Category Archives: POSTS, COMMENTS, VIDEO AND AUDIO

This letter is from a former Housy student and was sent to Region 1 Board Of Education members (VOTE NO THURSDAY) 2

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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

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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.no (1)

If you want to protect your local towns spending on school budgets, vote no on this Region One Budget Reply

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Towns are losing more and more control of their own budget process….add to the list the person to implement the new marking and report card system, to be taken over by the region, the curriculum to be taken over by the region. Sharon will lose control of its computer network position as well..and on all these positions if Sharon is out voted, your must follow along. When this region was formed, individual towns wanted their independence..well, you are now loosing it under this administration. A yes vote weakens individual towns choices on how much it wants to pay locally, by handing that over to the region. It’s a slippery slope, and not one you can climb back up once at the bottom. Think twice…a no vote is a vote for your local town. A yes vote on this budget takes more decision-making on spending dollars out of individual towns hands and puts it in the administrations and boards hands..and a majority are oblivious of local concerns.

A letter to the editor from Marshall Miles Reply

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Dear Editor:

The reasons to vote NO on the Region One budget are many again, here are but a few…

The public now has a full-blown lack of confidence in the leadership of this board, its objectivity, it’s relationship with the ABC ( All Boards Chairmen), and its direction of Superintendent Chamberlain

Why you ask?

Region 1 school board chairman Phil Hart of Cornwall said he had no prior knowledge of the impending lawsuit before the news broke, but bills submitted to the Board of Education raise questions about that statement, the district’s March invoice for attorneys’ fees details conversations between board attorney Gary Brochu and Ms. Paige’s attorney in reference to litigation over an employee matter and a conversation between Mr. Brochu and Ms. Chamberlain about “the employee issue” and then, a fourth call to Mr. Hart and “about the employee matter.”

An apparent lack of Board involvement by Mr. Hart. After speaking with three Region One Board Members, all said they had NO PRIOR KNOWLEDGE of the suit and had not been advised of one by Mr. Hart. Did Mrs. Fruend, and Mr. Moore have knowledge of the suit? If so why did they, and not the others. And,if not, shame on Mr. Hart.

How could the ABC have offered a three-year contract if they had knowledge of this suit? I ask any of the Board Chair of Region One to inform the public if they had prior knowledge of the suit. If not, shame of Mr. Hart. If so, shame on the ABC for moving forward with a three-year contract recommendation to the Region One Board with the threat of litigation hanging overhead.

Disrespectful statements about Region One taxpayers published from Board Co-Chair Jonathan Moore. A direct quote “… It also astounds me that, of the people I have spoken to since the referendum, they all are vastly misinformed about the budget. And there is no difference as to whether they voted yes or no! They all are misinformed. I guess they are all so flush they don’t worry about their tax dollars enough to seek out the facts….”

And why did the Board not even mention the impending LEGAL COSTS to the region of the lawsuit against Pat Chamberlain at the special meeting? Where is that money going to come from….out of this years budget, or next years? And, for good measure, two of the charges are against Pat as superintendent, and two are personal charges, who pays for what, or does Region One pick up the bill for all? Questions that should have been asked but were not.

How did the administration of Housatonic, and the Region One Board allow Mr. Harnett’s statement be to be made to the press and board about Hotchkiss School and Kent School? As we have seen, Hotchkiss responded and their response makes Region One look quite foolish, and is a great embarrassment to the region.

These are complicated times, and one 2 hour session is not going to come up with answers. It’s no longer just one item that has doomed the budget, it is many items, and a poor perception of the board, the administration, and what came out of the two-hour special session raised more questions than it answered.

Marshall Miles
Salisbury

Some great observations on why the Region One Budget should be defeated again…VOTE NO Reply

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no-no-noSome thoughts on the budget from Ed Epstein a retired principal, retired teacher, current substitute teacher in all six elementary schools of Region One, and part-time employee of the State Department of Education, working as a scorer of the Connecticut Administrators’ Test, a licensure requirement for future administrators.

I have lived in this region for 45 years, am a property owner in three of the six region towns, and have been interim principal in both Falls Village and North Canaan since my retirement in 2002. I regularly attend meetings to remain current on changing trends in education.

I could write volumes about why I am opposed to this budget. My major reason is the extension of administrator contracts (for the Superintendent of Schools and the Assistant Superintendent of Schools). My views on this topic are well-known and that is all I will say about that.

But I do not agree with your comment that this budget is an “educationally responsible budget.” Let me very briefly outline some of the reasons I feel that way.

—I believe far too much money is being spent for substitutes so teachers can attend workshops.

—Substitutes can never do as good a job as the regular classroom teacher, and in many situations, there are not even enough substitutes available.

—I realize that the Common Core curriculum must be implemented but this district is going too fast. The meeting the region held last month with state representatives convinced me that the state would be reasonable with local districts.

