Franklin Matters

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

"Last night's proposals are not the final word"

By By Joyce Kelly, DAILY NEWS STAFF

GHS

Posted Mar 25, 2009 @ 12:32 AM

FRANKLIN —

Faced with the prospect of cutting 62 jobs, the School Committee last night urged teachers and other staff to take a pay freeze that could save $1 million.

Reading from a prepared statement, School Committee Chairman Jeffrey Roy officially asked the 600-member Franklin Education Association to voluntarily take a pay freeze.

"Time is of the essence," Roy said.

Besides teachers, the association represents teachers aides, nurses, secretaries and van drivers.

Superintendent Wayne Ogden also appealed to residents to call state Rep. James Vallee, D-Franklin, and state Sen. Scott Brown, R-Wrentham, to pressure them to stop the state's supposed plan to renege on its offer of $448,381 in stimulus money to Franklin schools.

Read the full article about the budget cuts in the Milford Daily News here

You can also read the live reporting from the meeting summarized here

State Education Mandates - Part 4

From time to time, particular around the budget period, reference is generally made to Franklin Public Schools having to support "unfunded mandates." I managed to find a listing of such compiled by the Massachusetts Association of School Committees. This is Part 4 in the series:

McKinney-Vento and Costs Associated with Homeless and Transient Students

This component of No Child Left Behind requires that schools accept any homeless student who wishes to attend the public school. In addition, McKinney-Vento requires the school district to transport any homeless students living in town to the schools in their old home district.

Services to English Language Learners

Provides required ELL services to all students who are not fluent in English. Specially certified teachers must provide this service. There are educational materials and testing costs associated with the ELL services that are provided.
• All classroom teachers who service ELL students in their classrooms must have ten hours of training each year until they fulfill a requirement of 50 hours of training.
• All communications that need to be sent to the homes of all students (not just ELL) whose parents do not speak English as their first language must be translated into their native languages.

• ELL training is required even when only one (1) student in the district is an ELL student.

• Districts are required to provide Sheltered English Immersion services for students whose first language is not English. Districts are responsible for developing procedural manuals, forms, parent outreach, interpreters, and translation of documents. Districts are also required to provide Sheltered English Immersion training in Categories 1, 2, 3, and 4 for all staff who work with English Language Learners. All levels and types of services as provided for English-speaking students must be provided for ELL students in their primary language. Every student whose first language is not English is required to be assessed, to determine language proficiency upon registration and admission to the public school; stages of language acquisition need to be determined in order to identify the level of services required for each student. Students must also be supported by staff members in order for them to participate in Massachusetts English Language Acquisition – Oral (MELA-O) and Massachusetts English Proficiency Assessment (MEPA) in reading and writing as well as the MCAS assessments.

The full listing is available here (DOC)

Kindergarten Information Night Schedule

FRANKLIN - Parents of children who will be attending kindergarten in the fall are invited to attend the Kindergarten Information Night at their particular school.

Following are the dates and times:

J.F. Kennedy Elementary, Wednesday, April 8, at 6:30 p.m.;
Parmenter Elementary, Tuesday, April 14, at 6:30;
Jefferson Elementary, Wednesday, April 15, at 6;
Helen Keller Elementary, Wednesday, April 15, at 6:30;
Davis Thayer Elementary, Thursday, April 16, at 6:30
Oak Street School, Wednesday, April 29, 6:30.

Originally posted online at WickedLocal/Franklin Gazette here

Franklin's Earth Day Celebration

Franklin's Earth Day Celebration
Saturday April 18th, 2009
Beaver Pond
Starts at 9:00 AM

Volunteer to clean up targeted areas and assist with planting flowers and shrubs around Franklin.

- Please bring your own water bottle.

- Please bring your own gloves and rakes.

- Community service certificates will be issued.

- T-shirts to the first 200 volunteers.

- Clean up goes to 1:00 PM

Get some Eco-Info at Beaver Pond:

- Water conservation kits and rain barrel display.

- Mercury thermometer exchange for digital thermometers.

