Woodstock CT Café

by Woodstock Valley Girl

How ’bout that US Senate race here in Connecticut? McMahon is living a dream thinking she will win the convention and Peter Schiff has his head shoved so far up his backside that he thinks he will win the convention too! Can Simmons beat Blumenthal? Did anyone think Scott Brown could have defeated Martha Coakley?

I really like this Merrick Alpert guy, he’s head and shoulders above Dick Blumenthal when it comes to actually being able to provide answers to questions. Who like Merrick Alpert? I do, I hope he can force a primary.

What about the Governor’s race? Tom Foley has a lock on the convention and the latest poll shows he’d beat Lamont if the election were held now. Will Foley be our next Governor? Sure looks that way…….

Who will the Democrats eventually run for Judge of Probate? Cotnoir seems to think he’s the front runner but he hasn’t even formed a candidate committee yet.

Shawn Johnston isn’t running and Democrat/Republican/Democrat Brian Lynch is. Anyone else running?

Who will win the Democrat primary for Secretary of the State, State Senator Jonathan Harris or State Rep. Denise Merrill? Denise is House Majority Leader but Harris is from West Hartford which is a huge Democratic base.

How about Attorney General? Will Susan Bysiewicz run? Should she run? Is the “ten years active practice” statue constitutional? I don’t think it is, let the voters decide who they want. Lots of Republicans running for AG, Martha Dean, John Pavia, Andrew Roraback and some think Ross Garber. Now THAT would be funny, Ross Garber running against his sister in law Susan Bysiewicz! Thanksgiving at the in-laws might be a bit stressful this year Ross, don’t do it….

So what does everyone think?

from Jeff

As to anonymous posting, it allows people to speak freely without fear of exposing their personal beliefs and opinions to the entire internet. Once you make a statement on a web site, thanks to Google, it’s going to be available for people to view for a long time to come. Google the name of your neighbor, your co-workers, your brother-in-law, your prospective employee, your current employees, and if they’ve attached their name to a post, you can find it.

On the other hand, anonymous posting can encourage posters to make some rather incendiary statements without concern for facts, and without concern that they will have to answer to the people they attack.

Anyone care to discuss term limits? Shawn Johnston called it quits because of partisan politics, and, according to him (not that I would argue against his assertion) there are too many elected officials more concerned with the next election than actually making decisions that will benefit the people who elected them in the first place. I couldn’t agree more.

I’ll take it a step further. The Tea Party movement has been embraced by some, and perhaps many members of the Republican party. While this is a logical event given the conservative nature of the Tea Party and what Republicans purport to represent, I’d be surprised if Republican elected officials at the State and Federal level truly seek to make an effort to bring Conservative values to government, or just continue on with pseudo-Conservatism and opposing whatever their Democratic counterparts propose.

Anyone else out there?

Ben finally spoke up in a comment a few articles below. It’s nice to know that someone has the courage to say something.

from John

Last summer before the last election I visited Linda Bernardi at the tax collectors office in the town hall. I wanted to see a copy of the 2008 grand list to see how much of the Property Taxes had not been collected. I was surprised to find that about 98% of the property taxes had been collected and much of the 2% that hadn’t been collected was from properties that were on the market. Apparently it is customary for owners to delay payment of property taxes until sale and settlement.

I was quite impressed with the residents of Woodstock, even those that complain all the time about our high taxes. There’s a significant percentage of town folk who vote NO at the budget referendum … but they still pay their property taxes.

Let’s face it. We have a pretty well-run town and the budget will be flat for two years in a row. It’s a far cry from Ms. Wholean’s padded budget and salary. As the economy recovers, we need to make sure that town employees get a raise.

There’s an article in the Norwich Bull today entitled “Economy is taking a Toll of Tax Collection” which mentions Griswald, Putnam, and Brooklyn but does say very much; nor am I going to say very much. If people are struggling because they have lost jobs or taken a significant pay-cut, then we should sympathize with them and try to work something out.

See their new website and a slide show of oil paintings by Karen here.

From Karen: “The Gallery is open by appointment only at all times, but we have set aside this weekend for the public.  Ads are out in both the Villager and the Shopper’s Guide, and we have had new signs made to be placed on both ends of County Road.  We hope you can stop in to see our work and view the gallery.”

McFarlin Fine Art Gallery Sat and Sun  April 17, 18 – 11 am to 5 pm
86 Center Cemetery Road, Woodstock, CT

Has Anybody Seen Saydee???

Saydee is the best loved dog-friend of two of my WES bus buddies. She went missing on the 11th. If anybody has seen her please call her family at the number below. The family lives on Route 169 just north of Route 197, but obviously she could be somewhat further afield by now.

