While this information is located in numerous different places we are posting it here so that there is a singular place to have it.
Town of Wallingford Contacts 2014 - 2015.
This information includes all the phone numbers, email addresses, and postal mail information for the Mayor’s office, Town Council, and the Board of Education.
Members - Wallingford Board of Education
2014-2016
Roxane McKay
294 Ivy Street
Rmckay@tagcfm.com
Michael J. Votto
377 N. Elm Street
mvotto1968@aol.com
mvotto@staedan-brendanschool.org
Jay Cei
15 Blossom Lane
Jcei@ulbrich.com
Kathy Castelli
9 Ashford Court
Kcast1234@comcast.net
Joseph A. Marrone
49 Powers Road
Joemar3@sbcglobal.net
Michael Brooder
349 East Main Street
Michael.brooder@marcumllp.com
Chet Miller
15 Morgan Drive
Cmiller492@comcast.net
Karen Hlavac
85 Saw Mill Drive
hlavacdennis@sbcglobal.net
Christopher K. Shortell
1A Cassella Drive
ckshortell@gmail.com
As published in the Record Journal Friday July 12, 2013
By Andrew Ragali
Record-Journal staff
aragali@record-journal.com
(203) 317-2224
Twitter:@AndyRagz
WALLINGFORD — Candidates for mayor, Town Council and Board of Education will be endorsed at party caucuses Wednesday night.
At 7 p.m., the Democratic Town Committee will meet on the second floor of 350 Center St, said committee Chairman Vinnie Avallone. The Republican Town Committee will meet at the same time at Dag Hammarskjold Middle School on Pond Hill Road, said Chairman Bob Prentice.
Six Democrats, including two incumbents — Nick Economopoulos and John Sullivan — have announced that they are running for the council next term, Avallone said. Jason Zandri will give up his council seat to run for mayor. Other council candidates include former councilor and mayoral candidate Vinnie Testa, as well as Debbie Reynolds, Dana Camp and Larry Russo. Avallone said the four current Democrats on the Board of Education will seek endorsement, as will newcomer Patricia Mills.
Mayor William W. Dickinson Jr., a Republican, has announced he will seek re-election. Prentice said Republicans will end up running seven candidates for Town Council. With the exception of Rosemary Rascati, who has announced she will not seek reelection, all the incumbents will run. In addition, former Councilor Ray Rys and current Board of Education member Christine Mansfield will be seeking council seats, Prentice said. The four Republican Board of Education incumbents, minus Mansfield, will seek re-election, he said, adding that the committee is still looking to add two candidates to the Board of Education ticket.
“It’s not official till the caucus is over,” Prentice said.
On the Republican side, a single ballot is normally cast to endorse the entire slate of candidates during the caucus, Prentice said.
Since only six Democrats are seeking council seats, that can happen, on the Democratic side as well, Avallone said. The alternative would be for a nomination and vote for each candidate, he added.
Candidates must file financial registration with the town clerk’s office by 4 p.m. July 29, said Town Clerk Barbara Thompson. This paperwork includes reports on campaign finances. Candidates must file with the office “even if they’re not going to raise money,” Thompson said. If they don’t file in time, they will be subject to a $100 fine, she said.
As of Thursday, Zandri, Dickinson, Camp and Rys have filed paperwork with the office. Zandri is the only candidate to have raised money for his campaign so far.
Zandri has raised $14,335, with $10,107 still unspent. According to paperwork filed with the town clerk’s office, Zandri has spent his campaign money on office supplies. He also spent $200 on three occasions for the services of What’s Next, a political consulting firm based in Wethersfield. Zandri said the firm is developing walking routes so he can efficiently campaign door-to-door, because “you need to knock on the right door,” he said. Zandri also spent $980 in campaign money for the services of The Vinci Group, a Manchester consulting firm that organizes fundraisers, Zandri said, including the July 24 event at Zandri’s Stillwood Inn on South Colony Road. The event will be hosted by local state Reps. Mary Mushinsky and Mary Fritz. Lt Gov. Nancy Wyman will be a special guest at the event, Zandri said.
“It’s generating a lot of interest at the state level, too,” Avallone said of Zandri’s campaign. “There’s a lot of energy.”
Zandri said he has already begun his door-to-door campaigning. Support so far has been positive, he said, with the only negative being that people are upset he won’t be a town councilor anymore.
Dickinson said he will look to begin fundraising in the coming weeks.
“It’s putting the plans together,” he said. “I can’t do a lot of door-to-door, but I try to do some.”
A lot of the work is behind the scenes putting literature and mailings together.