- Recycling tips and composting information.

- Energy conservation tips.

- Much more ! ! !

You can register on the Town website here

School Committee Meeting 03/24/09

The collection of posts from the School Committee meeting held 3/24/09

SchCom Letter to FEA

School Committee - 3/24/09 - Agenda

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

SchCom Letter to FEA

The letter as read by School Committee Chair Jeffrey Roy during the meeting 3/24/09:

Discover Simple, Private Sharing at Drop.io

Live reporting - closing

nothing else on the agenda was needed, they are going into Executive Session on one matter not to return.

live reporting - action items

4. Action Items

I recommend approval of the remington recurring field trip to Providence Place Mall for Remington Middle School students as detailed. Approved 7-0
I recommend approval of the Budget Transfers as detailed. Approved 7-0
I recommend acceptance of a check for $136.67 from Target’s Take Charge of Education program for Horace Mann Middle School’s in-house enrichment. Approved 7-0
I recommend acceptance of a check for $188.30 from Target’s Take Charge of Education program for Annie Sullivan Middle School’s gift account. Approved 7-0
I recommend acceptance of a check for $107.18 from Target’s Take Charge of Education program for Remington Middle School’s scholarship fund. Approved 7-0
I recommend acceptance of a check for $3,600.00 from the Parmenter PCC for the following field trips: Gr. 2 - Stony Brook; Gr. 3 – Plimoth Plantation; Gr. 4 – Museum of Science; and Gr. 5 – Freedom Trail. Approved 7-0
I recommend approval of the FHS Girl’s Lacrosse Team recurring field trip to Guilford, CT for a Scrimmage and Dinner on April 4-5, 2009. Approved 7-0
I recommend preliminary approval of the FHS Track Team’s trip to Philadelphia, PA/Mt. Laurel, NJ on April 22-24, 2009 for the Penn Relay track meet if they qualify for the event. Approved 7-0
I recommend acceptance of the donation of 50 disposable cameras from CVS for the Davis Thayer 5th grade graduating class. Approved 7-0

Live reporting - general Q&A

Trahan - To summarize, the time line is still unclear, how the revenue will be distributed amongst the Town departments is still unclear? And you mentioned the survey amongst the high school teachers, so have others been duly involved, informed, etc.

Ogden - yes, the principals have been talking with them, Maureen and I are also cycling around to the schools and PCC's.

Armenio - I am worried about "finding money". These stimulus funds are one time funds, they are not in the revenue base.

Ogden - yes, the Federal stimulus is two years, the state portion is coming, the answer as to whether it deducts from Chap 70 or not is unknown.

Ogden - the late bus is not in this budget

Sabolinski - we stopped protecting class size about two years ago, the educational gaps are growing, the last bastion of curriculum and instructional support is within the elementary level. There is no district wide instructional support.

Ogden - this is totally new and potentially devastating to the budget (covering for the unemployment within the school budget), it spirals down a hole

Cafasso - I am not convinced about the half day kindergarten. In order to keep class sizes reasonable (albeit high) we have to short change the kids in their initial year? I am not convinced of it at this point. I am not convinced that a school closure and a re-districting might not be a solution.

Mullen - we haven't had the conversation yet about what are the "sacred cows"? We still need to discuss those things. You haven't made the asst superintendent change and that is not in the presentation but should be.

Ogden - the vendor has offered a package that would cost the district $250,000 less if we did several things, 1 - larger co-pay for tier 1 and 2 drugs, 2 - some doctor visits.

Sabolinski - we also got a reduction as our claims were down. We have a healthy group.

Mullen - can you look at the high school fees?

Light - we are still in discussion on this, I think it would double the fees for sports. There would also be a simialr increase in activity fees.

Slight - we are $125/sport. Doubling would be $250. Compared to other towns, Canton for example is $350, we are lower.

Roy - I want to guauge the committee's feeling on fees? I would like to keep an open mind on fees. Other consessions might be out there.

Roy reads a letter to the school teachers union president: a copy of this will be made available later. Formally asking the union for a wage freeze, the freeze would be applied to saving teachers.

