'Talking up public education' at the Preliminary Budget Hearing in Woodbridge tonight

My public comment to the annual Preliminary Budget Hearing, submitted here for your reading pleasure ;->

Good evening. My Name is Sheila McCreven and I serve as Chairman of the Woodbridge Board of Education.

At this time of year, the WBOE is beginning an overall review process with an eye toward assessing its work over the past year and preparing to revise its goals for the upcoming academic year.

It is through this yearly process that the elected board of ed shapes overall strategy and harnesses the energetic vision of our Superintendent, Dr. Guy Stella, to continuously improve the public education offered the town’s Pre-K through grade six students at Beecher Road School. I’d like to publicly thank Dr. Stella and his team (Chuck, MaryLou, and Carol, who are here with us tonight), as well as all the teachers and other staff who have been so dedicated in their work with our students.

As you probably know, the BOE has three major responsibilities:

• To establish and oversee the school’s budget;


• To evaluate our Superintendent (who then oversees the evaluation of all other school employees);


• And to set official policy, which is then used by the administration to drive various procedures that guide the educational initiatives that benefit the children of Woodbridge.

We are known as a high-performing school district and that reputation helps sustain all our property values.

In looking over the budget process that has led us to tonight’s hearing, I just want to express my appreciation to the spirit of collaboration we have enjoyed this year. I’d like to thank all the members of the Board of Finance and the Board of Selectmen for their open communication, support, and their efforts to help rebuild trust between our three boards, as we have together created our budget for this year and have begun to turn our eye to long-term facility work.

We are asked some probing questions when we present our budget request, for both Operating and Capital expenses. It is through hearing these questions, and doing our best to provide answers, that we developed this document in your hands tonight. And I want to assure you that we will continue to examine the issues raised, particularly around the ways we can measure the success – and the challenges that remain -- for our school district. We look forward to a continued atmosphere of collaboration between “critical friends.”

And lastly I want to say how much we have appreciated the leadership of both BOF chairman Matt Giglietti and First Selectmen Ed Sheehy in working with our Superintendent and the Woodbridge Board of Education as a whole, in support of excellence in education here in Woodbridge.

Thank you.

I also gave a quick shout out to our own Mrs. White's China Blog -- check it out for photos and narrative from her trip, which follows up on our China Sister School project begun by Dr. Stella last fall. She and Amity Middle School Principal, Dr. Dellinger (who was also a 'bloggin away), together with a contingent of fellow Connecticut educators, are due to arrive home from the trip tonight. This growing partnership is just another example of the 'Golden Age At Beecher' that has returned to our community. Hooray!

WE can solve it (Yes, we can!)

Did you see the fantastic new ads on TV? They are superbly weird cameos of unlikely pairings; Al Sharpton and Pat Robertson and then Nancy Pelosi and Newt Gingrich, sitting on a sofa together to talk about the climate crisis? How crazy inventive -- we can solve it, together!






Please consider clicking through and joining WE (this is Al Gore's new project, if you didn't know that already). Let's see what this group can do!

A Pole in the Field?

No, we're talking about a Poll in the Field, here in Woodbridge to be exact.

Did you get a phone call last week? Mine came on Thursday (4/10) -- it seems someone is awful interested in the electoral inclinations in lil' ol' Woodbridge. Right before my phone rang, someone told me about the call they received, so, curiosity aroused, I was sure to catch the name of the polling firm. It was Mountain West Research (and, for what it's worth, the caller did not seem to be a native English speaker, so it certainly seems possible that the call center is located outside the US, as has been surmised in the past with this company).

The poll ran through questions regarding Obama, Clinton and McCain; asked if I considered myself a Democrat, Republican or "Independent" and then asked state-level questions (was my opinion of Governor Rell very favorable, favorable, somewhat unfavorable, or unfavorable). I was asked what my voting priorities were (the list was lower taxes, health insurance, education, etc.) and then what the likelihood of my voting in November would be (I could not persuade the caller to mark me as "definitely going to vote" -- she insisted I pick between very likely, likely, not very likely, will not -- or somesuch nonsense!).

The remaining questions then clearly settled in on the state representative race in our little district. I was asked if I was familiar with a certain potential Democratic candidate, and then what my opinion of her was, and my opinion of the current office-holder.

After it was all over, I did a quick Google and came up with this illustrious history of Mountain West Research in CT -- the notorious alleged "push poll" calls, believed to be from Joe Lieberman just before he jumped ship/the shark on us during his campaign against Ned Lamont. And before that, Mountain West apparently did some polling for Bob Dole's presidential bid in 1996 as well.

