Sally - I've read through your letter several times, and I don't see any references to any mistakes. I don't think your evidence here supports your assertion.

Wow! I can't believe you are accusing Cindy of being dishonest in such a public forum!!! Cindy works very hard for our town. I'm guessing she's received dozens of letters with similar issues. Has it occurred to you that maybe she has been inundated with emails and/or calls and maybe forgot the specifics of your individual household?

I find it offensive to accuse her of being dishonest. Next time you have an issue, consider behaving like an adult. Call her privately and tell her you're disappointed that she forgot your particular situation. Give her a chance to respond. But please do not accuse her, or any other people dedicating themselves to our town, of being dishonest unless you know for certain that it was done maliciously.

Wow. I have followed this redistricting process in detail. Sally, your defaming commentary that clearly twists the School Committee's discussion is an embarrassment to you and to Winchester. Decisions have been made, you are not happy (I am not either), we get it. Don't drag others into your misery with invented assertions.

Looks like Sally is referring to someone else's communication (e.g. hearsay) with the Superintendent where a "mistake" was acknowledged -- so nobody actually said to Sally that a mistake was made!! And the other article does not say that it was Cindy who did the acknowledging!: http://winchester.patch.com/articles/letter-did-school-committee-vote-for-a-map-with-mistakes

Just a reminder that this is an opinion piece from a resident, not a news story with reporting. All Letters to the Editor are opinions and not supported by Winchester Patch. If you would like to submit a Letter to the Editor, email winchester@patch.com.

I would suggest that people who find this offensive read everything in detail and get the full picture before reacting with emotion. I believe this is still a democracy where people can share opinions publicly without being called an embarassment. Become informed, it's the better way to live.

And, Winchester would be an embarrassment if people didn't stick up for themselves and the community interests. Sally cares deeply, agree with her or not!

The point Sally is trying to make is that we have been potentially misled by Ms. Bohne for months and this is just an example. At the School Committee meeting last night she made it sound like the recent letters were the first time they have heard about this issue. When, in fact, it was brought up at the RAC public hearing in October. The woman who asked the question was advised by RAC representative that this was not a mistake and that those 4 properties were colored correctly. Sally emailed the School Committee several times before she finally received a response from Ms. Bohne who, in October, said she would drive around the neighborhood and assess the situation. She too did not see it as a mistake or she would have addressed this issue (at least I would have hoped that she would have addressed the issue) before the final vote was taken

It's been a frustrating and flawed process from the start.

I know that Cindy Bohne worked hard over the past 12+ months to find the redistricting answer that made the most sense for our children and I stand behind the decision made by 4 of 5 School Committee members. Cindy and Michael had the hardest jobs since they sat on both the School Committee and RAC. I am disappointed with the way that Mrs. McCarthy has chosen to communicate this with a negative, accusatory and personal tone that was not needed for this type of public discourse. I believe that in the end this will only hurt her neighborhood's case unfortunately.

There are more effective and ethical ways to handle these type of difficult situations than to share detailed personal email exchanges in a town-wide news blog. I would hope Mrs. McCarthy would first pursue it multiple times directly with Cindy, then next multiple times directly with the Superintendent and then finally with her town selectmen. Her public communication tactics are low brow and hurtful to Winchester as a whole. We are a friendlier and classier town than this.

There was not going to be a redistricting choice that was going to satisfy everyone. I am guessing that the Superintendent may listen to Sally's concerns and be able to address them, but not until some time passes first from the recent redistricting decision. He has to be careful because he knows that if he makes exceptions in one neighborhood that he will need to be prepared to do the same elsewhere or justify why not.

If you look at the new map, there is a strange area where 4 houses are "cut out" of one block and redistricted from Lincoln to Muraco while the other 3 houses on the exact same block (on the same side of the road, no cross streets) are redistricted from Lincoln to Lynch. It looks like a computer mistake and maybe all those houses were supposed to be Muraco (with their neighbors across the street) or Lynch (with the neighbors behind them). Hopefully the School Committee can fix this with an amendment and make a decision to send the entire block to either Lynch or Muraco. Redistricting is over, but if a mistake was made (which from the look of squiggle on the map seems likely) the School Committee needs to own up and make the map consistent for families in this area.

