Woodstock CT Café

by Harry Stefan

I think that the expected, drastic reduction in state funding necessitates the BOE, with the public backing of the Selectmen and the BOF, to take a stand in its negotiations with the Academy.

1. Require the Academy to shoulder its portion of the reduction in state monies.

2. Require the Academy to offer Woodstock, as the host town, a lower per student tuition.

3. Should Woodstock residents refuse to fund the proposed education and town budgets, the Academy must agree to reduce its budget to comply with BOF guidelines.

These are reasonable, realistic proposals. It is past time for the Academy to be a responsible part of the education system in Woodstock.

The Selectmen and the BOF should announce soon their support of the BOE in its negotiations with the Academy. If they do not, the BOE should formally request that support.

by Dean

Le Droite, I have always considered myself a conservative and Bush is a failure as a conservative president. Let me address your points:

1) Maybe the treaty was a disaster, but the fact that his administration decided to try to paint global warming as a lie when 98% of the scientists in the world say it is happening because of human activity shows the same disregard for facts as his decision to invade Iraq.

2) We have no idea what “enhanced interrogation” (or the word that was used previous to the Bush administration for this, torture) actually produced. What I was taught 20 years ago was that torture produces almost no information of value because people lie. In past wars where we fought against people that tortured, pilots were fed convenient lies to feed their torturers. Stalin one time lost a personal item, a couple of days later he found it and mentioned it to his chief of secret police. The chief said it was impossible that he could have found it because three people already confessed to stealing the item. Torture is only done by weak minded individuals and we should be above it.

And as a conservative, there is never any reason for our government to steal our constitutional rights. Never.

3) rebuilding of presidential authority. When congress passes a law, and a president willfully decides to ignore it, it is a dangerous slope heading to a dictatorship. Another item that every conservative should resist. Read the rest of this entry »

by JK

I’m not going to try to prove you wrong; I’m just going to offer some thoughts about your statements.

“1 ) His decision in 2001 to stop the Kyoto global warming treaty so loved by Al Gore, the environmental lobby, elite opinion, and Europeans. The treaty was a disaster, with India and China exempted and economic decline the certain result.”

Well, we’ve seen economic decline, so if the US had signed on, would we blame the treaty? I can understand that forcing restrictions on US manufacturers might hinder production and profits. But in reality, fossil fuels are not renewable (at least not for a few thousand+ years). Global warming may not be as bad as suggested in the supposed documentary “An Inconvenient Truth” but clearly the output of carbon fuels can contribute to global warming. We really do need to seek new energy sources, not just new oil production methods and locations.

“2 ) Enhanced interrogation of terrorists. Along with use of secret prisons and wireless eavesdropping, this saved American lives. How many thousands of lives? We’ll never know.”

It is difficult to balance the ideals of freedom in times of war, and in the face of terrorism. How many basic human rights, which the US tries to promote worldwide, are you willing to throw out? Can you at least see the slippery slope to “Freedom is Slavery” and “War is Peace”? I’m just not sure what boundaries there are to prevent an innocent person from being tortured. Also, the Patriot Act (nice name, eh) appears to give the government carte blanche to eavesdrop on communications without probable cause. That concerns me. Read the rest of this entry »

by Le Droite

Admin., I received the “ten Bush achievements” via a personal email. I found it interesting and pertinent to use in framing this commentary. However, in googling it (I had a funny feeling) I discovered that these comments were not “personal” but taken from an editorial by Fred Barnes, Weekly Standard Jan.13! I am very sorry! I do not want to infringe on copyrights or be guilty of plagarism. Can you either delete this or give proper credit.

Through all of yesterday’s events I have to admit that I was warmed to George Bush. There will be a part of me that will miss him although I realize it is time for a change.

Despite all his foibles he had ten great achievements worth mentioning (and not forgetting):

1 ) His decision in 2001 to stop the Kyoto global warming treaty so loved by Al Gore, the environmental lobby, elite opinion, and Europeans. The treaty was a disaster, with India and China exempted and economic decline the certain result.