“That’s what most of the campaign money goes into,” he said, adding that there is a lot of assistance from the Republican Town Committee, as well as non-committee members in town.
Prentice said Dickinson’s run for mayor is “usually a pretty simple campaign.”
“He never takes any credit for anything, he said. “That’s what kills me.”
Both mayoral candidates said they support their parties’ Town Council and Board of Education candidates, and view them as teammates in the race for mayor.
Thompson said Prentice and Avallone must file their certificate of endorsement with her office by July 24. This paperwork officially lists whom each party endorses. Throughout the state, all candidates for election must be endorsed between July 16 and July 23.
As published in the Record Journal, Friday April 13, 2012
By Russell Blair
Record-Journal staff
WALLINGFORD — School Superintendent Salvatore Menzo defended the inclusion of lacrosse in the 2012-13 school budget during a Board of Education budget workshop before the Town Council Thursday.
The school board received $614,000 less than what it had requested in Mayor William W. Dickinson Jr.’s budget proposal, but when it comes to possible cuts, the board has remained firm in its commitment to lacrosse. Republican Town Councilor Craig Fishbein was critical of adding the sport at the two high schools, at the expense of other items, in tough economic times. “When you get less than you ask for, and you promise that you’re adding lacrosse ... I have a problem,” he said. “The economy stinks. I think sometimes people don’t realize that.”
But Menzo said Wallingford Youth Lacrosse, the town’s youth club program, has shown that a high school program for both girls and boys would be sustainable. Members of the group were in the audience Thursday.
“I’m personally committed to lacrosse,” Menzo said. “They followed the process appropriately. We have a responsible to teach at all levels, some of the best lessons learned outside of the classroom.”
Adding junior varsity lacrosse for boys and girls at Lyman Hall and Sheehan would cost $81,058 in the first year. The second-year cost is expected to be $66,932.
Lyman Hall and Sheehan are the only schools in the Southern Connecticut Conference without lacrosse teams. An estimated140 students would be involved town wide.
Menzo said that the inclusion of lacrosse was not at the expense of staff jobs. The budget does call for the reduction of 11 teaching positions, but those jobs are being cut due to declining enrollment, he said.
Board of Education Chairwoman Roxane McKay, a Republican, said the school board supports the addition of the sport.
“All nine board members support this program,” she said. “There’s a lot of ways that people get educated. This is a component of education.”
McKay said the district is losing local students to private schools that have lacrosse programs.
Earlier Thursday, councilors expressed concern over the cafeteria budget, which projects a deficit of more than $200,000 being covered by a fund balance. The cafeterias are self-sustaining, but may require a subsidy from the school board beginning in the 2013-14 school year. Republican Vincent Cervoni asked Food Service Director Sharlene Wong to explain a trend of deficits in the cafeteria budget.
“Since 2008, we’ve had a downturn in the economy. We’ve had difficult times in terms of balancing revenues and expenditures,” Wong said, adding that state and federal mandates limit what foods can be sold, hurting a la carte sales. After a number of budget workshops, the school board sent Dickinson a proposed budget of $90,188,048, an increase of 3.91 percent, or $3.4 million. Dickinson countered with $89,573,916, a 3.2 percent increase representing $2.8 million in additional funding.
The council will continue budget workshops next week.
As published in the Record Journal Tuesday April 3, 2012
By Russell Blair
Record-Journal staff
rblair@record-journal.com
(203) 317-2225
WALLINGFORD — The Board of Education received $614,132 less than what it asked for in Mayor William W. Dickinson Jr.’s proposed 2012-13 budget that was unveiled Monday, but school officials were pleased that the bulk of their requested increase remained intact.
“It’s very good news for us,” School Superintendent Salvatore Menzo said. “While we cannot fund everything, that’s a significant portion of what we had requested. We should be pleased with the percentage that we got.”
After a number of budget workshops, the school board sent Dickinson a proposed budget of $90,188,048, an increase of 3.91 percent, or an additional $3.4 million. Dickinson countered with $89,573,916, a 3.2 percent increase and $2.8 million in additional funds.“Their requested increase was lower than typically requested,” Dickinson said Monday afternoon, adding that the school board usually seeks a 5 percent to 6 percent increase. “We try to look at what the reality is.”
Menzo said staff members were planning for the worst, and were preparing figures on what would need to be cut if the increase came back at 1 percent or 2 percent.
“We were looking at catastrophic loss,” he said.
During Monday night’s meeting of the Operations Committee Menzo shared with board members areas that his staff had identified for reductions to reach Dickinson’s figure. Among the cuts Menzo proposed were reducing one teacher at each high school and cutting a K-12 world language coordinator. A foreign language teacher and an English Language Learners instructor are also proposed to be cut due to declining enrollment in those classes.
