The Dates are Official...
During a short but interesting Special Selectmen’s meeting held at 4:00pm today, the Selectmen moved on the following agenda:
1. Call to Order
2. Address Petition filed with Town Clerk on 05/06/2009
3. Warn Special Town Meeting for May 26, 2009 and set a Referendum date
4. Citizens Comments
5. Adjourn
In addition-
The Special Town Meeting will be held to consider the following actions and to vote on the following matters:
1) To elect a Moderator;
2) To consider and act on the following petition for an ordinance changing the membership of the Woodstock Board of Education submitted pursuant to General Statutes §7-1 dated May 5, 2009:
Shall the Town of Woodstock adopt an ordinance in accordance with Sections 9-203 and 9-205 of the General Statutes of Connecticut to reduce the Board of Education from its present nine members to seven, thereby causing the terms of all present members to terminate on November 2, 2009 and seven members of the Board shall be elected; four members to hold office for two years and three members to hold office for four years, each from the date of election, and, at each town election thereafter, shall elect members of such board in place of the members whose term expire, each for a term of four years from the date of election.
The form of the proposed ordinance is attached hereto as Exhibit A to this Notice.
3) To transact such other business as may properly come before said meeting; and
4) To adjourn.
Pursuant to Section 7-7 of the Connecticut General Statutes, the Woodstock Board of Selectmen have on their own initiative removed the foregoing Item #2 for submission to the voters of the Town of Woodstock by referendum to be held on Tuesday, June 9, 2009 from 12:00 Noon to 8:00 p.m. at the Woodstock Town Hall. The vote will be a "yes" or "no" vote on voting machines. Absentee ballots will be available at the office of the Town Clerk. The form of the Ballot Question is attached hereto as Exhibit B. (See official documents below).
On another note, Lindsay Paul has called a special Board of Education meeting for 6:30pm tomorrow evening at WMS to begin devising a PR campaign against the initiative. The video camera will be rolling- stay tuned.
Official Documents PDF
OK. Stupid question time. Assuming this passes, in November, we'll elect 7 new members. Four of them will be elected to a 2 year term and three of them will be elected to a 4 year term, but only in the upcoming November 2009 election. Every election after that will be to elect 7 members to the BOE for a 4 year term. Am I reading the ordinance correctly on this?
If so, how does a candidate for the November, 2009 election know if they are running for a 2 year or a 4 year seat? Do they just declare that for themselves or are they assigned to a particular term of service after the election?
No, my understanding is this...look at it this way- the staggering of the terms is built in up front. Therefore, in 2011 four seats will be up and in 2013 three seats will be up and then 4/3 thereafter every other two years.
On your second question, the committees/candidates declare what term they will run for prior to the election.
BTW, the minority representation split becomes 5/2.
way to stay active brother.