From Harold
What does the Norwich article mean when it says that students are being told to go somewhere else? Why doesn’t the article explain who is doing the telling and why?
I have to agree that if WA is cutting academic staff due to increased costs of athletic facilities and maintenance, then that alone would make any rational person question WA’s commitment to academic quality.
The WA academic buildings do appear to be from an earlier era, and so where are the logical statements for the reasoning behind the actions taken by the Academy? Are they somewhere online, or would that be just another WMD-like snipe hunt?
I’m looking online specifically for the decision-makers’ statements behind the increased cost of new athletic facilities being more important than the upgrading of academic facilities and staff…because they doubled the size and maintenance costs of the sports fields, but they simultaneously CUT academic staff and I’m pretty sure they haven’t significantly upgraded the Academy buildings.
In fact, to the best of my knowledge there are still HVAC problems within each building at the Academy – cold zones, hot zones, humidity problems, etc. Seriously, it would probably require the cost of a new building to sufficiently correct the current problems with wasteful utilities and mechanical problems. And now with the Newtown tragedy, will anything be done to increase security for the various buildings on campus?
Will there be any security at the sports fields? You’d think there would be a state-wide effort to help fund increased security for all the schools in the state. Anyone could easily walk out onto the fields and take out anywhere from fifty to one hundred children along with the coaches with nobody to stop them. We should look into arming the coaches. At the very least give each of them a handgun and training so they can prevent another tragedy. Maybe there could be a group of teachers or civilian volunteers who would be willing to organize an armed patrol of the school and fields.
It seems ironic that due to criminal behavior our society now needs a prison environment as the safest place to educate the children.
These issues are all tied together, but the solutions seem to be money-based, unless volunteers are willing to put in the hours and donate resources to help the community by addressing the needs of the Academy. Is there any form of volunteer outreach-coordination at the Academy?
Volunteers are not the answer. Revising Prop 46 and raising taxes to cover the costs of bringing our K-12 up to speed is the answer. We should not be laying off teachers and forgoing repairs/updates to our infrastructure. Providing safe quality education to our students is not only a taxpayer obligation, but also an investment. Our kids are going to need all the edge they can get if they are to compete for slim job pickings. Let’s not cheat them of this just so Ma and Pa Woodstock Homey Rednecks say we can’t afford it. WE can afford it. We can’t afford not to.
I’ve heard of no teachers at WA being laid off, it’s the administrative assistants.
I do believe that WA needs to seriously reconsider the timing of how it spends money, especially since its revenue depends so highly on the apparently unreliable international (and Brooklyn) kids. Big projects such as finishing Bentley, painting walls, and especially that stone walkway should really have waited until this coming June when they know they’re going to have the money to pay for those things. WPS is wise in this sense. When has there been a budget deficit in WPS?
Harold:
I agree that the buildings need work, and I think it’s reasonable to question the athletic fields improvement being done before the buildings are improved.
As to volunteers, that sort of activity is best for extra-curricular activities such as music boosters and athletic boosters – that’s being done already.
I don’t know what can realistically be done to improve security when it comes to sociopathic people willing to assault the general public wheter it’s at a sporting event, concert, mall, theme park, ski area, or any other venue where there are a lot of people. Remember Fort Hood?
Armed coaches on the sidelines sounds like a bad idea.
It seems incredible to me that on a post to post basis I have been almost completely in agreement with someone who calls themself LibDem.
He or she is correct (again) I am not dead against a tax increase
for our schools and kids after we make sure every penny is spent well.
I don’t blame the rednecks however. Usually it’s the self absorbed yuppie
crowd or stingy NIMBY groups. Who generally have enjoyed nice home equity
increases, educated their kids and now are screaming about paying for
anyone else’s kid.
Why in gods name with all the money we waste on stupid would we not make
education a top priority?
You can’t put off fixing roofs, roads etc…
You need good teachers or we are all going to pay in the long run in social costs.
My opinion on the Academy (after trying to wake my own
Woodstock kid ) is who the hell wants to get up that early
and ride on a bus (twice) for almost an hour???
No wonder Brooklyn kids are going elsewhere.
As for me agreeing with LibDem (again) perhaps the Mayans were
correct and the world ended in December.
I don’t really care. We need to get to a place where
right is right or should I say “correct is correct”
and stop this toxic squabble.
It’s beneath us all.
Db
I heard it was because of smaller class sizes. You have a decline in enrollment so you don’t need as many teachers. Why would you spend money paying teachers who don’t have any classes to teach????
Right, Hooplah, especially when they have to make sure they have enough money to pay all the salaries of all those multitudinous highly-paid administrators.
Hooplah,
It has to do as much with target class sizes as smaller class sizes. So here’s the thing about declining enrollment. We no longer teach in one room schoolhouses. At the high school level we teach segregated by subject and grade.
I’ll give a quick example, suppose we have 4 classes of 12th grade physics with 88 kids, 22 per class. Ok, not too bad maybe our target class size is 23 so you are in range. Next year our class size drops by whopping 10% or 8 kids leaving us with 80 kids. So what are our class size choices? The obvious choices are: four classes with 20 kids in each or three with 26-27. With three classes we have exceeded the target class size and so we end up with the same number of classes with fewer kids in each.
Declining enrollment is a problem of capacity breaks. If you stay true to your target capacity (in this case target class size) then declining enrollment leaves you with an organization that isn’t as efficient as it could be, just like a manufacturing situation. Of course the goal of education is not about efficiency, it’s about quality of education. So institutions like the Woodstock Academy and WPS put their educational missions before efficiency and that’s exactly what we should be doing.
P.S. Even large manufacturing operations have difficulty unwinding the sunk and fixed costs in the face of declining demand for their goods.
Thanks,
Kevin
Well Put!
WA is looking at Renovating the entire facility since the last renovation took place over 20 years ago. Who will pay for this? I doubt WA will get the state funding it did back in 1989. I know the field house needs a new gym floor and the Academy building is a money pit.
Enrollment will go back up, as the school’s 3 main town’s population continue to grow.
Some useless info….
Back in 1997 aprox. 180 students graduated, the following year in 1998,over 240 walked on Academy Sunday. Does this make sense? WA’s population should slowly go back up, even if Killingly takes most of the Brooklyn students.
Kevin is dead on, there is nothing to do when enrollment shrinks except eliminate positions. I know some people try to turn this into a political debate which it isn’t.
Actually the town bonded the improvements at the Academy in 1989 I believe. These bonds were paid off five years ago.