Live reporting - budget FY 2010

3. Discussion Only Items

• User Fees
• Staff Reduction in Force (RIF)
• Adoption of FY10 Budget for public hearing (May 26, 2009)

83% or 37.8M of 50.2M cover salary and benefits

Per pupil allotments
Elem $210
Middle $225
High $355

Total dollars remained constant from FY 2009
District wide, potentially 42 positions to reduce (originally in Jan 09 was referenced as >60)

Classroom teachers
Specialists
Librarians
Asst Principal
Secretary
Central Office Data processing
Extracurricular Activities

Notices went out to more than 60 teachers due to the bumping rights, etc. the actual positions lost will only be around 42

The number can be reduced with additional revenue or additional savings
The salary freeze could account for 16 positions within this number of 42 if resolution is reached

FHS
4 teachers
Librarian
Asst Princpal
Office Secretary
6 periods (current schedule has 7 periods)
PE/Health becomes an elective (policy)
Class sizes remain manageable

Middle Schools
2 grade 6
4 grade 7
4 grade 8
2 music

Elementary
18.5 classroom teachers
Full day kindergarten reduced to half day kindergarten
2.5 librarians
1.2 specialists

Implementing a growth in fees over three years would bring the fees to a 50/50 position; the budget would support 50 of the program, the fees would support the remaining 50 percent of the program

Fees
Athletic fees
FY 10 - 200
FY 11 - 225
FY 12 - 250

Extracurricular
FY 10 - 50
FY 11 - 75
FY 12 - 100

Pay-to-ride
FY 10 - 350
FY 11 - 375
FY 12 - 400


Circuit breaker 110,00
State fiscal stabilization 448,381
Federal stimulus 375,000
Extraordinary relief 426,339
School choice 150,000
------------------------------------
Total revenue increase 1,504,720

Remaining differential between level service budget 53,807,773 to level funded 50,297,820
is $1,489,233

Live reproting - FHS MSBA Draft report

3. Discussion Only Items

• Draft MSBA Report on FHS

This is in the hands of the School Building Committee

Cafasso - initial reaction, some interesting solutions proposed
notes that the building is well maintained, very functional
offers ideas for potential solutions to accessibility to the boys locker room, accessibility in general

Mullen - didn't talk about the big system issues, nor did it talk about the funding for the building

Sabolinski - ithis report moves us closer, the cafeteria suggestions were not really in line with our needs; for example, building new cooking space and use the existing space for dining areas

Armenio - listening to the architects when they walked into the garage and said this could be the boys locker room and only would need access to the field house but the accessabilty is otherwise resolved.

Mullen - this report took a smaller approach to fixing some of the problems

Cafasso - two costs to the project, one for the cost of the materials and whatever is done, the second cost is due to the disruption of the school year. Some of what they came back with could be done without an impact to the building operation

Ogden - the building has been so well maintained that we are not high in the listing, if we want to get State help, these are some things that could be done that would be less expensive and perhaps could be done with State help sooner

Live reporting - Moodle Facilitated Courses

2. Guests/Presentations
Moodle Facilitated Courses

Pandora Carlucci
Eileen Belastock
Adam Wawrow

10 courses now available online

Pandora witnessed the collaboration and learning between Adam and Eileen in working to bring the Moodle system to life for Franklin.

http://cms.franklin.k12.ma.us/

Moodle - "modular object oriented learning environment"
Open source software, 27 million users

Switched from Blackboard to Moodle to save money
only the in-house server and in-house expertise is required to support it

Eileen - did use Blackboard, wasn't very flexible, went to a conference and heard about it
a virtual high school accredited by the State of Florida is operational

Attended summit at Olin College, people were impressed with what Franklin has already accomplished with Moodle

Eileen did a training session with 8 teachers today
It takes a lot of work for teachers to do, all on their own time

Forensic science class being set up
provides the required text, uses blogs for communication back and forth

