On March 27th, I encourage everyone in Franklin to vote YES for the new Franklin High School. It’s the right decision for Franklin, its taxpayers and most importantly, its students.
As a graduate from Franklin High School in 2007, I’ll be the first to tell you we have an excellent school system. I strongly believe I received a great education in Franklin and thank my parents for moving here shortly before I was born to make that possible.
The accolades Franklin frequently receives as one of the best places to raise a family are well deserved. For some reason, some people point to our high performing – and efficient – school system as a reason to vote against the new school. While I agree great teachers are the most important aspect to a good education – and Franklin has them – we also can’t ignore the learning environment.
The current Franklin High School’s accreditation by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC) has been on warning status since 2005 for numerous reasons related to the building. Lack of Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) compliance, outdated science labs, inadequate facilities such as the nurse’s area, minimum recommended size classrooms, lack of a full sprinkler system and field house structure and roof being in poor condition are among the reasons cited by NEASC and an existing conditions report done by Kaestle Boos Associate. It is vital we correct these issues both for our students and to remove our high school from warning status.
After six years of work and exploring all possibilities, both the Franklin School Building Committee and the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA) agreed building a new model school made the most sense for the students and for the taxpayers in the long run. The costs of a model school are much more easily predicted since it has been built before, while an expensive renovation often runs into unforeseen costs along the way and problems related to an aging 40 year-old building will continue to appear after a renovation is done. The model school also comes with a much better reimbursement rate from the state, 59.52% of reimbursable costs, than a renovation would have, leaving Franklin taxpayers to pay $47 million on a $104 million school.
I’ve heard some “no voters” talk about the school as extravagant – that we’d be better off saving a few bucks to build a school that more closely resembles a prison than a place of education. I strongly disagree with the classification of new high school as extravagant. Thanks in part to the extravagance of Newton North – which among other things included a pool and cost two times as much as the proposed FHS for just a 12% bigger student population – the state won’t reimburse a town if they wish to build an extravagant high school. The proposed Franklin High School’s cost is comparable to the other high schools that have recently been built across the state and on a per pupil basis actually is more cost effective than many of them.
The exterior of the new Franklin High School facing the woods or otherwise not easily visible is just as drab as some of the “no voters” would like the entire building to be. The front, or exposed parts of the building, has a few design elements to draw attention to the main entrance – I’d hardly call that extravagant. I see the new Franklin High School as a place where students would be excited to go to learn in every day, I don’t think we should underestimate that value.
Another complaint brought forth from some “no voters” has been the false claim that everything inside the current building will be thrown away. That is simply untrue. While part of the cost of the new high school is much needed new technology, the technology and any useful furniture in the current high school such as smart boards, computers and anything else that would be helpful will be transferred to the middle and elementary schools providing them with a needed upgrade in technology as well. In that sense, building a new high school will benefit all the schools.
I’ve also heard plenty of questions about maintenance of the high school. We can’t change the past, but I can tell you changes have been made and having recently toured all the Franklin schools, our maintenance staff is currently doing a great job of keeping our combined middle/elementary schools looking like new and our older elementary schools are being kept in good shape. That leaves me confident a new high school would be well maintained.
I have no children of my own or family members that will directly benefit by attending the new high school, but I’ll be voting YES, along with my family, on March 27th because it’s the right thing to do for Franklin and its students. I hope you’ll join me – one vote could make the difference.
Sean Donahue
Franklin, MA.
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