"Doc, can you help me study?"

By Joyce Kelly/Daily News staff

Sun Nov 02, 2008, 06:39 PM EST

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FRANKLIN -

Don Roemer, affectionately known as "Doc" to his students and colleagues, spent 37 years in a job he loved.

"I loved it. I loved teaching," said Roemer, a Franklin resident who worked for 27 years as an English teacher at Wayland High School, and 10 years prior as an English professor at Northwestern University and Northeastern University.

Life felt a bit empty when he retired three years ago, so he decided to fill that hole by returning to his passion, he said.

For the past year, he has volunteered as a part-time teacher working alongside a few full-timers at Franklin High School, in a pilot program he proposed last October to Franklin Superintendent of Schools Wayne Ogden. Ogden is the former assistant superintendent of Wayland Public Schools.

"I really wanted very much to have something to do with education. I missed being with the kids. I may be old, but I have a lot of experience, a lot to offer," Roemer said.

"I never got tired of the teaching, I never got tired of the kids, but I did get tired of correcting papers," Roemer said.

As a volunteer, he gets the best of both worlds: giving students one-on-one academic attention, without having to pour through essays and tests, as well as a flexible, albeit, confusing rotating schedule, he said.

Read the full article in the Franklin Gazette here

A video clip by Joyce Kelly interviewing Doc can be seen here:

T-Alerts were active on the Franklin Line Monday morning

Franklin/Forge Park Nov 3, 5:41 a.m. (Inactive)

Franklin/FrgPrk #790 (5:05am ib) will not service Forge Park. #702 (5:45am ib) will run on time from Forge Park. 11/3/2008 5:31 AM This alert is no longer active at mbta.com. Likely the issue has been resolved.

Franklin/Forge Park Nov 3, 6:31 a.m. (Inactive)

Franklin/FrgPrk #790 (5:05am ib) will not service Forge Park. #702 (5:45am ib) will run 20 minutes late. 11/3/2008 5:31 AM This alert is no longer active at mbta.com. Likely the issue has been resolved.

Franklin/Forge Park Nov 3, 6:41 a.m. (Inactive) Franklin/FrgPrk #704 (6:15am ib) experiencing 20-25 min delay 11/3/2008 6:34 AM This alert is no longer active at mbta.com. Likely the issue has been resolved.

Franklin/Forge Park Nov 3, 7:21 a.m. (Inactive)

Franklin/FrgPrk #706 (6:35am ib) experiencing 15-20 min delay 11/3/2008 7:14 AM This alert is no longer active at mbta.com. Likely the issue has been resolved.

Franklin/Forge Park Nov 3, 8:21 a.m. (Inactive)

Franklin/FrgPrk #732 (7:54am ib) experiencing 20-25 min delay 11/3/2008 8:20 AM This alert is no longer active at mbta.com. Likely the issue has been resolved.

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If you haven't signed up for a T-Alert, you can do so here.

You can also join Clever Commute where the riders share the updates.

FM #19 - 4 things to know

FM #19 podcast provides the 4 things you should know about Franklin, MA this week.

Time: 8 minutes, 18 seconds



MP3 File

Session Notes:

This podcast for Franklin Matters will focus on the 4 things you should know about what happened this week.

In the prior two sessions, we spent time listening to Assistant Superintendent Maureen Sabolinski as she was interviewed by the School Committee during their meeting Tuesday Oct 14th. In podcast 17 Maureen told her life story. How she started teaching in NY City, moved to the Buffalo NY area, to Rockaway, NJ and then to Franklin. She reviews her resume detailing how she has prepared to cover all aspects of the superintendent’s role in her own development.

In podcast 18, we’ll listened to the School Committee as they asked Maureen follow-up questions and get into a discussion to clarify her goals, objectives, and vision for Franklin’s school. If you have not listened to these yet, I strongly encourage you to go back and do so at some point in time. All the podcasts can be found within the Important links section on the right hand column.

The first thing you should know about from this week’s events was that the school committee did vote unanimously 6-0 (Matt Kelley was absent) to enter into contract negotiations with Maureen. We should hear in a future meeting about the contract terms and transition with Wayne as he is scheduled to step aside on June 30th 2009.

The second thing you should know about this week is that the pilot to sell advertising banners in the field house was proposed and accepted. During the pilot period, the banner content will need to be reviewed by the Superintendent of Schools, High School Principal and the chair of the School Committee. The cost for the banner would be $480 year and available for a minimum period of three months (at a prorated cost).