Internet sites are pre-cleared by the teacher before set up for the students to link out to within Moodle

Schedule posted in advance for Forensic science to provide some flexibility for the students to complete their work

Up to 30 expected to be able to handle the course with this teacher, did have 10 last year

Moodle does a lot of the work electronically
feedback to the students automated by the system

A couple of students did take a course from Las Vegas last year.
Only issue was with working the timing for when work is due to accommodate multiple time zones

Students need the opportunity to experience on-line learning before they go to college

Principal Light - course on transcript, no weighting for College or Honors scoring yet, on honors pre-calc course counts for the grade point average

"We may not have a Smartboard in every classroom but we are doing so much more" Eileen

Life Long Learning has been providing the start up costs, as the courses really get rolling, then it would come into the full and normal school program. Teachers in the future may divide their time between classroom face-time and classroom online-time.

Forensics uses "Forensics for Dummies" is used as the text, available for about $18 from various on-line booksellers. The course is built to extend the material prepared in the text.

Tim Raposa points out the collaboration on technology between the town and school.

Live reporting - School Committee 5/12/09

Attending: Armenio, Cafasso, Kelly, Mullen, Roy, Rohrbach, Trahan
Missing: none

1. Routine Business
Citizen’s Comments
Review of Agenda
Minutes: I recommend approval of the minutes from the April 14th and April 28th 2009 School Committee Meetings. Motion to approve, passed unanimously (except for 1 - abstain for the 14th)
Payment of Bills Mr. Kelly Motion to approve, passed unanimously
Payroll Ms. Armenio
FHS Student Representatives

Governor comes to Franklin 5/17/09

Governor Deval Patrick will hold a "Town Hall Meeting" on Sunday May 17 at 4pm-5pm at the Franklin Senior Center 10 Daniel McCahill Street.

For additional information on Governor Patrick's forums visit www.mass.gov/governor/forum

"anxious about full-day kindergarten"

By Joyce Kelly/Daily News staff

Milford Daily News

Posted May 11, 2009 @ 10:54 PM

---

FRANKLIN —

Tonight, the School Committee will make final decisions about what to cut - with full-day kindergarten and at least 30 teachers' jobs on the line - to balance the budget.

As of yesterday afternoon, the union and School Committee had not yet reached an agreement on wage concessions, said Chairman Jeffrey Roy.

Without a wage deferral from the 550-member Franklin Education Association, the School Department faces a budget gap of $1.5 million, Roy said.

A "yes" from the union will save about $800,000, which will be used to save 16 teachers' jobs, Roy said.

A "no" from the union means a minimum of 30 teachers will be laid off, Roy said.

Tonight, the School Committee must vote on a final budget in time for its public hearing on May 26, though the budget does not have to be finalized until June 30, Roy said.

Read the full article about the school budget in the Milford Daily News here

HMEA's 8th Annual Independence 5K Walk/Run

HMEA's 8th Annual Independence 5K Walk/Run in the Park will be held on Sunday, May 17, 2009. Our friends at EMC2 Corporation, 50 Constitution Boulevard, Franklin, MA have again allowed us to hold this premier fundraising event on their grounds. Gail Huff from WCVB-TV Channel 5 News will once again be our host.

To register to walk please visit firstgiving.com/hmea. Here you can also set-up your own personal fundraising page that can be e-mailed to all your family, friends and co-workers asking them to support your efforts to raise funds for HMEA.

If you want to participate in the road race please register at active.com/hmea. OR, if you prefer you can complete your registration form online, print it and mail directly to HMEA along with your registration fee(s). You could also e-mail it back to hmea@hmea.org. Click here for the registration form.

Interested in becoming a sponsor of this fun-filled family day event? To learn what sponsorships are available click here for the Sponsorship Opportunities flyer.

More information will be available shortly. In the meantime if have any questions please call Linda Conley at 508.298.1107 or Doug MacPherson at 508.298.1105.