Franklin Matters

Friday, October 30, 2009

Chamber Job Fair - Wed Nov 5th 10:00 - 2:00

Job Help is on the Way!

The United Regional Chamber of Commerce, in conjunction with Living Waters Church, is sponsoring Employment Workshops and a Job Fair on Nov. 5 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Living Waters Church, 15 John L. Dietsch Blvd., North Attleborough. Companies that are actively hiring, as well as representatives from educational facilities, will be at the event.

Do you or someone you know need to sharpen your job search skills? Then you are welcome to attend this free event!

The following workshops will be offered in two sessions (10:30 a.m. to 11:15 a.m.) and (11:30 a.m. to 12:15 p.m.):
          * Ten Tips for the Tongue Tied
          * Interview Tips for the Non-Salesperson
          * Develop a Marketing Plan for Your Job Search
          * 10 Most Common Interview Mistakes

Need a resume? We can help you prepare your resume and print it on the spot.

In the News - candidates

The line up of Town Council candidates is reviewed in the paper today.

Meet the candidates for Franklin Town Council

from The Milford Daily News News RSS by GateHouse Media, Inc.

You can also review the Election Collection here.

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?

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

from The Milford Daily News Homepage RSS by Ashley Studley/Daily News staff

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Feeley to try write-in campaign for assessor spot

from The Milford Daily News Homepage RSS by Ashley Studley/Daily News staff

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

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!