Please call – xxx.xxx.xxxx  Thanks, Becki (and her hopeful bus buddies)

NY Times

from A Student

I haven’t even finished my Sophomore year and I’m quickly getting tired of the Academy (responding to A Taxpayer). I was just thinking today about how much the middle school feels like more of an active, tight community — not only because it has a smaller population, but because it does a LOT more in terms of assemblies and other large-group gatherings such as the quarterly award ceremonies. Then, of course, there’s the highly enriching experience of Americana Week in 7th and 8th grades and the 7th grade Science Fair (at least, that’s how it worked out when I came through).

Furthermore, the reading, homework, grade-by-grade lunches, etc. of the middle school enabled me to spend more time with my class as a whole and get to know it. That never happens at the Academy except during the few assemblies, during which it is supposed to be silent.

In the middle school, I knew every single adult in the building by name and knew their function in keeping the school running. At the Academy, I see different adults all the time and hear names that I’ve never even heard, or have no idea why on Earth they’re working there.

I find that the K-8 system did a better job at building maintenance, while the Academy certainly prevails when it comes to landscaping.

Also, I find that budget problems in each school impact me in different ways — at the middle school, not as bad ways. In the middle school, budget problems normally resulted in elimination of SPICE, assistant teachers, etc. At the Academy, it’s a sharp reduction in the amount of paper used, and now cutting teachers. Smaller class sizes would be fantastic; keep the teachers! I’m sure that sports take up a huge amount of the Academy’s budget. I wonder how much money it would save if an athlete had to pay even half of the cost of their sport. Not to say that I’m against sports; I think any school should have them even if the students need to pay like at the middle school, but sports should not remain untouched if certain elements of the school’s main purpose (academics) are being harmed. Read the rest of this entry »

It always tickles me when UConn beats Stanford. If you have experienced the Stanford campus, you know what I am talking about.

www.stanford.edu

from John

Sarah tells me that the goings on in Woodstock are often featured in The Reminder.  As the only reporter for the Putnam and Killingly/Plainfield editions she tries to find something from
each town for every edition. 

This coming week will be a story on the great kids from WES who wrote for Congressman Courtney’s Black History Month Essay Contest.

Here are three recent articles about the activities of Woodstock Academy students:

Mr. Woodstock at the Academy

Academy Art at the Sunshine Shop

Academy Junior Prom

These articles contain good pictures of Academy kids in action.

The Reminder has news from most of the Northestern CT towns and other columns like “Teen SpeakOut” where one writer talked about being bullied. I left a comment there, so we’ll see if it gets posted.

See Sarah Hamby’s article in the Reminder “Declining Enrollment Means Reduced Staff for the Academy” and her November article on Tours Taken by Killingly residents.

from John

September 27th 2007 at the Cafe: “Tomorrow the Villager will publish an anonymous Sound-Off article by a purported Brooklyn father vigorously attacking the new Brooklyn high school proposal that is up for referendum on October 10th. On that day residents of Brooklyn, Scotland, Chaplin & Hampton will vote on this referendum in their respective towns. All four towns will have to vote YES (by majority) to approve the proposal of a new high school for the project to move forward. A second letter to the editor by a non-anonymous author from Brooklyn against the new high school will also be published in this same issue.The author was clearly targeting Brooklyn residents at the expense of residents from Scotland, Chaplin, and Hampton. Yet in Brooklyn, the YES vote may be stronger than in these other three towns. This strategy to undermine the high school initiative in Brooklyn may actually backfire if enough residents from Scotland, Chaplin, and Hampton read the Killingly Villager. This is because the author’s arguments against the high school for Brooklyn residents may be viewed by the residents of the other three towns as a strong argument for voting YES in favor of the new high school. It has been my understanding that the larger risk for approval is in one of these other three towns.In reading this very long, detailed anonymous Sound-Off, I could not shed the feeling that I was reading the Academy’s own words and position on the new high school and its referendum. This Sound-Off almost certainly breaks the record for the size of anonymous Sound-Offs. This article re-states 10 questions that were supposedly asked in a Sept. 18 public meeting in Brooklyn (this lengthy dialogue must have been recorded), then it purports to provide the answer given by the town official, and then the author’s longer pro-Academy rebuttal is given to each answer in this Sound-Off.

The decision to build a new high school in Killingly was hotly debated in Killingly because there is a CPS element there also. But the education-minded voters prevailed and these residents of Killingly made the decision to replace a high school that was in shameful disrepair and failing academically.

The map on the left can be clicked to enlarge. The green arrow shows the location of the New Killingly high school off of Soap Street and Route 12 on the east side of Route 12. The location of the Academy is the upper red arrow and the location of the center of Brooklyn is the blue arrow. Canterbury is due south of the center of Brooklyn off of Route 169. Note that Pomfret Landing is very close to the new high school also.

A tour of the new Killingly high school under construction in November 2009 and the timeline for turning the facility over to the Killingly Board of Education. And the design of the new Killingly high school.

