In a time seemingly long ago, pre-COVID-19, Jeff Roy and his band Ben Gardner's Boat spent some time in the Franklin TV recording studio. Jeff got to post the video segments of the songs recorded. Here is one: "Collide" https://youtu.be/TmPZULYRc-E
Providing accurate and timely information about what matters in Franklin, MA since 2007. * Working in collaboration with Franklin TV and Radio (wfpr.fm) since October 2019 *
In a time seemingly long ago, pre-COVID-19, Jeff Roy and his band Ben Gardner's Boat spent some time in the Franklin TV recording studio. Jeff got to post the video segments of the songs recorded. Here is one: "Collide" https://youtu.be/TmPZULYRc-E
Jeffrey Roy of Franklin, Massachusetts has entered the race for State Representative in the 10th Norfolk District. He is seeking election to the seat that Jim Vallee will be vacating in December. The district includes all of Franklin and precincts 2, 3 and 4 in Medway.
Roy is an attorney who has maintained a trial practice in Boston for the past 26 years. He is also a member of the Franklin Town Council and served on the Franklin School Committee from 2001 through 2011. He is the current chair of Franklin's Democratic Town Committee.
"I have considered entering this race for a long time," noted Roy. "When Representative Vallee made his announcement last week to step down, I knew it was my time to step up. It has been an honor and privilege to serve Franklin at the local level, but much work lies ahead at the state level, and I will bring my commitment, dedication and experience to those tasks.
"Jim Vallee is one of the most honorable public servants I have had the pleasure to know. He has served Franklin admirably and has been a great friend to our community. His assistance with securing a new Franklin High is the most recent of the many ways he has helped build the Franklin/Medway area into one of the most desirable places to live in America. He is a model legislator and has been a helpful advocate on the school and town issues. It would be an honor to succeed him at the State House.”
Roy grew up in Milford and he and his wife Maureen moved to Franklin in 1986. They have three children -- Alicia (21), Natalie (18), and Jeff Jr (15) -- all of whom were educated in the Franklin Public Schools.
Roy is a 1986 cum laude graduate of Boston College Law School in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. He received his undergraduate degree from Bates College in Lewiston, Maine in 1983, where he served as Editor-in-Chief of the Bates Student newspaper. In addition, he received engineering training at Worcester Polytechnic Institute from 1979 to 1981 and one year of legal training at DePaul University in Chicago, Illinois.
His entire legal career has been primarily devoted to the representation of injured persons. He specializes in product liability cases, automobile accidents, construction accidents, and other work-related injuries. He has represented clients at all levels of the trial and appellate courts in Massachusetts. In addition, he has appeared in cases before the New Hampshire Supreme Court and Superior Court, the Federal District Courts of Massachusetts and New Hampshire, the Rhode Island Superior Court, Colorado Superior Court, and the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit. He was sworn in last year as a member of the United States Supreme Court bar.
"I am humbled by the outpouring of support I have received from my friends and colleagues about my candidacy," said Roy. "I look forward to engaging in a healthy campaign and demonstrating why I am the best choice to represent the citizens of Franklin and Medway in the next legislature on Beacon Hill.
"This campaign and election will be about the type of government we want and the type of things we choose to do together as people. If elected, I will be a fierce advocate for Franklin and Medway. My 14 years of service to Franklin demonstrates my commitment to the task at hand and provides a primer on how I will perform as a legislator."
School Superintendent Wayne Ogden formally gave his resignation Tuesday, saying in a press release that restrictive budgets and massive layoffs preclude him from moving the schools "from good to great."
"I have no desire to continue to dismantle our school system and, as such, I no longer feel I offer the right fit to lead the Franklin schools," Ogden said in a statement released by his office yesterday.
Ogden, who came to Franklin in May 2006 after serving as assistant superintendent for Wayland public schools, will end his tenure June 30, 2009, fulfilling three years of a five-year contract.
"I came to Franklin ... to help move the public schools from good to great. Instead, we are beginning another academic year moving in the opposite direction," he said in the statement.
Franklin starts the 2008-2009 school year with 180 more students than when Ogden first arrived, and a budget that is several million dollars short of keeping pace with that growth, he said.
Read the full article in the Milford Daily News here
“I came to Franklin in May 2006 to help move the public schools from good to great.
Instead, we are beginning another academic year moving in the opposite direction. We will start the 2008-09 school year with 180 more students than when I arrived and a budget that is several million dollars short of keeping pace with this growth. In the last two budget cycles, I have been forced to reduce school staff by more than 70 employees, the vast majority of them teachers, and to abandon plans to bring our schools to the next level academically. Our investment in the education of our students is now below average in every single category.
“This retreat has occurred despite the best efforts of the school community. The School Committee has an ambitious vision for the students of Franklin that deserves passionate and thoughtful support, but the Committee cannot sustain the academic performance that the community expects when it is not given the funding required to keep pace with basic educational needs. I have no desire to continue to dismantle our school system and, as such, I no longer feel I offer the right fit to lead the Franklin schools.”
“The Committee regrets the superintendent’s decision to leave his post after three years of a five-year contract. Our schools are at a crossroads and the challenges we face are serious, but the School Committee intends to do everything we can to prevent a slide toward mediocrity. With the support of our dedicated staff and our hardworking parents and students, our collective goal is to return Franklin schools to the path of greatness.
“School districts throughout the Commonwealth are struggling to recruit superintendents. We know it will be difficult to find a leader willing to come to a community that has begun to step back from supporting its educational mission. The School Committee will begin discussions regarding a successor as quickly as possible in the hopes of finding a highly qualified individual who can help us overcome the challenges ahead. ”
At the recommendation of Assistant Superintendent Maureen Sabolinski, the School Committee last night agreed to use $180,000 of unspent money found in the athletic revolving account this year to put three teachers back in the classroom.
