User talk:Jaylivernois

Dear WhisperToMe, I served as a Woodstock Academy Trustee from 1997 to 2007 and was on the Woodstock Board of Education from 1993 to 2005. I also served on the Connecticut Association of Boards of Education's Executive and Finance Committees and was the CABE Area 4 Director from 2003 to 2005. I use my real name in all my editing on Wikipedia. 1. There are only two other schools in Connecticut organized like Woodstock Academy and are called Corporate schools (because they are corporations formed in the 19th century). These are Norwich Free Academy and the Gilbert School. This corporate model, by definition a blend of public and private is unique (only 3 schools) in education and Connecticut in particular. Woodstock Academy is in fact a corporate school; others discribe it as independent because they do not understand the nature or organizations of corporate schools from the 19th century. The sources cited are not reliable especially the notorious state of Connecticut Department of Education information or WoodstockCT Cafe (which is a political mouthpiece on the web that constantly attacks the Academy; its administrator, Becki Leavitt is a bus driver for the Woodstock Public Schools. 2. It is not correct to say the state of Connecticut administers Woodstock Academy. The only role the State has in so-called administering the school is to ensure that WA follows certain education laws and even that is up for debate as to where they actually have authority because of the Academy's corporate nature. Hence my characterization of the State's authority as "distant". However WA is administered by an administration with the Board of Trustees delegating this authority to the Headmaster. The article makes it sound as if the State runs the school. 3. I will go in and add the website of the Academy (woodstockacademy.org) where they list their athletics. Again, it seems as if the school only has football and baseball (using as authority newspaper references), whereas in fact the school has a long history of athletics especially in track, soccer, and basketball. Please accept my edits. Yours sincerely, Jay Livernois Jaylivernois (talk) 08:35, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

Hello! Welcome to Wikipedia!

I'm glad to see that you contributed to Woodstock Academy. There are some things I would like to talk about, though, in this revision : Anyway, thanks for contributing! WhisperToMe (talk) 07:18, 23 March 2009 (UTC)
 * 1. "a unique mixture of public and private" is a WP:POV and not referenced. Having it as "(often described as Independent)" follows the sources that were put in
 * 2. You shouldn't characterize the oversight role as "distant" unless a reliable source says so
 * 3. Those other sports need references too

BTW do you have a digital camera? Why not take photos of Woodstock and upload them to the Wikimedia Commons? WhisperToMe (talk) 07:20, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

WhisperToMe (talk) 18:36, 23 March 2009 (UTC)
 * 1. Well, it's not directly operated by the state, but then again neither are a lot of public schools in the U.S.; the state provides oversight while the district does the hiring, etc. The difference between Woodstock and other schools is that it is not part of a school district. It's fine to say the CT Government has an oversight role.
 * 2. Regarding the athletics it's good that there is a source as Wikipedia likes to have sources for content as per WP:V.
 * 3. A source explaining what a "corporate school" in Connecticut is and/or how Woodstock is one is good. If an organization describes a corporate school as "unique" (it's not good writing to have the encyclopedia say it is unique) - then we say that the organization describes the corporate school model as unique.
 * 4. Again, if you have a digital camera please take photographs of Woodstock Academy, the Woodstock Elementary, the town hall, the library, etc. See Bellaire, Texas and use that as a model, so to speak. WhisperToMe (talk) 18:36, 23 March 2009 (UTC)