"the art of compromise"

By Joyce Kelly/Daily News staff

Milford Daily News

Posted May 07, 2009 @ 12:33 AM

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FRANKLIN —

One after the other, town councilors last night said they support the School Committee and appealed to the teachers union to vote for wage concessions without conditions to save jobs.

"Personally, on this issue, I'm behind the School Committee 100 percent," said Chairman Christopher Feeley.

He and his fellow councilors said they do not believe the majority of teachers support the union leadership's hardline stance on the three conditions that stand in the way of an agreement with the School Committee.

They urged union leaders to hold another meeting to let the membership vote on the issue, and implored teachers to attend and let their voices be heard.

Councilor Joseph McGann said he believes it is only a "handful" of union members who refuse to accept a wage deferment without conditions attached.

"It's just a handful, and that handful is very selfish and very one-sided. Every other union in Franklin has conceded to and waived raises," McGann said.

read the full article about the Councilor's comments in the Milford Daily News here

Town Council Mtg 05/06/09

The live reporting posts for the Town Council meeting on Wednesday 5/6/09 can be found here

• Live reporting - Town Admin, and closing comments
• Live reporting - legislation for action
• Live reporting - Bylaw
• Live reporting - License transactions
• Live reporting - Town Council - 5/6/09

Live reporting - Town Admin, and closing comments

K. TOWN ADMINISTRATOR’S REPORT
Jeff read the listing of the sponsors of the recent Earth Day, huge success
remind folks to pick up litter as you go to help keep the town clean

May 17th, HMEA 5K roadrace

Update of fiscal policies in councilor packets

Beautification Day - May 16th 8:00 AM at the bridge

FINCOM did finish their budget hearings on Tuesday
Not sure if we will make the schedule that we have set thus far
Budget as proposed eliminates 11 municipal jobs, only 1.25 people will actually be laid off due to other changes
School Committee budget hearing on May 26th


L. OLD BUSINESS
Vallee - listing of street resurfacing?
Nutting - had to re-bid the hot-top so that should be coming, within the next 30 days we should be ready

Vallee - What is status of Walgreens?
Nutting - we should be ready to close on June 30th

Bartlett - get the listing of street out on the web site so the residents can see
Nutting - yes

McGann - how do we arrive at the street listing?
Nutting - anytime there is a water line, we do the paving the next year. we have a master listing of streets, part art and part science. We do have a huge listing of work that needs to be done. We don't appropriate any money for road improvements.

M. NEW BUSINESS
Vallee - After listening to the Financial Planning Committee, Milford operating under Chapter 121a
Nutting - this is similar to the TIF which we do provide

Nutting - part of it is zoning, big box stores are not allowed, from a tax structure, we have a very low rate. We have given out TIF's with your approval. We are trying to get folks here to fill our warehouses.

Vallee - we should be more proactive in trying to create jobs
Nutting - we are about to begin to update the master plan to look at those issues, rezoning from residential to commercial is not easy

Vallee - I'd like to request that the Planning Dept do the research on Chap 121a
Taberner - we should look at more rezaoning, we have to do it for the greater good

N. COUNCIL COMMENTS

Whalen - would like to take this time to comment on the stand off between the teachers and the School Committee. Addressing teachers directly. 7 unions made the concession for the Town to avoid layoffs.

Mason - echoes Whalen's comments and wishes a speedy resolution to the issue

Zollo - I find it hard to believe that the majority of the teachers are actually supporting their leadership.

McGann - I too believe it is not the whole union that represented, it is a small group, they are very selfish and one sided. It is only a handful.

Congratulations to Mr Fahey for his work in the veterans area.

Doak - I would like to endorse Councilor Whalen's eloquent comments. I don't claim to know all the details. If these concessions don't go through, we will lose more teachers and that is not good.

Pfeffer - I would like to see the art of compromise

Feeley - I find it difficult to believe that the whole number of teachers are behind this. The School Committee conceded the three items for the one year (Editor note: This is not correct, the School Committee conceded only 2 of the 3 items) this shows an attempt to reach an agreement.

