Woodstock CT Café

We are grateful to ‘Reality Check’ for pointing out a mistake in this article published on June 30th. Thus it has been revised accordingly. Admin

The per pupil regular education cost are as follows:
Woodstock Academy … $9,998
Woodstock Public Schools … $7,734

The Academy per pupil regular education cost is the tuition figure of $9,998 (ref.1). To determine the per pupil costs of the PK-8 system, we start with the total education budget of $15,003,565 (ref.2) and remove all the high school related costs of $5,720,685 (ref.3). This leaves us with a balance of $9,282,880. From this we must remove $1,595,095 (PK-8 special education), and $541,648 (transportation – exclusive of high school/sped transportation) (ref.4) costs because none of these are included in the Academy per pupil tuition. This leaves us with a figure of $7,146,137. This figure is then divided by 924 (ref.5) which results in a per pupil cost of $7,734 for regular education in the PK-8 systems. Read the rest of this entry »

Being responsible for the meeting on Wednesday night, I would characterize the events (of last night’s Board of Ed meeting). (See the rest of Frank’s comment under “Amidst The Turmoil...”) You all speculate as to the intentions or motivations of the WBOE members. Rather than speculate, why don’t you just ask us individually. We aren’t wallflowers who are hesitant to speak our minds. However, it isn’t the purpose of a WBOE meeting to express personal views or to ask the chair what the WBOE’s motives were. The WBOE doesn’t have motives, the WBOE is a meeting where we discuss issues and take action. Intentions and motives are the realm of the individual members.

So before you ask, I’ll tell you my motivations for voting to evaluate the 9th Grade Proposal. Over the last several years we have teetered on the edge of being able to provide what I believe is a minimal offering to students K-8. Students do need to develop holistically and we need to provide WMS students with a range of offerings in academics, athletics, non-athletic extracurricular areas, and in gifted and talented programs. All students need to have the opportunity to participate in some aspect of education where they can shine, and I believe, although we are all different, virtually every one of our students has some area of strength where they can rise above the rest and lead. Read the rest of this entry »

RE: Building rate in Woodstock
Woodstock … 77 (building permits for houses in 2005)
Pomfret … 17
see comment below and article on “Ten Years of Growth in Woodstock”

For some perspective, the following are salary figures for positions in Woodstock and Pomfret. The figures come directly from the town budgets (just approved for fiscal year 07/08). Woodstock figures follow a ‘W’ and Pomfret figures follow a ‘P’. Where quantities are needed they will be noted parenthetically.

First Selectman –
W $54,855
P $36,500
Selectmen (2) –
W $8,809
P $7,210
Selectmen Staff –
W $36,000
P $16,120
Selectmen Part Time Staff –
W $25,244
P $Ø

Assessor –
W $40,560
P $29,900
Assessor Staff –
W $36,698
P $Ø

Tax Collector –
W $50,027
P $29,120
Tax Collector Staff –
W $34,589
P $Ø
Tax Collector Part Time Staff –
W $Ø
P $3,250

Treasurer –
W $50,027
P $10,920
Treasurer Staff –
W $39,530
P $8,736
Treasurer Part Time Staff –
W $Ø
P $7,166

Town Clerk –
W $50,027
P $30,441
Town Clerk Staff –
W $34,589
P $24,862

Registrars of Voters (2) –
W $10,209
P $7,725
Registrars of Voters Part Time Staff –
W $6,760
P $Ø

Town Hall Part Time Staff –
W $18,613
P $Ø Read the rest of this entry »

We recently reported the rankings of the Woodstock middle and elementary schools among all public schools throughout the State of Connecticut posted at ConnCan’s website. (ConnCan is a non-profit organization devoted to helping the schools of Connecticut achieve the goal of the law “No Child Left Behind.�) Woodstock public schools fared comparatively well in reaching goal of the NCLB law in that the Woodstock K-8 system is ranked 24th in the state in terms of its overall performance. ConnCan provides a simple grade (A down to F) for the performance of each public school in Connecticut. Woodstock received an A- for students reaching goal at the Middle School with 85% (62% state average) of its students within goal for the 2005-2006 school year (22nd out of 157 middle schools; see rest of this article).

