"it won't save the town money. It just doesn't make fiscal sense"

By Joyce Kelly/Daily News staff

Milford Daily News

Posted May 28, 2008 @ 01:25 AM

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FRANKLIN —

Pushing along the consolidation of maintenance departments, Town Council last night unanimously approved an $88 million general budget for fiscal 2009 that shifts the $5.5 million school maintenance budget to town control.

The council approved Town Administrator Jeffrey D. Nutting's figure of $49.9 million for schools, which, besides transferring janitorial services, does not give schools enough to maintain its staff and programs, according to school officials.

The budget is up $1.8 million, or 2 percent, from this year's budget of $86.2 million.

If the town does not pass a Proposition 2 1/2 tax override on June 10, Superintendent of Schools Wayne Ogden said he will have to lay off 45 teachers and two administrators, which will result in increased class sizes and cutting courses. Also, he has said they will eliminate the late bus and increase the pay-to-ride bus fee from $225 to $325 to balance the budget.

The override would cost the owner of an average home an extra $243 a year, Nutting has said.

School Committee Chairman Jeffrey Roy objected to the maintenance move, particularly because Nutting and Ogden have not yet completed a memorandum of understanding on the matter.

Read the full story in the Milford Daily News

School Committee - health update, action items

Ogden providing an update on the community health coalition, many of the folks who came to the meeting (over 100) self-identified as wanting to continue to work on the process

Some groups were under representatived, they are being reached out to to obtain representation from those groups

Likely 15-20 to be members of the group

Formation session being scheduled for June 5th, invitations have not yet been sent out

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Action items
1. I recommend adoption of the 2008-2009 School Committee Meeting Schedule.
2. I recommend acceptance of a check for $5,000.00 from Michael Johnson for the FHS Michael Johnson Alumni Scholarship.
3. I recommend acceptance of a check for $1,000.00 from Natalie Brunelli for the FHS John A. Brunelli Memorial Scholarship.
4. I recommend acceptance of a check for $500.00 from the Fernando P. Baglioni Family – Peter Baglioni for the FHS Fernando P. Baglioni Memorial Scholarship.
5. I recommend acceptance of a check for $400.00 from the Remington PCC for Nurse expenses on recent field trips.
6. I recommend acceptance of the donation of an HP Photo Smart 1000 Color Printer with 5 ink cartridges from Ms. Karen Todd for the Remington Middle School.
7. I recommend acceptance of the donation of books (list attached) from Mr & Mrs. Darcey for the Oak Street Elementary School.
8. I recommend acceptance of a check for $10.00 from Mrs. Grassey to be used toward the HMMS 8th grade field trip to Hopkinton Laborers Training Center.
9. I recommend approval of the School Business Administrator’s goals for 2008-09.
10. I recommend acceptance of a check for $500.00 from the Fidelity Charitable gift fund for the Fernando P. Baglioni Scholarship fund at FHS.
11. I recommend acceptance of a check for $200.00 from the Franklin Soccer Booster Club for Ice Machine and AED for Athletic Dept. at FHS.

All items approved

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bus accident, one rear-ended the other as the lead one avoided a motorist pulling out in front of the bus. The parties (Police, Fire, bus company, school admins) will be getting together to review role and responsibilities to avoid problems at a future event.

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accreditation is like the "Good Housekeeping" seal of approval for the school system.
"an objective outside measure", not being accredited would not be a good thing, it may hurt our students; public, private and parochial schools have this in common

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policy sub-committee report, continuing to review policies

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Town Council de-funded or reduced the school budget by 5.5 million dollars
How the school committee decides to spend what money they do get
Roy - "You either consolidate or cut?"

Ogden has the memorandum of understanding (MOU) at the moment, Nutting may have unfairly taken some heat over the lack of the memo, he has some edits to make to the document to remove what has been agreed to be removed and corrected.

"My recommendation would be to move the facilities services over to the town side. I think it will have a negative impact. I don't think it would be worse to do otherwise."

Rohrbach - "I do not see us saving us any money"

Armenio - "kneejerk reaction would be to heck with the MOU, we need the MOU to protect the students, the principals, the custodians, etc."

Sabolinksi - "The level of trust, the level of customer service will likely decline"

Rohrbach - "at no time did we agree to take the money out of the budget before the MOU"

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Trahan - Friday night graduation - thanks to all night party for the preparations

motion to move into executive session for contractual negotiations

School Committee - override reductions

In the event of the override not passing, the cuts were not previously announced in specific for a couple of reasons (1) notification to the teachers needed to occur first (2) to avoid "scare tactic".

Will not know until evening of the 10th what will happen but the high school is preparing two schedules; one with the override passing and one if the override fails.

Listing provided of the specific positions (to be posted soon)

high school class size will run 28-30
middle school
elementary schools some classes can go as high as 28-30 in specific grades

Ogden - FHS accreditation will be looked on "unkindly" with 17 positions being removed from the school. You can't predict what they will do. However it is likely there will be some adverse action.

