Frank Nicastro said the city has to do what's best for the children so we have to make sure "whatever we do is not going to paralyze this city."
Robert Merrick, the sole Republican in the race, said that smaller K-8 schools might work. He said neighborhood schools help neighborhoods. He said kids "want to feel comfortable in a small environment."
Merrick said children in a 900-student environment, divided or not, "they can get overwhelmed. If they get overwhelmed and anxious, they can have a hard time learning."
He said that instead of pushing forward, people wanted answers. He said residents got a bitter taste because the plan rolled forward. "We need to hear much more from the public," Merrick said.
Craig Minor said he was afraid Merrick would give his answer.
But he didn't.
He said is "not thrilled" with the 900-student school because neighborhood schools can't be that big. He said kids don't walk to school anymore, but we still need schools that serve neighborhoods.
"I don't know if the idea of a megaschool is right for Bristol," Minor said.
Question re appointed board of education --
Merrick said there are benefits and drawbacks to both types. He said people "need to know a lot more" about school candidates.
He said, though, that it is important for people to pick who represents them. But if elected officials find qualified people who have credentials "there would be a benefit" to having them on the board, from parents to business representatives.
"The qualifications is the most important issue," Merrick said.
Minor said he opposes appointed panel. "We need more representative government, not less," Minor said.
He said that Bristol elects fewer officials than most towns. "Let's hold them accountable," he said, and if people are unhappy with incumbents, vote them out.
Nicastro said he's served with both. He said they both work. "It all depends who's seating in that chair," he said. "It's up to the people," Nicastro said.
Pressure from public created elected board. It's how they're picked that matters, he said.
"Will they have the courage to speak for themselves?" Nicastro said. He said the elected board "appears to be working" though "nothing is perfect."
*******
Copyright 2007. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com
15 comments:
Make up your mind Minor, first you are for the mega school, now you are not, which way is the wind blowing?
Merrick gets my vote! Bye-bye Minor.
Craig has stopped listening to the public so I believe he needs to go just based on that premise.
Frank weasled his way into the legislature and hasn't brought Bristol anything through his new position. He shouldn't be a State Representative and a City Counselor. He isn't serving the City well with either position.
Minor is like Clinton, going every way the wind blows.
All the candidates were weak last night...no substance at all.
Merrick is right about the 900 student school. I don't want my child going to that.
Minor's rhetorical theory is flawed. The city has never elected anything but 6 Dems and 3 Republicans for the BOE. The board is elected on the basis of party affiliation not qualification.
I make it a practice not to get into arguments with "anonymous" but I think Steve reported what I said a little bit out of context so I want to set the record straight. I have always been opposed to "mega-schools" and my record on that goes back to way before I was on the City Council. Someone from the audience last night said that the US Department of Education prefers "small schools" to "mega-schools", neither of which were defined. I replied that, from what I've read, the DoE considers 900 the upper limit of a desirable school size, while "mega-school" means schools of one or two thousand. Please watch the forum on Nutmeg TV and hear for yourself.
Craig - a mega school is relative to the city population, therefore a 900 student school would be a mega school for Bristol.
Your quote from the BP "The number of students eligible for free or reduced lunch, a measure of poverty, has increased from 20 percent to over 27 percent in the past decade, and I'm told that it's 33 percent in the elementary schools," Minor said, adding that the number of kids who don't speak English at home has grown to almost 8 percent.
"The research data that the Board of Education has shared with us indicates that K-8 is the way to go to deal with these trends, while the opponents claim that their data is outdated, wrong, or taken out of context," said Minor, who serves as the council's liaison to the school board.
"I don't know if these changing demographics call for converting to a K-8 system, but clearly we need to take action to address these trends," he said.
If Bristol converts to a K-8 system based on the growing number of low income children, the State will view Bristol as a structure that is built to support low income families. This will enable the State/Federal Gov. to offer more Sec 8 and other low income benefits to Bristol's population. This will encourage those receiving these benefits to move to Bristol, thereby encouraging additional absentee landlord opportunities, more Leer Groups and more Bristol Property Mgmt groups to take over our community.
K-8 based on your belief that we need to follow the trend of free lunch participants is a death sentence for this community. Our median income (per cap)will decline over the next 5 years. Our crime will increase and the number of single home owners will decline as well.
On an education level, K-8 is not a proven positive education system. How many public K-8 systems are in Connecticut.
You need to take a better look a the big picture.
I agree with the post responding to Craig and the free lunch issue. It does encourage a growing low income population.
It also is a complete contraindicator of encouraging valid businesses to come to Bristol. Especially retail development.
The last I heard we have a moratorium on anymore Sec. 8 coming into the city. Unless that has changed, I don't believe there's a threat to anymore Sec. 8. It's important for the ordinances that are in place to be enforced with regard to Sec. 8 and to add new ones to the books. Why do you think the West End looks the way it does? You clean it up one day and the next it's trashed. Some of the poeple down there just don't care ... not all of them. Unfortunately, the neat, well-cared for homes are in amongst the dilapidated ones. They must be pulling their hair out!
Craig:
Tell the truth..the federal govenment increased the standards for free lunch to 185% that is why more kids are getting free lunch.
You people crack me up..let's give the poor free heath care, free medicine, union benefits, but let's not feed thier kids in school or but a roof over thier heads.
And than to top it all off, you party runs as the party of the poor who claim to be thier saviors.
In addition, stop bashing landlords in Bristol regardless of who owns the property a corporation or private landlords, they did not buy the property to lose money. Maybe you brought your house to lose money but landlords don'e, and until you personally take the risk that a landlord does than you can talk.
There is not a moratorium on sec 8 certs for Bristol. The Government will continue to raise our sec 8 numbers and other low income aides as long as Bristol displays a structure that supports that income level.
Not true.
Federal Register / Vol. 65, No. 65 / Tuesday, April 4, 2000
The Income Eligibility Guidelines:
The following are the Income Eligibility Guidelines to be effective from July 1, 2000 through June 30, 2001. The Department’s guidelines for free meals and milk and reduced price meals were obtained by multiplying the year 2000 Federal income poverty guidelines by 1.30 and 1.85, respectively, and by rounding the result upward to the next whole dollar.
http://www.fns.usda.gov/cnd/governance/
notices/iegs/IEGs00-01.pdf
Federal Register / Vol. 72, No. 38 / Tuesday, February 27, 2007
The Income Eligibility Guidelines:
The following are the Income Eligibility Guidelines to be effective from July 1, 2007 through June 30, 2008. The Department’s guidelines for free meals and milk and reduced price meals were obtained by multiplying the year 2007 Federal income poverty guidelines by 1.30 and 1.85, respectively, and by rounding the result upward to the next whole dollar.
http://www.fns.usda.gov/cnd/governance/
notices/iegs/IEGs07-08.pdf
Do any of your people actually know how Section 8 works?
Think about this: a section 8 property gets inspected much more than a private landlord inspects his apartment.
Stop creating this hysteria regarding Section 8 or better yet learn what your talking about.
Bristol has several people on section 8 who are over the age of 62. Did you ever stop to thin k how they feel where you bash them?
People have a right to feel the way they do about sec. 8. Look around you. Obviously not all sec. 8 are trashy, but we seem to have a large group who don't care where they throw their trash or leave shopping carts around and the list goes on not to mention the crime in the areas where there are concentration of sec. 8. Don't try to tell us there isn't a correlation, because there is. As far as inspections, this town is so behind and the absentee landlords know it and are taking full advantage. Also, they do a shoddy job of fixing things when asked. Take a look at Park St. You don't have to look far to see the inadequate repairs that are made to those two and three family homes.
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