Live reporting - legislation for action

J. LEGISLATION FOR ACTION

1. Resolution 09-26: Acknowledgment of Invalidity of Order of Taking Directed to Land of United States of America approved 9-0
   
2. Resolution 09-27: Appropriation – DelCarte Open Space Dam Repair/Removal approved 8-1 (Mason voted no)
   
3. Resolution 09-28: Appropriation – Veterans’ Benefits approved 8-0 (Vallee stepped out momentarily)
   
4. Resolution 09-29: Appropriation – Snow & Ice approved 9-0

Notes
1 - Land was taken in 1986 from the US Government and should not have been, they finally discovered the error and have asked us to correct it. The easement for sewer through wetlands hasn't chnaged.

2 - Conservation Commission worked on this to prepare the proposal and reduce the cost of the drafting required.

Chris Botchis
Andy Tolland
Ray Willis
Nick Alferi

Nutting
We don't know how much it will cost. Depending upon what it does cost, we could put it into the capital budget, or bond it, or look for grants to help cover it.

Tolland
Purpose of this aspect of the study is to focus on the three options and figure out what the least cost options would be. We need tight cost estimates. Everything has been based from a far, this would be a closer study.

Probably along the lines of 6-9 months to do the study, no more than a year.

Based upon what they have said, it could fail but it unlikely to. We are not looking at loss of life or property. The ponds remove nutrients from the storm water before it gets to the Charles River. It is helpful as we are overall being charged with reducing phosphorous from the Charles River.

We are looking for partial dam removals or full dam replacements.

Nutting
It is our responsibility, it is town owned property.

Mason
I am not inclined to approve this given the circumstance
Unless there is a real crisis, I don't see the need for this at this time

Pfeffer
I think we need to do this, Mr Delcorte provided this land, there is a lot of water, we are liable for it

Live reporting - Bylaw

Zollo - arrives late

H. Presentations/DISCUSSION

• Zoning Bylaw, Chapter 185-39. Uses accessory to dwellings.

Nick Alfieri, Beth Dahlstrom, Bryan Taberner

Pfeffer
Question on how it would apply to someone who teaches piano lessons a single student at a time

Taberner
If you have 2 or more at a time, then there are additional requirements
Just places limitations on what you can do to operate a business from a residence

Cerel
Current definition of present uses is loose and needs to be tightened up

Bartlett
I'd like to see what our current bylaw is to compare this to
I'd like to hear about what the problems are that drove this

Dahlstrom
The use of a residence for a catering business, parking vehicles for a construction business

Bartlett
Question on defining "objections"

McGann
What about entities that are already operating
They would be grandfathered

Doak
What are the other bylaws that we are trying to be consistent with?

Feeley
question on E2a

Alfieri
Refers to the # of vehicles parked in an auxiliary parking area on the land
Not the personal vehicles being used but those being stored

Cerel
section - D1a provides additional detail in answer to Councilor Bartlett's question
Building Commissioner would be required to have an objective standard

Feeley
this should go through the normal process

Live reporting - License transactions

F. HEARINGS - none

G. LICENSE TRANSACTIONS – Request for Approval of Change of Manager – 99 Restaurant - approved 8-0

Live reporting - Town Council - 5/6/09

Attending: Whalen, Mason, Vallee, Bartlett, Feeley, Pfeffer, McGann, Doak, Zollo (late)
Missing:

A. APPROVAL OF MINUTES – April 1, 2009
motion to approve - passed 8-0

B. ANNOUNCEMENTS
schedule change for June
June 3, 10, 11, if req'd special meeting on Jun 24th
10, 11 will be the budget hearings

Dedication of new monument on Memorial Day

WMRC - 1490 AM
free lunch for 1st 300 people
at Senior Center

C. PROCLAMATIONS/RECOGNITIONS - none

D. CITIZEN COMMENTS - none

E. APPOINTMENTS

• Cultural Council - Kathy Stankard - approved 8-0
  
• Council on Aging - Paul J O'Connell - approved 8-0
  
• Charles River Pollution Control District - William J Goode - approved 8-0
  

Strategic Planning Survey Available

Strategic Planning survey announced previously is now available.

Please take a few minutes to provide your input online here

What is the survey about? This slide cast will explain:

Strategic Planning Process Overview (audio) 4/15/09

View more presentations from Steve Sherlock.

Horace Mann yard sale 5/9/09

Horace Mann yard sale 5/9/09, originally uploaded by shersteve.

