Woodstock CT Café

The secondary question here is why does the average number of students at goal for the subjects tested drop from roughly 80% in 7th and 8th grades down to 54% in the second year of high school at the Academy?

The answer comes from ‘Sols’: “The standard for the CAPT is much different than the CMT, the levels are set higher.. and the whole state dropped.”

High Schools  
10th Grade Students School District ….Average at Goal & Average Proficient
(the % numbers are the averages of the math, reading, writing, and science test scores in percent of students at goal or at proficiency)

E. O. SMITH – Mansfield ….. 62.1% & 81.3%

TOLLAND ….. 61.4% & 92.6%

STAFFORD ….. 55.1% & 86.1%

WOODSTOCK ACADEMY ….. 54.7% & 89.1%

STATE ….. 48.4% & 81.3%

NORWICH FREE ACADEMY ….. 48.1% & 80.9%

THOMPSON ….. 42.4% & 83.0%

KILLINGLY ….. 33.5% & 74.2%

PUTNAM ….. 22.5% & 68.2%

 Changes in scores from 2008 to 2009 in Woodstock.

1. The US healthcare system ranks 37th out of 197 countries slightly above Cuba (first Table below).

2. As a percent of the Gross National Product (GNP), the US ranks 2nd to the Marshall Islands while the United Kingdom ranks 41 (second Table below).

3. The average healthy life span (explained below) is the US ranks 24th below most European countries, Australia (2nd), and Canada (12th) who rank high (third Table below).

4. The US ranks 71st in “Health Performance” (bang for your buck) well below all European countries, Canada, and Australia (forth Table below).

The first Table below comes from http://www.photius.com/rankings/healthranks.html

Read the rest of this entry »

See the rest of the story at http://www.wfsb.com/money/20156246/detail.html

As Pratt & Whitney announced this week the potential for pink slips, another aerospace company in Connecticut announced it’s expanding.

“This is our 36,000-square-foot addition,” Whitcraft Group co-owner Jeff Paul said. “This addition was put on to accommodate our expansion of European sales.

Paul and co-owner Colin Cooper said Whitcraft is an aerospace manufacturing company in a close-knit community.

“Here we are, in the woods of Eastford, Conn., and we have the strongest, most capable sheet metal mechanics in the world,” Cooper said.

He said 250 technicians crank out pricey parts for commercial and military jet engines in the U.S. and abroad.

“So we have a collection here of different pieces of equipment put together in a way that maximizes our efficiency and ability to meet customer needs,” Paul said.

from Harry Stefan

Our telephone  has been ringing but there is no caller. The only sound is a sharp, pulsating tone. There have been multiple calls of this type. Does anyone have a suggestion as to how to deal with the situation?  Thanks.

from Fireman

07/16/09. Police are dispatched to an address on Ware Street in Cambridge, two blocks from the Harvard Square Fire Station, for a possible burglary in process.

This is an area where at least nine burglaries have occurred in the last several weeks. This is also in an area that is patrolled by Cambridge Police as well as Harvard University Police.

Sgt Joe Crowley, Cambridge City Police, arrives on the scene first and finds an unidentified person inside the home. He asks for the person to identify himself and is indignantly told “No, I will not”

He then asks again and is once again scolded for asking for identification.

Put yourself in Sgt. Crowley’s place. Last week six New Jersey cops were shot, one of them later died, shot in the face, when they approached a man dressed like a monk. Read the rest of this entry »

 by Kevin Ford

And now for something completely different…

I was reading MSNBC this morning and came across this article:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32116686/ns/politics-washington_post/

Some of you may have already heard this is in motion. The executive summary is that today President Obama will be announcing a $4.5 billion education program called “Race to the Top”. Part of the goal of the program is, “… to use funds to ease limits on charter schools, tie teacher pay to student achievement and move for the first time toward common academic standards.”

It will be interesting to see how this plays out in practice here in CT. I’ve spoken before about the CT state system of contract negotiation and how that can play out when the parties are not in agreement as to a contract provision. So what will the teacher’s union’s position on this be in regards to contract negotiations? What changes will happen in the state legislature to try and capture these funds? What will local school boards be incentivized to do by the presence of these funds and what will need to be done to capture them for local educational programs? Most importantly, what impact will they have on educational results? I want to see more implementation details but this is something to keep our collective eyes on.

Thanks,

Kevin

This post represents my personal opinions and in no way should be considered an official act of the BOE or that I am speaking on behalf of the BOE in any way.

by Con 

The latest post on woodstocktruth.com finally qualifies the site as a ‘Hate blog’ (however weak and lame) – and it’s standing and credibility in the community is permanently damaged by it’s highly offensive, loutish and immature little rant, in which the author says to John L. “…do me and everyone else a favor and go die…”

The comment is over the line, shameful and has no place in ‘the marketplace of ideas.’ They may believe that quoting Thomas Jefferson gives them class or credibility, but the dishonest site has neither and this latest post basically represents it’s metamorphosis into a forum for childish insults and ugly, personal commentary.