To help make up the gap,Menzo also has proposed using $84,000 from the district’s unencumbered fund balance, money left over from the current budget. The district is running a surplus of about $480,000 for the fiscal year that ends on June 30, but school officials have been cautious about using that money to fund recurring expenses. Menzo said Monday he’d like to use about $300,000 from that account to replace the track at Lyman Hall.
Generally, board members were optimistic that the budget could be reduced without a significant impact on student learning.
“It’s an indication that we can get there,” said Republican school board member Chet Miller.
“It’s going to be a lot easier than last year,” said Democrat Jay Cei.
Republican Christine Mansfield said the budget represents both “fiscal conservatism and doing what’s best for the kids.” She said Menzo’s proposed cuts weren’t about frivolous spending.
“This is all muscle, but we’re protecting what we committed to,” she said.
Some board members had reservations about the reduction in staff at the high school, but Menzo stressed that none of the proposals offered Monday night was set in stone. He said he only wanted to begin the discussion about bringing education costs down.
“I’m not saying this is what we’re going to do,” he said.
Though board members were upbeat about the budget for the upcoming fiscal year, the financial forecast for the following years isn’t as bright. There were no wage increases for teachers or administrators in the first year of three-year contracts negotiated last fall, but raises of more than $2.8 million are due in the next two budgets.
“That’s going to come back next year,” Bowes said.
Major items in the school board’s requested increase included $1.2 million to replenish a one-time federal grant received last year, $1.5 million to cover rising costs for insurance and severance pay, and $655,700 to move the district toward the Common Core State Standards, a nationwide initiative that revises curriculum to focus on math and language arts. The school board will continue its conversation about reductions at its Instructional Committee meeting next Monday. Menzo and Board of Education Chairwoman Roxane McKay will discuss the budget and the ramifications of any cuts before the Town Council on April 12.
As published in the Record Journal, Tuesday February 14, 2012
By Russell Blair
Record-Journal staff
rblair@record-journal.com
(203) 317-2225
WALLINGFORD — With a large drop-off in federal funding from a year ago, and the rising costs of insurance and supplies, School Superintendent Salvatore Menzo says the education budget needs to increase by 3.05 percent just to keep services at the current level.
The Board of Education is preparing to present its budget to Mayor William W. Dickinson Jr. and is asking for a 3.91 increase overall, or $3,393,634, in additional funding. The money consists of a “sustained services” budget — the cost to operate the schools at their current level — and select items from the school board’s strategic plan. But Menzo says the figure is deceiving, because a federal jobs grant worth $1,295,275 won’t be available this year, creating an immediate shortfall.
Menzo said the Board of Education recommended splitting the use of the grant over two years. To stave off an increase in taxes, Dickinson required the district to spend all the money in 2011-12.
“Now the burden is on this year,” Menzo said. Financially, the district is ahead of where Menzo said it would be a year ago, when he argued to split the grant over two budgets and projected a deficit of more than $2 million. Other savings have been found, but still, if the school budget gets no increase, there will be an automatic gap of $1.3 million that must be filled. “If appropriate funding is not provided, there will be significant services that will have to be reduced or eliminated,” Menzo said.
Democratic Board of Education member Michael Votto said the board has scrutinized the budget and that there are no unnecessary costs. A portion of the money has gone to pay for unfunded state mandates, Votto said.
Votto said he realizes that with a small increase in the grand list, there isn’t new money available, and the increase in the education budget could require a tax increase.
“If we have to raise taxes to help education, I think that’s the best place to put it,” he said. “Education is a priority to prepare our kids for the world.”
Votto said that with other costs going up, “I don’t know how people expect taxes won’t go up.”
Board of Education Chairwoman Roxane McKay said a lot of hard work went into this year’s budget, and she had confidence in the proposal the board would bring to the mayor. McKay said that some of the items included for maintenance — such as repairing cracked sidewalks and removing asbestos — are essential for safety concerns.
With the jobs grant taken out of the equation, the school board is asking for $2,100,408, or about a 2.42 percent increase in new funds from the town.
Menzo said that some of the increase covers additions to the budget — such as adding lacrosse as a sport at the high schools and introducing world language, math and career and technical education coordinators for all the district’s schools — but a large portion is for employee benefits and non-certified salaries. Teachers and administrators took a pay freeze in the first year of a three-year contract negotiated last fall.
As for the strategic plan, Menzo said that the board and school administrators realize they won’t be able to move forward with every aspect of it. Still, money is being put toward technology and maintenance items that are part of the plan, though it is coming from the district’s unencumbered fund balance, or monies left over from last year’s budget.