Since Woodstock Academy was not included in ConnCan’s assessment of high school performance posted at their website because of the Academy’s ‘private’ school status (along with NFA and Gilbert School), I contacted ConnCan to ask if their organization could provide me with a full assessment of all high schools in Connecticut that included the private academies. ConnCan responded by sending me an Excel spreadsheet ranking the relative performance of 178 high schools by percentage of students meeting NCLB goal based upon CAPT (CT Academic Performance Test) scores. Read the rest of this entry »

The 9th grade proposal died tonight. At the end of citizens’ participation, Jeff Danforth spoke eloquently and persuasively about the BOEs pursuit of this issue as having united many disparate factions. Then Becki Leavitt and Bob Motley gave impassioned pleas to the BOE to vote to end consideration of this cost cutting approach for the forseeable future. After that, the Board acted quickly to end this consideration at about 8:30 this evening.

Dearest Friend,

Tonight’s meeting was almost anticlimactic. I did enjoy the process however. It must be my unending curiosity as regards the manner of structure and function. Perhaps I should have been an engineer, an architect or political theorist. It matters not.

There was a moment when I was nearly overcome with frustration. It seemed that the LRP committee board members present scuttled the scenario of bringing forward the committee report, draft or otherwise, to the full board. It was a moment of great drama. I feared that the board would not have the opportunity to vote about the matter, leaving it to ferment over the long, dog days of summer - like some cancer.

Though we have different perspectives, I truly believe we agree on how destructive this whole ninth grade scenario is for the town. So certainly you can understand the difficulty of not being able to cut the head off the snake, once and for all. (And I do know how you feel about snakes!).

There was an item added to the BOE agenda about the discussion of the ninth grade proposal. Once the discussion took place the matter was tabled because neither of the committee members present supported the report, though Corden thought it should go to the full board. Then Swenson questioned why the matter would be put forward to the board if neither committee member present endorsed it. You know me, I was on the verge of crawling out of my skin!!! Read the rest of this entry »

Hi Friend,
I don’t know about you but I had a hard time at the meeting last night. I heard all of the rhetoric I have been spewing being repeated… and absolutely hated it! Right or wrong, it just bugged me. I’ve been to the BOE meetings, I’ve seen the long hours of work they put in, and for all of it, their legacy boils down to that? Sad, and not fair, yet are they to blame? How could a group that is so smart and so dedicated lose sight of the fact that this was going to backfire big time? Was it really worth risking their credibility for? They deserve so much more respect for everything else they do and yet lost it.
I felt most sorry for Lindsey Paul. She sincerely does not seem to be like a political type. Am I right or just naive? When that one loudmouth kid couldn’t even address her by her name because he didn’t know it, it told me two things: He never went to any other meetings and he was quick to implicate someone who deserves more respect. I may disagree with the whole 9th grade proposal, but after all of the hard work and dedication that someone like Lindsey Paul has voluntarily done with extreme dedication and sacrifice…for free… I found the lack of respect appalling. It just didn’t feel right. Read the rest of this entry »

Honestly, although we could have viewed this meeting (7PM, 6/27/07) as democracy in action, a power to the people pow-wow, a win for the common man, etc. I found it all terribly anti-climactic and I left feeling deeply saddened. Sure, I’m glad there was a good turnout. Sure, I enjoyed increasing the pitch of my clapping against the audacity. Sure, I even enjoyed the verbal lashing Frank Corden received from Christine Swenson’s verbal whip. And mostly, I’m glad that the 9th grade proposal will more than likely disappear. But when all is said and done, I was ashamed and embarrassed that this jihad ever had to happpen. I was saddened that such displays of passion seemingly show up only to move negative things backward, not positive things forward. I also left with many questions. How did good, smart people ever think that this was a good and viable idea? Wasn’t it anticipated that without public support this would just become a huge, huge loss of political capital for the BOE? Was the public humilation worth risking hours and hours of dedicated service for? As the above author stated, the editorial process of the committtee’s report was crucial. However, although I suspected that flaws would be uncovered, I never would have expected the extent of error present and was aghast that with all its flaws the committee had the audacity to move it forward to the floor. This process needed to happen two weeks ago! Not the night of the meeting! This was not give and take. This was an injection of Polonium-210. Who was responsible for pushing this forward and where were they to take some of the heat. Where was “tough bunny Snow”? Where was the defense that the impetus of this movement came from the belief that K-8 funding is compromised. Like Ken Rapaport and the Pulpit Rock proposal, Read the rest of this entry »

It was a very moving evening, I mean as far as meetings go. It was the Long Range Planning Committee meeting and was held in the middle school gymnasium. Members are Frank Corden, Romeo Blackmar, Christine Swensen, Dr. Frank Baran, Viktor Toth. Paul Gamache, Gail Porter and Christine Carter. I didn’t actually count heads but I’d say there was an absolute solid 150, but it might have been closer to 200 in attendance… being as sultry as it was – there was a lot of milling about.

