Woodstock CT Café

by Newcomer

I don’t think Kevin can do anything alone. No one can. As Mr. McCoy points out, the lesson learned from the June referendum is that in order for a Democracy to work as designed, as many registered voters as possible must become educated about the issue, choose a position on it, and follow through accordingly by voting their position. What we saw in June was that the BOE finally had a group (in the PTO) to champion their cause; write letters to the Villager, plaster the town with signs. These are the same things that the other side does. These are the things that must be done equally by both sides on any issue. If one side publicizes their position and the voters hear and see little to nothing from the other side, then those who are politically asleep or just new to town assume that the most vocal position must be the correct position.

Now we saw some backlash regarding whether or not the PTO was the appropriate group to advocate for the BOE or not and do parents want their membership dues going to political causes or not. So maybe the answer is for a few (current and/or former) members of the PTO to spearhead a new group that is a political advocacy group, independent of the PTO (a spinoff, if you will). But I think the overall lesson to be learned is that the Academy has a group of supporters who advocate for it and the BOE currently does not. The one time in recent memory that they did have one, worked out rather well for them. Sounds pretty ‘elementary’ to me (pun intended).

by George McCoy

You are right Kevin and I hope the forces that mobilized against the measure to unseat the BOE in June will once again hit the polls in November. I’m afraid too many people will not come out to vote in November and I can say with certainty if that happens, your opponents who will be out in full force,will unseat pro education BOF members, (namely ME!!) The BOF will have a new face and that face will not look kindly towards the BOE.

-George McCoy (Incumbent and candidate for BOF)
This post represents my personal opinions and in no way should be considered an official act of the BOF or that I am speaking on behalf of the BOF in any way.

The entire situation is sad, unfortunate, whatever you want to say. Their tactics remain the same as they continue to shift attack vectors. It’s obvious that this time they are going to try and get at the BOE by controlling the power of the purse (the BOF).

It is this same small group of people with bad intentions over and over again. It is so transparent that at this point the only way someone cannot see what they are doing is through willful ignorance. Unfortunately it is a similarly small group who has the political will and desire to resist them. Most people seem willing to roll over and let it happen as long as they are not in the cross hairs.

I know it hasn’t been PC to say many nice things about Mr. Breen but I’m going to say one (we’ve spent our own time kicking each other in the shins in Pyrrhic battles). At the end of the day he shouted from the rooftops what was happening and tried to organize a resistance. As the “pioneer” he received the brunt of the retaliation. They looked for a flaw, found one to exploit and brought him down. Having said that there may very well come a time when many look back at what this CPS coterie has done to our town and wish they had listened to what he was saying, no matter what his delivery was.

I don’t understand it. This is the education of our children and our country’s future we are talking about. Small town politics be damned. There have been canaries in the coal mine talking about this on a national level since the late 70’s. Slowly and as predicted our nation slips and yet we do nothing but fight each other while the foundations of our nation’s competitive educational advantages are chipped away. This group is one of many ripping apart our educational infrastructure from the inside for petty vendettas, expansion of their own empires and in some cases just because they don’t like/trust the government. This battle has in no way benefitted the children in our educational system. One day many will wake up, look at what has been wrought and wonder how we got here. By then it will be too late.

This group may have lost the battle to unseat the BOE but they are still very much fighting the war.

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.

… that is, for financial support for the DTC candidates and he encourages voters to become “involved in our activities” (from his letter sent to registered Democrats dated Sept. 12th).

If Mr. Richardson is so interested in reducing the tax burden for Woodstock residents, why hasn’t he spoken up about the multi-million dollar expansion plans for Woodstock Academy which will ultimately be the burden of Woodstock taxpayers? Likewise, Kaeding-Wholean’s support of the Academy’s expansion plan at the expense of the K-8 school system is contradictory to Richardson’s ‘squeeze blood from a turnip’ plan if he is elected to the Board of Finance even though they apparently support each other.

Jim Kaeding became Chairman of the Woodstock Democratic Town Committee following the self-destructive DTC Chairmanship of Joe Breen. I’m sure most recall the events leading up to the last election where Democrats failed miserably to get elected. 

By late May of 2007, five months before the election, I had no illusions about the chances for Democrats winning in that 2007 election because the furor created by Joe’s letter to the State Legislature’s Education Committee (the problem statement which remains correct and indisputable today), the ninth grade proposal under discussion by the Board of Education (put forth by Republican and Democratic BOE members), and the push for enforceable zoning by the Planning and Zoning Commission under Breen’s leadership. These three issues, regardless or in spite of their merit, had poisoned the chances of anyone associated with Breen getting elected.  My attitude was “if you know you are going to lose, have fun”.

