Franklin Matters

Sunday, July 24, 2011

"the building cannot provide an adequate level of education"

And that's just the science department.

The high school has been on warning status from its accreditation organization, the New England Association of Schools and Colleges, for years, especially because it does not comply with the federal Americans with Disabilities Act, or ADA.

In response, several members of the School Building Committee recently took a tour of four high schools in the state that were built on different state-approved model school designs.

The committee voted Monday to request a place in the state's model school program, which allows towns to build new schools based on pre-designed plans and be reimbursed by the state 58 percent of the estimated $97.9 million total cost of a new school. The state is expected to make a decision about Franklin this Wednesday.

Franklin model school choices

from The Milford Daily News News RSS by Alison McCall/Daily News staff

"a perfect location for a station"

... many factors have changed in the past 14 years. Population in towns west of Milford has grown significantly and the owner of the Grafton & Upton Railroad has begun restoring track in Hopedale and Milford to use for freight service, reducing the capital costs to add passenger trains. The owner, Marlborough developer Jon Delli Priscoli, has said he would be willing to work with the MBTA if the project moves forward, Moore said.

The study will examine Hopedale's Draper mill complex as the last station on the line with the possibility of adding stops between Franklin and Hopedale including in Milford, Moore said.

The Draper complex is a privately owned 1.5 million-square-foot former mill in downtown Hopedale that has been mostly vacant for years.

"Freight alone servicing the old Draper facility makes that facility far more attractive to development," said Moore, a former Hopedale selectman. "If there's also commuter rail, it's a tremendous opportunity."

Saturday, July 23, 2011

In the News - e.coli, murder case

Franklin man suffered from German E. coli outbreak

from The Milford Daily News News RSS by Mike Stobbe/Associated Press

No bail for Franklin man in Marlborough attempted murder case

from The Milford Daily News News RSS by Kelleigh Welch/Daily News staff

Friday, July 22, 2011

If you haven't been downtown to the train station, you might not have noticed that Depot St has been torn up. The municipal parking lot is also torn up. All as scheduled as part of the PWED project funded by a State grant.

Additional info on the two projects downtown can be found on the Franklin Downtown Partnership webpage here: http://franklindowntownpartnership.blogspot.com/p/downtown-project.html

In the Globe: local meals tax

In case you missed it, the Boston Globe West section on Thursday ran an article on the local meal tax option. Franklin obtained 347,000 revenue from this during the past fiscal year. With continued growth in restaurants, this can be a continuing source of revenue. Not enough to solve our systemic problems, but substantial none the less.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2011/07/21/some_communities_find_meals_tax_a_boon/?rss_id=Boston+Globe+--+Globe+West

Related post:
The State announced the totals for local meal tax revenues earlier in July
http://franklinmatters.blogspot.com/2011/07/meals-tax-delivers-705-million-to-146.html

Thursday, July 21, 2011

"cyberbullying feels like something they can't get away from"

While the foundation sponsors surveys every two years among the region's middle and high schools, it had never before asked its consultant to look at overlap between categories - in this case students who reported mental health problems and those who identified themselves as bullying victims.

The prompt, Donham said, is a lingering perception among some parents - and even a few teachers - that bullying is something students usually work their way through, more an obnoxious rite of childhood than a serious danger.

There have also been questions about why the foundation is treating bullying as a health issue deserving grant money, and questions about whether bullying is a classroom issue when much of the harassment takes place off school grounds.
But the data show a clear picture of mental health harm likely to impede learning, harm that includes stress, symptoms of depression, self-injury, serious consideration of suicide - and even attempted suicide, among roughly 578 students.

"I think that's alarming," Donham said of the suicide numbers. "I think that warrants some looking at."

Read more: http://www.milforddailynews.com/archive/x920803137/Report-shows-link-between-bullying-mental-health-problems#ixzz1SjRqsR00

Another report, another view, this time from the Boston Globe:

Sharply contrasting findings, from a Globe survey of the state’s 10 largest school systems, casts light on a lingering controversy over the Massachusetts law: What, if anything, should schools report about bullying among their students to authorities at the district or state level?
Read more at the Boston Globe.

"The state will cover 58 percent"

"It seems like an absolutely slam-dunk no-brainer," said Town Council Vice Chairman Stephen Whalen, of building a new high school instead of renovating the current structure.

The town will make use of the state's model-school program, in which the building committee would pick one of four state-approved options for a school that's already been designed. Building a new school under the model-school program will cost the town roughly $40 million, only about $3 million to $4 million more than gutting and renovating the existing building.

"The most telling endorsement we got was from the architect who's going to lose his job if we get accepted into the model-school program," said Chairman Scott Mason, who also serves on the building committee. "For him to stand up and say, basically, this is a no-brainer, says a lot."