Education

Comment

Comment by Kristine Blake on July 30, 2009 at 1:58pm

This problem effects my son as he was picked to attend the UNIVERSITY HIGH on the University Of Hartfords campus this fall.
Our entire family was on FOX-61 NEWS, Monday July 20th, 2009, (@10PM & 11PM) after we received a letter from HARTFORD PUBLIC SCHOOLS, that: "Your district is refusing to pay the tuition".
I would like to give a huge thank you to: Representative, RYAN BARRY, Senator Handley and all the media who are keeping "legs" on this travesty.
According to Sheff vs ONEIL, Governor Rell is violating this law by taking away our right to CHOOSE. We fell in LOVE with HARTFORD MIDDLE MAGNET SCHOOL, where our son attended 6-8 grades. The teachers are just fabulous.
We live in Manchester, and when my bi-racial son attended MARTIN SCHOOL, in kindergarten, many parents went to the principal requesting their children not be in the same class OR EAT LUNCH in the cafeteria with our son!!! Talk about RACISM at it's worst. This is when we yanked him out of that "KKK" environment.
Representative Barry, has gotten together with Senator Handley and has emailed me that he is calling on our ATTORNEY GENERAL, Richard Blumenthal.
We have already bought the schools uniform shirts required, after we got our acceptance letter. Our son is also reading 2 books required for the summer reading program.
"The letter" came JULY 15, 2009, in the eleventh hour. If the budget does not get the money or we do not get Governor Rell to cough up some funds from the STIMULUS PACKAGE, we will have no choice. It is too late to apply to a private school like WATKINSON, where prior, our son was offered a partial scholarship. We turned it down when he was picked to attend HMMS.

Manchester High School is on academic probation, and our son received a letter from the MANCHESTER BOARD OF EDUCATION in 5th grade, that he was "gifted and talented". He also received a CERTIFICATE OF ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT from the PRESIDENT!

I already emailed Governor Rell and received no response at all. Every single Senator, represenative, news station, Hartford Courant called, emailed or sent usps mail in regards to this issue. Her staffing is terrible and unresponsive to citizens of Connecticut. This is unacceptable!
Please, bombard Governor Rell with email, and hold her "feet to the fire". President Obama endorses Magnet and Charter Schools. She has to have everything mandated or over-ridden in order to get things done. Susinet was passed in an over-ride of her VETO.....we HOPE they over-ride her veTO on this Magnet school funding as well~

Comment by ValMcCall on April 8, 2009 at 1:10pm

Will advise shortly.

Comment by Nancy Rossi on April 8, 2009 at 12:54pm

Will you be meeting again this Thursday, April 9th, at the Sand elementary School Library (Hartford Public Library/Ropkins Branch), 1750 Main Street, Hartford? Time?

thanks!

Comment by ValMcCall on April 7, 2009 at 8:23pm

Tell me about it. I was speechless too. And this is someone who was elected to the US Congress. Ms. Bachmann could certainly benefit from a solid education.

Comment by Maureen Carney on April 7, 2009 at 7:26pm

OMG! I watched the video you posted with Ms. Bachman. I can't believe how ignorant she is. I'm just speechless.

Comment by ValMcCall on April 7, 2009 at 10:16am

Check out Michelle Bachmann's assessment of President Obama's plan to address the concerns and needs of the public education system in this country. Moreover, Bachmann's consistent usage of the phrase "armed and dangerous" is irresponsible, unprofessional and speaks much to her own obvious lack of education. Read more here.

Comment by ValMcCall on March 29, 2009 at 11:02am

Here's a recap of our first Hartford Community Conversation Organizing meeting o 3/28:

First and foremost, thank you to all who were able to make it to our first meeting this past Thursday. The next meeting will be held on Thursday, April 2nd, at the same venue: Sand elementary School Library (Hartford Public Library/Ropkins Branch), 1750 Main Street, Hartford. Same meeting room.

(Sidebar: For those of you who are new to this venture, Organizing for Connecticut is launching the same community conversation in Bridgeport, New Haven, New London and Stamford. Each one will be modeled in a similar fashion but will be tailored to address the specific needs within each city.)

Please sign up for the next Hartford meeting either on our Face Book group page entitled "Organizing for Connecticut," under the "Events" section; or at http://www.ctobama.org/events/hartford-community-1; or at http://my.barackobama.com/page/event/detail/meeting/gpt42d.

RECAP of 3/28 meeting:

1. Purpose of Community Conversation: Address the educational and health related issues that youth face from 0-12 (grade) by bringing together all elements of the community: students, parents, teachers, medical and child psychologists, criminal justice, elected officials, education administrators, activists, corporate, artists, etc., and host a diverse dialogue.

2. Goal: Answer two questions, "What can I do?" and "What can we do?". This is not a static conversation.

3. Event Format: Panel discussion with moderator followed by a brief Q&A, followed by breakout sessions to determine what actions can be taken by individuals and a collective effort.

As always, thank you for all that you do.

Note: There are some who are not on the face book group but are on other groups. There may be some duplication of emails/group notices and I sincerely apologize.

Val McCall
State Chair
Organizing for Connecticut
mccall.val@gmail.com
860-995-3364

Comment by ValMcCall on March 25, 2009 at 10:12am

Check this link out -- a wonderful after school resource. http://www.cinetribe.org/programs.html

Comment by ValMcCall on March 18, 2009 at 12:32pm

Check out "The Book Bag" series on HPATV5, an online television station. It is a story book reading hour and it is great.

Comment by ValMcCall on March 16, 2009 at 5:32pm

Hi folks, I deleted the "news" feed from CEA because, unlike other feeds that allow you to select how many times to show, CEA shows them all ... and the list went on and on and on.

Today, I met with the a wonderful group of folks from Middletown that organized 25-30 events (at least) on January 20th in response to President Obama's call to Service. These events were in the form of community conversations. They were designed like the conversations that we have at our kitchen table when family and friends stop by. Considering Connecticut had 65 service events on that date, it is clear that the bulk were in Middletown.

I had to find out how they did it and what is happening now. One person is actually writing a report on what happened at each of those meetings.

What inpsired me from meeting up with the folks from Middletown was the warm and friendly nature of the meetings -- especially in the title, community conversations.

We have some "forums' or "gatherings' that we are planning and I would like to hear from the whole group what do you think we should call these?

Another idea to toss into the ring ... Irene Fiss at our training session talked about the needs of our children from the cradle. So this effort is no longer just a k-12, it is most definitely 0-12.

What are your thoughts on education gatherings that we are planning? Please share with everyone and let's get our conversation going.

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