The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
THE INS AND OUTS OF GOVERNMENT
Students hold mock council meeting, hearing
TORRINGTON >> Vogel-Wetmore fifth-graders explored the workings of city government Wednesday morning as they conducted a mock public hearing and City Council meeting.
City officials and residents were replaced by school-age counterparts, forming a City Council, array of municipal officials and residents speaking for and against the idea of creating a dog park in the city — the item on the day’s agenda.
Assistant City Clerk Carol Anderson, who first proposed the idea, acted as a narrator, walking the students in attendance through the workings of governmental meetings.
The students stepped to the microphone before a council made up of their peers and offered testimony either for or against the idea of the dog park.
Afterward, other students presented plans for the dog park to the council, and mock city officials — including a police chief, fire chief, and city planner — chimed in with their parts.
The student council eventually approved the project 7-1.
Paul Ledda, one of the students who served on the City Council,
said the experience had been fun.
“I enjoyed this a lot, because you don’t get a lot of chances to speak publicly at our age, and to the crowd,” said Ledda. “So I liked being able to talk to people that weren’t just family or friends. We got to talk to people, and see what it was like to be a councilman.”
Elijah Deleon said he had polled his classmates beforehand to determine their thoughts on how he should vote — a move which Mayor Elinor Carbone applauded.
“I asked my classmates if they had opinions, so I got their votes up, and I chose,” said DeLeon.
Each student was presented with a certificate marking their performance in the hearing and meeting after their conclusion, then provided with pizza purchased for the occasion.
Pauline Palladino said she and her fellow VogelWetmore fifth-grade teachers — Matt Parkhouse, Mary Svetz-Juliano and Shannon Boccio — had been teaching the students and the workings of the federal and state government in social studies class.
As the city government differs in style, she said Anderson suggested holding a mock public hearing. Working with Executive Secretary Maurette Wall, Carbone and her fellow teachers, they put Wednesday’s event together.
“We just wanted the kids to experience government at the local level,” said Palladino. “Hopefully, it will promote civic-mindedness, and hopefully the kids, when they get older, will become involved in the affairs of the city.”
Anderson said she had considered ideas put into practice by other City Clerks and built on them to come up with the idea.
“Networking with other town clerks, and they’re very proud of the programs that they do in their different town halls, I’d see that there’d be tours through the buildings with different schools, and I felt that we could do better,” said Anderson. “So I mentioned that to Mrs. Palladino and then we got together and created the program. I think it was mostly her, I really do.”
She and Wall have been serving as mentors to students at Vogel-Wetmore for years. Anderson said she spends lunch hours with children, playing games and doing crafts.
Anderson said she hoped the morning’s event dovetailed with what the students had been learning, and gave them a sense of the makeup of city government.
“I think it all comes together with all that they’ve been learning about government,” said Anderson. “Torrington’s city government, it’s our neighbors and our friends, and I think they kind of experienced that.”