The third thing you should know about this week is that if you area parent of school age children there is a survey on the Franklin Schools homepage looking for your input on how to create the calendar for the school year; for example, should the school year begin before Labor Day or after? Your input is welcomed until November 24th. The link to the survey will be available on Franklin Matters here. Jeff Roy has also created a posting at the School Committee blog with a link to the survey. Let your voice be heard.

The fourth thing you should know this week, on the contract front, the Police Department settled their contract with the Town. They had been working under an expired contract since June 2007. This one will cover through June 2010.

The new contract, which expires in June 2010, gives officers a 2 percent raise retroactive to October 2007, a 2.5 percent raise as of October 2008 and a 3 percent raise in October 2009, Nutting said.

Sergeants' pay will increase to 17 percent above the top patrol officer salary step in the first year of the contract, to 18 percent in the second year, and to 19 percent above in the third year.

This was reported in the Milford Daily News and Franklin Gazette this week.

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This podcast has been a public service provided to my fellow Franklin citizens and voters by Steve Sherlock

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

Where have all the flowers gone?

It is that time of year!




To read more about "Where have all the flowers gone?" click here

In the news - redistricting, online video lectures

By Joyce Kelly/Daily News staff

GHS

Posted Oct 31, 2008 @ 11:49 PM

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FRANKLIN —

In recent meetings, the School Committee has broached the possibility of redistricting local schools, but officials say it is a long way off, and any changes will be minor.

"The most important thing for parents to know is, neither the School Committee nor I anticipate any redistricting this year or next year," said Superintendent Wayne Ogden.

Leaders are considering redistricting because some schools, such as Sullivan Middle, are overcrowded, while others like Jefferson Elementary, have available space. The imbalance has resulted in the need to ship some kids around, said School Committee Chairman Jeffrey Roy.

"It's just trying to balance out the schools and make sure we're maximizing space in every building," said Roy.

Read the full article in the Milford Daily News here

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Want a free education? A brief guide to the burgeoning world of online video lectures.

By Jeffrey MacIntyre November 2, 2008

RESERVE ANOTHER LAUREL for Edward O. Wilson, the Pellegrino University Professor emeritus at Harvard, serial Pulitzer winner, and prominent intellectual: online celebrity.

Forget Charlie Rose - Wilson has Google for a soapbox. Amid the amateur-hour piffle of YouTube "talent" and skateboarding dogs, the famed botanist stands in bold relief, with more than 500 Google video search results to his credit: Interviews ranging far afield of TV shows to a spate of appearances on several Web-only video platforms such as Meaningoflife.tv, Bigthink.com, Fora.tv, and the online home of the Technology Entertainment Design (TED) conference.

Read the full article in the Boston Globe here

Museum entrance taking shape

The entrance to the new museum is really taking shape. The brickwork appears complete. The pedestal is in place and ready for the sculpture.






This will be a nice entrance to Franklin's historical treasures.

In the news - field lights campaign, Police union contract

GateHouse News Service

Posted Oct 31, 2008 @ 04:21 PM

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FRANKLIN —

To help raise money for field lights for youth football, Franklin Chargers Football Organization has announced NorthEast-Eagle Electrical Distributors, in conjunction with WEEI, has begun "New Friday Night Lights 2008 Sweepstakes.''

Cities and towns all over New England have the chance to enter into the sweepstakes with hopes to win a brand new installed sports lighting system for their youth football league field.

For over 5 years, Franklin's Recreation Department and the Franklin Chargers Football Organization have used the Remington Jefferson School fields to house their football programs. The facility is used six days a week by more than 400 football players. The facility does not currently have lights, so the use of portable lights has been very costly for both organizations. Between rental, gas to run the lights and set up break down, it is estimated that this expense around $3,000 per month.

You can help the kids of Franklin obtain lights for their football teams, by voting today.

Read the full article in the Milford Daily News here

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After sometimes "frustrating" negotiations, the town and its police union signed a three-year contract this week, said Town Administrator Jeffrey D. Nutting and Police Association President John Maloney.

"Overall, once we worked certain issues out - we definitely weren't happy with the process or sequence of events - but at the end, it's a pretty fair contract," said Maloney.

Nutting also called the contract (currently in memorandum of understanding form only) "fair" and in line with agreements other unions have with the town.

"I think it was a fair deal for everybody involved," said Nutting, adding that part of his aim was to ensure equality among public employees.

The deal is retroactive to June 2007, when the last one expired.

The new contract, which expires in June 2010, gives officers a 2 percent raise retroactive to October 2007, a 2.5 percent raise as of October 2008 and a 3 percent raise in October 2009, Nutting said.

Read the full article in the Franklin Gazette here