SchCom: FHS Art Gallery

SchCom: FHS Art Gallery, originally uploaded by shersteve.

The presentation on the Franklin High School Art Gallery activities was made by Art Teacher Mike Caple (center), Rachel Nault (left) and Madison Weber (right).

Notes from the presentation can be found here

Additional notes from the School Committee meeting can be found here

In the News - Principal, July 4th, James Johnston

By Joyce Kelly/Daily News staff

GHS

Posted Jan 14, 2009 @ 12:15 AM

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FRANKLIN —

Superintendent Wayne Ogden and Superintendent-in-waiting Maureen Sabolinski officially named Peter J. Light permanent principal of Franklin High School last night, a decision which delighted School Committee members.

Ogden had appointed Light, currently one of four assistant principals at the high school, as interim principal following Pamela Gould's announcement last week she is resigning her post for a new role as assistant superintendent of human resources for the Plymouth School Department.

Gould leaves Jan. 23, and Light takes the helm Monday, Jan. 26.

"When we were dealing with the surprising news of Pam's leaving ... Maureen and I spent a lot of painful hours figuring out how to move forward," said Ogden, who is also leaving his job at the end of June.

Read the full article in the Milford Daily News here

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By Joyce Kelly/Daily News staff

GHS

Posted Jan 13, 2009 @ 10:27 PM

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FRANKLIN —

The Fourth of July Coalition is planning to keep the town's honored five-day celebration, and this year, they're determined to bring back the parade, said Warren Revell, the group's secretary.

"Personally, I think a parade before fireworks, because it keeps more people around," said Revell, noting that Franklin doesn't benefit from non-residents who come to see the fireworks for a half-hour and immediately leave.

A parade, on the other hand, draws people to the common and keeps them entertained longer, he said. And with a parade, he said, "They're more apt to spend money there."

The group hasn't made any major decisions yet, and tomorrow at 7 p.m. at the municipal building they will discuss ideas for how to celebrate Independence Day this year.

Read the full article in the Milford Daily News here

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By James Johnston/Daily News columnist

GHS

Posted Jan 13, 2009 @ 09:17 PM

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FRANKLIN —

Among the many things wrong with the Republicans in Congress today is that they hate unions and that they hate American labor. I think that they would like to go back to 1900 when you could hire a "girl" to work for you as a "maid of all work" for about two dollars a week.

This point is well illustrated by Ronald Reagan's breaking of the Air Traffic Controller's Union back in the early '80s. That union has never recovered, and air traffic controllers are not paid much more today than they were in 1981 nor are their working conditions much improved.

Union jobs have been driven out of the country, and trade union membership nationally is made up of only about nine percent of all white and blue collar workers today. The Republican conservatives look at this as a victory.

Read the full article in the Milford Daily News here

Senior Center

Continuing to explore the 2008 Annual Report I find information on the Senior Center.

Did you know that there are over 100 people living here in Franklin over 90 year old?

The Senior Center is an active place. Here is a slide show of photos taken during the Open House held November 11, 2007.





If you have not picked up your hard copy of the report at Town Hall, you can try to view it online here: http://www.town.franklin.ma.us/pages/FranklinMA_Clerk/2008arpt.pdf


Note: Most of these photos were published here on Franklin Matters at that time. )

School Committee Meeting 1/13/09

This is the collection of posts covering the School Committee meeting of 1/13/09

• Live reporting - subcommittee update
• Live reporting - Superintendent update
• Live reporting - action items
• Live reporting - building committee update
• Live reporting - Oak St Improvement plan
• Live reporting - Peter Light - part 2
• Live reporting - Peter Light
• Live reporting - Art Gallery
• Live reporting

• School Committee - Agenda - 1/13/09

The video replay of the School Committee meeting is now available on the Town web site here

Live reporting - subcommittee update

Rohrbach - providing an update on the Strategic Planning Steering Committee; two meetings held so far; one organizational, one working session. PR statement in draft, we will be reaching out to the various stakeholders with a couple of surveys and back here to provide an update on the planning process.

Live reporting - Superintendent update

The conversation has been underway all through the night with weather and condition updates. The judgment is based upon the readiness of the town DPW and facilities to get the streets, sidewalks, parking lots, and schools ready.

