Time: 8 minutes, 48 seconds
MP3 File
Session Notes:
Music intro
My intro
FM #31
This internet radio show or podcast for Franklin Matters is number 31 in the series. In this session, I’ll focus on what you should know about what happened in Franklin, MA this week ending Feb 22, 2009.
The week was a quiet one as school vacation came and went too quickly for most, I would assume. There were no major meetings scheduled for the town council or school committee.
As reported in the Milford Daily News, the Tri-County Vocational District announced their school budget this week. They are coming in at less than level funded with multiple cuts across the budget. Their final budget will be voted on in April. The exact charge to Franklin will be known then. It is primarily based upon how many students are sent to the district and then a per pupil charge is summarized.
There was a Financial Planning Committee meeting on Thursday the 19th. My live reporting from that meeting can be found here.
They previewed the 3 page Executive Summary highlighting
- where we have been
- where we are going
- what we can do about it
We now have two choices, increase revenues or cut costs. Cutting costs seems to be easy, every business that does it makes headlines doing so. But there are also examples that not every business does so smartly. The cost cutting that remains in Franklin is in actual programs and services provided. What can we do without?
Increasing revenues needs to be part of the discussion. It is the real opportunity. We need to figure out ways to make it easier for the town to grow revenues to a more sustainable level than we have today.
The timeline for the Financial Planning Committee was also updated:
- April 2 - focus group meeting
- April 15 - present to a joint Town Council, School Committee and Finance Committee meeting
- April 29 - town forum to review the plan document and solicit feedback
Second, we have a Senior Center kitchen. A few hundred yards away are several cafeterias with kitchens where the schools provide many more meals. Let's combine those operations. Why force the seniors to travel all over town when they could more easily reach the school in their neighborhood.
Since the class size will likely increase, let's get more adults into the classrooms to help the teachers. Let's use the seniors to assist in classrooms, some may have taught previously, others dealt with grandchildren. One of the common jokes about grandparents dealing with their grandchildren is they can “spoil” them and then give them back to their parents. There is some truth to the natural relationship between the generations and helping to foster that will bring multiple benefits. With an additional adult (or adults) in the classrooms, the effect of larger class sizes (students per teacher) would be minimized
And here comes your chance. Between now and April 29th, put your thinking caps on to generate additional ideas.
You can include them in a comment, send me an email, or make a list to bring to the Forum on April 29th.
Together we can come up with something worthwhile. We may not find a silver bullet but every gem we do find will add up. A little here, a little there will soon add up significantly.
Here is your chance, take the challenge!
Looking to the week ahead: there is a Planning Board meeting on Monday, the School Committee meeting Tuesday. There are other town meetings posted on the calendar on the Franklin Home page. Check it out and go attend a meeting.
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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