“It might take longer to get there, but we are moving forward,” Menzo said. McKay said she felt the board had been good stewards of town money, and that no increase or a smaller increase could mean higher costs down the road. As a taxpayer, she said she weighs the cost to townspeople versus the education benefit to the schoolchildren. “It’s a tough balancing act,” she said.
The school board will meet Feb. 27 to adopt a budget and present it to the mayor on March 1.
As published in the Record Journal, Saturday February 11, 2012
By Russell Blair
Record-Journal staff
rblair@record-journal.com
(203) 317-2225
WALLINGFORD — The Board of Education has looked in the past to move its administrative offices from Sheehan High School, and one town councilor thinks he’s found a place that will suit their needs as well as offer more downtown parking. Nick Economopoulos, a Democrat, said the town should investigate buying the property at 50 S. Main St., an building across the street from Town Hall, next to the post office.
According to Town Assessor Shelby Jackson, the property is appraised at $1 million and assessed at $728,000. Economopoulos said the property is listed for sale for $1.2 million. Jackson said the building, which was constructed in 1973, has 16,000 square feet and sits on a half-acre.
“It’s mostly medical offices,” Jackson said.
Economopoulos, a former school board member, said Sheehan High School was looking to begin a nursing program that would require a hospital- type setting. Moving the administrative offices would free space for that, he said.
Another advantage of the South Main Street property, in addition to office space, is the parking, Economopoulos said. The parking would be available for municipal use when the offices were closed.
“There’s 26 marked spaces in each lot, on the South Main side and the Center Street side,” Economopoulos said. “We’re killing two birds with one stone, increasing parking on the nights and weekends when the town is busiest, and finding space for the Board of Education.”
He added that town departments looking to expand could possibly use the space.
School Superintendent Salvatore Menzo said the school district had explored moving the Board of Education offices “on a very basic level,” but the current fiscal situation doesn’t make it appear likely.
“It’s a dream of ours ... there’s a lot of possibilities if we were to leave Sheehan,” Menzo said. “We could expand some programming and look at some other opportunities. But, he added, “right now the finances wouldn’t allow us to make any changes.”
“We have to focus our attention at this point on getting budget passed by the mayor before we can investigate anything beyond that,” he said.
Chet Miller, a Republican Board of Education member, said the school district was interested in one point in property at 60 N. Main St., the old library building owned by Fred Ulbrich. “They looked at it, but I don’t know if there was any real sense of it being the right building,” Miller said. “But I know we’ve looked at properties before.”
Miller said he hoped that before the town purchased any properties officials would “look for alternatives within the existing school system.”
“We have a diminishing student population. It keeps dropping,” he said. “Some space has got to be freed up.”
Miller said he didn’t know specifically what the new office space would be used for.
Economopoulos said that the town had planned to spend $500,000 to improve the parking lot behind the businesses on Simpson Court, and that coming up with another half-million dollars shouldn’t be too difficult. He believes the town could buy the property for about $1 million.
But Craig Fishbein, a Republican councilor, disagreed, and said the town shouldn’t be in the business of buying properties. He said he wouldn’t support any purchase “until there’s an identified need for use by the town that’s viable.”
“The track record is clear, the town should not be in the general real estate business,” Fishbein said.
He pointed to the Wooding-Caplan property, located off Center Street, which the council voted to purchase in 1991 for $1.5 million, but has remained largely vacant since. A referendum in2006 overturned the Town Council’s decision to sell the property to a local developer.
Fishbein also mentioned the American Legion building, which was sold recently after a long legal battle over its protected status as a historic building, and a town-owned building at 390 Center St., next to Wooding- Caplan, that was ultimately demolished.
Economopoulos said he wouldn’t support going forward with the purchase without knowing the school district was ready to move.
As far as parking concerns, Fishbein said that the council was exploring the creation of a temporary parking lot on the Wooding-Caplan property.
Councilors will receive a report in March from the Engineering Department with drawings and cost estimates.
Dave Zajac / Record-Journal
Wallingford Councilor Nick Economopoulos has suggested the town look at buying the office building at 50 S. Main St. as a site for education offices and more downtown parking.
High school team proposal in hands of school board, Mayor Dickinson
As published in the Record Journal, Saturday January 28, 2012
By Stephanie O’Connell
Record-Journal staff
WALLINGFORD — The lacrosse community is thrilled that this year’s school budget includes money to add junior varsity lacrosse teams at both Sheehan and Lyman Hall high schools.
