Monday: There will be a special meeting of the Woodbridge Board of Education taking place at the Media Center in Beecher Road School to discuss the revised proposal for the 2010/2011 budget. This budget is a 1.98% increase over the 2009/2010 budget, down from a previously proposed 2.97% increase. The change is the result of moving from the equivalent of two full time art teachers to one and a half full time art teachers and from seven and a half full time secretaries and clerical staff to seven full time secretaries and clerical staff. Also, comparing the budgets it appears as if there is a decrease in custodian services. These decreases also cut the amount of benefits that the school will have to cover, particularly in health insurance which is one of the factors driving up the budget. This comes following a long December Woodbridge Board of Education Meeting.

Also on Monday will be the Human Services Commission meeting taking place at 7 PM at the center. Items on the agenda for this meeting includes a discussion of their 2010/2011 budget as well as a Senior Center Report, a Youth Services Report and a Human Services Report. The Youth Services Report will include more information on the Job Bank program here in Woodbridge, and the Human Services report will include information on the town food and fuel fund.

At the Town Hall, the Town Plan and Zoning Commission will hold a special joint meeting with the Economic Development Commission starting at 6:30. This will be followed by a regular meeting of the Town Plan and Zoning Commission. Topics to be discussed at this meeting include an update on the Amity Teen Center concerning the use of a recording studio and noise ordinance concerns as well as a discussion of the Country Club of Woodbridge. The EMS commission is normally schedule to meet the 1st Monday, quarterly. However, they are listed as having had a meeting in November and there is no meeting listed for this Monday.

The Commission on the Use of Publicly Owned Property has its meeting on the first Tuesday of every month at 7:30 in the Senior Center Lounge. The December minutes list a meeting for this Tuesday, but an agenda is not yet available.

The Police Commission holds its monthly meeting on the first Wednesday of each month at the Police Department Training Room. The agenda for this coming Wednesday includes the operating budget review and approval, as well as an item in the Report of the Police Chief on ‘press releases’. While no one has contacted me about this, I suspect this is in response to my request as a resident of Woodbridge and a citizen journalist to receive the press releases of the Woodbridge Police Department. It is my hope that any town agency that issues press releases will come to understand the importance of making their press releases directly available to any residents of the town, perhaps through a mechanism like the Town of Woodbridge Email Lists already used by several groups.

At 6:30 on Wednesday at the Town Hall, the Government Access Television Commission will hold its next meeting. The agenda is not yet available on the Town website. I am also told that the Beecher Road School Building Committee is supposed to meet Wednesday at the same time but I cannot find anything on the Town Website to confirm this or showing an agenda.