I agree that everyone involved has put hours of work into this and we need to be civil to each other and move on!

You can find a response from Cindy Bohne here: http://patch.com/A-z54z

What I believe we need as a community right now is graciousness and leaders that are courageous enough to weigh all of the information available and make decisions with clarity of purpose.

As a School Ctee member I strive to help fulfill our educational mission with or without outside support or acknowledgement.

I strive to listen with kindness, but to also disagree and make decisions with students and teachers my absolute priority.

Ms. McCarthy, I respect your passion and service as an advocate for your neighborhood. I always favor anger to indifference. However, I take exception to your choice to share your criticisms publicly before approaching me for clarity.

In regard to your criticisms, there was a context to the conversation on Tuesday evening. My remarks were taken out of that context, and the intentions of my comments were misrepresented in your letter.

Last night was the first opportunity for the School Committee to hear of the technical issues regarding the four homes at Washington Street. It was not the first time “I” had been made aware of the concern. It was the first time “we” as a School Committee had learned of this detail as a policy body.

As we move forward, I ask you and all of our neighbors to care about how we are doing our jobs. Keep driving us forward to ensure all of our schools are exceptional, all of our students successful. I’m not embarrassed to care, and I’m glad you aren’t either. Respectfully, Cindy Bohne

What an immature tactic Mrs. McCarthy has chosen to employ. It speaks volumes about her personal integrity. She should read the WPS Anti-Bullying Policies when she is finished with her personal and public attacks. She might learn something.

Why the personal attack on Cindy Bohne? Cindy is one of the best and brightest and Winchester is lucky she is involved. This letter is a juvenile and immature way to air grievances.

I am Sally’s neighbor and support her in her comments one hundred percent. Our neighborhood has continued to be frustrated with the entire redistricting process and Cindy’s comment last night was essentially the straw that broke the camel’s back. While I can’t give an exact quote without the Win Cam video tapes, many in attendance at the SC meeting last night and watching at home were shocked when Cindy alluded to the fact that this was the first time she was hearing of the Washington Street situation. I was the one who received an email from Supt McAlduff indicating that there was a mistake on Map 1 for the block between Oak and Westley Streets- I passed this information along to Sally. That is why the school committee discussed it last night. By posting the email exchange, Sally simply wanted to provide the evidence that Cindy did truly know about this situation for quite some time now. We understand that Cindy received hundreds of emails- yet this was not an issue that was asked about only one time. I wrote numerous letters, as did other neighbors and it was also questioned during one of the Public comments. Would you not be upset and want more direct answers if your children were being redistricted and isolated from their neighbors and friends- all because of a potential mistake on the map? We were simply asking for answers and once again felt betrayed by our school committee.

Salma,
I know I was reacting to the personal attack on Cindy Bohne, and certainly not to anyone's frustration with town issues. I support, of course, speaking up and ensuring your voice is heard. It was the disturbing characterization of Cindy that I was reacting to and I believe there must be more reasonable ways to convey what for you and your neighborhood must be a very frustrating situation, I feel it is just unfair to vilify someone in the process.

Thanks Julie for your reply. I truly believe if you were not directly affected by redistricting, then you would not appreciate the frustration families in our neighborhood had experienced over the last 6 months. People have different ways of expressing such frustration and I cannot judge what is right or wrong in this case. My hope is that the community will help us with a smooth transition and I advise people who are not affected to stop making statements like "we will all be affected" or "we do not want to hear about redistributing anymore". This does not help at all.

I read Ms Bohne's letter and now I have more questions. So, if it is true that this is the first time the maps are discussed among all the SC members, then why the other SC members who were not involved with the RAC and are not familiar with these maps voted for map 1. Clearly this shows that they did not study the maps before the vote and this is the frustrating part???

Salma, four SC members vote for Map 1 and you conclude "this clearly shows that they did not study the maps". I don't follow the logic. Seems that shows there might have been an advantage to Map 1. The most RAC members voted for Map 1 as well.

