Democratic City Council hopeful Bruce Lydem sent me the following about the school site picks made last night:
First, let me thank the Board of Education committee of seven for all their hard work on behalf of the City of Bristol. I am committed to listening to the voters of Bristol. I have knocked on over 1200 doors and the citizens, by and large, have told me that they would rather have the school built on the Roberts property. An added benefit to the taxpayers is that the Robert’s property is already owned by the City. That will save a lot of money. I support the green hills site because it preserves the quality of a neighborhood school. While we can disagree on where to put our schools I think it is clear that we all believe that our kids deserve state of the art school and best possible educational opportunities. I look forward to working with everyone to make sure that our kids have the best educational opportunities.
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Copyright 2007. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com
11 comments:
I heard Bruce Lydem has a college kid writing up this stuff for him.
There are 6th graders that have a better handle on issues than Lydem does. This guy is in outer space.
Lydem is pretty cocky that he's got the council seat already won! Guess that's why he was running with Zoppo! He's just like her
Interesting. I would be interested in knowing what the academic background of each candidate is. How much college guys?
He hasn't knocked on my door. If he would ask, I'd tell him that I would rather see small NEIGHBORHOOD schools for the early grades (1 - 6), something in between for 7 and 8, and secondary schools for 9 - 12.
Bruce be your own person, not lockstep with Ward and Minor. If you have knocked on as many doors as you claim you would know that the people you would represent on Chippens Hill do not want a school on the Roberts Property.
Think about what the cost of busing will be in the future will gas prices rising.
Put neighborhood schools in neighborhoods. Having two schools right across the street from one another is just plain stupid.
Whose doors did he knock on? MOST VOTERS IN BRISTOL ARE NOT IN FAVOR OF THE K-8 concept period. Why aren't you guys listening?
When you say most voters are not in favor of K-8, are you talking about 900-student schools, or schools that have kindergarten through eighth grade classrooms in the same structure? These are two separate issues but they are getting lumped together in the debate.
I do not believe the majority of people in this town do not want the k-8 schools. They might not like the amount of students in the k-8 school. Regardless, the BOE came up with the idea. They have the info to back it up unlike the rest of us who choose to be experts when we have no data to back up our opinions. Bristol is behind the times and it's time we caught up. I think this is more about people not wanting to shell out the money more than it is about school size although they won't admit it. It's always "for the kids" but I believe it's "for the pocketbooks" when it comes to Britolites.
The k-8 system is a good one, if and only if they are no larger than 500 or 600 students. Do the research, most credible studies back that claim. Bristol has a very good school system. Yes a few aging elementary schools need to be replaced , and I think many voters would back that idea. The middle schools are not terrible places like you are being led to believe. Bristol can not implement a complete change over to a K-8 system. The best we can do is piecemeal it. Not an attractive idea to those considering making Bristol their home in the future. Poorly planned and lacking sound educational thought. The BOE should go back to the drawing board and come up with a quality plan that will benifit our children for years to come. Where are these studies they claim supports this plan? Is that the same one the Hartford Schools used a few years back?
Apparently Lydem isn’t working for what the taxpayers want, he is working for someone else’s dream. Maybe Tom O’Brien just wants a school named after himself. I’m glad Lydem has made his stance known this early in the game so at least I know who I’m not going to vote for. My neighbors and I all feel the same. Maybe Lydem should step down, too. By the way, could the fact that he’s in the carpenters’ union have anything to do with why he wants Bristol to build new schools?
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