Woodbridge 366 yes to 181 no
Orange 388 yes to 244 no
Bethany 214 yes to 186 no
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.
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.
Yeah, that's the motto at the Mountain West Research website -- I'm not making that up!
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.
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. .jpg)
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 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!"
Great speeches don't matter if no one hears them.
"While cable news shows gorge on campaign sparring, Obama's uplifting speech is absolutely dominating YouTube. The 34-minute address from Ebenezer Baptist Church is currently the fourth most viewed video in the world on YouTube, trailing two Britney Spears clips."
About 3.8 million people have now watched Barack Obama's Philadelphia address through the campaign's official YouTube channel... another 520,000 people watched excerpts of the speech uploaded by random YouTube users. Taken together, the total YouTube viewers for Obama's speech over the past week beat all the cable channels combined. Last Tuesday, about four million viewers tuned into one of the three cable channels to watch the speech.
Jen and her boys upon arrival.
I'm reaching every type of potential voters... Obama supporters, undecideds... and answering machines!
That's Beth, Stephanie, Harriet and Pua, making the scene tonight...
1st CD: West Hartford Town Hall Auditorium, 50 South Main Street, West Hartford
Recommended Slate: Larry Charles, Sofia Dannenberg, Val McCall, Shawn Wooden (Alternate: Mayor Scott Slifka)
2nd CD: Bacon Academy Auditorium, 611 Norwich Avenue, Colchester
Recommended Slate: Vivien Blackford, Robert Madore, Nick Paindiris
3rd CD: Hill Career High School Auditorium, 140 Legion Avenue, New Haven
Recommended Slate: Mayor John DeStefano, Jennifer Just, Sen. Martin Looney, Rep. Toni Walker (Alternate: Jerry Weiner)
4th CD: Shining Star Lodge #303, 33 Mission Street, Stamford
Recommended Slate: Lyda Ahearn, Gloria DePina,Tom Wilkinson (Alternate: Gail Worthington)
5th CD: Washington Middle School Auditorium, 1225 North Broad Street, Meriden
Recommended Slate: Frank Borges, Millie Torres Ferguson, Elizabeth Giannaros (Alternate: Sen. Don DeFronzo)
Joe Lieberman's endorsement of Republican John McCain disqualifies him as a superdelegate to the Democratic National Convention under what is informally known as the Zell Miller rule...
Update: And here's a special blast from the past: our friend Zell Miller was the hit attraction (for the kids anyway) of our BBQ for America, way back in September 2004. Remember when... Zell had just given his rousing speech at the GOP Convention... some clever ditty about our candidate leaving our armed forces equipped with nothing but spitballs... yeah, that was fun.
Woodbridge dems = 1418 total ballots
Obama = 707
Clinton = 686
Edwards = 15
Dodd = 3
Gravel = 2
Kucinich = 2
Biden = 1
Richardson = 1
Uncomitted = 4
"Tonight, we know one thing for sure -- our time has come, our movement is real, and change is coming to America.
At this moment in history, the stakes are too high and the challenges too great to play the same Washington game with the same Washington players and expect a different result.
This time must be different.
There will be those who say it cannot be done. But we know what we have seen and what we believe -- that when ordinary people come together we can still do extraordinary things.
Yes, we can."
