – The problem is the Academy is not staying the way it is – it is expanding with large increases in staff, students, land and facilities. The cost of this massive expansion is being hidden from the sending towns who will have to pay whether they can afford it or not. In Woodstock’s case, of course, because of Prop 46, the increased costs come right out of the town’s already strapped public education system – and there is no end in sight. Read the rest of this entry »

Let me help shed some light- seems we have the usual political back-room games going on and Woodstock Selectmen, as usual , chose to hide their heads in the sand – rather than work to resolve issues.

Seems the ZBA approved something that PZC didn’t like-so rather than attempting to communicate intelligently- a subcommittee within PZC voted to sue ZBA over their decision (which probably is illegal- believe the full board would need to vote). Isn’t this grand? Woodstock doesn’t have enough money to properly fund education and other concerns- but quickly throws money to lawyers over an issue which (as I understand) involves a beneficial conservation change! Not only that- but the boards have not properly administered the proceedings- so on top of the trivial nature of the lawsuit – their poor performance almost guarantees they will LOSE the lawsuit if contested. Isn’t it wonderful that the board recently decided to vote Ken Goldsmith “outâ€? of the chairmanship? Ken is on track to become an attorney- what cumulative intelligence of any board removes that kind of skill from a leadership position? Add to these recent proceedings that PZC recently voted to force McWilliams to tear down a newly built stone wall because it did not meet some “arbitraryâ€? measure of being an “authenticâ€? Woodstock wall? Read the rest of this entry »

I was surprised to learn by reading the Villager that a polling of Woodstock citizens last February 8th on whether or not they would like to have a resident Woodstock policeman failed miserably. This poll was taken as voters overwhelmingly voted in a referendum to approve the Eddy farm preservation. The ‘policeman poll’ was memorialized in an article at the Café on February 11th entitled “Dyslexic Votingâ€?. Eleven months later we have learned of the outcome of this poll for the first time thanks to the transparancy of our Selectman’s office. The Selectmen will no doubt say “Well why didn’t you ask us?” I think the answer is that no one cared what the answer was.

In this front page article by Shaun Moriarty, Mitchell Eaffy was quoted as stating “I think the town would benefit from a state trooper. I think it would be worth the extra money.â€? One has to ask “what extra money?” Did Mr. Eaffy ask the CPS lobby if he could have this extra money? Doesn’t he know that he has to seek their permission?

Later in the article it was stated “Eaffy suggested a resident trooper would lead to fewer incidents ever occurring due to community policing …â€? I suppose that Mr. Eaffy forgot the warning from representatives of the State police (at an informational hearing in Woodstock) who flat out stated that complaints to the police would increase from residents because of the easy availability of a cop ‘on call’. Read the rest of this entry »

I dropped in to see what the Selectmen were up to this week. The agenda was long which surprised me. I figured that even if the meeting ran late, I’d be able to manage getting up at five to drive the bus – after all, I can get through almost anything on Friday.

Most of the attendants to the meeting were familiar faces, though there were an unusual number of high school students obviously doing research for a class.

There was the usual approval of meeting minutes, and an amendment of a September 2006 Selectmen’s meeting, three appointments and then several things that might interest different citizens. Those items are the following: Mike Alberts spoke about STEAP Grants, Dawn Adiletta gave an update regarding purchase of development rights, the acceptance of Jean’s Court as a town road was considered, budget meetings were scheduled, there was an update on the Bennett Farm on Coatney Hill, a joint meeting between BOS, P&Z, and ZBA was considered, the addition of paid holidays for the transfer station employees was discussed, and part-time help for the Highway Garage. After that there was an update from the First Selectman, Citizen’s Comments, Correspondence, an Executive Session for legal matters and the Adjournment (which nobody stayed for because it came after Executive Session). Read the rest of this entry »