"will meet on Tuesday to make final decisions on what areas to cut"

By Joyce Kelly/Daily News staff

Milford Daily News

Posted May 06, 2009 @ 12:12 AM

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FRANKLIN —

The Finance Committee unanimously approved the School Department's $50.3 million, level-funded budget, as recommended by Town Administrator Jeffrey D. Nutting, though school officials are banking on getting up to another $3.5 million to help keep pace with rising costs.

The budget does not reflect the School Department's final budget, as the School Committee is expecting at least $1.5 million worth of revenue from state and federal funds, and possibly another $800,000 from wage concessions by the teachers union, said Chairman Jeffrey Roy.

The School Committee is aiming for a level-service budget, at just over $53.8 million, and is still optimistic about closing the budget gap between the two versions, Roy said. "We've been targeting a level-service budget since the beginning of this process," Roy said.

The budget has been a moving target, with so many unanswered questions about funding, such as how much Franklin schools will get from state aid and the federal stimulus package, he said.

Read the full article about the Finance Committee meeting in the Milford Daily News here

In addition to what the article references, the Finance Committee also approved the Information Technology budget. The coverage of the complete meeting can be found here.

"Let us put an end to this public squabble"

By Joyce Kelly/Daily News staff

Milford Daily News

Posted May 06, 2009 @ 12:43 AM

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FRANKLIN —

In what has grown into online crossfire between school leaders, new teachers union President Robert McLaughlin posted a two-page letter on a Web site yesterday picking apart statements made in the School Committee's two YouTube videos.

In the letter, posted on franklinteachers.org/joomla, McLaughlin said he was heartened to hear School Committee Chairman Jeffrey Roy use the word "partner" in reference to contract talks with the union, but concluded the School Committee "certainly has not even met us halfway in attempting to resolve this stalemate."

The School Committee has asked the Franklin Education Association to defer its negotiated 2.5 percent wage increase until fiscal 2011 to save about 16 teachers' jobs.

"As always the members of the FEA were glad to pitch in and do their part," said McLaughlin.

Read the full article about the teachers response to the School Committee in the Milford Daily News here

Treesavers: Paul Barcelo

Paul Barcelo, author of The Sweet War Man

Paul Barcelo completed Army Infantry training at Fort Benning, Georgia, then rotary wing training at Fort Wolters, Texas and Fort Rucker, Alabama. He flew one tour as a UH-1 pilot in Republic of Vietnam. He resides in Franklin, Massachusetts with his wife and four children. This is his first novel.

Will be appearing at Treesavers Books to sign his new book, The Sweet War Man.

May 16, 2009 from 2:00 to 4:00 PM

Finance Comm 05/05/09

The budget hearings held by the Finance Committee covered IT, Tri-County and the School budget on Tuesday May 5th. The live reporting sessions are:

• Live reporting - School District
• Live reporting - Tri-County RVTHS
• Live reporting - Finance Committee - 5/5/09

Live reporting - School District

Maureen Sabolinski, Jeff Roy

Formal budget discussion scheduled for 5/26/09 School Committee meeting

School District has been targeting a "level funded" budget since the beginning

Differences between level service and level funded budget described

revised $53,291,773

Increases in revenue currently anticipated

• Increase in circuit breaker revenue
• State stabilization fund
• Federal stimulus package
• Extraordinary relief package
• School Choice revenue

Subtotal $1.5 million

If FEA wage concession comes in, the deficit will be approx. $700,000
Decisions coming in SchCom meeting on Tuesday (5/12/09) on ways to cut the gap
Public hearing on budget scheduled for 5/26/09

Roche - thanks for the information an numbers provided this year
offsets are visible here

Same dollars as last years budget
Town has legal authority over the one line item
School Committee has legal responsibility for all the details

Level funded number $50,297,820

There is no text book line item in the budget
There is a workbook for K-5 Everyday math that is a consumable and required yearly
One vendor, we are at their mercy. To adopt another text book series is a huge effort.