I don’t recall the Killingly project ever being brought up in the Villager sound-offs cited above. Instead, the Academy was working behind the scenes under the leadership of Richard Foye and the Trustees to quash the approval of the new Brooklyn High School…and the regional high school was lost. If it had been well known that the Killingly High School was to be built, then it made some sense not to approve the mostly state-funded new Brooklyn high school … but nothing was said about the new Killingly high school in the Villager at that time (perhaps because of who was doing the talking).  Read the rest of this entry »

from Elemental

Bullying doesn’t take place in a vacuum. There is the bully and the bullied. People bully because they lack skills to do anything else and are generally lashing out to cover their own deeply felt sense of inadequacy. They lash out at those they perceive as different to camouflage their own difference.

It is the bullied who have the power. That is what I learned very early on. One early tormentor was probably a sociopath. He tortured animals when there weren’t neighborhood kids to go after. He had a bunch of guys that followed him around and made him feel even more important than his targets did.

After years of harassment, he finally left me alone. What did I do? I embarrassed the hell out of him in front of his followers… reminding him that he promised to play Ken and Barbie dolls with me and that he said he would kiss me! He left me and my siblings alone from then on. Heartened by my results, other kids in the neighborhood reminded him of his promised doll-playing and soon he couldn’t be found in the neighborhood at all.

From third or fourth grade through eighth grade I was also the target of classmates. I was called names and harassed because I was different. I wasn’t a nerd, an athlete, a girly girl, a smarty, or a rich kid. I knew I was different, but I didn’t want to be any of the things that my tormentors were. Things that were said hurt my feelings, but I understood that ultimately what really mattered was what I thought of myself.

What gets lost in this focus on the bully is that it completely ignores the most effective way of combating the bully… make the targets invincible. Its time for us to start telling the truth about the life we’re in and stop trying to sell our kids on how wonderful everything would be if everybody else made our life easy for us.

It was easier for me to cope with being bullied because my parents explained that everybody felt ‘different’ and that is was okay to feel that way. They told me that no matter what I felt they would always love me. They didn’t like that people were being mean to me, but that the world had lots of people in it that didn’t care if they hurt other people. It wasn’t that it was okay to be bullied, but that I didn’t have to give the bully the power to determine who I was.

I haven’t.

This jives with the Villager article published yesterday. Admin.

from Anonymous

Just thought I’d share with everyone that the Academy is making an effort to conserve electricity. This past week, it had motion sensors installed in the ceilings that control the lights in the Bowen building. Many classrooms already had this, but now the automatic control has been applied to hallways, bathrooms, and even stairwells. I’m not sure whether this is going on in the Hyde or other Academy buildings, but I’ll let you know if it does.

More drastically, there are several teachers being laid off. I’m not entirely sure about the details, but I keep hearing that it’s one from each department because the incoming class is going to be considerably smaller than previous ones, which means less revenue from tuition. I’m not sure if that’s the truth, but it’s what I hear the most. A teacher from every department sounds very drastic. I’ve been through meeting minutes that are posted on the Academy’s website, but I haven’t been able to find any mention of cutting teachers. I’ll post again if I can get concrete details.

from John

We are hearing a lot about bullying at schools in the news this week. I can’t think of anything more detrimental to school kids than bullying, organized or not. If this happens in the Woodstock School System, it needs to be stamped out. There’s no question in my mind that teachers and school administrators need to take the lead in confronting this problem if it arises.

I was unaware of bullying during my K-12 education. I can think of only one instance where I was bullied. I was a junior in high school and there was a senior who would jab me in the upper arm with his knuckle everytime he passed me in the hall. At some point I had had enough. After he walked by me with his final jab, I turned around and got him in a headlock. I held on for dear life as the mechanical bull(y) bucked all over the place. I sustained the headlock long enough to make my point and this was the end of the problem.

I’m sure that there are good things that happen in our schools as well that are diametrically opposed to bullying. Here’s one that I recall vividly:

One morning in Mr. Nartoff’s class a few weeks after 7th grade started in September of 1955, the door opened and Russell Brown walked into the classroom. I guess Mr. Nartoff knew he was coming because without hesitation he directed Russell to an empty desk at the back of the room. Our class was a group of good kids. Two names I remember are Ed Steinlauf and Fred Newberg.

Shortly after Russell took his seat he began to cry very softly. The entire class was riveted to the front of the room where Mr. Nartoff stood so as not to embarrass Russell by staring at him. This was something new for all of us except Russell. Mr. Nartoff kindly and gently talked to Russell from the front of the room trying to help Russell settle in. The class remained completely silent except for Russell and Mr. Nartoff’s encouragement. This began a truly meaningful year in which most in the class looked beyond their own problems and embraced Russell as just one of us … and Russell began to feel that he fit in. To my own knowledge Russell was the only dwarf in the Norwalk school system and he was with us through to NHS (Norwalk) graduation in 1961.

This is a rehersal for our 1961 graduation at NHS. Russell is the arrow furthest to the left. I’m at the purple arrow. Ed Steinlauf and Fred Newberg, mentioned above, are the red and gray arrows respectively (the gray arrow in in the left center of the stands). The rest of the arrows identify our close friends.