My main concern at that time was about the possibility that Margaret Wholean, Jim Kaeding’s wife, might be re-elected as First Selectman. Therefore, I agreed to seek the nomination of the DTC for First Selectman in attempt to block or diminish the success of her candidacy for First Selectman. Although I lost the Democratic nomination in a primary with Ms. Wholean, I believe we did rally a minority of Democrats against Ms. Wholean and, to my great relief, she lost re-election. At any rate voters shifted rightfully to Allan Walker because of the infighting within the DTC, and members that left the the Breen-dominated DTC.

The rift in the DTC, in 2006-2007, arose from Ms. Wholean’s failure to pursue the Democratic platform upon which she was elected. Instead, she and Kaeding aligned themselves with Preston Shultz, Craig Powers, and Dave Richardson to attack their common target, the Board of Education, with wild accusations of mis-used taxpayer funding. In attempting to diminish support for the BOE, Wholean and Kaeding where working out of the First Selectman’s office on behalf of the Academy to help this fine learning institution get what they wanted from the Town (namely more athletic fields and a new sewer line). What they wanted and still want is the ability to expand their athletic fields (at a cost of $5-6 million), a right-of-way for the Academy sewer connection, and other ambitious projects, all eventually to be funded by the taxpayers.

At the same time, Wholean took a vacation trip to Senegal with the Academy, and lined her pockets with pay raises that amounted to 13.3% in a period of 13-months. In a debate held on WINY in early September 2007, when I questioned her about a 9% raise she had just given herself, Ms. Wholean stated irrationally something to the effect that she was building up Town Operating Budget so that the Town could hire a “Town Administrator” … but she forgot to take the money out of her bank account and give it back to the town . 

My concern at that time has not changed today. Kaeding-Wholean are simply trying a different tact of electing Richardson, Powers, and Wholean to the BOF to pursue their obvious goal - this is to undermine the funding, and therefore leadership, of the Board of Education and the well-performing K-8 school system for the benefit of the Woodstock Academy. No doubt, Wholean’s decision to run for an alternate position on the BOF was based of the realization that she was not viable running against Allan Walker (Allan has done a fine job and I support him 100%, for what it’s worth. Thanks for a great two years, Allan!).

In my opinion Kaeding-Wholean’s blind allegiance to the Academy Trustees creates a conflict of interest for serving in Woodstock town government. It’s odd but Kaeding-Wholean’s support of the Academy seems contradictory to Richardson’s goal to reduce taxation. It’s also odd that Richardson (to my knowledge) has never questioned the funding of the Academy - while together with Wholean, Kaeding, Powers, and Shultz - has made a career of attacking the funding and performance of the K-8 school system. Richardson claims to have ”transparency” (how unoriginal).

So, what about the Academy budget and their multi-million dollar expansion plans, Mr. Richardson? The problem with Richardson’s transparency is that what we see, we don’t like. 

Mr. Kaeding wants us to give money to the DTC. Do ya think he might want to use that money to promote Mr. Richardson’s candidacy to the Board of Finance. After all Ms. Wholean signed the petition that nominated Mr. Richardson as a candidate for the Board of Finance. Since both the SEEC and I view married couples as a single entity, Ms. Wholean’s signature is also Mr. Kaeding’s signature. And in nominating Mr. Richardson, they have likely dealt one of their two DTC nominees for the Board of Finance (Dick Cass and Charles Super) a losing ticket to the Board of Finance.  This act shows the duplicity of the Kaeding-Wholean leadership of the DTC.  Not only do they have a conflict of interest that should disqualify them from any elected position in Woodstock’s government; they are behaving deceptively in their fund raising for and leadership of the DTC. So, let them pay for their shenanigans themselves.

The statement by Kaeding in the June 5th Villager is all about removing all obstacles from the Academy’s path to get what they want at the expense of Woodstock taxpayers. His statement was NOT persuasive as the voters in the June 9th referendum VOTED NO in a sound rejection of Kaeding, Wholean, Powers, Shultz, and Richardson.

Slimey!

by Teachref09

Having served on two Woodstock Academy Contract Negotiations Committees, I found that the Academy Trustees refused to entertain any discussion on specific proposals by the Woodstock Board of Education. When topics like expanded representation for Woodstock were suggested as a negotiating point, it was dismissed without consideration. Opponents then harped on this point as a means of “taking over the Academy” by the Woodstock Board of Education. I like the idea of proposing a uniform contract with all sending towns, but again this would not even be considered by the Woodstock Board of Trustees. It is in their best interest to “divide and conquer” the sending towns. While the BOT keeps the sending towns in staggered contract cycles they have the ability to control the proceedings without any concerted effort on behalf of the sending towns.