So (although I didn't need the research to tell me this, based on the way issues were phrased with a decidedly GOP-slant to them), the call I received sounded like it was a Republican-sponsored poll. Now the question is; who could be asking such detailed questions about our local race for State Representative, while simultaneously badly mangling the pronunciation of the first name of our current (GOP) representative?

Well, those (Republican!) call center polling companies aren't perfect, you know!
Yeah, that's the motto at the Mountain West Research website -- I'm not making that up!

Obama CT 3rd CD meeting - GObama!

I attended a meeting of CT-3rd Congressional District Obama supporters last night at the Afro-American Center at Yale. Jen Just and her team had gathered together key 3rd CD volunteers for some group affirmation and as a way to encourage and reinforce the work of various threads of efforts (phone calling and postcard writing to Pennsalvania, canvassing opportunities there, ObamaWorks neighborhood clean-ups in New Haven, etc.). More on that in my next post.

Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro was a featured participant, revving up the gathering with her personal insights and passionate support of Barack's candidacy. She began by recounting to us her roots in New Haven as a community organizer, her efforts to help get Chis Dodd elected to the US Senate way back when, and her pioneering work as his chief of staff at a time when very few women were offered such roles in Washington. By way of emphasizing the need for women in politics she also noted her work heading up EMILY's List, just before her own election to the House of Representatives.

Rosa then told us how she began the 2008 presidential campaign as a dedicated supporter of Dodd's run, and highlighted his commitment to the constitution as what she considered to be his most important contribution to the primary race. (A bit later she expressed disgust over the recently revealed Yoo memo on torture, saying "How can this guy be a university professor, with this kind of take on our constitution? I don't understand that!")

When Dodd's candidacy came to an end in January, she initially thought she would stand back and simply observe. But then she said, "That's not something I can do! I just can't stand on the sidelines!" She described two phone calls she had to make, one to Hillary Clinton and one to Bill Clinton, to tell them that she would be supporting Barack Obama for president.

Rosa told us why she choose to endorse Obama, saying "He has the potential to change the way things are done. He is unique. He will get people involved who have never been involved before. When you listen to him, you believe that HE BELIEVES in what he is saying!" In Rosa's experience, this is what makes all the difference -- and we can't pass up the chance to elect a president who believes in us this way.

She took questions from the group then and gave her opinion of when the nomination would be wrapped up. The group corrected her when she said "If Obama wins Pennsylvania..." with a hearty "No, you mean WHEN Obama wins Pennsylvania!" But Rosa wants us to be clear-eyed, and she described how we must keep going even if we might face disappointments along the way. And, she added, if Obama comes even within a few points of winning in Pennsylvania, he will in effect have won because of how far he was able to progress having trailed by up to 20 points in the state's initial polling. This kind of impressive drive, combined with his showing in North Carolina will carry the day. She also talked about the Super Delegates and how we should expect to see more and more people weighing in now, in support of Obama. "It's happening," she said. "And it will keep happening."

Rosa encouraged us to "plug-in" and make a difference outside of CT, after explaining how during the last election she and John Larson (CT 1st CD) decided to ask their pumped-up constituents to help in the three other Congressional races in CT, since she and John were not facing significant challenges. Of course, the Democrats won two of those three other races, and Rosa was proud that the people of her district helped make that happen.

Rosa ended her talk by noting the 40th anniversary of the death of Martin Luther King Jr. She spoke of Dr. King's vision that in the future we would judge our children not by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character. She said, "This progress is what is happening with the presidential campaign of Barack Obama. It's about his character -- and people are responding!"

Celebrate Earth Day in Woodbridge - let's Rid Litter

What better way to celebrate Earth Day 2008 then to get together with friends and neighbors in Woodbridge to pick up litter and beautify our town?


So why not join a crew to pitch in and help out a good cause. We'll pick an intersection and time on Saturday to meet... stay tuned here for more details!

Cross promoting (or as they say out there on the wild, wild web: "blog-rolling")!

Some of you may already know about Aldon Hynes' blog, Orient Lodge.


But for all the others, here's a link to a recent post by Aldon describing our Democratic Caucus/Woodbridge DTC meeting held last Thursday.

Aldon and his wife Kim are new to town -- so I thought I'd just give a shoutout and hearty Woodbridge Dem welcome! And check out his blog when you have some time...