—While I have seen where Power School is essential at the high school level, I am not convinced about the need at the elementary level, and the expense and time that it requires.

—I still believe that the Student Success Plan coordinator position is not needed, and that students would be better served by working with personnel in their own buildings.

—I always have been, and continue to be opposed to closing schools early for teacher workshops, and these workshops are becoming more and more prevalent.

—I still believe an Early Retirement Incentive should be implemented if this budget fails. There are no rules for Early Retirement Incentives—they can be for one year, they can be modeled to meet the needs of a particular school (as I did in 2006 in North Canaan). This should have been a priority months ago! If one teacher retired early, it would save as much money as eliminating two teacher positions.

Finally, and MOST IMPORTANTLY, I believe teacher morale is at an all time low in Region One. Yet teachers are afraid to speak up for fear of retribution. Many parents of kids in school are afraid to speak up. And retired teachers, who are still affiliated with the Region One system, are also hesitant to come forward for the same reason.

The Board of Education held a budget hearing and received a petition from 220 students—it convened its meeting and ignored the comments of over 100 people.

The budget got voted down by the widest margin ever. Then at its last meeting, the Board receives a student petition, now with over 300 signatures. Once again, the Board makes minor adjustments (cutting $30,000 from unemployment is not a budget cut). This is not being educationally responsible.

Slash-happy Board Majority Makes Blind Cut to Proposed Budget (Another good reason to vote the budget down again on May 30) By Gale Courey Toensing (Falls Village representative, Region 1 Board of Education) 3

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vote-no-buttonOn May 20, the Region 1 Board of Education majority, in all its wisdom, voted on a motion from the North Canaan representative to cut $4,212 from the proposed budget for summer library work. The board majority cut this $4,212 item without knowing what the summer library work entailed. Not one of the administrators could tell the board what was involved so no one could defend the expenditure. Nevertheless, the board majority went ahead and slashed summer library work out of the spending plan without a clue as to what they were slashing.

Here’s a list I requested from the library media specialist of exactly what the $4,212 pays for:
1) Commencement video takes the first 15 to twenty hours
2) Weeding (assessing older materials and disposing of those that are:
a) no longer relevant/accurate; b) not circulating and not unique; c) redundant, in disrepair or in an outdated format).
3) Inventory of all materials.
4) Re-distribution of materials on shelves as various areas grow and diminish.
5) Introduction to new systems (for example, this summer we are supposed to change our video editing program from Sony Vegas to Avid, an industry standard. It needs to be purchased, installed, and we have to have a remedial knowledge of how to use it).
6) Requisitions, purchasing and meeting with salespeople from book and database companies.
7) Cataloging materials purchased over the summer.
8) Cleaning of the studio area, which is used by students all year without supervision and is a disaster area by May.

The first two years I was in the library, I requested more summer hours, because 80 hrs is not sufficient to get all of this done. We are behind on weeding, reading and redistributing of shelf space. The library assistant has more than she can handle in also doing inventory and handling all of the bookkeeping, as we continue to buy over the summer. These are tasks that cannot be performed when students and staff are here as our first priority is always to support and instruct the Housatonic community.

So, my questions are:
1) What is the administration’s plan for getting this work done next year?
2) How many other items are in the proposed budget that the superintendent – where the buck is supposed to stop – knows nothing about?
3) What else has the board majority cut from the proposed budget without knowing what they were eliminating?
4) Does the board majority intend to continue cutting budget items in ignorance of what they are cutting?

The budget proposal will be put before voters for the second time on May 30 after being soundly defeated by 587-351 the first time around on May 7. The board majority has refused to restore the fulltime English, math and science teachers, despite an outcry against these cuts by huge numbers of taxpayers and students – more than 200 and more than 300 students signed two petitions asking the board not to cut teaching positions. And the representatives from North Canaan and Kent at the May 20 appeared to deny that the majority of voters are also against extending contracts for the superintendent and her assistant – despite the fact that the 130 or so people at the public hearing in early May CHEERED whenever anyone spoke about not renewing their contracts and around a dozen letters in the Lakeville Journal called for the same.

Let’s show them how wrong they are. Let’s vote down the budget again, this time with an even bigger turnout and keep voting it down until the board majority gets the big picture: Restore the teaching positions and don’t renew the contracts for the superintendent and her assistant beyond June 30, 2014.

And stop the foolishness!

600 Pound Gorilla In The Room 1

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Why, last night, when the budget was being talked about by the Region One Board Of Education, did NO ONE mention the impending LEGAL COSTS to the region of the lawsuit against Pat Chamberlain? Where is that money going to come from….out of this years budget, or next years? And, for good measure, two of the charges are against Pat as superintendent, and two are personal charges, who pays for what, or does Region One pick up the bill for all? Questions that should have been asked but were not……800 pound gorilla in the room