I can remember only once when the Trustees did not raise tuition at the request of the Woodstock Board of Education. Shortly after that was announced, a member of the Pomfret Board of Education contacted me and wanted to extend thanks to the WBOE for getting the zero per cent increase that year. It added several thousand dollars to Pomfret’s education budget and they didn’t have to participate in the process of fighting the tuition increase. They, like the other sending towns, sat on the sidelines and let the WBOE fight for the tuition freeze, while they (the other sending towns) reaped the subsequent benefits.

by Just One Voice

The health care debate is really starting to make Americans stand up and take notice…that is good.

Dean, people who oppose the health care bills that are in Congress right now…do not believe in leaving things the way they are…they know that there are changes needed…just not what Congress is proposing…btw almost all of it is Demcoratic owned proposals.

You mention the current system fails…due to the rising costs to businesses…yes the current system has failed…but not for the reasons most assume…it has failed because government…State and Federal have interfered in the system with a heavy hand. Mandates to what insurance companies have to offer as “benefits” is one of the reasons…somebody has to pay for all the extra benefits…and it definately is not the government, who imposed those requirements.

I am sure Dean, as a business owner, you understand competition…government limiting the number of health insurance companies doing business in any particular state is another reason for higher rates…there are over 1300 insurance companies in the USA…how many companies are available for you to chose from for your employees? The more we have to chose from, the better the prices will be for the various plans.

Yes most of the elderly are happy with the coverage they are currently getting…but there are a few flaws in that rationing, to try and claim that the government will be able to do the same with this new and improved program.

1. Many of the elderly also have Medicare Advantage…a program that is subsidized by the government…and the program they are very happy with…but will face cuts if any of the 5 bills now on the table go through…that is the CBO saying it…not me…there will be cuts to this program. Read the rest of this entry »

by Ron

I am in favor of making sure that a HS that has over 1200 students be appropriate in size and total facilities. (I was also in favor of the WMS being purchased and built as part of a planned expansion.) One issue that I have seen over the years speaking with many older Woodstock Academy alumni that grew up in Woodstock/Eastford/Pomfert is that they don’t understand what kinds of problems for a student occur when you attend a school of WA current size. Note: I graduated from a school that at the time had over 1600 students and know first hand how large the cracks are within a system of that size.

The size of the facilities is a problem, as is the total infrastructure at that location to support all of these students.

You need the school to be of a certain size (at a min from what I understand of 850-900) to offer choices for the best education options.

So if the school was designed to handle 850-900 (the 90’s expansion plan) and is now housing 1200+ what would you do?

The issues that have been presented here on this site indicate that the spending within the town of Woodstock is limited by Prop 46 and as such there is a continual squeezing of the budget spending in relative dollars at the Pre K – 8 grades in town.

To gain control of the moneys being spent for eduction (typically around 75-80% of the total town’s budget) I think that the town needs to ensure that all costs are at least on the table and predictable.

WA needs to expand to handle the current and foreseeable enrollment. This includes upgrades to the buildings on campus, the sewer management, the parking for the students, and the athletics. The school in my opinion offers a great education for the dollar. The issue for me as a taxpayer in Woodstock is getting everything out in the open and being transparent. At this time I don’t believe that the WA budget is, and I think that a single contract that all of the sending towns would share is a start. The expansion of the school is going to happen and I think the issue is how to manage the expansion with all parties having a full view of the needs. Read the rest of this entry »

by Dean

People talk as if we should leave the health care system in the staus quo. Every year, the health insurance costs go up for our business anywheres from 10 to 20%. This is not sustainable, every year we either charge our clients a little more to pay for this or erode some of our benefits. This is reality with the current system and has to be fixed.

I hear people complain about government run systems, but at the same time the elderly claim that they are happy with their government run system. My two uncles are both Vietnam vets that rely on Vet hospitals. Both have good jobs and could have access to private insurance but they chose the government care. They are so happy with it, they try to convince me to drop my private insurance and go to the Vet administration.

Also, why is government run healthcare so successful in foreign countries where they are more healthy and pay 30% less? It can’t be that the French are so much smarter or hard working than us? Or is it because government health care actually can be very successful.

Half of my family lives in Canada. They are all very happy with their system. I have another cousin who married a Canadian woman and they decided to move to Canada just for the health care. I asked about the delays for care. They responded that the delays were never for emergencies, only for elective procedures.

