Franklin Matters

Thursday, July 29, 2010

Hold the date - Aug 3rd - Sit & Chat - Bill Glynn

Bill Glynn, School Committee member, will hold a "Sit & Chat" on the Franklin Town Common (near the Bandstand, in the Bandstand if it rains) on Tuesday August 3rd from 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM. There is no agenda, it’s just an opportunity to share your thoughts, ask questions, engage in discussion on different topics, etc. The discussion is open to all.

Bring a chair, your thoughts, and perhaps a question or two to the Common near the Bandstand.

Franklin, MA

HOUSING STRATEGY RECOMMENDATIONS - 5

5. Increase housing opportunities for seniors and the elderly.

Encourage affordable housing for the elderly through alternative residential programs such as life-care, assisted, or congregate living arrangements.
Evaluate different programs for providing elderly housing.
Explore expanding the number of rental opportunities for senior and elderly residents.
Encourage development of housing units that can easily be adapted or modified for handicap accessibility as needed.
Other options to improve elderly housing include utilizing town-owned land for housing sites and utilizing the senior center for outreach and counseling.

The full Affordable Housing Strategy and Development Plan can be found on the Franklin, MA website

http://franklinma.virtualtownhall.net/Pages/FranklinMA_Planning/housingplan/ahp.pdf

HOUSING STRATEGY RECOMMENDATIONS - 4

4. Encourage development of multifamily housing.

The Town will encourage development of multi-family housing at appropriate locations in Franklin and encourage adaptive reuse of existing buildings for future residential use, particular downtown redevelopment areas. The Town will work towards the redevelopment of the Town’s older sites for a mixture of uses, including lower cost housing for families and the elderly. Methods include:

Providing financial incentives through the planning and permitting process;
Addressing development impacts;
Identifying downtown/mixed use development sites that would be appropriate for redevelopment;
Working with property owners to create mixed use developments through incentives such as density bonuses or tax incrementing financing.
Utilize Town owned tax-title properties for development of low, moderate, and middle-income housing units.

The full Affordable Housing Strategy and Development Plan can be found on the Franklin, MA website

http://franklinma.virtualtownhall.net/Pages/FranklinMA_Planning/housingplan/ahp.pdf

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

I know at least one K teacher that will like this article

Wow, this article will generate some conversation!

... as in other studies, the Tennessee experiment found that some teachers were able to help students learn vastly more than other teachers. And just as in other studies, the effect largely disappeared by junior high, based on test scores. Yet when Mr. Chetty and his colleagues took another look at the students in adulthood, they discovered that the legacy of kindergarten had re-emerged.

Students who had learned much more in kindergarten were more likely to go to college than students with otherwise similar backgrounds. Students who learned more were also less likely to become single parents. As adults, they were more likely to be saving for retirement. Perhaps most striking, they were earning more.

All else equal, they were making about an extra $100 a year at age 27 for every percentile they had moved up the test-score distribution over the course of kindergarten. A student who went from average to the 60th percentile — a typical jump for a 5-year-old with a good teacher — could expect to make about $1,000 more a year at age 27 than a student who remained at the average. Over time, the effect seems to grow, too.

The economists don’t pretend to know the exact causes. But it’s not hard to come up with plausible guesses. Good early education can impart skills that last a lifetime — patience, discipline, manners, perseverance. The tests that 5-year-olds take may pick up these skills, even if later multiple-choice tests do not.