Evaluating Teacher Effectiveness

The Center for American Progress has published the following report on teacher effectiveness that I have not read yet but seems to be a good one to share.


Evaluating Teacher Effectiveness

What do you think of the report?


Franklin, MA

Franklin, MA: Election Nov 2 - State Question #2

QUESTION 2

Do you approve of a law summarized below, on which no vote was taken by the Senate or House of Representatives before May 4, 2010?

*** This proposed law would repeal an existing state law that allows a qualified organization wishing to build government-subsidized housing that includes low- or moderate-income units to apply for a single comprehensive permit from a city or town’s zoning board of appeals (ZBA), instead of separate permits from each local agency or official having jurisdiction over any aspect of the proposed housing. The repeal would take effect on January 1, 2011, but would not stop or otherwise affect any proposed housing that had already received both a comprehensive permit and a building permit for at least one unit. Under the existing law, the ZBA holds a public hearing on the application and considers the recommendations of local agencies and officials. The ZBA may grant a comprehensive permit that may include conditions or requirements concerning the height, site plan, size, shape, or building materials of the housing. Persons aggrieved by the ZBA’s decision to grant a permit may appeal it to a court. If the ZBA denies the permit or grants it with conditions or requirements that make the housing uneconomic to build or to operate, the applicant may appeal to the state Housing Appeals Committee (HAC). After a hearing, if the HAC rules that the ZBA’s denial of a comprehensive permit was unreasonable and not consistent with local needs, the HAC orders the ZBA to issue the permit. If the HAC rules that the ZBA’s decision issuing a comprehensive permit with conditions or requirements made the housing uneconomic to build or operate and was not consistent with local needs, the HAC orders the ZBA to modify or remove any such condition or requirement so as to make the proposal no longer uneconomic. The HAC cannot order the ZBA to issue any permit that would allow the housing to fall below minimum safety standards or site plan requirements. If the HAC rules that the ZBA’s action was consistent with local needs, the HAC must uphold it even if it made the housing uneconomic. The HAC’s decision is subject to review in the courts. A condition or requirement makes housing uneconomic if it would prevent a public agency or non-profit organization from building or operating the housing except at a financial loss, or it would prevent a limited dividend organization from building or operating the housing without a reasonable return on its investment. A ZBA’s decision is consistent with local needs if it applies requirements that are reasonable in view of the regional need for low- and moderate-income housing and the number of low-income persons in the city or town, as well as the need to protect health and safety, promote better site and building design, and preserve open space, if those requirements are applied as equally as possible to both subsidized and unsubsidized housing. Requirements are considered consistent with local needs if more than 10% of the city or town’s housing units are low- or moderate-income units or if such units are on sites making up at least 1.5% of the total private land zoned for residential, commercial, or industrial use in the city or town. Requirements are also considered consistent with local needs if the application would result, in any one calendar year, in beginning construction of low- or moderate-income housing on sites making up more than 0.3% of the total private land zoned for residential, commercial, or industrial use in the city or town, or on ten acres, whichever is larger. The proposed law states that if any of its parts were declared invalid, the other parts would stay in effect.

A YES VOTE would repeal the state law allowing the issuance of a single comprehensive permit to build housing that includes low- or moderate-income units.

A NO VOTE would make no change in the state law allowing issuance of such a comprehensive permit.


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You can find the complete set of ballot questions and candidates for office on the Secretary of the Commonwealth's web site here:  http://www.wheredoivotema.com/bal/myelectioninfo.php


You can put your Franklin address into this form and receive a full set of the candidates and ballot questions (3 state wide and 2 specific to Franklin).


Franklin, MA

FM #74 Week Ending 10/17/10

Let's take about 10 minutes to catch up on what matters in Franklin, MA as the week ends Oct 17th, 2010.

Time: 10 minutes, 49 seconds



MP3 File

Session Notes:

Let's take less than 10 minutes to review the week ending Oct 17 here in Franklin, MA. So what should you know from the past week?

The School Committee met on Tuesday Most of the night was spent on the high school

• The school improvement plan was reviewed http://view.liveindexer.com/ViewIndexSessionSL.aspx?indexPointSKU=HW0UW7w25OKFIuztz4K2Eg%3d%3d
• The senior project was reviewed http://view.liveindexer.com/ViewIndexSessionSL.aspx?indexPointSKU=Z6iurs7XvBmQeuYTQ5aJIA%3d%3d
• The school discipline process and statistics showing the improvements were reviewed http://view.liveindexer.com/ViewIndexSessionSL.aspx?indexPointSKU=M2eDWWFyvuaKUWPh8tPJnw%3d%3d

Copies of the presentations are posted to Franklin Matters.

