Woodstock CT Café

It’s 9:20 AM Saturday Morning (Pacific Time) and . . . . . . .she’s ARRIVED!!!!
Becki landed in the driveway at mom’s in more yellow than the sun offers this morning, (her outfit is sunny.)
Mom pushed Rob out of the way to get to her, and everything is smiles.
After a good cup of coffee, I’m sure she will post, as THIS hotel ALWAYS has internet access.
Stay tuned. Sister Barb

The Golden Gate Bridge over the entrance to San Francisco Bay with San Francisco in the background. Burlingame is just south of SF.

Days Six and Seven are available below. On Day Seven made it to Reno NV Friday night (6/27) but no computer hook-up. Just drove by Donner Lake at 5:45AM this morning (6/28) and the sun just popped up from behind. Now down the Sierras to home in the SF Bay area.  

Today, Saturday the 21st at 6:03am, Becki took off for California by car to spend a month with her family and friends who live in the Bay Area peninsula south of San Francisco. Before moving to Woodstock at the beginning of 1996, Becki lived nearly all of her first 40 years in the Bay Area, and she has returned home every year except last year. We decided that, in spite of the cost of gas, driving was preferable to the hassel of flying and renting a car in California. When I compared the cost between flying and driving, there was no difference. We decided that driving was more flexible and this will allow her to stop and visit friends along the way as well. We’ve driven across the country and back several times and have always enjoyed the trip.The Cafe will chronical Becki’s trip with Y-Fi reports. She will not take the most direct route as can be seen by the map below.  Bus

Bus Driver’s Holiday 

Day Seven – June 27, 2008 – Rock Springs, Wyoming – Approaching the Final Frontier

I’m up early and on the road after fueling and picking up a latte. Today is going to be a long haul. I’m aiming for Fernley, Nevada. The traveling is starting to catch up with me, though I’ve been careful to get enough sleep and keep the meals light.

I have a portable refrigerator that runs of the power port (everybody used to call them the cigarette lighter socket). I keep four 20-ounce beverages, acouple of ½ cup chopped fruits, a bag of baby carrots, a zucchini and a couple of wet wash clothes in zip lock bags. I also keep my Blistex in there so it doesn’t melt.

Garamina is mounted on the dashboard and also plugs into the power port. I have a three-way splitter so I can run things simultaneously. Then I have an oscillating fan that uses the third port in my splitter. The air-conditioning doesn’t work because it was going to cost $1K to fix. That’s why the oscillating fan has been whispering sweet nothings in my ear for the last several days.

The air has been murky since I left Connecticut. For the most part that has been because of the humidity. The haze has cast a pall on many of the lovely vistas I was hoping to enjoy. I started taking pictures out the window along the way. I’ll have to set up my Mac to see what I’ve got. I’ll set up a Picasa Album on Google so you all can look at what I have (if the pictures are worth sharing). Read the rest of this entry »

From ‘Cheerleader’: Over the past four+ months I’ve seen a Planning and Zoning Commission that has listened carefully to all material presented on this application. They’ve asked questions and given fair chance to all to express opinions. A read through the minutes from the May 15th meeting will illustrate the depth of their considerations in discussing this proposal.The job of PZC isn’t to rule based on the projected obvious high cost involved in developing a large tract of wetland nor is it to consider the relatively few students who will ultimately benefit from this development. The task in front of PZC is to deny or accept this application on it’s merit as a complete proposal that is in compliance with the regulations for Special Permit. Additionally, PZC is mandated to safeguard the good health, safty and welfare of ALL Woodstock citizens through their deliberations toward denying or approving all applications that come before them.

Tonight at 6:30 pm, June 26th, Woodstock’s Planning and Zoning Commission will hold a site walk of the area for the proposed expansion of Woodstock Academy athletic fields. If you want to participate in this site walk you must be at the town hall by 6:30 pm for roll call. The site walk will begin at the town hall, proceed to the site and return to the town hall where there will be a final public hearing on this application.

If you are interested in any aspect of the Academy’s proposal for expansion — attendance at the site walk will add important information and give greater understanding of the scope of this project.

Please, read the following instructions for a site walk before participation. Instructions are given by Delia Fey, Town Planner.

Procedure for scheduling a Special Meeting for a Site-walk and continuation of Public Hearing when no additional PZC meetings will be held between the site-walk and end of the timeline on the application:
 
The entire meeting needs to be recorded as minutes will need to be done.  Everyone needs to stay as one group and not have individual conversations. 
 
