Since the seal is broken! My educational background is a graduate of The college of NJ with Bachelor of Arts in Sociology, Masters of Science in Insurance University of Hartford. I graduated from the US Army in 3 years with an Honorable discharge.
I am past President of McCabe Waters LL & Bristol Rotary. I am currently President of West Cemetery Ass'n & Professional Insurance Agents of CT. I am currently a board member for Property and casualty Trust-an insurance captive insuring United Methodist Churches and agencies. I am also a past board member of The familiy Center for Girls and boys and Bristol Day Care Center.
I have been employed at C.V. Mason & Co-an insurance agency since 1980. I have been the president since 1992.
I have an interst in education because I believe it has been instrumental in the success I have realized in my life. I wish to make sure others have that same opportunity.
2 mottos I pattern my life "If you are not part of the solution you are part of the problem" in raising children my motto is "pave the child for the path not the path for the child"
I have 3 children who have been educated in the Bristol schools and have gone on to earn College degrees.(well 2 7/8 I assume the last one will graduate in May)
I believe we need to raise the bar and expectations. The expectations need to be raised by all involved in the educational process including Parents, students, educators, administrators and even commissioners!
I believe that our fathers education is not good enough for our students to be successful. We need to build within the entire community the goal to raise expectations.
I am for K-8. I believe the educational strategies can be better accomplished in that environment. That is not to say other configurations won't work but my reading, visiting K-8 schools and analysis says that is the correct approach. Unfortunately we, do not have the resources to make such a change immediately so it must be transitioned over a long number of years.
I am in agreement for the location for the Forestville school at Green Hills. For the West Side I still belive the Center Mall would be better served as a community school than a mixed use retail/office/habitational complex. I believe we must compete for families to live in our community. Schools are one of the first charateristics a future resident will use to determine residency. However if the Center Mall is not chosen as a site I will evaluate other sites based upon their suitablity for educational and community benefits.
If you choose me as one of your electoral candidates for the BOE I assure you I will give my all to make effective and judicious decisions on behalf of the entire community.
That makes one down and 12 more to go!
*******
Copyright 2007. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com
13 comments:
Thank You Chris for having the guts to speak up! Good luck on Tuesday...you have my vote.
Hooray! At last ONE candidate has chosen to speak out.Question NOW is,will the others,BOTH incumbents and candidates,follow suit? If they want my vote,I would recommend they do so.
Like there is any doubt that he will win reelection. The BOE elections are phony, there is no real choice.
Democrat voting for Chris Wilson,never has chris wavered from stands on education ,keep up the good work talk to you on election day.
That's nice that Chris introduced himself as a candidate, but anyone that believes that the mall site would be good for a school isn't the kind of person that I want on the BOE.
Chris thank you for your candor. I have been a vocal critic of the current school plan on this Blog. Not because I think new or renovated schools are not important. Clearly they are. My concern is the change to K8 at the same time as the construction of new facilities. In addition, the K8 proposal is only half a change. If K8 is a superior method then why not present a plan to change the entire district at one time? Why present a plan that only goes half way and provides no insight as to how the rest of the system is brought into a consistent structure?
From my vantage point it looks like the BOE is trying to "change the engines on the plane in mid-flight" and that smacks of a disaster ahead.
Again, thanks for your honesty. While I don't agree with your position I would love to hear more from you on why if K8 is superior did the BOE not present a plan for all of Bristol to get there at once and instead opted for an experimental approach.
Good luck on November 6th.
glad to see someone on the boe even cares enough about the citizens of Bristol to speak up but i have to say i think the center mall idea for a school is terrible. we need to use the center mall as a way to increase our tax base not to throw it away on a school. also why have a school in the middle of downtown where there are no fields, lots of traffic and drug infested neighborhoods just behind the proposed spot for the school. it just seems to me to be a bad place for our cities youths!!!!!!
I will not vote for any candidate that wants to put the school on the center mall property
reply to disgusted democrat- since i am not receiving many trick or treaters I'll try and respond to some of your comments. thanks for your input.
To convert to K-8 all at once would require just short of $1 billion dollars if my memory is correct-I don't have the nesdec study in front of me. Schools would have to be retrofitted to convert to K-8. The state determines square footage ratio and physical plant requirements
Some of the rational to migrate to K-8 is that their would be less transitions if a student stayed in one school k-8 this should enhance the educational experience.