It is time that we open our eyes to all solutions because what we have now is very badly broken.

This is a repost of an article first published on August 28th. Let’s not forget!

It’s now clear that the petitioners who tried to recall the entire Board of Education (and failed) have shifted their anti-education strategy to taking over the Board of Finance. The groups that rallied successfully to defeat the June 9th referendum to recall the BOE should now focus their energies against the election of Dave Richardson, Margaret Wholean, and Craig R. Powers.

In the upper list below are the candidates for the Board of Finance. We have put those candidates in true BLUE who are NOT associated with this anti-education faction. Those in RED are the instigators of both the June 9th Referendum (to repeal the BOE) and Dave Richardson’s petition to become a candidate for a full time position on the BOF. It is clear that they want to take control of the BOF to continue their campaign to dismantle Woodstock’s education system which has proved to be one of the best in eastern CT.

Those who want Woodstock students to have the best eduction possible given the limitations of tax funding should rally together to defeat these RED candidates. Below the list of candidates is the list of the 26 petitioners who nominated Dave Richardson. Those with RED arrows in front of their names also signed the petition to repeal the BOE.

 Petitioners who petitioned to repeal the BOE (red arrows below) also petitioned to nominate Dave Richardson.

These are essentially the same ‘like-minded’ people who use litigation, lies, and antagonism to try to acheive their vindictive goal. Petitioner Rosendahl has already infiltrated the BOE and expressed his anger at losing the June 9th referendum by throwing a wad of papers at Superintendent Baran during the last BOE meeting. The Republican Town Committee should be embarrassed and should unceremoniously dismiss Rosendahl from the RTC.

Dave Richardson’s Petition

by Ron Frechette

It’s time to wake up and understand what is the problem and how do you want to change it. One has to understand the system to make substantial changes to that system! Ron

Woodstock Academy has a charter that describes what it can and can not do with regards to the students that it takes in. There are also State and Federal laws that are in play here (I’m not a lawyer nor do I play one on TV!) There are contracts in place with all of the sending towns that are not tied in any way with the other sending towns for the most part. If I understand correctly, the contracts that WA has with the sending towns are staggered such that the towns cannot get all of the contracts to be bound together. Why do I bring this point up?

WA is in effect a regional HS to the sending towns. It has grown from a small school for almost 2 centuries (graduation of 90-120 students a year in the 50’s, 60’s, 70’s and most of the 80’s) into a large school graduating almost 300 students per year. The contracts bind the billing and administration of WA to be what it is. Those contracts are handled individually in a fashion which puts WA in a more powerful position when the sending towns want to sit down and negotiate.

WA will counter that its Board of Trustees is composed of members from all of the sending towns and everyone has a voice. That is so, but the ratio of the Town representatives on the BOT supplying the funding is not in line with the size of the BOT.
 

Side Note: I think that WA offers a great value for the dollar in education. One of the reasons that Brooklyn chose to use WA instead of gaining more control with district 11 (Parish Hill) was because of the costs per student. If folks take a look at the costs per student you will find that WA is one of the lowest in the area. And almost all of the HS’s in the northeast are very low compared to the costs in other regions of CT.

So the question that I am trying to answer that many folks are asking is how do you gain control of the spending/budget that WA BOT controls now? I think you have to look at this like they and other regional HS’s do and find a way to get all of the sending towns to combine together in using one contract with the WA. Once this happens the sending towns will have a more level playing field to work from in understanding and controlling the costs at WA.
 
The side issue is how do you then get 4-6 other town’s BOE’s to agree on what is or is not important in the budget items so that the priorities line up. If the sending towns don’t want to get together, or cannot agree on this then, as with most regional HSs, they get into funding problems leading to deterioration of facilities or the programs because 2/3rds of the sending towns are required to get anything done.

Meet Christina Blackmer! Kenny and Christina were married at the Mansion at Bald Hill on Sunday. Becki provided the cake.
Read the rest of this entry »

Many around the country and most national politicians have expressed disbelief at the behavior of citizens in town meetings. All I can say is that these national politicians are out of touch with grass roots reality. Nevertheless, I get the sense that the Democratic leadership is starting to understand what we in the Woodstock grass roots already know. We understand from experience that a small minority of disruptors, loudly spewing lies, can take over the media and sometimes control the fate of the town. This attempt occurs in every small town election cycle around the country. The more remote the locality, the worse the political hanky-pank gets. The act of taking the health care issue into small town meetings only invites the local disruptors to emerge from their shells of private agendas to agitate others against a black president who wishes to address the national health care problem. But this article is not about that.

