Daily Archives: May 29, 2013
Marshall Miles opinion letter in The Litchfield County Times Today…. Reply
Please click link below to read
Reasons to Vote No on Region 1 Schools Budget Are Many; Here Are a Few
Can you name at least TWO things Region One Co-Chair Jonathan Moore is doing that are inappropriate to do during a meeting?! 2
1) Emily Post says….
Men – Take hats off, including baseball caps …
In someone’s home
At mealtimes, at the table
While being introduced, indoors or out (unless it’s frigid!)
In a house of worship, unless a hat or head covering is required
Indoors at work, especially in an office (unless required for the job)
In public buildings such as a school, library, courthouse, or town hall
In restaurants and coffee shops
At a movie or any indoor performance
When the national anthem is played
When the flag of the United States passes by, as in a parade
2) Texting during meetings
Texting has been blamed for a lot of things–harassment among teenagers, driver distraction on the highway, bad grades among students. Now, it is being blamed for bad manners at work.
Based on research on 9,000 U.S. workers and managers, Christine Pearson, a management professor at Thunderbird School of Global Management, says all the texting and emailing interrupting meetings and face-to-face conversations at the office are slowly but surely eroding human civility and making us–well, rude, she writes. All the e-conversations steal our attention away from the people nearby, amounting to what once would have been labeled a snub, writes Ms. Pearson, the author of “The Cost of Bad Behavior.”
A Letter From Lawrence N Van Valkenburgh West Cornwall…. Reply
Dear Citizens of Region One,
The reason I am voting “NO” is because as we are seeing again with the allegations that Lucille Paige has made – that there is an obvious pattern of falsification of evaluations. Our teachers have lost confidence that their hard work and strong reputation protects them. Retribution comes in many forms – perhaps the most destructive is when a teacher, or guidance counselor, athletic coach, and now a beloved and trusted secretary’s personnel file is without fault until Superintendent Chamberlain and or Assistant Superintendent Diane Goncalves might decide it suits them better to create a false and damaging context. Our region will no longer be able to attract the best teachers or keep the best we have now since trust cannot be created here.
Voting “NO” is the best thing I can do to support the students, teachers and all other personnel of Region One until Superintendent Chamberlain and or Assistant Superintendent Diane Goncalves’ contract extensions and raises have been rescinded.
Lawrence N Van Valkenburgh
West Cornwall
This letter is from a former Housy student and was sent to Region 1 Board Of Education members (VOTE NO THURSDAY) 2
This letter is from a former Housy student and was sent to Region 1 Board Of Education members
Dear Members of the Region One Board of Education,
My name is Joshua Prause; I graduated from HVRHS in 2012. The reason I am writing you this letter is because I am sickened and ashamed of how you are handling the situation of the budget for the upcoming school year; and the way you are failing your responsibilities to the taxpayers and most importantly the students of the Region One school district, especially the students of HVRHS.
On April 3, 2013, I sent an e-mail to chairman of the board, Phil Hart regarding the board’s plan to eliminate the teaching positions of Mrs. Leigh Connole and Mrs. Pam Aikman of the English and Math departments and how ridiculous and unnecessary of an idea that is. Due to the fact that Mr. Hart has not responded to my e-mail, I feel I should share with the whole board my opinions on these matters. In my e-mail to Mr. Hart, I expressed to him the importance of keeping Mrs. Connole and Mrs. Aikman as teachers at HVRHS. Clearly I am not the only person to believe that these teachers should be kept at HVRHS considering the fact that there were two (2) petitions signed by students demanding that these teachers not be eliminated from their jobs. The very sad part is that this board ignored the student petitions; even when the second petition had over 300 student signatures, which is over three-fourths (¾) of the HVRHS student population. Why would you ignore the vast majority of HVRHS students on an issue that affects the students more than anyone else? Your most important responsibility as board members is to the students and by ignoring them, you are failing them. If you cannot honor your responsibilities to the students, then why are you on this board? The taxpayers need board members who will do what is best for the students.
This board suggests eliminating these teaching positions as a budget cut because of the declining enrollment of students at HVRHS. I understand that if the number of students is declining then there should be some teaching positions cut, what I do not understand is why good teachers are being asked to leave. I do not understand why it must be the “hired last, so fired first” policy. Shouldn’t the teachers who have had the most complaints against them by students and parents be the ones to be asked to leave? What I also do not understand is why the Superintendent and the Assistant Superintendent are even eligible to be considered for a two (2) percent raise when there are so many issues regarding the budget. Is it really too difficult for them to not have a two percent raise to their salary? How can the board just ignore over 300 students? How can the board ignore the fact that the most recent referendum was rejected by the voters by the biggest margin ever?
The students obviously believe that it is in their best interest that these teachers be kept; why don’t you ask the students who they believe is not the best for them? Listen to and consider what the students have to say, after all, that is your most important responsibility and if you cannot or will not fulfill that responsibility then you should not be sitting on this board.
I hope that the decisions that will be made are what is best for the students. Not necessarily based on what you think is best or by what the Central Office thinks is best but by what the faculty, staff, high school administrators, AND most importantly, what the students feel is best.
I, Joshua Prause, would like to make it clear that all the opinions expressed in this letter are my own.
Thank you for your time and for listening.
Respectfully,
Joshua Prause
It’s as easy as ABC…vote NO….. 1
Residents of Region One who are about to vote Thursday on the latest incarnation of the budget, please read the story in this mornings Republican-American….here is a line from that story that tells you why the budget should again be defeated……
“There also were objections raised to the central office administrators getting three year contracts with 2 percent raises for each of those three years. At the board meeting, members voted to ask the superintendent, assistant superintendent and business manager to reopen negotiations. A meeting is being scheduled with the All Board Chairmen Committee next week to discuss reopening the contracts. That advisory group makes recommendations to the Region 1 Board of Education on administrative contract matters”
Note the item …”A meeting is being scheduled with the All Board Chairmen Committee next week to discuss reopening the contracts”…
You would have thought that with the public, and board asking for the administration contracts to be re-opened, that the ABC group would have acted with some speed..but NO! They figure, along with the administration, let’s wait till AFTER the next vote…if the budget passes, we won’t have to deal with this issue.
This is a slap in the face to voters, residents, and the board, the situation demanded some sort of immediate action from the ABC, but no, they kicked the can down the road, figuring the problem might go away. The Region One BOE scheduled a special session, why did the ABC not do the same? Shame on them, this is reason enough to defeat the budget one more time itself to show them WE ARE SERIOUS AND WE WANT ACTION.