Of special interest is this segment of dialog between chair Jeff Roy and Principal Peter Light discussing the effects of the Rachel's challenge event recently held at the high school.

(here is the audio clip from the meeting)

What do we have coming up this week?

The Town Council meeting is Weds. The continuation of the public hearing on the underground utilities will be held. You may recall the initial hearing 9/29. The notice was incorrect in that it left out the section of Main St hence, part 2 this week. While the council did a straw vote last time indicating that they would likely not vote to proceed with putting the utilities underground, the official vote should be this week. The council did vote last time to endorse the change from 1-way to 2-way traffic, there will be additional votes required as there is a by-law change needed before that changes. Oh and the construction downtown will begin during 2011 and complete sometime 2012.

Of most interest this weds will be a series of updates from the DPW

• Winter Road Treatments & Snow Removal
• Franklin Town Common Tree Report
• Report on the new Solid Waste and Single Stream Recycling System
• Sewer System Discussion

A series of posts covering the state wide and two local questions that the Franklin voters will see on the Nov 2 ballot will be found this week on FM. The link to the Sec of the Commonwealth page where you can put in your home address and obtain a view of the full set of ballot questions. There is not a one ballot for all of Franklin as the MA legislative districts split Franklin. You may recall for example that the “Scott Brown seat' only covers precincts 2, 3 and 4 in Franklin, Karen Spilka covers the remainder of the Franklin precincts.

 As I close this session this week, let me remind you that

• If you like what I am doing here, please tell your friends and neighbors
• If you don’t like something, please tell me

Thank you for listening!

The music for the intro and exit was provided by Michael Clark and the group "East of Shirley". The piece is titled "Ernesto, manana" c. Michael Clark and Tintype Tunes, 2008 and used with their permission

I hope you enjoy!

Note: email subscribers will need to click through to Franklin Matters to listen to the audio podcast.

In the News - WWII, community garden

Franklin may honor World War II soldiers

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

Franklin Community Gardens meeting

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

Franklin, MA

Town Council - agenda and documents

The agenda and associated documents are available for the Town Council meeting on Weds, Oct 20. The layout and formatting makes some of this hard to read (unless you sacrifice a few trees first).

I'll try to obtain copies of the individual presentations but in the meantime, you can prepare for a series of updates from the DPW on

• Winter Road Treatments & Snow Removal
• Franklin Town Common Tree Report
• Report on the new Solid Waste and Single Stream Recycling System
• Sewer System Discussion

The DPW updates begin after the Public Hearing on the underground utilities for the Downtown Project.
(You may recall there was already a public hearing on 9/29/10 for the underground utilities but due to the original notice leaving out the Main St portion of the project, the public hearing needed to be re-posted (hence this part 2). The Council will be in a position to take a vote on the underground utilities. The straw poll taken at the 9/29 meeting indicated a resounding No vote. Council Jones will be missing this meeting as he is in Haiti. Will all the other councilors show up? Stay tuned to find out.)
Town Council 10/20/2010 Agenda



Franklin, MA

Franklin, MA: Election Nov 2 - State Question #1

QUESTION 1

Do you approve of a law summarized below, on which no vote was taken by the Senate or House of Representatives before May 4, 2010?

*** This proposed law would remove the Massachusetts sales tax on alcoholic beverages and alcohol, where the sale of such beverages and alcohol or their importation into the state is already subject to a separate excise tax under state law. The proposed law would take effect on January 1, 2011.

A YES VOTE would remove the state sales tax on alcoholic beverages and alcohol where their sale or importation into the state is subject to an excise tax under state law.

A NO VOTE would make no change in the state sales tax on alcoholic beverages and alcohol.

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You can find the complete set of ballot questions and candidates for office on the Secretary of the Commonwealth's web site here:  http://www.wheredoivotema.com/bal/myelectioninfo.php


You can put your Franklin address into this form and receive a full set of the candidates and ballot questions (3 state wide and 2 specific to Franklin).


Franklin, MA

Comedy Night - Nov 12

Franklin Special Education Parents Advisory Council (SEPAC)

2010 Evening of Comedy Fundraiser!

Date: Friday November 12, 2010

Time: Doors at 6:30, show at 8

Location: Milford Doubletree Hotel Ballroom, 11 Beaver St. Milford, MA 01757

Ticket cost: $30 in advance/ $35 at door (includes show and appetizer buffet)

We are happy to announce our 3rd annual Comedy Night

Featuring:
Door prizes throughout the evening
AMAZING silent auction
Our infamous balloon raffle
And, of course, TONS OF LAUGHS


TICKETS ON SALE NOW:
Email Sarah Montani, SEPAC fundraising committee chair, at sarahmontani37@gmail.com.


Franklin, MA