Gould - transition to high school is the most important thing to protect, a "sacred cow"

class size discussion, most classes are going to be exceeding the range, not just on the high end of the ranges (if the override fails)

Gould - Franklin has done well at protecting the school instructional side, there is nothing else to cut. The FHS supplies budget is less than it was in 2001 and this is with an increase in students since 2001.

Mullen - would cutting French V affect the college placement for the seniors?
Gould - possibly. Students have to go somewhere, the electives can go higher. "Under Ed Reform, you can not have study halls. You have time to learn measurements."

Cafasso - could you get some others to assist with some of the journalism or public speaking?
Gould - they would need to be certified according to the state

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School Committee - budget to actual

Miriam Goodman
clarification of the $1.8M that appears to unencumbered is actually being planned to be used within the budget for items that are already required

line item currently in deficit was usually covered by the Medicaid revenue which the schools are not getting this year. the budget for FY 09 has been adjusted accordingly. If the schools do get the Medicaid funds, there will be further adjustments.

Roy - facilities budgets question from Town Council meeting earlier? Is there a "slush" fund there as claimed by one Town Councilor.
Miriam will look into the numbers in detail but they are running into deficits at first glance

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Finance Administrator goals
Miriam is comfortable with them

School Committee - FHS handbooks

Pam Gould, FHS Principal, discussing the high school handbook
memo to committee highlighting the changes, relatively small amount but a good time spent reviewing the whole handbook

tardiness - allowing some leeway for the vice principals to listen to the students explanation before making the decision

cell phones and iPods moved to a whole new section

drug and alcohol policy, there was not clarity around the policy
the MIAA had guidelines for the athletes but there was not something similar for the other students
1st offense - 5 day out of school suspension and a 45 day (term) social probation
looking to add an option of a contract with the principal with random drug and alcohol testing and counseling

sounds like a very reasonable proposal to address the real issue behind the problem
did use the contract in a previous position, had only one failure with one student who had significant problems

Armenio - pushing on the attendance policy
Gould - the rules need to be tightened in some cases, most of the students would not be in these scenarios, if there are exceptions, I can change the record

Armenio - troubled by DPH guidelines
Gould - agrees that there is room for improvement at the DPH

Roy - has a beef with the parent note not being accepted as an excused absence, partially due to the School Committee policy reference differences (JH vs. what is referenced as approved in 1999)
Gould - disagrees, she attempting to put the state rule in this handbook

Roy - concerned with the pattern
Gould - would it be amenable to provide a couple of "freebies" per quarter?
Roy - yes, it would be

Roy - chain of command policy should be in all handbooks

Gould - putting policy into the 7 Habits diary that is given to the 9th graders

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School Committee - live reporting

called to order at 7:45 PM

reason for delayed start due to last week's Tuesday mishap with the scheduling

Matt Kelly absent

minutes approved for May 13th, one abstention

Seniors graduate this Friday, Juniors now rule the school with more room in the halls

Horace Mann Rube Goldberg competition
3 hours to build machine, came in 11 of 27 teams
certificates for each student who participated
bubble needed to float 5 seconds in the air
15 transfers required
first team from Horace Mann to participate

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Oak Street stock market essay winner
funded through FEF grant
1st at Boston Globe, 7th in nation
- Austen Sholudko -
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Michele Kingsland-Smith
presentation on District Literacy Initiative

goal - develop a philosophical and instructional vision for literacy

1 - What do we want students to know and be able to do?
core expectations were identified as

• read widely
• read strategically
• think critically and creatively
• communicate effectively

2 - How will we know when/if students have meet these expectations?
not a small task

3 - What is exemplary literacy instruction?
need to expand the team, focus on K-8 and work up

Team challenges
amongst them, differences in instructional philosophy around the district

Literacy vision developed

assessment planning on-going

- wonderful approach, how is this going to be done with an increase in class size under the scenario with a failed override? - my two cents

Cafasso - can we bring this down to the household level? where do the reading lists and required texts fit in?

Michele - bed & breakfast analogy, what are the essentials? it is easy to by a program but it is a one size fits all. "Hopefully parents will see greater enthusiasm, a greater variety of materials"

Town Council - Budget hearing - after recess

Going back to the elected officials item
raise was an average 2.1%
elected officials got 2%

Mason, "amounts to a token increase"

motion made to increase salary treasurer/collector , passed 7-2

motion mode to increase town clerk, passed 7-2

motion made on downtown planner, 5 yes 3 no 1 abstain

motion on adoption of town budget for FY 09

motion passed unanimously

Doak "budget time trying to choose between least bad options"
need to think seriously about what kind of town we want to live in

Pfeffer explains why she was driving in the parade

Bartlett outlook on budget has changed, impressed with effort on part of all in the town
"I can find no waste and believe me I have looked"
"need to tackle much harder redundancies due to state and local requirements"

motion to adjourn