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Happy New Year! I hope everyone has had a happy holidays and some relaxing time with your families!

The Boards of Selectmen, Finance, and Education met this evening from 7.30-9:15pm in the Adams choral room.

I will include a brief summary and more detailed notes for those who are interested. Overall, the meeting was positive, productive, bipartisan and collaborative, with both vision and attention to the specifics of accomplishing the challenging goal of passing the necessary bonds to fund improvement in Guilford’s school facilities. It was inspiring to see the leadership of the town envisioning this important step for Guilford’s future.

The BOS/BOE/BOF met tonight from 7:30-8:45 at the Adams Choral room.

The discussion centered exclusively on Guilford's bond rating with a presentation from Mike McKinney and Bill Lindsey who have been Guilford's bond consultants since 1989.

Guilford is in the top 3-8% of communities for bond rating, and is in extremely good shape in terms of the wealth of the community and lack of debt.

Thanks to Keith Mitzelfelt for all of his work on the website and the database!

The new website is intended to be simpler and easier to navigate, especially for new visitors.

Now that the blog is back up I will try to keep it updated, feel free to comment, or contact me at chris.moore@guilfordpact.org if you want me to post something for comment or have another question.

Thanks to everyone who joined us for the parade last Saturday! We had a great turnout and fun marching.

If you get a chance check out the pro-school editorial in the Shoreline Times this week. There was a negative letter in both the Courier and the SLT last week that I responded to but would encourage other members to write the papers in support of the BOE recommendation and to encourage the BOF/BOS to support.

Letters to the Courier can be sent to:
news@shorepublishing.com

PACT members,

Please see the attached document regarding CAPT (Connecticut Academic Performance Test, given at the end of 10th grade), results from 2007-2008 in Guilford, Madison, Branford, and the state as a whole. This is a very remarkable year over year improvement, and I believe represents the results of substantial efforts on the part of Mr. Misenti, Dr. Forcella, the Board and of course the teachers and students in working towards a culture shift at the high school. They should be congratulated.

GuilfordPACT met on Tuesday night. The meeting was well attended and
included several new members. Jen Milano took minutes again (thanks
Jen!) and these should be available shortly. Next meeting is scheduled
for August 5th at 6.30pm.

Brief update:

* Membership at 158, need to increase membership both to influence
the BOE and get out the vote -- answer the BOE question "How big is the
PACT and can they get out the vote"
* Member social events -- PACT Women's Night Out at Nada's in North
Branford (BYOB, contact Jamie Mikolay, mikolayhome@earthlink.net)

The BOE discussion tonight was regarding the educational value of
facilities.

PACT members present included myself, Jim Wall, Jen Milano, Peter
Jelley, and Lisa Johnson.

Discussion was led primarily by Dr. Tom Forcella, superintendent of schools.

We are lucky to have Dr. Forcella as a superintendent, he is correctly
focused on the culture of education within the classroom and between
students and teachers while certainly being aware of the impact
facilities can have on this culture. He has previously been through a
bonding process and a renovation.

The first "facilitated discussion" regarding a BOE decision took place last night.
It was in the conference room of the Fire Dept, part of the emergency services complex (390 Church St.).
It was remarkably spacious and climate controlled, in contrast to the last meeting in the Adams Choral room which was unbearably hot.
The discussion was professionally moderated and began with a nice lecture on the meaning of stewardship and what makes a "good" decision.
He discussed how the decisions made by this BOE will be their legacy.

‘schools send an important message: we value our children. The building can either say to students:“Tough it out and get by—we’re not completely committed to your education;” or it can say: “You are a vital part of our community. We want you to feel safe, comfortable, challenged, inspired, proud—we believe in you and your future.” The message that the school building sends is not lost on teachers, students, or the community at large.’

--From a Tennessee Advisory Committee report
full text (worth reading) at: http://www.state.tn.us/tacir/PDF_FILES/Education/SchFac.pdf