School Superintendent Salvatore Menzo’s proposed budget would set aside $81,058 in the first year for two teams and $66,932 in the second year. The budget is still being discussed by the Board of Education and will be passed along to Mayor William W. Dickinson Jr. for final approval.
“Right now it’s not a done deal, the mayor still has the final say but being included in the initial budget is a big step for us,” said Tim Taylor, the Wallingford Youth Boys Lacrosse coordinator. “Right now we have about 200 kids between boys and girls that are playing in the youth leagues. It is the right time to be adding the teams.”
At a public budget forum in November, Menzo said that he was approached about adding the sport in his first year as superintendent, but was concerned because there wasn’t a club program for girls on both sides of town. There was a high school-age girls club only on the Sheehan side. This past spring was the first year that the youth league fielded teams for both sexes on both sides of town. The town’s youth program began about six years ago with 20 boys and 20 girls. The program has grown to 55 boys and more than 60 girls in grades 9 through 12.
Taylor has three children who have been playing lacrosse for years. They play in the youth program that travels to play teams in Madison, North Haven, Cheshire, Guilford and Clinton.
Sheehan and Lyman Hall are the last two schools in the Southern Connecticut Conference without lacrosse teams. The school plays in the Housatonic division with Amity, Shelton and Cheshire.
“In our conference we are the only schools who do not provide lacrosse so I think that it’s time we consider it and add it to the budget and to the schools,” said Roxane McKay, chairwoman of the Board of Education. “We are talking about a lot of kids who are interested and when you look at those numbers you can tell it is an up-and-coming sport.”
McKay has been in contact with Taylor, Wallingford Lacrosse President Michelle Milslagle, coaches and players for over a year. They have had open conversations about the pros and cons of adding the sport.
“I have been very upfront with the lacrosse folks as they have with me,” said McKay. “They know that even though we put it in the budget today it doesn’t mean it’s a done deal. We have a very long way to go.”
McKay has been impressed with the support shown by Wallingford Lacrosse parents, coaches and players at meetings. She said that she understood their level of dedication after a group of teenage players showed up at an 8 a.m. meeting on a snowy Saturday morning.
“The board has been on our side since we first brought this up years ago, so we find it necessary to show up at meetings when it is going to be discussed to show our dedication,” Milslagle said.
As published in the Record Journal Tuesday January 10, 2012
By Ibrahim Hirsi
Record-Journal staff
WALLINGFORD — School Superintendent Salvatore Menzo presented his 2012-13 strategic budget proposal to the Board of Education Monday night at Lyman Hall High School.
At $94,576,853, the proposal represents an increase of nearly 9 percent from last year. Menzo’s 2012-13 sustained budget total — $90,188,979 — comes in at nearly 4 percent more than 2011-12’s. The sustained budget represents the minimum required to maintain services at the previous year’s level; the strategic budget reflects the funding needed to act on the school system’s strategic plan.
Last year, the final school budget came back from the mayor’s office with an increase of only about 2 percent over the year before.
Some teachers and parents at the meeting said the increase in the budget request is much needed and should be a priority.
“The country spends billions on wars,” said Lou Faiella, a Wallingford teacher. “Our children are very important and deserve to be spent on. With the sustained budget, the increase that [Menzo] is asking for is a reasonable amount of money.”
Though the new budget would cut 10 elementary and middle-school teacher positions due to enrollment decreases, it would allocate more teachers to the high schools and language programs.
Menzo’s plan includes the acquisition of new and replacement equipment, as well as the continued upgrade of wireless access points and servers throughout the school district; maintenance initiatives that include replacement of the outdoor track and indoor bleachers at Lyman Hall High School; and curriculum development and career readiness resources.
The proposed budget sounds expensive, said Sharon Dooley, a Wallingford teacher, “but the technology is expensive, too. And getting that technology in the hands of the students is important.”
As published in the Record Journal, Tuesday December 27, 2011
Reynolds glad to be back after defeat in 2009
By Russell Blair
Record-Journal staff
rblair@record-journal.com
(203) 317-2225
WALLINGFORD — After two years off the Board of Education, Patrick Reynolds is eager to rejoin the panel he was first elected to in 2007.
Reynolds, a Democrat, served on the board for one term before he lost his re-election bid in 2009. This time around, Reynolds said he plans to be a more active participant. “I’m going to be a bit more vocal,” he said. “I sat back my first term because it was all new to me. I want to free up my schedule to offer my services for some more committees.”
Reynolds, 58, teaches science at New Britain High School, Central Connecticut State University and Tunxis Community College. While there are no specific burning issues he wants to see addressed, Reynolds said it’s important to make sure that Wallingford’s students continue to be hard workers.
