The two communities will begin by sharing the first flag football game of the year, in Medway in late April or early May, said Town Administrator Jeffrey D. Nutting.
Franklin has recreational staff and extensive programs and activities, and Medway has residents willing to pay the fees to participate, since the town only offers minimal recreational activities.
"It's a win-win for everyone," Nutting said.
"It gives us revenue to keep our fees down" by contributing to overhead costs, he said.
Franklin Recreation Department Director Ryan Jette said about 5,800 kids in Franklin participate and Nutting said the department has revenue of about $400,000 per year.
"We're not going to get rich off this, but if we can make $10,000 for a little bit of work, it's worth a try," Nutting said.
Under the agreement, Medway residents can participate in a Franklin Recreation Department program or activity after Franklin residents have been given a chance to register.
Read the full article in the Milford Daily News here
Read all the live reporting from the Town Council meeting March 4th here
Developer John Marini will not be completing the final leg of his downtown project for at least three years because banks are refusing to finance the work, he told the Planning Board last night.
Instead of his original plan to demolish, rebuild, and sell 12-28 West Central St. this year, Marini said he will put $100,000 worth of repairs into the building and lease the spaces for a three-year period.
Marini blames his difficulties on the recession.
"I've been in this business 40 years, and I've never had things happen this way. It's impossible to get financing, it's impossible to get tenants, it's impossible to sell. It's just a crazy situation," Marini said.
Read the full article on the trouble delaying the downtown development in the Milford Daily News here.
Friday, March 13th, 2009, 7:00 PM
Doors Open 6:30, Game Time 7:00
Tri-County Regional High School
147 Pond St, Franklin MA
Click through to order form here on the Annie Sullivan PCC website
ayotte_k at verizon.net or erinclong at comcast.net
Annie Sullivan Middle School PCC
www.franklin.ma.us/auto/schools/sullivan/pcc
She hasn't yet officially taken the reins from Superintendent Wayne Ogden, but Maureen Sabolinski is already making moves to save a top position without expanding the budget.
"Looking at the workload and budgetary needs, I opted to reorganize" a few roles, said Sabolinski, now assistant superintendent.
Sabolinski said she will continue her current duties, plus heap on the job of superintendent. She is also one of 51 school staff who volunteered to forgo a pay increase next year.
And in place of an assistant superintendent and a director of pupil personnel services, she created a new position, assistant superintendent for student services.
Read the full article about this change in the Milford Daily News here
Read the live reporting from the School Committee meeting held on Feb 24th here
But a wave of research from around the country shows that consolidation does not improve schools or lead to better academic results. Spending on education does not go down; indeed, budgets often balloon with increased transportation costs and more administrators to run enlarged districts. Consolidation leads to schools closing and to bigger schools, with less parental involvement and community participation. And, in many parts of the United States, it has led to children on unconscionable bus rides lasting several hours a day.
"There is either no advantage or actually a disadvantage to making these enormous uber-districts," says Andrew J. Coulson, director of the Center for Educational Freedom at the Cato Institute in Washington, D.C., who has conducted two major studies on consolidation. "They just don't help kids."
Read the full story on the learning obtained from other states who tried combining school district in the Boston Globe article here
So my eyes will be turned to other areas.
Read the full article on efforts to control budgets with salary freezes in the Boston Globe West section hereOfficials in Franklin, Milford, and Holliston have offered to forgo raises to help close ballooning deficits as tax revenue and state aid to communities plummet. In some cases, administrators are hoping that unionized employees will follow suit.
But unions - particularly those representing school teachers, the largest group of municipal workers in most communities - might not be so quick to follow.
I would recommend substituting "Franklin, MA" for Iowa as you read through these questions and the full listing on his page hereHere are some questions that we should be asking in Iowa:
- What percentage of Iowa schools and districts have a technology plan? For those that do, what do those plans cover?
- What percentage of Iowa schools and districts have technology teams that advise the organization on technology-related concerns? Who’s on those teams?
- What are schools purchasing with their hardware and software money? What proportion of expenditures goes to teacher-centric technologies versus student-centric technologies? What proportion goes to software that provides powerful learning opportunities for students versus software that simply focuses on drill-and-kill remediation?
- How new are the computers in Iowa schools? What percentage of Iowa hardware and software is more than 2 years old?
Found on King St heading towards RT 140, between Summer St and Summer St.
I'll come back later to try and measure how deep it is.
FRANKLIN - Standing tall with her flashcards, fourth-grader Beatrice Riley told Clara Barton's life story 12 times yesterday.Read the full article about the living wax museum in the Milford Daily News hereWearing a white dress and signature giant red cross to portray Barton, delivered Barton's story six times to second and third-graders and another six times to parents by day's end.
"I was shy and I overcame my shyness ... I was intelligent and curious, and most important, I founded the Red Cross in the United States," she explained again and again, tirelessly retelling the highlights of Barton's life.
Riley and 22 other students transformed Davis Thayer Elementary School's cafeteria to a living wax museum of historical figures, including Mozart, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, Neil Armstrong, Anne Frank, Marie Curie and more modern icons such as Bill Gates and Elvis.