2 ) Enhanced interrogation of terrorists. Along with use of secret prisons and wireless eavesdropping, this saved American lives. How many thousands of lives? We’ll never know. Read the rest of this entry »

Here it is! The day – that day that we give witness to every four years – the day that we witness the peaceful transfer of power for our country. Its is the day that we rekindle the validity of our constitution as well as our faith and belief in our country’s intrinsic value and goodness.

I am buoyed, yet once again, by the sheer wonder of how the vision of a few men a couple of centuries ago continues to grow and change in order to accommodate the reality of any given era. I revel in the fact that this country renews its vows to be, for better or (sometimes) worse, to be the country that can… the country that will… and the country that keeps growing in an effort to ever be the country for ALL of us. Grow on America! Go on America! – WE are America… WE are the change! And so we continue – as a nation, as a people, as a collected group of people dedicated to the freedoms and responsibilities of being Americans.

This is America’s true birthday! Happy Renewal Day America!

Becki

From USA Today

The USA’s public schools stand to be the biggest winners in Congress’ $825 billion economic stimulus plan unveiled last week. Schools are scheduled to receive nearly $142 billion over the next two years — more than health care, energy or infrastructure projects — and the stimulus could bring school advocates closer than ever to a long-sought dream: full funding of the No Child Left Behind law and other huge federal programs.

But tucked into the text of the proposal’s 328 pages are a few surprises: If they want the money — and they certainly do — schools must spend at least a portion of it on a few of education advocates’ long-sought dreams. In particular, they must develop:

• High-quality educational tests.

• Ways to recruit and retain top teachers in hard-to-staff schools.

• Longitudinal data systems that let schools track long-term progress.

Since the Academy is a private school, will they qualify for some of this stimulus?

from eSchoolNews

The education portion of the bill includes:

- $41 billion to boost learning in local K-12 school districts through Title I ($13 billion), IDEA ($13 billion), a new School Modernization and Repair Program ($14 billion), and the Education Technology block-grant program ($1 billion);

- $79 billion in state fiscal relief to prevent cutbacks to key services, including $39 billion to local school districts and public colleges and universities using existing formulas, $15 billion to states as bonus grants for meeting key performance measures, and $25 billion to states for other high-priority needs, such as preventing the layoffs of public safety and other critical employees, including teachers;

- $6 billion in school modernization funds for colleges and universities; and

- Funding to make college more affordable, including $15.6 billion to increase the maximum Pell Grant amount by $500, from $4,850 to $5,350, and tax credits for up to $2,500 per year spent in college tuition.

Democratic leaders in Congress have pledged to have a bill ready for Obama to sign by mid-February.

by Snuffy 

The +/- $70k (saved in the BOE budget if Woodstock student tuitions at the Academy were $100 less than other towns) is a drop in the bucket -especially this year. But based on past years, this is what will happen.

The Open Space crowd will hold their noses, look the other way, and organize their supporters and get their money with a lot of emotional arguments and the blatantly phony claim that they are “saving the town money”. The Academy will organize their supporters and get their money on the phoney basis that the BOE cannot negotiate their tuition. And the Fire Dept. will organize their supporters and get their money on the emotional argument that they are saving firemens’ and all our childrens’ lives. And Town Hall will get money for a number of splinter groups plus various little programs provided for the seniors. And the seniors will unite with the “no tax” crowd to protect Prop 46.

And as the K-8 system gets further cannibalized to support these other programs, the PTO will receive multiple phoney warnings from the Town Clerk that they cannot involve their membership in the school system’s fiscal problems. And CPS, with the back-door support of the Academy Trustees, will rally their leadership to decry unions, teachers salaries/benefits, and publicize fabricated charges of waste, fraud and abuse in the K-8 public schools, while of course ignoring the excessive spending at the Academy. And of course, CPS will organize their roughnecks to make the whole scene so ugly that supporters of K-8 will see they cannot withstand the vicious political beating they will receive for their efforts.

So the beat goes on

The Woodstock Water Pollution Authority (WPCA) will meet on Tuesday evening, Jan. 20th at 7 pm in the Town Hall, Room B. Plans for the sewer extension to the Woodstock Academy will be discussed as an early agenda item. All meetings are open to the public.  Citizens’ comments and questions are welcomed.