Decision needs to be made before 5:30 AM to enable proper communications take place in time.

Governor had weighted in on the discussion for the Friday before Christmas. They were fearful of a repeat of the situation of the year ago. The best information at the time for the 12/19 decision was to close rather than open and have an early dismissal. The forecast had been for snow to begin in Franklin at between 11:00 and 1:00 PM.

Sabolinski - We need to get the message out early enough for our staff who are traveling some distance to hear about it before leaving their residence.

Armenio - what about hockey practice that starts at 5:00 AM?

Ogden - I say this lovingly because I was one. Hockey parents, don't stop going somewhere because of snow and ice.

Cafasso - what are you hearing about the conditions for the walkers?

Ogden - one sidewalk at Oak/Mann complex was not done until later in the day. One of the sidewalk plows is out of business. There is a priority listing for what sidewalks should be done in order. The Oak/Mann/High School covers approx. 50% of our students. Those sidewalks need to be done.

Live reporting - action items

Action Items

• I recommend acceptance of a check for $3,625.00 from the Annie Sullivan PCC for the 7th Grade field trip to the Krista McAuliffe Space Center. Approved 7-0

• I recommend acceptance of a check for $800.00 from the Horace Mann PCC to support in-house enrichment activities. Approved 7-0

• I recommend approval of the job posting for School Nurse at the Annie Sullivan Middle School. Approved 7-0 (this is the least expensive obligation to take, it is required)
  

• I recommend acceptance of the school improvement plan for Oak Street Approved 7-0

Live reporting - building committee update

Ed Cafasso discusses the agenda item for the next building committee meeting
aside from the process around the High School, doing a facility plan for the remaining buildings

Armenio - defer the actual building capital budget to Mike D'Angelo; would otherwise like to see the wireless at the high school and then the text books as the classroom needs for capital.

Trahan - agrees with Armenio in deferring to D'Angelo; otherwise the text books and wireless seem to be the needs

Rohrbach - high school is our most pressing issue

Roy - (1) Not sure just what the mission of the building committee is, the high school is a priority, 90-100 million is too sizable a project for the community to digest. I thought we were looking for the building committee to try and parce out the high school project into smaller digestable bites. When will we hear what the MSBA say about the needs at the high school? Will the committee be able to develop a proposal to fund at a specific level?

(2) With regards to these projects, and they add up to about $5 million dollars. Is the building committee looking to fund just these facility projects? I assume they are not looking to take care of the other text books, wireless, etc. needs.

Cafasso -we are far enough along to have the Chairman and some members of the committee here to have that discussion. The committee was set up so that we would be in a position to respond quickly to the MBSA requirements.

Roy - the number one item is not on this list, that is the high school. I would be concerned with moving forward with some other projects (i.e. the elevator at Davis Thayer), I think the community would be less inclined to support us. We need to be clear on our priorities.

Cafasso - 1st priority is the renovation or building new the high school. The second objective is to do what is necessary for Thayer, Kennedy and Parmenter as they have been identified as other schools with needs.

Ogden - Mike D'Angelo is onboard with the high school as the number one priority. There are two things on this listing that are of critical need (#10 - replace gym and cafeteria heating units) and (#25 - Upgrade phone switches and voicemail). Our Plan B, if the MSBA comes back with something negative, then I think we would still need to go forward with something for the science labs. That has been an accrediation issue and we won't have a long time to fix it.

Mullen - if lesser money is all we get, then the science labs and other space reconfiguration items would come to the front.

Trahan - seems like none of this could take place until we hear.

Cafasso - this discussion is around A, B and C options depending upon what State funding we will get. If we had to do a series of projects at the high school what would they be? High school is top priority, safety issues top, then the #10 and #25 have priority. That is good priority for us to take forward to the meeting tomorrow.

Live reporting - Oak St Improvement plan

Corinne Minkle, Eric Ledebuhr

Details to be added later

Live reporting - Peter Light - part 2

Peter introduces himself provides some background for the community

Worked here since 1997, began as substitute, two middle schools and eventually the high school

K-12 Director of Music

Bring to the table his sense of the community, especially as with his background in music. Worked with music boosters group, meet parents and other members of the community at concerts.

Looking to bridge the gap between the community and the school.