Former acting Finance Director for schools Paul Funk notified the committee of the accounting oversight this spring, but the committee opted to wait for the results of the Proposition 2 1/2 tax override on June 10 to decide how to use the money.
"In the past, the superintendent (Wayne Ogden) recommended using it for bringing back three teachers. We said right up front, teachers, teachers, teachers," which will reduce class sizes, Sabolinski said.
The School Committee agreed to allow principals to hire a Grade 4 teacher at Helen Keller Elementary School, a Grade 3 teacher at Oak Street Elementary, and a Grade 2 teacher at John F. Kennedy Elementary School, as class sizes there were slated to be 28 to 30 students, Sabolinski said.
"There was consensus among all elementary school (principals). A lot of thought went into making those recommendations. They looked at the needs of students in those classrooms," Sabolinski said.
School Committee Chairman Jeffrey Roy noted the district is still losing the vast majority of teachers they expected to this spring.
"It's only three teachers out of 45, so it's a net loss of 42 teachers," Roy said.
Read the full article in the Milford Daily News here.
a. Projected Enrollment - numbers in School Committee packet
b. School Choice - discussed previously
c. Ed Nets
becoming involved, contract still up in air, breaches of staff and student information still need to be reviewed
d. Bus Accident Update
one of the outcomes of the accident as previously reported was who was going to be in charge to avoid the situation where some students were not examined after the incident. Protocols being set up with a very productive meeting, will be updated into the crisis manual. Will come back with an update.
e. Traffic Study at High School/Horace Mann
The Town is initiating a traffic study in the area and engage a traffic engineer to study and report back.
MSBA opening a window to accept new statements of interest for building projects, need to submit by Sep 15
technically according to the statute don't need a building committee until the State says you are getting money for construction. Should not re-submit what we did previously, should get together to decide what should be re-submitted
Jeff Roy requesting that the audit copies be sent directly to the school committee as an internal control, should not have to go through either the Town or the Central Office. He has made the request before and will make it again
Subcommittee reports
Matt Kelly will be meeting with Miriam Goodman on a weekly basis to review and approve the bills on a timely basis
1. I recommend acceptance of $13.50 from Kaitlyn Simmons & Corinne Lewis, raised from their lemonade stand for the Oak Street Elementary School Gift Account.
approved 7-0
2. I recommend acceptance of a check for $285.00 from Lifetouch Pictures for the Future Enrichment Programs at ECDC.
approved 7-0
3. I recommend approval of the request of FHS teachers Jackie Eckhardt and Debbie Murphy for the annual trip to Spain for the summer of 2009.
approved 7-0
4. I recommend adoption of the revised 2009-2010 School Calendar
approved 6-1
5. I recommend adoption of the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU).
Jeff Roy - school department lawyers were not required to work out the issues on the MOU, this covers most of the items raised in the previous meeting, not perfect but a good ways along, can still be modified as it goes
Cafasso questioned to make sure the heating utilities were being covered by the town given the discussion about the Brick school
hopes that the principals are vigilant and report back to us if things do not go smoothly
Jeff Roy - did get the clause to state that the principals will retain level of control over personnel in their buildings
Rohrbach - hope this goes smoothly, hopes that this does generate some cost savings
approved: 7-0
6. I recommend adoption of the Consolidation Plan.
approved: 7-0
7. I recommend the increase to $325.00 per year for the Pay-to-Ride Program.
approved: 7-0
Keller - one grade 4class sizes were slated to be 28-30
Oak - one grade 3
Kennedy - one grade 2
• Budget to Actualreally 2.8 less as another $300,000 will be coming to the schools from the Medicaid reimbursement
• Override Ramifications
Current Budget Number
Level funded $54,626,000
plus Additional Rev 830,000
subtotal $55,456,000
less Facilities Consolidation $5,515,758
equals the FY 09 Budget $49,948,242
$3.1 Million less than the level service budget of FY 08
Read the full story in the Boston Sunday Globe hereThe new high school in Franklin will not be a Taj Mahal project, if town officials can help it.
Mindful of the examples set by Newton and Wellesley, both criticized by a top state official for approving expensive high school projects, officials in Franklin are working with the state to find a less costly plan for updating the town's 37-year-old high school.
Days before a vote Tuesday on a proposed $2.8 million override of Proposition 2 1/2, meant to raise property taxes enough to prevent the loss of more than 40 teaching positions, officials also said they do not believe that taxpayers would foot the bill for a $100 million renovation of the high school or a new facility costing $130 million.
Those two options were put on the table by an architect earlier this year.
Addressing his daughter, Alicia Mary Roy, in front of a crowd of hundreds of parents, teachers, and friends of the graduating Class of 2008, School Committee Chairman Jeffrey Roy told her, "I still remember the first day I saw you."
He dreamed of a day like yesterday, he said.
"Your mother and I are blessed, and I don't think there's a parent in this room who doesn't feel the same" about their child, Roy said in his opening remarks at Franklin High School commencement last night.
Roy, like Superintendent Wayne Ogden and Franklin High School Principal Pamela A. Gould, then told about 370 graduating seniors what the world was like in days past.
Roy joked that his mother likes to remind him he was born in the middle of an "I Love Lucy" show in 1961, and becoming serious, told students they came into the world when the Berlin Wall came down, in 1989.
"The Berlin Wall, an iconic symbol of oppression... that wall stood a very long time, divided families, a city, and a world," said Roy, "but even impenetrable obstructions could not last."
The Berlin Wall attracted no one, it simply repelled, he said.
Read the full article in the Milford Daily News here.