Don’t give in, Board of Ed

Let’s try this scenario on: What if the Board of Ed simply refused to make any more cuts in its budget (after removing any spending that’s not going to hurt in the classroom)? Couldn’t it just tell the council that it’s sliced away all that it can in good conscience and plead for more money? [...]

Quest also on chopping block

The superintendent is offering the Board of Education lots of ways to slice Quest from the budget. It could whack a teacher or two, or it could ax Middle School Quest, or it could lop off Elementary School Quest. I guess we should be grateful he didn’t urge tossing the Quest kids out on the [...]

6 elementary schools could get clobbered

Parents at  Aiken, Braeburn, Bugbee, Duffy, Morley, and Norfeldt schools better wake up fast.
On the list of potential cuts are two that would create havoc for countless families and drastically reduce the education at each of the schools.
One proposal is to eliminate full-day kindergarten at each of the six schools, to save $713,750. There would still [...]

Honor our veterans today. Parade at 10 a.m.

Our yearly parade on Memorial Day is always a stirring, wonderful event. Be there.
 Here are the details: 
The West Hartford Memorial Day Parade Committee announces the appointment of Attorney General Richard Blumenthal as the Honorary Parade Marshal of the 2007 West Hartford Memorial Day Parade.
The parade is scheduled for Monday, May 28, 2007. It will start [...]

Ideas for improving school diversity

The story in today’s paper mentions a handful of ideas for correcting the racial imbalance in our schools, all attributed to unnamed officials:
* Establishing longer school days and longer school years for Smith and Charter Oak.
* Expanding student supervision from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. by creating more before- and after-school programs.
* Launching a new [...]

Courant story on racial imbalance in our schools

The Hartford Courant has a must-read story that raises many more questions than it answers about the growing racial imbalance between the schools as a whole because Charter Oak and Smith schools are far more diverse than most of the rest in town. We’ll have to follow up on many of the points in the story, [...]

Don’t cheat on Carpenter successor

It was disturbing to see in the West Hartford News that Republican Party leader Carl Donatelli said there have been Democrats recently changing their party affiliation to Independent in anticipation of Carpenter’s resignation. The obvious implication is that the Democrats may be prepared to pick a successor to the soon-to-resign Barbara Carpenter (who really ought to [...]

Taxpayers group springs for BBQ!

The June meeting of the West Hartford Taxpayers Association is going to be held on June 22 at Therese McGrath’s place on Richmond Road.
Called the “MDC (Many Dedicated Citizens) Bash and BBQ” the group is touting the event as “a celebration to thank each and every taxpayer for all of their hard work to help [...]

Larson to take global warming junket

REP. LARSON JOINS SPEAKER PELOSI ON CONGRESSIONAL DELEGATION
TO ADDRESS SOLUTIONS TO GLOBAL WARMING
WASHINGTON- Today, Congressman John B. Larson announced that he is participating in a bipartisan Congressional Delegation trip to Greenland, Germany, Great Britain and Belgium to meet with leading scientists and political leaders working on solutions to combat global warming lead by House Speaker [...]

Why are 5th grade parents silent?

To save $312K, the Board of Ed is eyeing a plan to “reduce staffing at KP and Sedgwick in grade 6 from 3 full teams per grade to 2 full teams and 1 half team. Based on current enrollment projections, the maximum class size would rise from 19 to 24 per class in grade 6.”
Read [...]