I think the sheer desperation of that little post represents a bitter and vindictive reaction to losing the Vote, losing the SEEC Complaint, losing the support of intelligent town citizens and losing, well, most every political stunt they’ve attempted. The language of the post is uncalled for and wholly out of line – it brings shame to the site and it’s supporters. Who could possibly still desire to be associated with wt.com? Who will publicly ‘stand’ with someone who writes that he literally wishes death on another human merely because of small town political differences? Small, angry children lash out like this – their sole desire is to hurt others, but they have no real idea of what they say.

Indeed, the post’s language (and it’s unoriginal, degrading picture) reminds us of a red-faced infant’s ‘hissy fit’ – the last resort of an immature and unimaginative lout overcome with this infantile rage and frustration wildly out of proportion to underlying town politics or personal differences. He lost it. Read the rest of this entry »

See Olivia Judson’s fascinating opinion article in the NYTimes today July 22nd ”Microbes ‘R’ Us.”

This interesting interactive graphic from USA Today plots the shifts in popularity of all Presidents since Truman. This helps to put in perspective the continuous news about Obama’s popularity.

by Taxpayer

This past Thursday Henry Paulson caught some fire during a congressional hearing where some members of congress accused the former Teasury Secretary of misleading them about how he planned on using the $700 billion TARP fund.

In the case of Lehman, Mr. Paulson said he could not find a buyer for the troubled institution in time to prevent it from collapsing and did not yet have access to the relief money.

The New York Times article covering this interrogation of sorts was rather weak and gave the reader little insight into the controversy surrounding Mr. Paulson which you so rightly bring up.

A much better commentary came in June from noted journalist/writer Matt Taibbi. Please allow me to quote for you some of Taibbi’s comments which are directed at Evan Newmark of the WSJ (formerly an employee of Goldman Sachs) who heralded Paulson as being a hero. They are priceless:

“Exactly what part of Paulson’s record is heroic, Evan? The part where he called up SEC director William Donaldson in 2004 and quietly arranged to get the state to drop capital requirements for the country’s top five investment banks? You remember that business, right, Evan? Your hero Paulson met with Donaldson and got the rules changed so that Goldman and four other banks no longer had to abide by the old restrictions that forced banks to actually have a dollar or two on hand for every ten or so they lent out. After that, it was party time! Bear Stearns in just a few years had a debt-to-equity ration of 33-1! Lehman’s went to 32-1. By an amazing coincidence, both of these companies exploded just a few years after that meeting, and all of the rest of us, Evan, ended up footing the bill, thanks to a state-sponsored rescue of Bear and a much larger massive bailout of Wall Street in general, necessitated in large part by the damage caused by the chaos surrounding Lehman’s collapse.” Read the rest of this entry »

Dateline Woodstock: The corn is ready. I had two ears tonight and it’s gooood. Randy tells us that he has been getting feedback (pardon the pun ) from Cafe’ers about the pictures.

In the document below, the SEEC said this (note the language):

and

dah…..

We will post the outcome of the complaint by Preston Shultz filed against John and Becki Leavitt (SEEC file # 2009-054) as soon as the SEEC posts it.

This is the outcome of the complaint to the SEEC filed against the Town of Woodstock by Mr. Powers because a news release endorsed by the BOE was posted at the Cafe on May 15th before the referendum on June 9th (see the referendum result here). Here, we have posted the sections that mention the Cafe or Becki. The full Findings and Conclusions can be found in File # 2009-050 at the SEEC website.

When I learned of McCain’s choice for a VP candidate, and the little that was known about her, I was stunned by McCain’s seeming ineptitude.

I first wrote about Palin and her leadership of a town called Wasilla, a town not much larger than Woodstock, on September 3rd 2008 (see article for source). The turnout that elected Palin to her second election as Mayor was about half of Woodstock’s turnout in 1999 and before her three terms as Mayor she was an activist on the P.T.A. Our towns are similar in this way also as we have an active PTO that is willing to step forward to defend our school system.

Palin won the mayorship of Wasilla using an anti-abortion platform which is almost unheard of in small town politics (perhaps Ms. Wholean should try this in plotting her campaign this fall). She won the mayorship by a majority but alienated many with “polarizing single-mindedness”. She ran a town that had an operating budget of $6 million in 2001-02 (I believe that the State of Alaska pays for all education). She had the practice both as mayor and as governor of firing government employees that had supported her opposition. I’m sure Alan Walker would never consider doing this (if he knew who they were), but Ms. Wholean made it clear that she would attack any who were not on her side (remember her edict in the Town Hall that required her approval of any out-going emails?). In Palin’s case she instituted an edict that no employee could talk to the media without her approval. She finished as a mayor in 2002.

To bring her career timeline up to date, Palin unsuccessfully ran for Alaska’s Lieutenant Governor in 2002 and she was elected Governor in 2006 and inaugurated on Dec. 6th, the youngest governor ever elected by a state at the age of 42. When McCain selected Palin as his Vice Presidential candidate, she had served less than two years (21 months) as Governor of Alaska. She had just had her 5th child in the spring of 2008, and her high school-age daughter was pregnant out of wedlock. 

Before he picked Palin as his running mate, other possible choices were Joe Lieberman (longtime Senator from CT, but a Democrat), Mitt Romney (former Governor of MA, 2008 Presidential candidate), Charlie Frist (Gov. of Florida, 2002 to the present), Rudy Giuliani (former Mayor of NY, 2008 presidential candidate), and several others with strong political track records.

Read the rest of this entry »

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