Partially responsible for the Freshman Collaborative
Starting to see benefits of the work preparing the students to come into the high school

Work on the blackboard program (as reported here from last summer)
looking to expand the program across the high school and middle schools

First and foremost, high school has to be about teaching and learning

1 - Scholarship
has to be first in mind about the quality of education, how well students will do beyond high school; ensure a level of confidence, raising expectations, how we work with administrators, teachers inside the building and across the district

conference scheduled at end of this year to work on creating a common language for teacher feedback, sense of continuous improvement

need for continual positive feedback to ensure continual development of teachers
essential values that teachers have to share

strategy - it is not just intelligence, it is how you can use it; how do we work with students who struggle, how do we take students where they are at and take them to the next level

2 - Community
Community needs to have a level of confidence in the high school, communication of high standards and expectation

3 - Leadership
transparency, openness, fosters a sense of open dialog
principal blog, to improve the immediacy of communications
looking for a podcast, particularly with the budget cycle coming
looking to reach out and engage constituent groups, particularly in the next 6 months

involve this Committee, Central Office, administration, students, parents, teachers, community, etc. gather data, evaluate, and develop a strategy

looking for expansion of the retired teacher volunteer opportunity

Pat Slight - thanks Ms Gould for her work; Mr Light was his vice principal as he came in as a freshman, this will be his third principal in his time at the high school, and he is fine with that.

Peter Light wants to keep a relationship with the students.

Jeff Roy - Mr Light was a finalist in the Needham search and he chose Franklin over Needham

Live reporting - Peter Light

Wayne Ogden - intro to Peter Light, in survey of students and facility, they heard: we want someone we know, we want stability, we want someone who knows what is going on. Peter's name was a consensus amongst those interviewed.

"We have in our midst is a gem of a young leader who can take us forward."

Peter will be the permanent principle beginning January 26th.

Live reporting - Art Gallery

Guests/Presentations

• Art Gallery

Mr. Mike Caple
Rachel Nault (senior center program)
Madison Weber (Gallery 218)

• Art for all
• Prepare students for the highest level art program
• Connect art to the community

They bring in working professional artists to show that the starving artist is a myth

Empty Bowls raised $500 dollars for the Franklin Food Pantry last year and $350 for the Walk for Hunger

FPS Summer Art Institute - coming this summer for first time, 2 week program for multiple grade levels.

Senior Center Art Program - ran this year for first time in awhile. As reported in Milford Daily News previously.

Art Show, January 15 at Senior Center to showcase the work from the program and celebrate the accomplishments. 10:00 to 11:30 for reception.

A idea that had been around for some time that finally came to fruition. Alumni work being prepared for the next show. Located off the cafeteria at the High School. The art that has been showcased covers K-12 art.

The Gallery 218 can be found on the FHS web site here

Looking to do a non-art teacher art show next year.
Looking to connect the creation of art to the "real world".

Live reporting

Attending: C Armenio, M Kelly, P Mullen, J Roy, S Rohrbach, R Trahan
E Cafasso (late)

Student Reps: P Slight, B MacLeod


1. Routine Business
Citizen’s Comments

Review of Agenda - move Bldg Committee update to subcommittee reports

Minutes: I recommend approval of the minutes from the December 9, 2008 School Committee Meeting. approved 6-0

Payment of Bills Mr. Kelly approved 6-0

Payroll Ms. Armenio

FHS Student Representatives

Correspondence: Budget to Actual (for discussion at 1/27/09 Meeting)

Energy $ense Series - Kilowatt Ours

When:
Wednesday, January 14, 2009, 7:00 pm


Where:
Franklin Public Library Community Room
118 Main Street, Lower Level



Moderator:
Ted McIntyre, Ph.D.
Board Member
Massachusetts Climate Action Network


Description:
This film traces the path of the electricity you use in your home from the light switch, through the wires to its source. Along the way you’ll meet power companies, schools, businesses and everyday Americans finding ways to meet our energy needs using conservation and green power. “Kilowatt Ours” will teach you how to dramatically reduce your electric bill and improve the environment at the same time.


