Live reporting - Franklin Arts Academy

2. Guests/Presentations
c. Franklin Arts Academy (FAA) – Mike Caple

Several students spoke for their experience in the Arts Academy
one thought it was a joke at first, students still have responsibility to meet challenges
students have more input into the challenges

I like art and thought it would be easier, but it is not
we have projects and more art based work, used to be really shy

school work used to be boring, now it is really engaging

we were worried at first because it was our last year of school, if it didn't work out, we'd be in trouble
we get to do what we love and we are excited to come to school and learn
we are excited for the week instead of the weekend

(video produced by Students of FAA shown)

mother: What I found was a program that my daughter absolutely loves, she is on the honor role for the first time ever.
She is up and doing it on her own, no fighting anymore, joined the vision exercise, I didn't think she would have done it without the FAA

Mrs Walsh - to hear him say he loved his academic teachers, was something great to hear, I knew he loved his arts teachers, they feel it is not a generic course they are needed to provide input into the course, couldn't be a better bunch of teachers, they are great. They feel more comfortable in the classroom knowing that others in the room will have a similar point of view.  The FAA is really an example of following the mission!

Mr Caple - reviews a presentation
38 students in the program, small learning community

Art Director, Mike Caple making his presentation to the School Committee about the Franklin Arts Academy

Rohrbach - How many applications?
Caple - last year we had about 50 and selected 38, we can do about 25 per class or 50 total

Rohrbach - can you tell a little more about the project based learning
Caple - 20 integrated projects with the standard academic subjects. They'll demonstrate what the learn with an art project. O a math project, they will demonstrate the motion of something with a video presentation. The initial outline was provided yesterday, the project is due on Friday. So time management is required as well as the details of the math and then the project production itself

It is a team project. This would not be possible without a strong K-8 arts program! This is not something that magically appears in the 9th grade.

Mullen - Having watched this grow, FHS is a great comprehensive high school, we talk about the sports but this is a great program, exceeding my expectations!

Jane Hogan - visual arts
Mike Peacock - musical production
Ms Walsh - committee member of the academy
Mrs Waters - (at the love fest at FHS)
other names to be added later -

Mrs Sabolinski - this program is incredible, this was built within the existing budget, no incremental costs, yet outside this would cost big bucks in a private school - this demonstrates the ingenuity of our staff.



Franklin, MA

Live reporting - School Committee

Present:  Cafasso, Rohrbach, Mullen, Roy, Trahan, Glynn
Absent: Douglas


1. Routine Business
Citizen’s Comments - none
Review of Agenda - add one action item, may adjust with order of presentations and guests
Minutes: I recommend approval of the minutes from the Open and Executive sessions of the January 25, 2011 School Committee Meeting. motion to approve, passed 6-0
Payment of Bills Mr. Glynn  motion to approve, passed 6-0
Payroll Mrs. Douglas - next meeting
FHS Student Representatives
Kayla Santello - special guest to represent the students
March 13th 12:00 to 4 PM fund raiser by Student Government

Mike Peacock - Sound in the Hall Records, sold 400,000 copies towards goal of 500,000
1st internet record company to achieve this goal, almost there

Correspondence: - Budget to Actual


Franklin, MA

Franklin, MA: School Committee - Agenda - 2/15/11 - updated

Vision Statement

The Franklin Public Schools will foster within its students the knowledge and skills to find and achieve satisfaction in life as productive global citizens.

Mission Statement

The Franklin Public Schools, in collaboration with the community, will cultivate each student's intellectual, social, emotional and physical potential through rigorous academic inquiry and informed problem solving skills within a safe, nurturing and respectful environment.

"The listing of matters are those reasonably anticipated by the Chair which may be discussed at the meeting. Not all items listed may in fact be discussed and other items not listed may also be brought up for discussion to the extent permitted by law."

1. Routine Business
Citizen’s Comments
Review of Agenda
Minutes: I recommend approval of the minutes from the Open and Executive sessions of the January 25, 2011 School Committee Meeting.
Payment of Bills Mr. Glynn
Payroll Mrs. Douglas
FHS Student Representatives

Correspondence: - Budget to Actual

2. Guests/Presentations
a. State Representative Jim Vallee
b. Lifelong Learning Update – Pandora Carlucci
c. Franklin Arts Association – Mike Caple
d. FY2012 Budget Hearing

3. Discussion Only Items
2011-2012 School Committee Meeting Schedule
Update on snow challenges

4. Action Items
a. I recommend acceptance of a check for $921.60 from the Remington PCC for in-house enrichment.
b. I recommend acceptance of a check for $125.00 from the Kennedy PCC for field trips.
c. I recommend the naming of the FHS away-side press box in memory of FHS football coach, Gerry Leone.
d. I recommend approval of the recurring field trip to Hartford, CT for the FHS Cheerleaders for a competition as detailed.
e. I recommend adoption of the School Committee Schedule for 2011-2012 as discussed.
f. I recommend acceptance of a check for $1655.00 from the Horace Mann PCC for in-house enrichment at HMMS.
g. I recommend acceptance of $308.00 from Roberta Trahan for supplemental curriculum materials for the Franklin Public Schools.
h. I recommend approval of the budget transfers as detailed.
i. I recommend acceptance of the donation of a bass, bag and bow from Mr. & Mrs. Richards for the FHS Music Department.

5. Information Matters
Superintendent’s Report

School Committee Sub-Committee Reports
School Committee Liaison Reports

6. New Business
To discuss future business that may be brought before the School Committee.

7. Executive Session
Contractual Negotiations

8. Adjourn

Franklin, MA: School Budget Presentation - FY 2012

The updated budget document scheduled for presentation and discussion at the School Committee meeting Tuesday evening, Feb 15, 2011.

