Wednesday, November 21, 2007

School finances being looked into

The Milford Daily News is reporting that the current school department finance person has been placed on leave while a shortfall of $580,000 from last years budget is investigated.
A previously undisclosed shortfall of $580,000 from last year's budget was apparently moved to this year's ledger, the School Committee announced yesterday, prompting an outside investigation and the placement of the school finance director on leave.

The discrepancy was discovered in recent weeks by Town Comptroller Susan Gagner as she squared away the district's books for fiscal 2007. Moving funds between fiscal years is illegal, as state law dictates that each year's budget be balanced individually.

It is not good that credibility in our town's finances takes another hit with this news.

Read the full story that Michael Morton has reported here.

Vote Analysis

I need to get to the Town Clerk's office to get the details on the recent election. I'd like to get into some planning for what may come up during 2008. With the requirements for fixing the library, renovating the high school amongst the major capital requirements, nevermind trying to restore the $2 million dollars the school budget got cut this past year, there are plenty of needs but few sources of income other than an other override.

I found this article with some insights on the youth vote. As strong as the elderly vote is here, the youth vote is going to become as important as any other section of the demographics.

Now a disclaimer, I plan to do this analysis not to play one group against another. That is not how to win at this game. I plan to do the analysis to simply better understand the demographics of the town.

For example:
Tip #1: The youth vote is not synonymous with students. In fact, students make up only a small part of the eligible youth vote. Only 21% of all 18-29 year olds are currently attending a college or university. That means that when you report on "students", you are leaving out the other 79% of all the individuals that make up the "youth vote." These people serve in our military, are struggling to raise families - and yes, have very different concerns from college students. I understand that makes it difficult for you to cram them into a cookie-cutter story about student aid activism and tuition costs, but you do them and your readers and our democracy a disservice when you limit your coverage to students.
Food for thought.

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Where in Franklin? #19


Where in Franklin? #19, originally uploaded by shersteve.

How observant are you?

Where do you go to "Relax, Renew, Revive"?

Guidelines for playing "Where in Franklin?" can be found here.

Enjoy!

Franklin School Committee blog

Jeff Roy and others on the School Committee have their own blog: Franklin School Committee.

Jeff as an attorney by day finds some good items of interest to the school environment. For example:

When is hugging appropriate?


Intelligent design on trial.

What do you stand for?


Click on over to review what they have to share.

Monday, November 19, 2007

Five O'Clock Shadow @ Circle of Friends Coffeehouse

Caught concert Saturday night by Five O'Clock Shadow at the Circle of Friends Coffeehouse. Here is a brief bit of one of their songs:



If you like live music, especially folk, the Circle of Friends Coffeehouse is one of Franklin's gems.

Sunday, November 18, 2007

Milford Daily News- Carlo Reflects

Just because Willow Street resident Carlo Geromini recently retired from town service after four decades, don't expect him to give up one of his public arena passions: Perfecting his command of parliamentary procedure and encouraging others to follow suit.
``Some people like to read detective stories, some people like to read science fiction,'' Geromini, 79, said as he relaxed in his home office this week. ``I like to read Robert's Rules of Order.''
The longtime public servant still owns a pristine paperback copy of the book, a backup complementing the dog-eared hardback he lugged to meetings for many years. After serving on the School Committee in the 1960s, he won election to Town Council in 1981, holding a seat there for all but two years until leaving before this fall's election.

If you missed the Franklin Gazette, you can read Carlo's reflections on his years of service here, as written by Michael Morton of the Milford Daily News.

Where in Franklin? Answer #18


Ken Norman provided a clue the other day which didn't help anyone else I guess.

His clue was:
the cow's head over the door has nothing to do with this farm's name.

He came back to also provide the correct answer:
Four Feathers Farm on Mount St

Thanks for playing!

Stay tuned for #19.