Woodstock CT Café

This was part of Newcomer’s comment under “Just in From the Town Meeting”

by Newcomer

Let me try a metaphor with a little personal story below. Take the example of a school yard bully, since it’s clear after all of this time that the BOE feels bullied by CPS and all of the FOI’s, lawsuits, personal attacks, etc.

How do we teach our kids to deal with a bully at school? Most of us advise a child to either ignore the bully or try to talk their way out of the situation. Only as a last resort and if all else fails should a child consider returning physical violence in an effort toward self-defense. Right? Fighting is always the last resort. And now for the story. I was bullied in 7th grade for several weeks by a kid I didn’t even know and for a reason I still don’t know to this day. Not only was I the only girl in my family, I was an only child. My father handled it the way he would have with a son back in the day. He took me outside and taught me how to fight. My mother hit the roof and when I came back inside, I received a good, long lecture all about how I should ignore the bully until she goes away or try to talk it out and get to the bottom of it. I tried this for weeks, three at least, and the bullying not only continued, it got worse until one day, the girl threatened to beat me up after school. The morning of the scheduled “fight” I happened to be at the top landing of the third flight of a stairway in our school. I was just about to head down to my next class when I saw the bully coming up the same staircase, about to pass by me. Of course, she had me in her sights. I waited for her to reach the top of the landing and as predicted, she came right toward me. Seconds later, there was a bully lying at the bottom of the staircase and she never bothered me again. As a matter of fact, the next time she passed me in a corridor, she even smiled at me. Problem solved. Read the rest of this entry »

by Ron

We that are willing to stand up and be counted on one side or the other of issues see a problem with those that are unwilling to present their views and debate. It is very apparent that the people that signed the petition don’t want to show their plans and are leaving the rest of us to guess at their agenda and motives. So be it.

They are using what a democracy allows within the rules that govern our town/state.

My personal view is that they want to overhaul the board and change the way we can replace people because they think this will service their views best.

Those that help present why the rules are the way they are should be voicing this as the real reasons for not changing. I understand the learning curves with the rule/laws that are currently in place. There is a HUGE learning curve to ensure that we as a town fill in all of the correct forms for the state and not federal required data. This gets no better once you start to understand real contract rules (limited disclosure requirements) let alone privacy laws.

I also believe that people signing the petition don’t fully understand the charter of the BOE (Kids education is the primary requirement) are and if I understand it correctly that as a member of the Board you will have swear an oath to meet these requirements. Notice that this oath is not to the town’s financial well being but to the kids! I hope that these petitioners understand all that goes into the responsibilities that the BOE are under.

John Penny’s Article in the Norwich Bull this morning:

http://www.norwichbulletin.com/news/x2085732101/Meeting-on-Woodstock-school-board-leaves-loose-ends

Stephen Rechner: “How are we supposed to vote intelligently if no one is telling us the reason for this petition?”

Dean Audet: “If this passes, it throws out a valid election,” … “What’s to prevent another group from submitting another petition? We’d have referendum after referendum and nothing would get settled.”