Franklin Public Schools FY2012 Budget Hearing



Franklin, MA

In the News - Summer Place, Senior Center

Franklin planners ready to vote on Summer Place apartments

from The Milford Daily News News RSS by Brian Benson/Daily News staff

Franklin Senior Center to hold program on senior tax credit

from The Milford Daily News News RSS by Staff reports

Franklin, MA

FM #86 - Week Ending Feb 13, 2011

Let's take less than 10 minutes to review what matters in Franklin, MA as the week comes to a close on Sunday Feb 13, 2011.

Time: 7 minutes, 44 seconds



MP3 File

Session Notes

This internet radio show or podcast is number 86 in the series for Franklin Matters.

We'll look back at the week that was as it ends Sunday Feb 13th before looking ahead to the School Committee and Town Council meetings scheduled.

The Finance Committee meeting was canceled on Tuesday, Feb 8th.

The Long Range Financial Planning Committee did meet on Wednesday, Feb 9th.

The Committee added Sue Rohrbach to serve as a liaison to the School Committee and school budget. Sue joins Tina Powderly representing the Town Council and Jeff Nutting representing the Administration.

The committee settled on their individual assignments which were intended to reflect their individual interests and specialties. The assignments are as follows:

1 - Capital expenditures and debt service - John Hogan
2 - Benchmarking and pensions - Graydon Smith
3 - Salary and benefits (excluding pensions) - Orrin Bean
4 - National trends in municipal finance (includes regionalization) - Craig DiMarzio
5 - Schools - Deb Bartlett
6 - Town revenue, public safety, and other - Ken Harvey
7 - Committee communications and deliverables - Doug Hardesty

The bulk of the meeting was spent continuing to review the prior committee's report and much of the discussion involved clarification or background on the numbers or issues reflected in the report. The meeting ended before the committee had finished reviewing the report so some of the time at the next session will continue this effort.

The full set of my notes from the meeting can be found here:
http://franklinmatters.blogspot.com/2011/02/live-reporting-long-range-financial.html/

The budget workshop held one year ago is still a great source of detailed information directly from Jeff Nutting, Susan Gagner and Jim Dacey on the Town side of the budget and Maureen Sabilonski, Miriam Goodman on the School side of the budget. The full workshop was recorded, the audio and worksheets to accompany the recording are all available online here:
http://franklinmatters.blogspot.com/2010/01/budget-workshop-collection-12510.html/

Yes, this was a year ago. The numbers may have changed a little but the overall issues for the Town have not and hence this still has great relevance for today.

The other non-meeting major item in the news was the report theft of the historic bell from the Museum. Apparently someone has made off with it, likely to melt it down for the valuable metal.

I don't spend much time doing analysis on the traffic volume for what I publish here. I did want to bring to your attention some of the numbers now that three full years have passed and four January's have been completed. I will continue to focus on bringing as much good content on what matters with the Franklin budget as possible.
http://franklinmatters.blogspot.com/2011/02/you-find-good-content-here.html


Looking to the week ahead:

School Committee is scheduled to meet Tues Feb 15. As their meeting on the 1st was canceled, I am assuming their budget discussion will be the focus for this meeting. I have included the budget links I previously posted to make it easier to find them.
http://franklinmatters.blogspot.com/2011/02/franklin-ma-school-committee-agenda_13.html/

The Town Council is scheduled to meet Wed Feb 16. Their agenda is posted here
http://franklinmatters.blogspot.com/2011/02/franklin-ma-town-council-agenda-feb-16.html/

The budget info for Fiscal Year 2012 can be found here
http://franklinmatters.blogspot.com/2011/01/fiscal-year-2012-budget-information.html

---- ---- ----

This podcast is my public service effort for Franklin. I can use your help.

How can you help, you ask?

If you have an interest in covering the Planning Board, Conservation Commission and or the Zoning Board of Appeals meetings in Franklin, please let me know.

And as always -

• If you like this, please tell your friends and neighbors
• If you don't like this, please tell me.

Thank you for listening.

For additional information, please visit Franklinmatters.blogspot.com/
If you have questions or comments you can reach me directly at shersteve @ gmail dot com

The music for the intro and exit was provided by Michael Clark and the group "East of Shirley". The piece is titled "Ernesto, manana"  c. Michael Clark & Tintype Tunes, 2008 and used with their permission

I hope you enjoy!

You find good content here

I don't spend much time on these numbers but bear with me for a moment to share the results. This first chart shows the traffic growth year by year. I have excluded the last 2 months of 2007 and the first month of 2011 in this view focused on complete years.

The chart depicts page views in green. Page views are when each post is read. Unique visitors are in blue. We have almost doubled from 15,000 to 28,000 and then added another 14,000 to end up at 42,000 visitors for 2010. The returning visitors are calculated from the cookie in your browser and for a variety of reasons they are less accurate. They are a subset of the unique visitors.

January is the beginning of the new year and if this traffic volume reliably indicates a trend, we are off to a good start. We have grown in volume each January. The page reads are in blue and the unique visitors are in maroon.

Why would the numbers continue to grow?
The numbers tell me that you are continuing to find good content here.

Thank you for visiting.


If you haven't considered subscribing via email, please do so. You'll get one email each day just after 9:00 AM with what has been published since the prior email. You can select the daily updates from Franklin Matters, or chose the weekly review from Franklin Matters Weekly.

You can follow us on Facebook. 

You can get the weekly review via iTunes.

All these options are available on the Welcome page here



Franklin, MA