Submitted,
Marylou Davis

by Harry Stefan

The 1/14/09 edition of the Norwich Bulletin carried an article by James Mosher about the proposed budget for Norwich Free Academy, “NFA adopts ‘prudent’ $29.5 million budget.” School officials estimate an  enrollment next year of 2,450. Of these 1,332 are regular students from Norwich, 249 are special ed. and 869 are from the seven surrounding towns of Bozrah, Canterbury, Franklin, Lisbon, Preston, Sprague and Voluntown.
 
Of interest is the fact that the per pupil tuition for students from the seven districts is $100 more than that for students from Norwich, $10,755 versus $10,655. $100 times 869, the number of attendees from other towns, equals $86,900.
 
I wonder if the Woodstock Academy trustees have ever considered assessing a higher tuition for pupils coming from the sending towns of Eastford, Pomfret, Brooklyn and Canterbury than that for Woodstock students.

Since there are approximately 1,155 students enrolled at the Academy – 462 of which are from Woodstock – 693 Academy students come from towns outside of Woodstock. If these students were charged $100 more, the $69,300 generated could be used to off set the Woodstock tuition rate causing a reduction of $151 per Woodstock student. This action would either reduce the BOE budget by $69,300 or could be applied to save one teacher position. 

by Scoop

Of particular interest is number two which requires the BOE to ensure “equitable allocation of resources among its schools” as this has been a topic of discussion noted on the Café. I wonder what the implications are of this and if the Woodstock Academy falls under the category of “its schools”. Café Readers care to comment?

LCO No. 4580

*SB0040404580SRO*
Offered by:
SEN. MCKINNEY, 28th Dist.
SEN. FASANO, 34th Dist.
SEN. RORABACK, 30th Dist.
SEN. CALIGIURI, 16th Dist.
SEN. CAPPIELLO, 24th Dist.
SEN. DEBICELLA, 21st Dist. SEN. FREEDMAN, 26th Dist.
SEN. GUGLIELMO, 35th Dist.
SEN. HERLIHY, 8th Dist.
SEN. KANE, 32nd Dist.
SEN. KISSEL, 7th Dist.
SEN. RUSSO, 22nd Dist.
To: Subst. Senate Bill No. 404 File No. 645 Cal. No. 414
“AN ACT CONCERNING THE MINIMUM BUDGET REQUIREMENT, THE CARRY-OVER OF EDUCATION COST SHARING ACCOUNTABILITY FUNDS AND THE REPEAL OF AN OBSOLETE PUBLIC ACT SECTION. ”
After the last section, add the following and renumber sections and internal references accordingly:
“Sec. 501. Subsection (a) of section 10-220 of the general statutes is repealed and the following is substituted in lieu thereof (Effective July 1, 2008):
(a) Each local or regional board of education shall maintain good public elementary and secondary schools, implement the educational interests of the state as defined in section 10-4a and provide such other educational activities as in its judgment will best serve the interests of the school district; provided any board of education may secure such Read the rest of this entry »

by Kellog 

I think you should “self-police” yourself as well (to Dubious). You are as guilty of the personalized comments to which you are suggesting should be edited out as the next guy is. If you do not think that there is any value added by these comments, why then do you persist with them?

I enjoy reading many blogs available on the internet and have found that very few (if any)edit responses as you suggest. Four letter expletives and vulgarities are often the common place as is personalized inuendo and rumor (even on the best of sites). In the blogworld, what you get is raw honesty—the good, the bad, and the ugly. Knowing that, it is quite easy for the reader to skip over and edit out the nonsense—not necessary for the admin. to do unless it crosses his/her personal lines of tolerance (which the Admin. here has done).

In all honesty and in many respects, the woodstock cafe is actually one of the most polite and intelligent blogs out there. Sure there is the occasional aberrant nonsense, but I actually enjoy reading it all. Gives me a feel for real people, the real community, and the raw in-your-face opinion. To me this is much better than a watered down version that you suggest would be more in keeping with the Admin’s. goals. But what are those goals? Are they not simply to provide an open forum? Your seeking greater order and intellectual integrity is noble, yes, but I see this as the reader’s role and responsibility (your’s perhaps) to bring logic, reason, perspective, and restraint to the site when necessary to counter the natural entropy. Its this balance that is created that adds value… Editing it out would somehow take something away. Perhaps take away the “open” forum.

