I think the obvious answer is there isn’t one answer (you’ll see what I mean in the video below). I have learned one very important thing through my ongoing reading and research on the subject: It isn’t about money until there is vision and a plan.

The “factory” approach clearly isn’t going to work going forward (and hasn’t for quite some time). Moreover, I’ve heard many people liken the WPS to a “Prison Camp” (especially WMS) which is as about as derogatory as I think you can get when talking about a K-8 program. This doesn’t surprise me considering the pedigree of our current administration and the seeming lack of vision of our BOE. However, we have technology coming out of our ears and Smart boards aplenty with more on order I’m sure. My question is this: to what end- to bore our little inmates to death in high def?

I think we’re all pretty familiar with the factory approach mentioned above- it looks something like this through time:

…and it costs plenty. One might think that the results of this model would have at least some fairly dramatic increase to go along with the massive rise in dollars spent and all of these highly paid adults now running things here in the 21^st century, right? Wrong:

 As you may know, recently there was a ‘Community Discussion’ here in Woodstock about how we might address these issues. Yesterday’s Villager had a report on what a great success it was. Despite numerous invitations, I decided after much thought not to participate. Why? There is one very large underlying issue that I know was not on the agenda, therefore making the entire exercise moot. We don’t have the people in place to execute anything other than what they now do no matter how much money they get or how much technology we buy. The bottom line is this- you can’t build a skyscraper on a swamp. Can anyone visualize Frank Baran getting his head around this or anything close to it?

I don’t think calling Shipman & Goodwin will be of help on this issue. But this is what we are stuck with considering his latest contract extension which was driven by the same person who championed the community discussion. Granted, the whole world is struggling with these issues; however, as pointed out in the previous article, we are WAY behind the curve especially here in Connecticut. 

While a discussion needs to be had, I perceive this one to be misguided, the timing of it highly suspect as to its real purpose, and of course we still have the continued problem of a highly dysfunctional BOE without vision except for more money.  Unfortunately, defending the status-quo, continued public relations stunts, happy talk, and budget shenanigans aren’t going to get our kids where they need to be.

-Craig R. Powers