“I’m behind 21st-century technology, but we can’t get ahead of ourselves,” he said. “We need to make sure our young people have a 20th or 19th-century work ethic.”
Reynolds said that as a college professor he’s seen students show up for class unprepared or not show up at all. While he doesn’t see this as a specific problem in Wallingford, he wants to make sure that doesn’t become the case.
“It’s everybody’s responsibility to make sure students come to school and that homework is done on time,” he said. Reynolds said he’s happy with the education that his family has received from the town, but added that “there’s still work that needs to be done.”
As a member of the school board that hired School Superintendent Salvatore Menzo, Reynolds said he was also looking forward to working with the administrator.
“I’m looking forward to working with Menzo,” Reynolds said. “We’ve been in touch since the election and I’m looking forward to sitting down and talking with him.”
Among the first tasks for Reynolds and the Board of Education will be the 2012-13 school budget. A workshop scheduled for Jan. 9 will be the first time the panel gets a look at Menzo’s proposal.
“I think the last few budgets have gone as smooth as you can get,” Reynolds said. “I know as a board we have to really watch the pennies, from the administrators down to the department heads and the teachers.”
Roxane McKay, the Republican vice chairwoman, said she is looking forward to working with Reynolds again.
“He’s a good guy, and he brings a nice perspective being in the education world,” she said. “He’s very thoughtful and hard-working. He gets all the facts before he makes a decision; he does his homework.”
Kathy Castelli, a Democrat, said she is excited to have Reynolds back.
“He has great perspective,” she said. “He’s so involved with education. He helped me to broaden my own perspective.”
Reynolds said there is a good group on the school board, and that the panel isn’t overly political. He said he is looking forward to rejoining the members he previously worked with.
“I liked the people,” he said. “You couldn’t tell the Republicans from the Democrats. There were no personality conflicts, it was all for the kids.”
Though he could have called it quits after losing his re-election bid, Reynolds said that he still had a desire to serve.
“I grew up in Wallingford, my daughters went through the school system and my grandsons are in it,” he said. “I wanted to give something back.”
As published in the Record Journal, Tuesday December 27, 2011
Mansfield: Budget is school board’s No. 1 priority
By Ibrahim Hirsi
Record-Journal staff
ihirsi@record-journal.com
(203) 317-2224
WALLINGFORD — When Christine Mansfield ran for public office for the first time in November, she got the second- most votes, winning a seat on the Board of Education.
“It was a dream come true,” said Mansfield, 42, a Republican. “I wanted to run for office. I have the ability to bring people together. I can instantly work with people across the aisles.”
Even though Republican Town Committee Chairman Bob Prentice doesn’t know Mansfield well and hasn’t worked with her in the past, he noted that “everyone likes her.”
“I am very excited to see that she is involved in the local politics,” Prentice added. “She is going to be a great asset to the Board of Ed.”
President and chief executive officer of a technology training company in Wallingford, Discovery Training Services, Mansfield said she will bring her work experience to the school board by building on technological advancements and partnering with businesses and the community to give students some real world experience.
“Focusing on our needs to educate kids in the foundation including reading, literacy, math and critical thinking skills” is important, Mansfield said, adding that those skills can be enhanced by technology.
“I’ve done it for private schools all over the map. And now I get the chance to do it as a board member.”
While the district may be facing another year of low growth in its budget due to a sluggish local economy, Mansfield said a better school system is possible with better money management.
“We have got experience, we’ve got people in place, we’ve got money, we know the needs, and we have to spend as wisely as we can against aging facilities,” Mansfield said.
The budget is the biggest issue before the board this year, Mansfield said, and the first one it needs to tackle.
Federal and state funds used for special education programs just aren’t there anymore, Mansfield said.
“When you look at the funding models that are in place, the superintendent never gets 100 percent of the fund, the district never gets it, and the town never gets it. You just don’t have enough money,” Mansfield said.
Mansfield, a mother of three, said she could see that the board needed her and that’s why she decided to jump on the campaign trail only two days before the deadline to apply for the board member position.
“It wasn’t to be the leader,” she said. “It was to play a role I dreamed of, and I won.”
But the victory was only possible because of extremely hard work and organization, said Mansfield, who shared debate stages with veteran politicians including incumbents Michael Brooder, Joe Marrone, Chet Miller, Roxane McKay from her party, as well as Democrats Jay Cei, Kathy Castelli, Michael J. Votto and Patrick Reynolds.
“It was a lot of work and bringing a lot of people and a lot of good ideas together in a very short period of time,” Mansfield said.
Mansfield is very intelligent and very civic-minded, Prentice said. “She is heavily involved with the kids and church. I hope she will stay involved.”