Live reporting - High School

Peter Light, High School principal

Still referencing the presentation posted earlier here

Estimating an additional 92 students at the high school for next year

Science safety dictates 24 as class size, schedules were then worked to accomplish this

Net reduction of 17 staff at high school
4 support (1 asst principal, 1 guidance, 1 secretary, 1 librarian)
8 core academic
5 non-core

Avg class size grows to 47 and 45, numerically that is how it works out, we can't physically fit that many in a room

A reduction from 1017 hours of instructional time to 890 hours, which would be below the state requirements

Adverse impact of Scenario B, lowers the avg class size but increases the case load for a teacher up to 200!

Important slide maps the critical considerations according to this year and each of the scenarios, A and B

If we go with Scenario A, we would likely go from "warning" status to "probation".

Scenario A with 8 teachers added back...

Armenio - I can understand 30 elementary in a classroom, at the high school these are adult size bodies, where do they fit?

Light - not easily

Armenio - there is an issue at the high school with text books, with 92 coming in, where do we stand?

Ogden - we did put in requests for capital to purchase the additional books, per Jeff Nutting the Council will be acting on the capital requests shortly.

Cafasso - how does NEASC work with class size?

Ogden - NEASC doesn't get into the specifics, they are looking at the overall performance

Cafasso - I am struggling with some avg class sizes being lower at the high school than at the elementary level where they should be lower

Rohrbach - what is the avg class load for the high school?

Light - I believe it is 80-100 student class load

Mullen - Would you keep the three languages?

Light - yes, with either of these.

Cafasso - what if you did cut one language?

Light - that would affect anyone with the language requirement to go on to college.

Live reporting - Middle Schools

Library would be cut K-12

Many labs are not done this year at Annie Sullivan. 30 students in the lab does not create a safe environment for the lab to be conducted. This will spread to the other two middle schools with the increase in class sizes.

Math class size could be as high as 38!

Middle school is the foundation for the high school in math and science

The emotional needs of the 6th graders were considered. The effects are no less devastating across the school classes.

Between 0-3 years and between 11-14 years, the growth is critical.

Armenio - I did not understand case loads until about six weeks ago. If you are looking at an essay driven test or report, how long is that?

Ogden - for a 120 students, 10 minutes per student, would be 20 hours outside the classroom.

Armenio - without the proper feedback timing, the student would be continuing to make the mistakes.

Cafasso - foundational decision, with the cuts as they are, how were they allocated?

Ogden - 50% of the students are in the elementary by population, with the other 50% split between middle and high school.

Cafasso - no one wants to pit one level against another, how do we explain this?

Ogden - The worst scenario in the elementary school teacher would have 36 students to deal with, papers, etc. Compared to the middle school teacher with 120, and from 120-150 at the high school.

Cafasso - cuts were apportioned according to where the students are.

5 minute recess

Live reporting - Elementary Q&A

Cafasso - from the enrollment numbers we see, I know how hard this would have been to figure out. The 30 reductions would be 25 teachers and 5 support.

Mullen - How many kindergarten teachers would be affected?

We would lose 9. With the 8 possible coming back, it would still be better to go with half day and improve the class sizes elsewhere in the elementary level.

Mullen - There is not a lot of items to play with at the elementary level. Teachers generally teach self contained, need prep time, etc.

Mullen - we haven't really talked about what are the "sacred cows"? We need to talk about where we want to invest the teachers back into the district.

Ogden - We did not proportion the addbacks. We targeted the two areas for reasons of class size.

Armenio - this is just devastating period. We haven't heard yet from the middle school and high school. If we go to half day, what does that do to preparation on the frameworks. We aren't teaching to the test but we do have MCAS to consider?

Kindergarten will only get half the material. Time in 1st grade would be spent going over material that could have been covered under the full day plan.

Ogden - Facilities is already visiting the classrooms to see how we could deconstruct to fit the amount of students into the classrooms. Computers, centers, etc would have to be moved out.