Additionally having approximately 300 students in the 6-8 grades would be more advantageous than the current configuration with 800-1200. We needed to have at least 300 to have enough economy of scale because the 6-8 grade teacher must be content certified.
Thus we came to the conclusion that we needed to expand the schools to 900 from the initial thought that we could make the schools 750. Another benefit is that we keep the parents engaged and involved for a longer period of time. It seems that as students enter the middle school parents become less involved.
The school we visited and the study info from NESDEC concluded this was an appropriate educational strategy. BTW this was a unanimus decision of all BOE members to convert to K-8.
It would be fiscally impossible to make this transition immediately.
If we are to convert to K-8 and that is our intention it does not make any fiscal sense to build schools that would not be compatible with such a grade configuration. The initial plan is to build these 2 k-8 schools. Further k-8 schools would be either converted or built in the long range plan those decisions are not and cannot be completed until the initial steps are taken. Since demographics and housing patterns are constantly changing we must take into consideration these issue but they cannot be planned out 30 years in advance. Running some schools with a K-8 configuration and some in k-5, 6-8 concurrently will give the BOE plently of info to make well thought out decisions based upon the educational outcomes.
Some will look back 20-30 years ago and say we shouldn't have changed from k-8 to junior high and then to middle school and with 30 years hindsight I guess they could be correct. I view it that the BOE made the decisions that they thought would best enhance the educational experience. With the information at hand they made logical rational decisions. Just as I think we are. Demographics and housing patterns (mobility is much more prevalent than 30 years ago) have caused many more difficulties in educating students today. We must employ whatever educational strategies we can to insure our community has the best possible educational system. I believe thje decisions we have made further that goal
Ok-Why a school at the Centre mall site: (My Red Sox won and I have a lot of time on my hands)I know I won't convince anyone who has already made up their mind but I am optimistic that there are people out there that will be objective about this issue.
Educational reasons:
*has 17 acres and meets the educational specifications required by the state
*was the number one rated site from the Feasibility study
*is big enough for fields and is a great site for a community school
*Centrally located within the area of the 3 propsed school closings Oconnel, Bingham and Blvd.
*close proximity to extended care and day care services at Boys club and Imagination Museum
*close proximity to fire & police station for school trips and museums are closeby
* what says more than putting a school in centre of community
* has no more traffic than Greene Hills, Bingham, O'connell or other schools thoughout the community.
*Drugs and safety is an issue across the whole community it is not soley area surrounding the centre mall. In fact a school there would give public protection an opportunity to be even more vigilant.
Other Community reasons
*centre mall has not been supported by the Bristol Community for past 30 years. Mixed use habitational.office/retail is a hope at best. The idea that signicant tax revenue will be realized is an unsubstantiated claim.
*look at the past developemnt attempts at downtown-never has there been a successful development in this community of this magnitude.
*look at the surrounding area one does not see a thriving metropolis. Comparisons to West Hartford, Canton and Middletown are are illogical. Both of those had thriving businesses in their midst. We have very few downtown. Look at North Main Street look at Main Street. I don't understand where those so excited about turning this in to some tax generating complex base their claims. I have heard about these mystery developers but I am not as optimistic that those who have the resources to invest money will choose to invest it in the centre of Bristol. Businessowners that I know and talk to agree main st is on route 6 not downtown.
*while I realize a community can have mutltiple commercial centers I see nothing in the past history which would justify such an investment by a developer.
If the Bristol Centre Mall has such an optimistic future why didn't developers beat the city to the punch and outbid them for the centre mall?
We have an opportunity to do something great for the community. I believe a school would be a perfect choice. Especially given the limited site locations in the West End. I certainly know I am not going to convince many of those who already believe the Centre Mall will be some kind of tax generating complex however I hope overtime some will re think there position. It is not foolish, Crazy or ridiculous-it just makes sense! In the end it gets back to the age old economic principal of law of supply and demand. There is no demand. The marketplace will be the final judge.
Ok I am going to go watch a Law & order rerun!