Sponsored by:
Franklin Area Climate Team (FACT), Massachusetts Climate Action Network, Massachusetts Technology Collaborative, Friends of the Franklin Library

In the News - tot classes, gym floor

By Heather McCarron/Daily News staff

GHS

Posted Jan 13, 2009 @ 12:26 AM

Last update Jan 13, 2009 @ 12:27 AM

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FRANKLIN —

It was calling to him: A quivering, foaming, creamy pile of shaving cream freshly released from its canister onto a tabletop.

In a split second of hesitancy, 3 1/2-year-old Aidan Phillips of Franklin glanced toward his mother as if looking for some indication that what he was about to do was OK.

It was all the time he needed.

In the next breath, with a squishing sound whispering off his fingers, the youngster had his hands immersed in the marshmallowy pillows of white, foamy trails of fragrant cream dripping from his fingertips and dampening his sleeves.

He grinned as another youngster joined him at the table, giggling as she covered her cheeks with the stuff, and scooped up handfuls of it with glee.

Read the full article in the Milford Daily News here

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By Joyce Kelly/Daily News staff

GHS

Posted Jan 13, 2009 @ 12:39 AM

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FRANKLIN —

It will be several months before the smaller of Franklin High School's two gymnasiums is fixed following the New Year's storm that resulted in a badly warped floor, said Facilities Manager Michael D'Angelo.

The cold weather froze and broke pipes, which shot 180-degree water onto the floor, he said.

Principal Pamela Gould said she was told the floor boards "buckled." Looking at it herself, she remarked, "I've never seen anything like it."

"The bubble's gone down now, but it was unbelievable. Just picture the old cartoons, an animal crawling under the floor and making a mound. The mound went up to my knees," she said, adding that the wave went from one end of the gym to half-court.

Read the full article in the Milford Daily News here

Police Department

Continuing to explore the 2008 Annual Report I find information on the Police Department and all its activities.

Did you know that people love to drive fast in Franklin? Now, some of these may be from out of town but the Police Department processed more speeding citations than the next eleven categories of Uniform Division Citation Charges combined.

In fact, speeding citations accounted for 58% of the 5007 citations issued.

The Top 5 violations cited were:

1. Speeding - 2916
2. No Inspection Sticker - 540
3. Fail to Stop/Yield - 341
4. Fail to Wear Seat belt - 322
5. Red Light Violations - 286

Would you like to read about these as they occur? The Daily Logs are posted online here.

Much more information on the Police Department and its activities can be found on the web site here.

If you have not signed up for the ConnectCTY service, consider doing so. It is quick and easy and will keep you up to date of important events happening in your neighborhood.


If you have not picked up your hard copy of the report at Town Hall, you can try to view it online here: http://www.town.franklin.ma.us/pages/FranklinMA_Clerk/2008arpt.pdf

New layout

For new visitors, you may not notice the change.

For regular visitors, I hope the new 3 column layout works better for you.

I have finally found that "round tuit" to get this accomplished.

What you haven't gotten a round tuit?

You can find one here:




Feedback on the new layout is welcome via the usual methods, email (see right box) or comment (below).

Franklin's Piccadilly Pub closed

Updated 1/2/2012
Ichigo Ichie has opened where the Piccadilly Pub was located
http://www.franklinmatters.org/2011/12/updates-ichigo-ichie-and-italian.html


Word today is that the Piccadilly Pub located here in Franklin is closing. Other Piccadilly Pub locations are remaining open.

Now, it has always be a wonder to me with the 99 Restaurant and Piccadilly Pub next door to other, how both could survive?

We know the answer, they can't.

What will happen up the other end of town with Walgreen's coming into the the Four Corners Building location?

Let me count that would put CVS, Rite-Aid, and Shaw's - all have pharmacy services, four locations within a half-mile of each other.

Who wants to do the math on how long that will last?


Updated 1/15/08
I submitted feedback to Piccadilly's via their website as they still show the Franklin location as open. This is what I received via email:

Thank you for taking the time to contact us regarding the Piccadilly Pub in Franklin, Massachusetts. We are working on updating our advertising; our intentions are to re-brand this restaurant with a new concept in the future.

So there is hope for that location!

Updated May 2011
Yes, it has taken a while but there is a restaurant scheduled to open in Oct 2011:
http://franklinmatters.blogspot.com/2011/03/franklin-has-developed-reputation-as.html

and here:
http://franklinmatters.blogspot.com/2011/03/town-council-meeting-3211.html