The transportation line item had been the subject of the forensic audit
We have been trying to increase the transportation line item to avoid that issue

We have a total bottom-line item for the overall budget
the fee schedule has not been set yet, stay tuned for Tuesday night (5/12/09)

Field house banners were sold and the money is going back into the athletic budget
Athletic Director Sidwell is using the funds to minimize operating osts

We have applied for several grants and we turned down for several
We are not as diverse a district as we could be to benefit from the grants

The grants have primarily been Federal, several of the State level grants have been cut
One grant for 90,000 this year is only 5,000 and next year goes away

Contractual services private?
Tuition to private schools and residential placements
We can not provide the services for those Special Ed students
We provide as much as we can

Every school district in the Commonwealth has some cost in that line item
Franklin has 71 students in the Special Education
Wellesley has double the number of student for a district half the size of ours

Is Professional Development a problem with the teachers?
The PD budget has been centralized and removed from each individual schools
The final budget will have that spelled out

Our final budget may look significantly different
We have not determined how to flow the stimulus funds across the budget

Using the revolving fund for School Choice was the equivalent of 2.5 teachers
We could not leave that just sitting there

We like to be about 14 percent, this budget could be about 1-2% above the minimum

Legal increase - had a residency case this year
hard to predict the utilization of these funds
generally a one time cost, end result did not pick up the tuition of a student who did not officialy reside in the town

Discussion on validity of voting for a budget tonight

Tuesday May 12th, school detail discussion on fees, and other cuts
Tuesday May 26th, formal vote on final budget

Motion to approve $50,297,820 - passed 11-0

Any old business - no
New business - recommended budget to be published and go to the Council for June 10/11

Next Finance meeting 6/2, may hold until 6/9, but that is still dependent upon the Commonwealth and where the numbers are at that time

Requesting an increase in Building Inspector's of $4400
to cover use of individual's personal vehicles

Inspection Acct 240
total of $369,006
Money to balance this comes from "Other Available Funds"

Technically still part of the budget hearing

Approved 11-0

Live reporting - Tri-County RVTHS

Tri-County Regional Voc Tech High School

Introductions around

Tri-County is well aware of the needs of the feeding towns
A required minimum amount was budgeted for
The required minimum amount was set by the State

Assessment is down by approx. 269,000 dollars
Enrollment down from 192 to 159 students

Roche - we appreciate your efforts in that regard

In order to get our budget down, we prioritized keeping teachers
We reduced administrative staff, by one curriculum coordinator
Due to retirement of one individual took the opportunity to change that position from full year to school year and reduce salary level

We rely heavily on instructional supplies, did cut supplies
any further cuts will come from teacher salaries

Reduced 181,000 in instructional equipement
eliminated renovation projects
eliminated virtual high school

Budget for next year is 2% less than the current operating budget

The minimum amount is done on a district level
For Tri-County it is determined by the eleven sending districts
Offset by Chapter 70 funds

Will reduce our currency for one year, will be fine for this year
Equipment does take a lot of use when used by the student

Franklin's legal commitment is the same as other communities

There is no debt at Tri-County so there is a benefit there
results in a zero for capital

Applications year-to-date don't indicate that the drop is a trend
A similar drop did occur several years ago and then picked up the following year

Changed their Special Ed approach, teachers assigned to grades and subjects
teachers will address the students as required to meet their needs
the classrooms are mainstreamed (all inclusive)

Most Special Education teachers are dual certified,
have 8 teachers to meet the 37% of the students have IEP's

Transportation for a regional school is different from local schools
the reimbursement rate is higher

They absorbed the difference between the actual transportation and the reimbursement rate rather than billing it out to the sending districts as they did prior

Motion to approve budget - Passed 11-0

Live reporting - Finance Committee - 5/5/09

Attending:
Brett S. Feldman
Juan Rivera
Patricia Goldsmith
Phyllis Messere
Rebecca Cameron
Jack Caufield
Mark Cataldo
James Roche
Tina Powderly
Craig Maire
Robert Teixeira


Almost final budget hearing

Information Technology
Tim Raposa

Similar to last year's budget, bare bones

"School Dude" work order management system, being set up this year to be used
should be set up over the next couple of months
doing cafeteria point of sale systems now

Efficiency based, current work order system is paper based

Virtual townhall - they do the website hosting, all done off-site
Folks call them directly, training is done on their site

Complete salary budget for technology department is in the School Budget

Motion to approve budget - Passed 11-0

"adopt the concept of 100-100"

Robert McLoughlin, President of the FEA, has posted the teacher's response to the School Committee's YouTube videos.