Agreed that the community should help with a smooth transition.

Pats,
Sorry for not providing you with the logic here. I know so much about redistricting that I assume everyone knows the details and it is my fault here. I will try to explain my point better and I hope this time it will be clear to you.
On Nov 5th, Mr. Nixon tried to have a conversation with the other SC members about why not map 2 but this happened after Mrs. Bohne put a motion to vote on map 1, too late unfortunately due to this faulty process. I can assure you that Mr. Nixon did an excellent job over the summer by revising the capacity for each school. His comments on all maps presented so far by the RAC indicates that he did his homework to study these maps. The reason, in my mind, 4 to 1 SC members voted for map 1 is because of the following reasons: 1- Mr. Schindelman and Mrs. Bohne voted for map 1 because they created the map plans. I respect all the work they put as RAC members and SC members. However, I see an inherent conflict of interest in this case. 1- Mr. Linskey and Mrs. Swiger never commented in public about map 1 vs map 2. How do I know that they studied these two maps? Based on SC meetings and letters we sent concerning specific mistakes the maps presented by the RAC had, we never heard them talk and answer questions related to this topic. That is why I question the sincere outcome/vote on Nov 5th. I have worked very closely with Mrs. Bohne and we do have a lot of respect for each other but we both know that we disagree on the decision made on Nov 5.

Even after checking out the redistricting website, its still not clear which map is now the final map? Could someone clearly point out which map is the "final" map?

Wow, what a cock-up. No accountability anywhere. McAlduff and the School Committee ought to resign. Kudos to Sally for exposing the lies.

Frustrating is what this process been from the start! It started with the surprise of hybrid Map Z that was never discussed in a public forum, to being told this was a "done deal" before the public hearing on June 4 and finally ending with the decision to approve a map redistricting plan. It's been a smoke screen since June 7th to show the public that the School Committee has done their due diligence. What they did was falsely lead people to believe that there was a chance that an alternative plan was an option. Residents spent their summer working on a plan that the Superintendent said was his preference. All of the efforts fell on deaf ears because, in the end, all the School Committee did was vote in a modified version of Map Z.

I know Sally and this is not the first time she has tried to communicate with the School Committee and the Superintendent. I know I sent many emails and spoke at public hearings and never had any of my questions answered. The Woburn Daily Times has an article in their paper today about the meeting on Tuesday night. If the reporter remembers this issue being brought up at a public hearing, how come the School Committee did nothing about it?

I would like to second Salma's motion to stop saying "we are all impacted" and "let's move on". For some of us, this will impact us for years. Using these phrases just frustrates us more!

From an objective perspective, and from a Winchester resident without a horse in the redistricing horse race, I believe Ms.Bohne acted more in the interest of her ego than in support of keeping the school system equitable. Her reactive 'mea culpa' was more about maintaining her social status than addressing the issue with which she clearly did not do her required due diligence as a school committee member. Ms. Bohne, your community asks more of you..........

#firstworldproblems, this entire article. Jesus.

The redistricting process never affected me but after reading the letters and comments this past week I was intrigued to do some research. All I can say is thank you Sally Ann! You’ve alerted me to the fact that I need to pay much closer attention to whom we elect in any town official position and to always pay close attention to the decisions that they're making for Winchester. It appears that you and your neighbors tried endlessly to work with the SC and the RAC this past year and they in turn left your neighborhood an absolute mess! Your neighborhood is within a half mile or less of 2 elementary schools but they are now going to send your section of town to an elementary school just under 2 miles away? There is absolutely no logic to this recommendation. I’m sorry Ms. McCarthy for the unfortunate non-logical outcome. However, I’m so impressed with your bravery and ethics. Please run for School Committee in the next election. (Paper work needs to be submitted soon). I believe you to be a trustworthy resident concerned with the entire town of Winchester not just your own personal interest and those of your friends. We need people like you on the School Committee. I will be happy and proud to campaign for you!

Micheal R.

Sally Ann, I'm so proud of you for writing this letter! The town of Winchester is forever grateful!