January 22, 2010

To members of the Guilford community:

As we enter another budget season during difficult economic times I wanted to give you my personal perspective on the education budget for 2010-2011. Please forgive the length but if you care about education in Guilford I think it is worth a few minutes to read. While this will all be covered in the upcoming public hearings on Monday and Tuesday January 25th and 26th I realize it is difficult for parents in particular to attend evening meetings.

Announcements

1. The Board of Education will hold two Budget Forum meetings on Monday, January 25th and Tuesday, January 26th. Both meetings will be held at the Adams Middle School Chorus Room and will begin at 7:30 PM. These meetings are being held for the purpose of obtaining input from the public on the education budget. Please spread the word and take the time to attend and voice your opinion at these very important meetings.

Happy New Year from the PACT Steering Committee. We hope you and your family had a safe and pleasant holiday season.

Guilford High School was awarded a silver medal in US News & World Report's Best High Schools report. Out of 193 high schools in Connecticut, Guilford placed in the top 12 (6.2%).

Go to the article

Dear PACT members,

Here is a summary of some of the relevant highlights from Monday night's BOE meeting.

The meeting began with the swearing in of the following newly elected/re-elected members--listed in the order in which they were sworn in: Alan Myers, Susan Renner, Chris Moore, and Keith Bishop (John Ireland not present).

The Board elected officers; Bill Bloss remains Chair and Keith Bishop remains Vice Chair. Barbara Dudley was elected secretary to replace Kathy Nolan whose term on the board has ended.

Congrats to the successful candidates in the recent election. We'd especially like to thank our members who made it out to vote and the volunteers who manned the phone banks.

Attached below is a single-page file (pdf) of the election results.

Dear GuilfordPACT members,

One of the most powerful ways to advance the cause of GuilfordPACT is to ensure that individuals who support our mission are elected to key town leadership roles. In order to identify such individuals in the upcoming November 3, 2009 town election, we sent a questionnaire to all 17 candidates for public office (2 First Selectman candidates, 4 Board of Selectmen candidates, 6 Board of Education candidates, and 5 Board of Finance candidates) soliciting answers to the following three questions:

In early October, we sent the following letter with three questions to each candidate and incumbent. The text of the letter follows...

### begin letter ###

MEMORANDUM

To: Candidates for elected positions in the Town of Guilford on November 3, 2009; and Incumbents who will remain in elected positions in the Town of Guilford following the November 3, 2009 elections

From: Guilford Parents & Citizens Together (GuilfordPACT)

Guilford Community Television (GCTV) posts their schedule every Monday, Wednesday and Saturday at 3 PM. Presently, the GPTA and GuilfordPACT forums are not being aired. Please check GCTV's web site for current information. We will update this site as we get more information.