I was heartened to hear Mr. Roy use the word partner many times in his online presentation this weekend. In the context of partnership, some time ago I was introduced to the relational concept of 100/100. This idea being that a partnership should not be 50-50, but rather 100-100. Each partner in a relationship should not give 50 percent toward making the partnership successful, but 100% of their energy and effort toward achieving the shared goal(s) of the partnership. After just four days in office, I can proudly claim that the Franklin Education Association is putting the concept of 100-100 boldly into practice for the parents and children of Franklin.

Read the full posting here

In case you have not seen the YouTube videos, you can find them here
School Committee YouTube videos

FM #38 - Parents Call to Action

This is #38 in the series of podcast on what matters in Franklin, MA. This segment focuses on the current impasse between the School Committee and the teachers union, and issues a call to action to Franklin's parents.

Time: 8 minutes, 7 seconds



MP3 File

Session Notes:

Music intro

My intro - FM #38

This internet radio show or podcast for Franklin Matters is number 38 in the series.

On the disclosure front, I stand here today not as the husband of a Franklin teacher. Yes, my wife Dolores does teach kindergarten at the Oak Street School. I love her dearly. I don't need to represent her or the teacher's union. They are quite capable of representing themselves.

I do stand here today as a parent of two Franklin High School graduates (class of 2004 and 2006) knowing full well that if you are a parent of children in the school district today or a parent with children yet to enter the schools, your children are not getting the same level of educational opportunity that my daughters received. That is my concern.

A quick story to lead to the call to action for today.

Many years ago, in my first corporate position, I started as a call center operator. Burroughs Corp, now known as UNISYS, was just starting regional call centers to support their customers. I spent a few days training, reading the manuals, policies, procedures, familiarizing myself with the call dispatch program. I also spent many hours double jacked. Double jacked meant I was listening in to the phone conversation with another operator as my trainer and mentor.

Then the time came for me to take the lead on the phone and as luck would have it, my first phone call was a dozy. I answered with phone with the standard greeting and was welcomed with a series of expletives. Briefly, the caller was a Southern NJ police chief whose Burroughs terminal was not operating. He was quite irate, expletive this, expletive that, “get this expletive device out of here” and so forth. I think you get the gist of how it was going. I let him vent and then chimed in with my best voice to try and resolve this problem. He would have none of it.

“Son”, he said, “How long you been there?”I was honest and admitted that I had just started.

“Son”, he said, “Let me give you some advice. Quit!”

Well, I did not quit. I did take away from customer service that you are as good as your last phone call. You always have to be on. It was interesting to listen to the reaction in the callers voice as I greeted them. If the customer did not like what had happened previously in our conversation, I could hear the disappointment in their voice as they recognized, “Oh, Steve.”

I quickly learned to answer the phone every time with my best voice. Then the customer would say, “Oh, Steve!” and we would get down to business with a good conversation.

The call to action.

Franklin parents, you have no doubt heard about the impasse between the School Committee and the teachers union. If by chance, you haven't heard of the details, you can visit the links in the blog post that accompanies this podcast to watch the School Committee's YouTube videos and to read my analysis of the discussion. The teachers are preparing their response. Once that is available, I'll post the link to that so you'll have their side of the story.

Updated: The teachers response has been posted here

You now have a few opportunities to let the School Committee know where you stand.

• The Finance Committee will hear the school departments initial budget presentation Tuesday, May 5th. I say initial budget as clearly the teachers issue has not yet been resolved nor has the School Committee formally voted to accept a budget for FY 2010.
  
• The Town Council has a meeting Wednesday May 6th. There is a citizen's comment portion of the meeting so you can step up to take 3 minutes and state your point of view.
  
• The School Committee will meet on Tuesday May 12th and again on Tuesday May 26th. The meeting on the 26th is currently scheduled to be the formal vote on the FY 2010 budget.
  

Parents, please take one or more of these opportunities to step up and state your point of view.
The School Committee needs to know where you stand. Your point of view will potentially break the current impasse between the 7 School Committee members and the over 500 members of the teachers union (FEA).

There is no time like the present to stand up and state your case. This will determine the future of your children's education. This will determine Franklin's future.

When you step up to state your point of view, be positive! Take the high road.

Links referenced:
School Committee YouTube videos

Back story and my analysis


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This podcast has been a public service provided to my fellow citizens of Franklin, MA

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 musical intro and closing is from the Podsafe Music Network
Jon Schmidt - Powerful Exhilarating Piano Music