This was “the nightâ€?! This was our “onlyâ€? opportunity to be heard, or so we were warned in the Shopper’s Guide. A fair amount of the people there I expected to see… several Board of Education (non-LRP) members: Rapose, Rosendahl, Spalding, et al; the Kelly brothers; Board of Selectmen (Very & Wholean); Board of Finance’s Wisneski, and some WPS faculty (more than I expected). Then there were many of the worker-bee (not being used as a derogatory term) regulars of town politics … Betty Brooks, Nancy Nystrom, Fran Stevens, Chan Paquette, Suzanne Woodward, and some notable town standards… the Larsons, Jeff Danforth, Everett Cowley, Henry Place to name just the few that come to mind. Read the rest of this entry »

Brooklyn passes the town and eductation budgets:
On the $5.1 million town budget:
Yes: 424….No: 361.
On the $14.8 million education budget:
Yes: 392…No: 379.
On the $341,774 capital improvement question:
Yes: 399….No: 358.

Today the Hartford Courant published a large table that ranked Connecticut High Schools by their graduate enrollment in college (page B2, 6/26/2007; the link at the newspaper website did not work). The title of this half page article was “More Graduates Heading to Private Out-of-State Colleges� – the main message of the article. But, although the data ordered all 179 CT high schools by the percentage of graduating high school students that attended private colleges, the table also showed the total percentage of high school seniors that went on to both private and public colleges. This survey compiled its data only from 2004-2006 graduating seniors.

As might be expected, the same affluent towns that ranked high among preK-8 – New Canaan (2), Darien (1), Wilton (4), Staples/Westport(5), Ridgefield (9), and Simsbury High School (12), e.g towns that don’t send their kids to out-of-town high schools were at the top of the list with 90-97% of graduating seniors going off to either type of college. Among this elite group the percentage of seniors going off to private colleges ranged from 76% down to 54%.

You may recall a previous article on the high ranking of the K-8 school systems in Pomfret and Woodstock which ranked 11th and 22nd, respectively, statewide among 157 public middle schools in terms of meeting the goals of NCLB (no child left behind); but surrounding towns fared less well.

Woodstock Academy (WA) was ranked 108th out of 179 high schools for private college enrollment with 25% of its seniors enrolling in private colleges. When WA was ranked by total college enrollment, only 10 out of the 108 high schools ranked above WA scored a lower percentage of total college enrollment, and 43 of the 59 high schools ranking below WA in terms of private college enrollment scored below WA in total college enrollment. Thus, if the list of high schools was ordered by total college enrollment, WA would have ranked 114th in the state with a percentage of 74% graduating seniors enrolling in college. According to the ranking based on private college attendance, Putnam HS was ranked 109th just behind the Academy, although if one looks at total college enrollment Putnam showed only 61% total college enrollment. Read the rest of this entry »

We did not attend this graduation ceremony as we have in the two preceding years. It’s always a moving experience tempered by concern for the future of these kids. See our description of Graduation Day a year ago. Two years ago the weather was steamy hot and humid and last year it rained. Yesterday must have been near perfect.

Following are the members of the class of 2007 at Woodstock Academy:

Brooklyn: Steven Eric Abrahamson; Victoria Kiyomi Ahrens, cum laude, NHS, SNHS, Tri-M; Chelsi Rose Baker; Janessa Barrette; Clint R. Beausoleil; Evan Bellanceau, cum laude; Christopher Calkins; Stephanie Marie Cataldo; Michael P. Conley; Kelsey Marie Crosson; Danielle Marie Deschenes; Kirsti Doubleday; Matthew J. L. Dunnack; Chelsea Rae Espeleta; James Louis Famiglietti; Natalie Jeanne Geeza; Kristen Sage Glessner, cum laude, NHS; Adam David Gumula; Scott Josephson; Brigid Wilson Jury; Arthur Pearce Kisby, cum laude; Kyle James Lacey; Kara Ann Laperle; Rebecca Marie L’Heureux; Jacqueline J. Lynch; Warren MacKenzie; Danielle Jean Mort; Mark Nelson; Jonathan Norman; Danielle Elizabeth Parenteau; Ashley Lee Patrylak; Sarah Patrylak; Jamie Lee Pechie; Katherine Perry; Kelsey L. Phelan; Lucas Matthew Scotta, summa cum laude, SNHS; Benjamin Robert Sisko; Sarah Anne Stever; Nicole Lynn Strandson, NHS, SNHS; Candra Sykes; Jessica Lynne Vangel, NHS; Amy Lynn Walker. Read the rest of this entry »