January 19, 2008...10:44 am
Goodbye, Superintendent Sklarz
The town’s $188,000-a-year school superintendent, David Sklarz, is retiring in June 2009.
Sklarz, 61, has done a commendable job dealing with the town’s conflicting demand of maintaining a great school system without hitting people up for more money to pay for it. That’s tough work.
But he’s also been too secretive and too polarizing, failing to pull everyone together to support what is, after all, our town’s pride and joy. He’s also headed a system that hasn’t done enough to break down racial divides.
I am glad, though, that he’s giving the town lots of lead time to find a successor. Superintendents mostly suck, but since we have a pretty attractive job for someone, perhaps the months ahead will bring the right person to town, someone who can keep the schools humming for all of our students while remaining supportive of our teachers — and, somehow, make taxpayers content with the hefty tab for everything.
In any case, Sklarz goes out with his reputation intact. That’s never easy these days.
22 Comments
January 20, 2008 at 11:33 pm
Maybe someone from within the school system is qualified to carry the torch. I have my own “List” of potential BOE insiders, do you Whdad?
January 21, 2008 at 6:53 pm
Friendly, and I do mean friendly, advice to Councilor Visconti. The selection of the superintendent of schools is exclusively and entirely up to the Board of Education as a matter of law. Do not step out on that slippery slope.
January 21, 2008 at 10:30 pm
This guy has done a great job, and he will be missed.
January 30, 2008 at 12:15 pm
This blog is freakin’ dead.
February 12, 2008 at 3:58 pm
Time to put a fork in this blog. It’s dead, dead, dead.
Why’d you lose interest Dad? You had something good here for a while.
I suppose we can piss and moan about the Courant, but at least they bother put out a paper each day.
So much for the “alternative media” in West Hartford.
February 13, 2008 at 3:26 pm
Is there another place to go? Does someone have a blog to discuss issues and current events that isn’t actively looking to advance an agenda (as in democrats, republicans, etc)? I know i’d be a regular visitor.
February 13, 2008 at 7:12 pm
It seems to me that maintaining a blog of this sort — one that seeks to monitor (and maintain) a community is no small task — and at times I’d imagine it’s a task that can become a psychological Goliath. In this case, let’s hope all is well with WHDad and those around him.
I’d be interested in starting up a newsy West Hartford blog like this one (assuming this one is indeed dead) — but only with a team of 2-3 objective editors (maybe you, WHDad) who would be willing to share the typical blogish burdens of posting, spam-filtering, and all that “stuff.”
If seriously interested, and with the time to devote, email to me at
blog.withme@yahoo.com
Looks like spam but I’m just trying to keep my real email away from the bots …
February 14, 2008 at 10:33 am
I hope all is well with our favorite blogging dad and that his inactivity here is merely a sign that he’s living a busy and rewarding life away from his computer.
I would be very interested in being a regular contributor to any new blog. I’m sure many would rightfully question my objectivity, but I think I could provide an interesting prospective.
Let me know if there is any interest.
February 14, 2008 at 12:37 pm
I don’t doubt your ability to remain objective, only your ability to offer anything “interesting.”
February 16, 2008 at 12:33 am
I say the more Councilors and BoE members on board, the better.
Hey, whdad! Cheers!
February 17, 2008 at 2:24 am
Who Writes This?
February 18, 2008 at 1:04 pm
Steve Collins of the Bristol Press, husband of Jack Majerus, also of the Bristol Press? Very interesting.
Guess that explains the subtle Courant bashing we’ve seen here. God knows the Courant is worthy of criticism, but it’s a little self-serving when it comes from a competitor.
February 18, 2008 at 5:07 pm
A couple of us have put up a site over at:
http://whforums.wordpress.com/
Surf over and see what we’re about if you’re interested.
We’re still looking for a 3rd editor, if there are any volunteers in the (dwindling) crowd …
February 25, 2008 at 2:37 pm
“Steve Collins of the Bristol Press, husband of Jack Majerus, also of the Bristol Press? Very interesting”
Wow! Outed twice in the same sentence!! I wonder which one is more distressing… being outed as a newspaper reporter or as one of the guys from Queer Eye for the Straight Guy?
For the record, Steve’s spouse is named Jackie and is a woman. I don’t know if Steve is indeed the man behind whdad, but whoever ran this site for as long as he did has my respect. As I’m sure the folks trying to get the “new” blog up and running, ’tain’t easy to keep these things running, topical and interesting.
I leave you with the words of my hero, Homer Simpson: “Kids, you tried your best and failed miserably. The lesson is: never try.”
February 25, 2008 at 9:04 pm
I’m an occasional reader, but it’s not my blog. I don’t think I have even made a comment on this site.
I think the confusion arose because I thought about starting a West Hartford Blog a long time ago and bought a URL for it. So if someone searched the name, they might have seen that I have something registered that sounds like this (I can’t remember offhand what name I got!).
Someone who knows me told me my name was floated here. But the guess is wrong and given how dead it is on here now, I’m not sure it matters.
Some people who do check this out would be interested in a story I wrote today for The Bristol Press. Joe Visconti is probably running for Congress against John Larson.
February 25, 2008 at 11:19 pm
Hey! Why stop at the congressional level??
Joe Visconti for President!!!
February 26, 2008 at 1:12 am
Joe Visconti for Emperor of the World!
He’s got my vote for Congress or anything else.
February 26, 2008 at 9:14 am
There definitely is not enough local coverage of WH news (I moved here from a Maryland suburb of DC that had no less than 5 extremely active and informative blogs). One I’ve found that does a good job of aggregating WH news and but unlike this blog isn’t overtly political is “Talk of West Hartford” — http://whtalk.blogspot.com/. It is worth checking out.
February 29, 2008 at 4:33 pm
I’m told Jackie is indeed a woman. Sorry for the typo.
March 5, 2008 at 6:36 pm
where has visconti been? haven’t heard or seen much of him ever since he got elected…just wondering if anybody knew where that loudmouth idiot is these days
March 5, 2008 at 9:24 pm
He’s been busy on the Council.
Not making as much noise because his father was terminal
Last weekend his father passed away, funeral was today.
March 9, 2008 at 8:21 am
Hey, it’s budget season, whdad!
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