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| The All Night Party for the Class of 2025 will be held |
"Imagine being 26 years old, at the start of your career, and figuring out how to buy an office building in the middle of downtown Boston for your fast-growing nonprofit.The improbable scenario is all too real for Connor Schoen, who in December engineered one of the most surprising real estate deals in the city: a $6.3 million purchase of a five-story building on Franklin Street for the nonprofit he leads, Breaktime.Schoen’s social entrepreneurship quickly became the talk of the town. Nonprofit executives and philanthropic leaders reached out to him about what they could learn from the deal, and whether they, too, could invest in downtown at a time when office building values have plummeted. For Breaktime and other nonprofits that might follow its lead, owning instead of leasing provides some control over their destiny."
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| Boston Globe: "Thanks to a 26-year-old nonprofit founder, one less downtown Boston office building is vacant" |
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| What's happening today in Franklin? |
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| Franklin Arts Academy show scheduled for March 2 |
"Hi everyone!
On Sunday, March 2nd from 5-7 PM we will be having an art show hosted by Hunakai Studio of Fine Arts!
There will be visual work by Franklin Arts Academy (FAA) students, so come by to support them and the studio!"
FM #1383 = This is the Franklin Matters radio show, number 1383 in the series.
This session shares my conversation with the new "former" Chair of the Master Plan Update Committee Glenn Jones. We had our conversation in the Franklin TV & Radio Studio on Monday, February 10, 2025.
This session focused on the review of the full process and approval of the Master Plan to help guide Franklin for the next 10 years.
We had talked at the beginning of the process (Feb 2023) and also before the major Open House event at Dean College (March 2024). Links for those are shared below.
The recording runs about 58 minutes, so let’s listen in. Audio link -> https://franklin-ma-matters.captivate.fm/episode/fm-1383-master-plan-recap-w-glenn-jones-02-10-25/
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| Glenn Jones shares lessons learned from the Master Plan |
https://www.franklinma.gov/DocumentCenter/View/4018/Final-Report
We met in Feb 2023 to talk about the beginning of the Master Plan effort
https://www.franklinmatters.org/2023/02/talking-about-master-plan-committee.html
We also met in March of 2024 talking about the forthcoming Open House at Dean College and gathering resident input
https://www.franklinmatters.org/2024/03/glenn-jones-talks-about-what-master.html
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We are now producing this in collaboration with Franklin.TV and Franklin Public Radio (wfpr.fm) or 102.9 on the Franklin area radio dial.
This podcast is my public service effort for Franklin but we can't do it alone. We can always use your help.
How can you help?
If you can use the information that you find here, please tell your friends and neighbors
If you don't like something here, please let me know
And if you have interest in reporting on meetings or events, please reach. We’ll share and show you what and how we do what we do
Through this feedback loop we can continue to make improvements. I thank you for listening.
For additional information, please visit Franklinmatters.org/ or www.franklin.news
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!
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You can also subscribe and listen to Franklin Matters audio on iTunes or your favorite podcast app; search in "podcasts" for "Franklin Matters"
My name is Emily Laliberte, and I am currently a 7th and 8th grade science teacher at Remington Middle School. I am proud to be entering my 20th year of teaching in Franklin, and each of those years has been a rewarding experience. I've often found myself boasting to fellow educators about the working conditions here and the high quality of education we've always been able to provide in spite of ongoing budgetary issues. One of my greatest joys has been witnessing the district’s long-standing commitment to inclusion.
However, my primary concern—and the reason I’m speaking to you today—is to ensure that the full impact of the proposed changes to our Middle School Model is understood. While the goal is to save $1.4 million, it’s crucial to recognize what we stand to lose in terms of educational quality, and most importantly, who will ultimately bear the brunt of this cost savings - our students.
My journey began at Oak Street Elementary School as a special educator, before transitioning to Remington in the same role. Over the years, I’ve worked with countless families who moved to Franklin specifically for our exceptional special education services. Eventually, I made the decision to transition into a general education classroom, believing I could continue to support inclusion by creating a science environment where all students feel welcomed, valued, and empowered to learn.
That being said, I recognize that our community is facing serious financial challenges and requires significant changes. Over the course of my two decades here, we’ve discussed the budget every year, and each year we've been faced with the threat of severe cuts—many of which have already occurred.
Franklin has been a place where outstanding educators are trained and mentored, only to be lost to neighboring districts year after year. It’s clear that consolidation is necessary to address our district’s financial shortfall. While the proposed consolidation plans are intended to benefit the community financially, I’m concerned that the impact on our students has not been fully considered.
We’ve been assured that “class sizes will remain within the limits,” which is technically true. However, it hasn’t been made clear that many middle school teachers will see their rosters increase by nearly 50%, from about 80 students to 110-120 students. This increased workload will significantly affect the quality of education we can provide.
For me, this means less time to build meaningful connections with my students, understand their personal interests, sports activities, family dynamics, and cultural backgrounds. It also means less time to collaborate with families, respond to emails, and create individualized lesson plans and behavioral interventions that meet the needs of each student. The students who will be most affected by these changes are those with the greatest needs—whether academic, social-emotional, or otherwise.