Goal is to reduce class size from K-5. The lower class size, the better academic success. Anything you see up there is higher than what we have seen this year.

Ogden - If the revenue picture improves, we can consider adding teachers back. This is the most dynamic budget we have worked with in years.

Rohrbach - if we add back the 8 positions, you're still recommending going with half day kindergarten. What would be the tipping point?

About in the 20's, you can't really teach 4th grade with 30 in the class.

Sabolinski - going to half day saves $700,000, closing Davis Thayer doesn't come close to that.

We don't want to do this (go to half day kindergarten).

Unemployment costs would be approx. $1.2 million. The Town may not cover that. We should be prepared to absorb that within the school budget.

This magnitude of cut would affect every teacher in their first three years and get significantly up into those with 4, 5 and 6 years of experience.

Live reporting - Elementary schools

36 grade level configurations, six elementary schools, six grades at each school

Red indicates class size exceed the school committee guidelines; only five of the 36 would meet the guidelines

The high class sizes will be costly for academic success

To meet guidelines, needed to think out of the box, how? Change kindergarten from full time to half-day.

The second elementary slide shows how the nine kindergarten teachers would be re-positioned to help reduce the class sizes in the worse cases. This would still leave 24 classes with size exceeding guidelines.

Switching to half-day would be devastating, we have been a model district. Others in the state have visited us to see how it works.

This would also eliminate library across the elementary level!
No resources for library in this draft.

Would loose the kindergarten grant, associated aides, and loose of NAEYC accreditation.

If some of the million in additional funds came through, that would add 20 teachers to the district. 8 of those would be allocated to elementary, 8 to the high school and 4 to the middle schools.

The major update is going from full day to half day kindergarten!

Live reporting - FY 2010 overview

This is the text live reporting that accompanies the presentation just posted

Original cut of 3.5 now reduced to 2.9 million
Worse case scenario = 60 staff cuts (teachers, etc.)

Ogden says that there is a storm brewing at the State House, rumor today was that the Fed Stimulus dollars announced on Friday may be deducted from the Chap 70 funds which would leave us in a net zero position.

Other sources of revenue are still under discussion at the State level

Possible $250,000 if school employees agree to co-pay changes

School Committee class size guidelines are posted in the presentation for reference.
With the cuts, there will be some changes to these class sizes

Live reporting - FY 2010 Budget

Here is the document used in the presentation/discussion on the FY 2010 School Budget.

Franklin, MA District Budget 3/24/09

View more presentations from Steve Sherlock.

Live reporting - Strategic Planning update

Maureen & Miriam – Strategic Planning Update

Maureen thanks the School Committee for choosing the committee members, they have really worked well and are doing great things. It has been the best committee she has worked on.

200 draft logos were initially created by students within the district. That total was whittled down to a couple of dozen that the high school students have then taken to create a digital version of the art. There are now 5-6 logos for the committee to select from.

Live reporting - Capital projects at FHS

3. Discussion Only Items

Budget to Actual - no questions, discussion

Mike D’Angelo – Capital Projects at FHS

Listing of projects previously presented (view document here)

Mike is talking to the items on the listing above.

Lots of energy reductions in lighting and heating processed in last several years. The utility companies have contributed to those efforts.

Cafasso - When you look at the last five years other than the generator, there really hasn't been much done for the building itself. Can you explain why the Town has not invested in this period?

D'Angelo - When we got the capital in 2005 for what we did, we know that the school building projects were going to be started and pending what that was going to result in, we held off. If something could be replaced and saved in a renovation, we would do that. If something would not be recoverable, why spend money since we don't know whether there was going to be state funding and at what level.

In an unoccupied building, the renovations would take 2 years. In an occupied building like at King Phillip, they were there five years.

We are approaching the crossroads where the State is going to have to say something to us. If they don't, the Building Committee, School Committee and Town Council are going to make a decision.

Live reporting - presentations

2. Guests/Presentations
Certificates for Maddie Gordon and Jake Sargeant – ASMS 8th graders honored at MA Make A Difference award program for their volunteer work in Best Buddies.