Mansfield said the campaign was a learning experience.
“It was amazing to meet so many people and eye-opening to hear so many voices in different needs and people so rudely wanting to tell you everything that you can do to change something,” she said.
Mansfield’s 7-year-old daughter and 9- and 11-yearold sons don’t attend public schools, instead attending Holy Trinity School, a Catholic school in town. Mansfield said she noticed that some voters have issues with that.
Her decision, she said, is “by no means to disservice the public school system. It was a decision I made when I was pregnant with the first child. I wanted them to have a piece of faith in this world.”
As published in the Record Journal, Thursday November 24, 2011
By Russell Blair
Record-Journal staff
rblair@record-journal.com
(203) 317-2225
Turnout for the Nov. 8 municipal election was similar to two years ago and that’s the problem, according to local registrars of voters. Not enough people participate, they say. Wallingford led area towns with 39.56 percent of registered voters coming out to the polls, followed by Cheshire at 30.48 percent, Southington at 29.33 percent and Meriden at 23.62 percent. Statewide, 30.67 percent of the 1,940,432 eligible voters cast ballots. Samuel Carmody, Wallingford’s Democratic registrar, said that, even though the town was almost 10 percent better than the statewide average, it was still not a noteworthy accomplishment.
“Below 50 percent, that’s nothing to be proud of,” he said.
Secretary of the State Denise Merrill said she hoped voter turnout would rise in future elections.
“I hope in the future we can help all of Connecticut’s citizens understand the importance of choosing the right leaders in their communities so we can see more people going to vote,” she said in a statement. Turnout in Wallingford was up from 2009, when it was 35.6 percent, a year that Mayor William W. Dickinson Jr. ran unopposed. In 2001, 2003, 2005 and 2007, turnout was 43.1, 49.9, 47.6 and 45.7 percent, respectively. Dickinson had an opponent in each of those years.
Carmody said it was hard to predict the reasons for turnout in a given year.
In Southington, 8,041 voters came out to decide the makeup of the Town Council, Board of Finance, Board of Education and Planning and Zoning Commission. Turnout was about the same as 2009, when 8,317 voters came out, or 29.8 percent of the electorate.
Southington’s Democratic registrar, Edward Malczyk, said there “were no burning issues in town” that might have driven people to the polls.
“I think that played into it,” he said. “The snowstorm, the power outages worked against us. I thought the middle school referendum would have brought more people out though.”
Despite a rare October snowstorm that left much of the city in the dark for up to a week, Meriden voters came out in numbers similar to past municipal elections. In elections for mayor, City Council and Board of Education, 7,557 voters cast ballots, compared to 7,845 in 2009. Percentagewise, turnout increased by a fraction of a percent.
But the city’s Democratic registrar, Maureen E. Flynn, said the numbers were still disappointing.
“The lowest voter turnouts are municipal,” she said. “People have to vote for the president, but not during the municipal elections. But who are you going to call if there’s a pothole? You should vote for the people you complain to.”
Flynn said that if Meriden had a strong mayor the turnout could have been higher, but she added that it was similarly low this year in cities that have that system of government.
In Cheshire, turnout was about 6 percentage points below 2009. That year, 6,624 people, or 36.3 percent of registered voters, cast ballots.
Aleta Looker, Democratic registrar of voters, said she felt the snowstorm could have had an impact on Cheshire’s electorate.
“I think it’s partly because of the aftermath of the storm,” she said. “They had too much on their plate already.”
Looker said that she’d like to see more voters in local elections, but “you can’t legislate people’s behavior.”
“When people vote, that’s their right and privilege,” she said. “But not everyone sees it that way.”
As published in the Record Journal, Sunday November 20, 2011
This week’s FROM WALLINGFORD was written by Mike Brodinsky a former town councilor from Wallingford, chairman of the School Roof Building Committee, and host of public access show “Citizen Mike”
The Citizen Mike show airs on cable Channel 18 at 9 p.m. every night, except Sunday. It can also be viewed on demand at wpaa.tv. Comments or suggestions can be sent to citizenmiketv@gmail.com.
If you can’t catch the show on TV you can catch it online on their Video On Demand page.
After spending more than an hour behind closed doors on Tuesday night, the Town Council summarily considered a very big collective bargaining agreement between the Board of Education and the teachers’ union. Unfortunately, the Council did not follow an open and transparent process.
One of the precepts of a democracy is that people have the right to watch their government in action and learn how and why their officials make decisions. Usually, that is done through a free press which reports on the doings of government.