You may wonder how we can maintain class sizes while increasing the number of students. The answer lies in major restructuring of grades 6 through 8- changing to more of a mini-Franklin High model instead of staying true to the more developmentally appropriate middle school model.
Content teachers will now be expected to teach five sections per day of each subject. While the content of each class will remain similar, this shift means more students requiring accommodations, more parents to communicate with, and more grading - while being provided with less time during the day to do these tasks.
Additionally, students will have fewer opportunities for unified arts, dropping from three classes per term to two, which reduces prep time for content teachers. Students who choose to participate in our robust music programs will do so at the expense of opportunities to participate in Computer science, Art, or other unified arts classes.
Currently, our Unified Arts model allows core content teachers to have 80 minutes of prep per day on average (with some days being shorter or longer). This time allows us to work regularly with special educators, related service providers, administrators, students, and families. With only one 45-minute prep per day, most of our time will be spent preparing lessons and materials, leaving less time for these essential collaborations. Personally, I don't believe I'll be able to provide the inclusive experience for students that I have always taken pride in.
These changes could also mean that special education meetings might need to occur during instructional time instead of during extra prep periods that already exist in the schedule. This could result in students missing out on valuable instruction if their teacher is attending an IEP or 504 meeting. 20% of a roster would mean that potentially 22-24 class periods each school year could be without a certified educator leading them or access to necessary support staff.
I am aware that we are “getting” many things in this consolidation, like more consistent and clear departmental support, additional content-based UA offerings within that one period, and a more streamlined and consistent experience across the town. I’m looking forward to working with new people and getting to meet with my content-area counterparts more regularly. I continue to be worried that these positives will not outweigh the challenges and will result in more teacher turnover at a time when finding new educators is challenging.
I understand that many of the details about how these changes will unfold are still being worked out, and some of these concerns may be addressed between now and September. I deeply appreciate the extensive work of our administrative team, Craig Williams especially (seriously when does he sleep?), and look forward to continuing to work together to the benefit of our student population. Thank you for your time.
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| Voices of Franklin: Middle School teacher wants us to "recognize what we stand to lose in terms of educational quality" |
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| FHS Panther sports results shared via Twitter & subscription to HockomockSports.com |
If you have not noticed, we have been out treating our roadways often this winter. Over the last several weeks we have been getting a lot of calls about our salting procedures, particularly on the side roads.Salt is the most important and useful material we have to fight snow and ice and to assist safe traveling on our roadways. Salt is also a pollutant and can be a costly commodity that we try to use in responsible and cost effective ways.In basic terms we use more salt on the busier roads and hills and less on subdivision roadways; the result may be that some side roads are not always down to “bare pavement.” However, as you make your way to the main connector roads and primary roadways, they will be.There are so many factors that affect the use of salt and how we apply it: the temperature, the type of precipitation, the amount of precipitation, the time of day (day vs night), the time of year (how high sun is in the sky), previous applications, the availability of salt (might be in short supply), to name a few. We are always going to do our best to provide the safest roadways with the best practices, in environmentally friendly ways that are cost effective.As always, please slow down if you think the roadway might be slippery. For additional information on our salting methods, check out the short film that details our procedures.
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| how the squiggly lines get down on the roads before a storm arrives |
• Daily living expenses• Medical and dental costs• Rent and housing support• Support for dependents• Homelessness prevention• Outpatient behavioral health services, including psychiatric care, substance use disorder treatment, and prescription assistance
"Tri-County Carpentry students had a fantastic time teaming up with local artist Amy Adams for an incredible community project with Franklin Elementary School!
Mrs. Adams reached out to our students to create wooden fish for the elementary students to paint and display at the Franklin Community Sculpture Park. Using their CAD/CAM skills and the CNC router, our students designed and crafted a variety of fish shapes from pine boards. After some meticulous sanding, the school of fish was ready to swim over to Mrs. Adams.
Mrs. Adams, a passionate artist dedicated to her community, has been collaborating with Franklin Elementary students for years. This project was a wonderful opportunity to bring people together and inspire creativity.
Tri-County Carpentry students collaborate on Franklin art project
Our Tri-County Carpentry students are so proud to have been a part of this amazing initiative. Well done, Dylan Fairchild, Jackson Kullich, Austin LeBlanc, and Gideon Vazquez!
#TriCountyCarpentry #CommunityProject #FranklinElementary #WorkHardTodayCounts"
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| No scheduled Trash Delay Next Week! for Franklin, MA |
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| Franklin Running Club starts on March 5 |
Franklin Running Club starts on March 5th for ages 10-12 and 13+. Coached by Dean College's Larry Thode, retired Cross Country Coach!
Register at https://t.co/6LHj1OZjOy.
Shared from -> https://t.co/vUeoB9IrXo
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| The Franklin Historical Museum Will Be Closed on Sunday (2/16) |
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| Franklin Food Pantry closed during Feb 17 - Feb 24, 2025 |
