Franklin Matters: In the News: state police alert on scams, eagle scouts recognized, development along RT 140, MCAS argued for

Friday, September 18, 2015

In the News: state police alert on scams, eagle scouts recognized, development along RT 140, MCAS argued for

Massachusetts State Police issued a scam warning on their official Facebook page Thursday. According to the posting, scammers pretending to be members of the state police or affiliated with the police are calling people and soliciting money for drug prevention and intervention programs.

The scammers may claim to be part of a narcotics unit, police said.

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Boy Scouts Patrick Cunniff, Jonathan Tomaso and Joseph Kroon, from Troop 99 of Franklin, were honored at an Eagle Scout Court of Honor on Aug. 1 for achieving the highest rank in Boy Scouts.

Each scout completed a community service project that benefited the community: Cunniff worked with the Franklin Girls Softball Association to build four dugouts at the Remington-Jefferson fields; Tomaso constructed a walkway between the front and back entrances to the Benjamin Franklin Classical Charter Public School benefiting both charter school students and St. Mary Parish CCD students; and Kroon, sponsored by the Town of Franklin, built an arched foot bridge over a stream on the disc golf course at Dacey Fields.

arched foot bridge at Dacey Field disc golf course

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"There will be several different buildings," he said. "There's a gas station and, adjacent to that, a lube place and at least one restaurant. There will be several other retail spaces as well."

According to Taberner, the developer has not labeled all of the proposed buildings, meaning it is uncertain which businesses will occupy them.

Taberner said the board has requested more information from the developer, and would likely be considering the project for some time. He said he did not know how long the process might take.

"The matter was continued to the next Planning Board meeting," he said. "It could be two, three, four or five - I have no idea how many meetings it might take."

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In a meeting with the Daily News editorial board on Wednesday, Pioneer Institute’s Jamie Gass and Tom Birmingham, former Senate president and co-author of the Education Reform Act of 1993 which created the MCAS, cautioned against switching from the long-standing test. Instead, the pair recommended working within the current system for better results.

After education reform went into effect, Birmingham said the state set and met new standards that have pushed school performance to the top in the nation. If Massachusetts signs on to the PARCC test, Birmingham said he worries standards will drop to accommodate students in other PARCC states that don't have tests as rigorous as those in Massachusetts.

“Before you outright jettison what has been coincident, at least, with our historic, unprecedented education success stories … I think you should bear in mind the words from the Hippocratic Oath, which is first, do no harm,” Birmingham said. “I’m fearful that if we do jettison MCAS and replace it with something else that is yet completely untested, we are inviting regression in terms of our education success.”