If too much is done behind closed doors, however, voters cannot know how thorough and thoughtful their representatives have been. Were the public officials acting honestly and reasonably under the circumstances? Was the public interest protected? Were the outcomes scripted and orchestrated?
It’s not that easy to be a public official. The decision-making process can make a legislator/councilor uncomfortable, in part because the public search for information, logic, and wisdom can appear clumsy. An unguarded comment made, or question asked in good faith in the course of the legislative process, can be seized upon, taken out of context, and published. In tackling an issue, as new data develops, positions can change. An approach that seemed very reasonable one hour, may look embarrassing the next. And unfortunately, some in politics use the public arena to make themselves look good by making another look bad. A politician, therefore, can be made to pay a price unfairly. Yes, democracy is sloppy.
I understand why some public officials may want to keep their work as private as possible. It’s a matter of self protection. They may want a more comfortable venue for decision making. On occasion there could be more sinister reasons for wanting privacy. But no one wants the perception that the real work of legislators is done in a “smoke filled room.”
To address abuses, years ago, the Federal government and state legislatures enacted “open meeting laws” that require the public’s business be done in public except in very narrow circumstances that have nothing to do with the comfort level of the public officials. In Connecticut, these rules are collected in the Freedom of Information Act. It states that meetings of a public body, like a Town Council, generally speaking are to be open to the public.
The Act lists exceptions to this rule which are intended to be in the public’s interest, too. One of the exceptions is that if a Town is engaged in labor negotiations it shouldn’t be required to publicly talk about the negotiations and give away its strategy to the other side. That talk can be done in private, in what we call an “executive session.”
By Tuesday night, however, the Board Of Education’s negotiation strategy on the collective bargaining agreements had already run its course. The Wallingford Board of Education and the teachers’ union already had a signed agreement. It called for an increase in salaries of 6.21 percent over three years, costing $2.75 million, and lots of other complicated terms. Having placed the matter on the agenda for consideration, the Council’s job was to debate and decide in public whether the labor contract was good enough to accept or bad enough to reject. I would have expected a rigorous questioning and some public debate airing all sides of the issue.
Instead, the Council and representatives of the Board of Education spent more than an hour behind closed doors. Maybe they spent the entire time talking strategy. But if they had a full and frank discussion about what the agreement provided and what it didn’t provide, and the costs and savings associated with various provisions, that conversation should have been in an open meeting. The public needed to hear it all. Obviously, the Council disagreed.
Just one week after the election, I am looking for a public official who will champion open government. Better luck next time.
District 1: Pond Hill School gym, 297 Pond Hill Road.
District 2: Stevens School gym, 18 Kondracki Lane.
District 3: Moses Y. Beach School gym, 340 N. Main St.
District 4: Dag Middle School gym, 106 Pond Hill Road.
District 5: Cook Hill School gym, 57 Hall Road.
District 6: Parker Farms School cafeteria, 30 Parker Farms Road.
District 7: Yalesville School cafeteria, 415 Church St. (Route 68).
District 8: Senior Center, 38 Washington St.
District 9: Rock Hill School cafeteria, 911 Durham Road.
If you need additional information:
Registrar of Voters
45 South Main Street, Room #211
(203) 294-2125
Registrars:
Samuel Carmody
Chester Miller
http://www.town.wallingford.ct.us/Content/Registrar_of_Voters.asp
It’s not often that you get your chance to have your say, really have the opportunity to voice your mind and thoughts.
You do get an optimum chance on Election Day more so than any other time of the year.
There is no body of government that can affect you as much and that you have as much effect on as your municipal government.
Your municipal leaders regulate your ordinances, set the local budget for the town and the schools, as well as maintain and manage the tax base of the town.
If you voted in the federal election in 2008 you were one voice in 169 million registered. (About 133 million showed up to cast a vote).
86 million democrat - 55 million republican - 28 million others registered.
Of those voters there were 132,645,504 total voters out of an eligible voting age population of 212,702,354, which gives you a 62.4% participation rate.
For the elections held at the state level here in Connecticut as of 2010 the total number of registered voters is a hair over 2 million.
The largest group of registered voters in Connecticut is unaffiliated, accounting for 831,962 voters. There are 743,580 registered Democrats and 413,854 registered Republicans.
So when 73 percent of the state voters turnout, your voice is one in 1.46 million.
You as the voter in Wallingford during a municipal election are one of about 25,000 registered. During our last municipal election only 35.6 percent of the registered voters turned out.
Your voice there is one of about 8,900.
Where do you think your voice is the loudest?
Where do you think your voice is best heard among all the noise?
Wallingford is your town – get informed, get involved and VOTE on Tuesday November 8th
