My name is Emily Laliberte, and I am currently a 7th and 8th grade science teacher at Remington Middle School. I am proud to be entering my 20th year of teaching in Franklin, and each of those years has been a rewarding experience. I've often found myself boasting to fellow educators about the working conditions here and the high quality of education we've always been able to provide in spite of ongoing budgetary issues. One of my greatest joys has been witnessing the district’s long-standing commitment to inclusion.
However, my primary concern—and the reason I’m speaking to you today—is to ensure that the full impact of the proposed changes to our Middle School Model is understood. While the goal is to save $1.4 million, it’s crucial to recognize what we stand to lose in terms of educational quality, and most importantly, who will ultimately bear the brunt of this cost savings - our students.
My journey began at Oak Street Elementary School as a special educator, before transitioning to Remington in the same role. Over the years, I’ve worked with countless families who moved to Franklin specifically for our exceptional special education services. Eventually, I made the decision to transition into a general education classroom, believing I could continue to support inclusion by creating a science environment where all students feel welcomed, valued, and empowered to learn.
That being said, I recognize that our community is facing serious financial challenges and requires significant changes. Over the course of my two decades here, we’ve discussed the budget every year, and each year we've been faced with the threat of severe cuts—many of which have already occurred.
Franklin has been a place where outstanding educators are trained and mentored, only to be lost to neighboring districts year after year. It’s clear that consolidation is necessary to address our district’s financial shortfall. While the proposed consolidation plans are intended to benefit the community financially, I’m concerned that the impact on our students has not been fully considered.
We’ve been assured that “class sizes will remain within the limits,” which is technically true. However, it hasn’t been made clear that many middle school teachers will see their rosters increase by nearly 50%, from about 80 students to 110-120 students. This increased workload will significantly affect the quality of education we can provide.
For me, this means less time to build meaningful connections with my students, understand their personal interests, sports activities, family dynamics, and cultural backgrounds. It also means less time to collaborate with families, respond to emails, and create individualized lesson plans and behavioral interventions that meet the needs of each student. The students who will be most affected by these changes are those with the greatest needs—whether academic, social-emotional, or otherwise.
You may wonder how we can maintain class sizes while increasing the number of students. The answer lies in major restructuring of grades 6 through 8- changing to more of a mini-Franklin High model instead of staying true to the more developmentally appropriate middle school model.
Content teachers will now be expected to teach five sections per day of each subject. While the content of each class will remain similar, this shift means more students requiring accommodations, more parents to communicate with, and more grading - while being provided with less time during the day to do these tasks.
Additionally, students will have fewer opportunities for unified arts, dropping from three classes per term to two, which reduces prep time for content teachers. Students who choose to participate in our robust music programs will do so at the expense of opportunities to participate in Computer science, Art, or other unified arts classes.
Currently, our Unified Arts model allows core content teachers to have 80 minutes of prep per day on average (with some days being shorter or longer). This time allows us to work regularly with special educators, related service providers, administrators, students, and families. With only one 45-minute prep per day, most of our time will be spent preparing lessons and materials, leaving less time for these essential collaborations. Personally, I don't believe I'll be able to provide the inclusive experience for students that I have always taken pride in.
These changes could also mean that special education meetings might need to occur during instructional time instead of during extra prep periods that already exist in the schedule. This could result in students missing out on valuable instruction if their teacher is attending an IEP or 504 meeting. 20% of a roster would mean that potentially 22-24 class periods each school year could be without a certified educator leading them or access to necessary support staff.
I am aware that we are “getting” many things in this consolidation, like more consistent and clear departmental support, additional content-based UA offerings within that one period, and a more streamlined and consistent experience across the town. I’m looking forward to working with new people and getting to meet with my content-area counterparts more regularly. I continue to be worried that these positives will not outweigh the challenges and will result in more teacher turnover at a time when finding new educators is challenging.
I understand that many of the details about how these changes will unfold are still being worked out, and some of these concerns may be addressed between now and September. I deeply appreciate the extensive work of our administrative team, Craig Williams especially (seriously when does he sleep?), and look forward to continuing to work together to the benefit of our student population. Thank you for your time.
 |
| Voices of Franklin: Middle School teacher wants us to "recognize what we stand to lose in terms of educational quality" |