Incidently, I’ve noticed a subtle change in the body language of the politicians who are advocates for a national health care system. I think that most are starting to realize that they are in the right and will win this battle just like the supporters of the WBOE did – that is, probably because they sense the consensus of their constituencies. As a result they are slowly realizing that the disruptors are in the minority, perhaps even the vast minority. This is why these disruptors adopt deception and dishonesty to achieve their goals.

Those voters who have been dismayed by the nonsense of politicians like Palin and many of the national Republican leadership, and wavering Democratic leaders as well, are the same people who do not participate in local politics or oversight of the management of their own towns. They are unaware that disruptive politics goes on every two years in towns like Woodstock and even more often when there are referendums. Indeed, most in Woodstock have forgotten that we went through a nasty referendum in early June when a small minority of petitioners spread lies about the Board of Education and tried their best to recall all BOE members. Nationally, many people have had no sense of the disruptive game playing that goes on at the grass roots level because they don’t participate locally. But nationally, these non-participants are seeing this activity for the first time on nationwide TV… and, furthermore, they are seeing national politicians attempt to exploit this disruptive behavior to undermine national healthcare. These are the voters who care little about how their town is run or who runs it. With their noses held high, these non-participants probably feel that they should not stoop to the grass roots level and are oblivious of vulgarian activities perpetrated by their own local political town committees and local action committees. Read the rest of this entry »

  from Jim Stratos 

Our recent proposal to the Board of Education to purchase 100% Clean Renewable Energy was unanimously approved last week.  We thank the BOE on behalf of all the members and the community for supporting our efforts to “buy green” and save on utility costs. (September 4th issue of the Woodstock Villager).

Over 1.3 million kilowatts (1.3 GWh) of energy will now be replaced as renewable energy and this now makes Woodstock the first in CT.

“This is incredible news!  Congratulations on your success in getting such a commitment from both the town and board of education. To my knowledge, Woodstock will become the first town in CT to purchase 100% clean energy. We would like to celebrate this momentous achievement with a press release.” – Bob Wall of the CT Clean Energy Fund.
Woodstock has now earned 3 additional kWh panels, which will be added the 1 already earned for achieving 100 points, and qualify Woodstock for a free solar installation funded by the CT Clean Energy Program.  All we have to do next is have the BOS and BOE agree to a 5 year commitment to purchase renewable energy. If this is achieved before 2011, when the program is renewed, then Woodstock will be given over $30,000 toward a FREE Solar installation of our accumulated solar PV panels.

According to Bob Wall we are eligible to receive additional kW Panels as a bonus. Bob states:

“The Communities program offers an additional 3 kW to a town that purchases 100% clean energy (you also receive 1 kW for each 100 points; you can earn bonuses for other achievements such as 5% household participation and becoming an EPA Green Power Community.)” Read the rest of this entry »

from Newcomer 

Earlier in a thread, Tax, Kevin, and I were disucssing President Obama’s speech to America’s students. If anyone else is interested in this topic, the speech is today at noon (which is about 1/2 hour from when I’m submitting this. sorry for the short notice).

Here’s a link to the full pre-published transcript of the President’s speech. you can view the President’s speech live at noon on both C-Span and on the white House’s website, http://www.whitehouse.gov

http://www.whitehouse.gov/MediaResources/PreparedSchoolRemarks/

I read through the speech already and it seems fine to me. I’ll be interested to hear from my children later today if any of my children watched it in class.

The Woodstock Board of Education (WBOE) welcomes our students and staff back to school for the start of the 2009-10 school year.  The classrooms are again filled with energy and the playing fields, school clubs and organizations are actively recruiting and engaging our students.  Spotlight on Woodstock Education will again start publishing monthly as a forum to address questions from the community, and to highlight particular initiatives and accomplishments of Woodstock’s students.  We encourage parents and citizens to send your questions and ideas to asktheboard@woodstockschools.net.  We will try to address as many topics as possible throughout the year.

Kicking off the new school year at its August 27^th meeting, the WBOE enthusiastically supported a proposal from Woodstock’s Green Team to move to 100% “clean renewable energy” for all of the district’s energy requirements.  By switching to Public Power Utility as our Generation Supplier, the district can save money AND fund the purchase of clean renewable energy in the form of 80% hydro and 20% wind through the CT Clean Energy Program and Sterling Planet.  Woodstock Public Schools joins the Town of Woodstock in this commitment to renewable energy, and the WBOE salutes the Green Team in its accomplishments in moving our community forward on this front.

Also at the August meeting the WBOE reviewed, at a high level, a first look at the district’s CMT scores.  In general, aggregated scores have improved. Read the rest of this entry »