The Site walk will need to occur as a Special Meeting, starting at the Town Hall where the call to order and roll call will take place.  The site walk can then proceed to the site. Read the rest of this entry »

Does Mr. Rosendahl actually think that there is such a thing as ‘long range’ planning in a town that has a regressive spending cap in a world of ever higher spiraling prices for everyday items? Oh by the way Mr. Rosendahl, we were unable to repave our back lot at the middle school until the insurance company threatened not to cover any liabilty if we didn’t (even though it had been included and then cut. So much for long range planning. from ‘Bus Driver’

I have seen you in action at the BOE meetings and so far you have tried to spread misinformation just as you are now. You do not want to listen to what your administrators are telling you. You have your own agenda and seem to want to embarrass and discredit the superintendent any way you can. You seem to want to listen to the CPS people who really do not know what is going on in the school system and make up stuff as they go along. Shame on you for pretending you want to work for the school system. If this is what you think is helping the children in Woodstock, you need to go back to school. And by the way, for an educated person, your writing skills are rather poor. from ‘graylady’ to Rosendahl

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 18:22:11

(1)    Times are bad people are losing their jobs  – gas is on its way to $5.00. The only thing townspeople can have input on is this vote.

(2)     Most of our citizens are not upper management or owners of manufacturing plants they are wage earners of less than $60,000 and have not had a raise in years yet alone a  4% yearly raise.

(3)    Do townspeople trust the boards? Have the boards earned the peoples trust. Do board members mislead the townspeople as private citizens for their own agendas?

(4)    Did both parties overwhelmingly vote in November for change? Did they vote for change two and half years ago, when we got our tails handed to us?

I saw this coming (the economic down turn) but did not think it would hit till next year. I stated this at my board meeting and pointed out that when deep real cuts would need to be made the BOE had to have trust of the townspeople.

To steal a slogan  from Microsoft the message we need to send  is DO MORE WITH LESS because that is what most of us will have to do.

But what did we do?  The selectman asked for 125K for the revaluation. Then the BOF went to the limit of 46 and with 250K added for the revaluation which was not required. The newspaper reported that the BOF chair stated the 250k was the request of the Selectman (this might have been a mistake by the reporter but no one corrected it). 

A BOE member mislead the public in stating that the overestimate in student tuition happened only one year and then a few days later not only  admitted it was two years but how the money was spent.

My point the townspeople of Woodstock do not get a clear message, this leads to mistrust. Read the rest of this entry »

PRESS RELEASE
The Woodstock Board of Education extends a thank you to the 680 voters who supported the Woodstock Education and Town Budget on June 24, 2008.

The Woodstock Board of Education encourages community participation in our Board Evaluation and Long Term Planning Meeting, to be held at our regular board meeting on Thursday, June 26 at 7 p.m. at Woodstock Middle School.  Please join us and share your thoughts and suggestions.

Dustin’s article in the Norwich Bull on the referendum outcome.

This author may have no knowledge on what’s going on in Woodstock. This was posted as a comment. Since it was posted, we are publishing it without further comment. We would like to encourage outsiders to comment on the affairs of Woodstock. Admin

This year’s local-budget battles featured some of the most bitter fighting in recent memory. And the spring of ’09 will likely produce even nastier conflicts, given the “vote yes” lobby’s inability or unwillingness to accept two simple yet incontrovertible facts.

The first is that Connecticut taxpayers spend bushels of money on the state’s government schools. The second is that the return on this “investment” is poor.

The numbers on spending are stunning. Several years ago, a legislative investigation found that between 1981 and 2001, Connecticut ’s government-school expenditures, adjusted for inflation, more than doubled. Enrollment growth was less than 10 percent.

The teacher-student ratio in Nutmeg State government schools is lower than the national average. The share of non-instructional staff in the system is high — 13 percentage points above average. And with educrat earnings and benefits in the exosphere, spending per student ranks near the top. (Only New Jersey and New York spend more.)

It’s likely that many “do it for the children” activists aren’t aware of these figures. A recent opinion survey discovered that Americans have little understanding of how much revenue funds government-run schools. The average answer to pollsters’ query about per-pupil spending in respondents’ local districts was $4,231 — less than half the accurate sum. In addition, respondents underestimated average teacher salaries in their states by over $14,000.

Researchers William Howell and Martin R. West concluded: “Americans think that far less is being spent on the nation’s public schools than is actually the case. The vast majority of the public thinks we spend amounts that can only be described as minuscule, and almost 96 percent of the public underestimate either per-pupil spending in their districts or teacher salaries in their states.” Read the rest of this entry »