The line up of Town Council candidates is reviewed in the paper today.
Meet the candidates for Franklin Town Council
You can also review the Election Collection here.
Friday, October 30, 2009
Thursday, October 29, 2009
The Body Mass Index (BMI) controversy
What is the story about the Body Mass Index (BMI) discussion at the School Committee meeting on 10/27/09?
End result of discussion Tuesday
The policy draft was voted not to move to a Second Reading by a 4-3 vote.
What does this mean?
The policy draft goes back to the subcommittee to address the questions that were raised before coming back to the full committee.
Note: two of the four votes against the policy are leaving the School Committee. Cora Armenio is not running for re-election. Matt Kelly is running for Town Council. The positions of the next two members of the School Committee are unknown.
Should this be an issue to go back and challenge the State on to fund their mandate? For about $40,000?
The privacy issue is one to fight but the case in this circumstance I think is weak. Privacy rules already cripple teachers and I don't hear anyone raising an issue with those.
I think these are more life threatening issues that privacy rules currently hinder.
Isn't the BMI a measurement as simple as taking one's temperature? Would it violate someone's privacy to let the parents know the child is running a temperature?
You can respond with a comment or answer the poll question on the top of the center column:
Should your school measure BMI to report to you and your physician? Yes or No
- The school district nurses have been recording height and weight of students for years
- Some of the School Committee members were unaware of this detail
- The State has changed the regulations to use the height/weight data obtained to calculate the student’s BMI to send to the parents for use in discussions with the family physicians
- The district could loose $43,000 in grant money over 11 years if they are not in compliance
- Compliance with the BMI process would mean the nurses would take less measurements of student’s height/weight. Only certain grades would be required for measurement.
- Non-compliance would require taking measurements of all students across all grade levels
- Regulation language provided was not clear in what the new vs. old requirements were
- Some School Committee members objected to the intrusion of the schools into a patient/physician relationship
- Some School Committee members see the bigger benefit of providing the BMI information to the parents to help address the overweight and related health issues associated with the youth today
End result of discussion Tuesday
The policy draft was voted not to move to a Second Reading by a 4-3 vote.
What does this mean?
The policy draft goes back to the subcommittee to address the questions that were raised before coming back to the full committee.
Note: two of the four votes against the policy are leaving the School Committee. Cora Armenio is not running for re-election. Matt Kelly is running for Town Council. The positions of the next two members of the School Committee are unknown.
Should this be an issue to go back and challenge the State on to fund their mandate? For about $40,000?
The privacy issue is one to fight but the case in this circumstance I think is weak. Privacy rules already cripple teachers and I don't hear anyone raising an issue with those.
If your child requires medication at school and the regular teacher has a substitute, did you know that the regular teacher can not leave information about your child's special requirements?
If your child has a severe allergic reaction to something like peanuts, did you know the classroom teacher can not provide a list of these needs to the supervisory personnel for their recess time when the regular teacher won't always be on duty?
I think these are more life threatening issues that privacy rules currently hinder.
Isn't the BMI a measurement as simple as taking one's temperature? Would it violate someone's privacy to let the parents know the child is running a temperature?
You can respond with a comment or answer the poll question on the top of the center column:
Should your school measure BMI to report to you and your physician? Yes or No
In the News - Franklin Candidates, write in for Assessor
The candidate forum at the Senior Center seems to have been quite informative. I recommend clicking through to read the full article. There are several good quotes from the candidates that would help make a decision on who would best sit on the Town Council to address Franklin's problems.
Franklin candidates speak to seniors
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
School Committee Mtg 10/27/09
The collection of posts live reported from the School Committee meeting on Tuesday October 27th are
- Live reporting - Closing
- Live reporting - Superintendents report
- Live reporting - Action Items
- Live reporting - BMI Q&A
- Live reporting - BMI Screening
- Live reporting - Life Long Learning
- Live reporting - FHS Update
- Live reporting - School Committee 10/27/09
Slideshare slows page
In case you notice that the page is loading slowly today, I have as well. It seems to be related to the SlideShare posted yesterday as part of the School Committee meeting.
I'll need to find another service to use to post slides in that format. In the meantime, I hope it doesn't slow down reading the pages too much. If it does, I'll remove the slides until I find a better tool.
Please let me know if it is hindering your reading!
I'll need to find another service to use to post slides in that format. In the meantime, I hope it doesn't slow down reading the pages too much. If it does, I'll remove the slides until I find a better tool.
Please let me know if it is hindering your reading!
In the News - BMI, MCAS
As the School Committee voted down the policy change by a 4-3 vote and 2 of the votes against this measure are leaving the committee, the next time this comes up could indeed be a different story.
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As mentioned here previously, the growth model for MCAS has been released.
Franklin school officials debate weighing students
from The Milford Daily News Homepage RSS------
As mentioned here previously, the growth model for MCAS has been released.
State releases new way to evaluate MCAS scores
How Did Test Scores Become King?
Sent to you by Steve Sherlock via Google Reader:
via ASCD Inservice by ASCD Bloggers on 10/27/09
Post submitted by guest blogger Gerald Bracey. A longtime champion of accurate analysis of education research and vocal advocate for public education, Bracey died October 20, 2009. In my article in the November Educational Leadership ("The Big Tests: What Ends...
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