Hi Chris, I am not getting many trick-or-treaters etiher.... Let's talk....And, I would love to hear from other BOE candidates as well.
Did the Board of Education look at the voluminous body of research which concludes that smaller is better? This year, according to your comment, our BOE intends to create smaller class sizes for grades 6 through 8 but, what you don't spell out is that the plan is to nearly double the class size for our more fragile children (PK through 5th grade)!
One such study, The Fordham Institute's Mayhem in the Middle, I obtained from Craig Minor, the BOE council liaison, in 2006 when I requested the report on which the BOE was basing their decision to move to the K-8 onfiguration. I desired to educate myself on the pros and cons of the grade configuration isssue.
This report indicates "That middle schoolism must end....The essential problem with middle schoolism is not grade configuration but educational ideology. However a school is structured, in the era of standards and accountability, it must focus first and foremots on students' acquisition of essential academic skills and knowledge."
Additionally, page 21 of this report notes that in one study of K-8 schools, "..as the number of students in a single grade increased, performance gains decrease." Sounds like our BOE is setting our elementary school children up for doom for the sake of two good years for our middle school children. The way I see it....the doomed elementary-age children will move into their middle school years behind in education.
How does this serve our children? The city needs a quality education plan before moving forward with a facilities plan.
Running independently endorsed by the Working Families Party, I want to put education first with fiscal responsibility. Please vote for Mary Rydingsward for Board of Education on Nov 6.
“Committed to quality education for today's children - tomorrow's citizens.”
Hi Chris, I am not getting many trick-or-treaters etiher.... Let's talk....And, I would love to hear from other BOE candidates as well.
Did the Board of Education look at the voluminous body of research which concludes that smaller is better? This year, according to your comment, our BOE intends to create smaller class sizes for grades 6 through 8 but, what you don't spell out is that the plan is to nearly double the class size for our more fragile children (PK through 5th grade)!
One such study, The Fordham Institute's Mayhem in the Middle, I obtained from Craig Minor, the BOE council liaison, in 2006 when I requested the report on which the BOE was basing their decision to move to the K-8 onfiguration. I desired to educate myself on the pros and cons of the grade configuration isssue.
This report indicates "That middle schoolism must end....The essential problem with middle schoolism is not grade configuration but educational ideology. However a school is structured, in the era of standards and accountability, it must focus first and foremots on students' acquisition of essential academic skills and knowledge."
Additionally, page 21 of this report notes that in one study of K-8 schools, "..as the number of students in a single grade increased, performance gains decrease." Sounds like our BOE is setting our elementary school children up for doom for the sake of two good years for our middle school children. The way I see it....the doomed elementary-age children will move into their middle school years behind in education.
How does this serve our children? The city needs a quality education plan before moving forward with a facilities plan.
Running independently endorsed by the Working Families Party, I want to put education first with fiscal responsibility. Please vote for Mary Rydingsward for Board of Education on Nov 6.
“Committed to quality education for
today's children - tomorrow's citizens.”
Chris:
Nicastro just said in today's paper that we do not have a drug problem in Bristol. Now you've said we have a drug problem throughout the whole community.
How is the drug issue in our schools, I heard that the High Schools as well as the Junior Highs have a real problem with that and gangs.
Is that true?
Chris thanks for the response. Clearly you are doing your homework. That said, I think I heard every taxpayer in the city pass out cold with that $1 billion price tag.
I appreciate the attempt to make education better for all of our students but that goal still has to be accomplished with fiscal responsibility. The cost to just start the K8 conversion is very high and unless the state steps up to a major portion chances are slim that the BOE will get both schools. The prospect of the BOE getting another $900 million is slim to nil. If that's the case the district will not make the conversion in total to K8. This just sends a terrible message and makes Bristol look like we can't figure anything out. It also makes it clear that the BOE is in fact "experimenting" with our children. The plan places form over function.
Before I will vote for a candidate I want to know that they have looked into the future to see if the decisions they make today will have a positive effect tomorrow. Clearly new or renovated buildings can have that downstream effect. Changing the system while knowing that there is literally no chance of completing the change is just not a good idea.
Again, thank you for your honesty. While you lost my vote I respect your position and I give you credit for making the effort and wanting to serve.
Post a Comment