From Steve Adams – “As you know, we had a tremendous turnout tonight, with about 750 people attending the game. It was a great night of clean family fun for our community, and supported a great cause, the WMS 8th grade Washington trip. For those that don’t know, this is the 10th year for that trip, and Becki can speak more to the genesis of the program.

Thank you to everyone in the community that worked to make this a success, and for those who came out to play and watch.”

From Newcomer – “We did attend tonight and the whole family had a blast!!!!!!!!”

The Harlem Superstars defeated the Woodstock team but no one could remember the score .

Read the rest of this entry »

This article was published on January 24th 2007. It’s worth repeating in the context of the discussion below.

Imagine the disappointment when the CPS leadership (CPS now includes the people at the UnTruth website, e.g. the deceased Woodstock Coalition) received their packet of Becki Leavitt’s stolen personal emails identifying her as the Administrator of the Cafe. These stolen emails could only reveal that John and Becki communicated on a regular basis with each other, their daughter, with their extended families, with friends around the country and world, and even a few Woodstock citizens and Cafe’ers to boot.

What disappointment. The hacked emails established that the Cafe was NOT a strategic weapon of the Board of Education or its members – it was (and still is) just a group of regular private citizens communicating with each other expressing their opinions about municipal matters quietly and articulately on the Internet. No one else was invited to participate, but hundreds of others did, and they were welcomed regardless of their points of view. It wouldn’t surprise me if many divergent groups visited the Cafe such as people from the Academy, the School System, City Hall, municipal boards, Republicans, Democrats, CPS’ers, independents etc, on a regular basis. I have even overheard people talking about the Cafe at public meetings. After all, these people are interested citizens and regular people too. Read the rest of this entry »

by MK-20 

OK. The first time I read KConrad I was taken back. I guess this guy has a point. Fair enough. Sometimes some of the Café’ bloggers take things a little too far. Like Snuffy suggesting that the Admin. needs to edit more opinions or when Taxpayer rants on about the need for Neitzschism in Woodstock. But the second and third time listening to KC, I feel like poking my eyes out with a stick.

I mean sure I’m OK with a little kumbaya now and then , I’m all about bonding, getting to “know your neighbors”, R-E-S-P-E-C-T , reaching across the aisle, sharing, diversity embracing, ect. but I’m sorry, sometimes I just don’t want to be on my best behavior. Besides, sometimes the taste of polite passive aggressiveness leaves an aftertaste in my mouth.

I think a little bickering, chiding, bantering, nitpicking is perfectly fine. In fact, I have to admit, anonymously of course, that I actually kind of like it. It makes my heart pitter-patter a little faster and my secret inner bitch leap with excitement. Why? Because its good to see a little passion every now and then. I’m so sick of the wishy-washy, complacent, slow talking , rhetorical dancing political correctedness that has stained our society and has stolen our “bravado” our “machisimo” our “cowboy” from our culture and turned us into a bunch of panty-waisted , French-wine sipping, politicized syncophantic metrosexuals who are afraid of a good argument that lies outside the “agenda” . Read the rest of this entry »

by KConrad 

Good message, nicely presented (Cafe ‘Editor’). (I wish I could have been as articulate and made my points nearly as well). Certainly I do not/did not intend or suggest that ANY form of prior restraint, editing or interference with comments was appropriate – an utterly OPEN forum is best. I really don’t think that many readers believe there is a ‘lack of editing’ – not at all. (Note from Admin: We did not take your statement that way and we agree with your message.)

For my part, my sharper comments were directed point blank at those repeat commentators who have, to some extent, become dominant playground bullies – preoccupied with fighting with each other and seriously degrading the exchange of ideas through reason and rhetoric. And like playground bullies, these individuals (inadvertently) create an atmosphere which does not welcome new perspectives, challenges or newcomers. Commentators should not be attacked simply because they offer ideological challenges and Counter-Points. In my opinion, too often this small group end up creating discussions whose ugly tone certainly does not invite broader participation. Many of these discussions involve Issues which are of interest to and which affect most residents/readers. Read the rest of this entry »