Sunday, April 22, 2012

"families out gardening together"


Amy Acevedo of Franklin was happy to have her hands in the dirt at the Franklin Community Garden in Memorial Park yesterday, leading a volunteer group of gardening enthusiasts in a day of weeding, mulching and planting. 
“This is primarily a vegetable garden, but the vegetables need pollinators, so we are going to be planting some sunflowers to encourage some honey bees — plus it looks nice,” Acevedo said. 
It was Acevedo’s dream to start the organic garden, so maintaining it on Earth Day weekend made sense.

Read more: http://www.milforddailynews.com/news/x643676114/Earth-Day-inspires-a-weekend-of-lending-nature-a-hand#ixzz1slecoNDC




Chris Clay shares a good reason for gardening via video by the MDN reporter.


Franklin, MA: School Committee - Agenda - 4/24/12

Vision Statement
The Franklin Public Schools will foster within its students the knowledge and skills to find and achieve satisfaction in life as productive global citizens.

Mission Statement
The Franklin Public Schools, in collaboration with the community, will cultivate each student's intellectual, social, emotional and physical potential through rigorous academic inquiry and informed problem solving skills within a safe, nurturing and respectful environment.

"The listing of matters are those reasonably anticipated by the Chair which may be discussed at the meeting. Not all items listed may in fact be discussed and other items not listed may also be brought up for discussion to the extent permitted by law."


1. Routine Business
Citizen’s Comments
Review of Agenda
Minutes: I recommend approval of the minutes from the April 10, 2012 School Committee Meeting.
Payment of Bills Mrs. McIntyre
Payroll Mrs. Douglas
FHS Student Representatives
Correspondence: none

2. Guests/Presentations
a. Art / FAA Update – Jane Hogan (presentation doc can be viewed here)
b. FY2013 Budget Open Hearing (budget summary document can be found here)

3. Discussion Only Items
Collaborative Agreement

4. Action Items
a. I recommend acceptance of a check for $728.48 from the Hockomock Y (Stop & Shop mini grant) for supplies for Parmenter Elementary School.
b. I recommend acceptance of a check for $1778.00 from the Parmenter PCC for Field Trips.
c. I recommend approval of the Budget Transfers as detailed.
d. I recommend acceptance of a check for $780.00 from Horace Mann PCC for field trips.
e. I recommend acceptance of a check for $1165.00 from the Franklin Music Boosters for In-House Enrichment.
f. I recommend approval of the field trip request of Nancy Schoen for middle school music students to Canobie Lake Park on June 8th as detailed.
g. I recommend approval of amendment number 1 to the Agreement with Bi-County Collaborative titled Inactive Membership as detailed.
h. I recommend approval of amendment number 2 that outlines the annual meeting schedule for the Board of Directors of the Bi-County Collaborative as outlined in the memo.

5. Information Matters
Superintendent’s Report
School Committee Sub-Committee Reports
School Committee Liaison Reports

6. New Business
To discuss future business that may be brought before the School Committee.

7. Adjourn


The School Budget up for discussion can be found here:
http://www.franklinmatters.org/2012/04/franklin-ma-fy-2013-budget-documents.html

Franklin Public Schools: Art program

An overview of the Franklin, MA Public Schools Art program as scheduled for the School Committee meeting on Tuesday, Apr 24, 2012.

FPS Art SchComm April2012

Curious: There is no mention of Gallery 218. Is it still alive or did it get closed?

You can also view the file via Google docs here
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B0wjbnXDBhczR3ZUVHQwcmtvRmc

Related posts on Gallery 218:

The Alumni show
http://www.franklinmatters.org/2009/02/gallery-218-alumni-show.html

Summer Art program
http://www.franklinmatters.org/2010/10/gallery-218-works-of-summer.html

Non-art teachers show their works
http://www.franklinmatters.org/2009/09/gallery-218-new-art-show-reveals.html

Saturday, April 21, 2012

Earth Day at the Community Garden Saturday instead of Sunday!


Hello to our Gardeners, Supporters, and Friends!

This weekend is Earth Day and the Town of Franklin is encouraging everyone to pitch in around town on Sunday 4/22 from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. 

We hope that you will help us out at the Community Garden location at King Street Memorial Park!

The forecast is for Rain on Sunday, 70% probability in the morning.  Good for the planet, Bad for our workday.

So, we are moving our particular community garden Earth Day event up a day---It will be held on Saturday instead from 9-12 a.m. 

We have a big pile of fresh wood chips to spread, weeds to pull (yes, already!), rocks to pile, compost to turn, pollinator garden beds to dig (flowers!), and more.

Please come lend a hand!  Community Service Certificates will be available for those who need them.

While we have a few gloves, shovels and rakes here at the garden, there might not be enough to go around.  
Please bring your own labeled tools and heavy duty gloves if you can.

If you have extra garden tools or equipment that you would like to donate to the Garden, we'd LOVE to have them!

Thanks to our great new shed---built for us by the awesome Tri-County RVTHS students & paid for with a Franklin Rotary grant!---we now have a place to safely store them.

The water at the garden is not on yet, that will happen some time in mid-May. We will have ice water there to drink for our volunteers this Saturday morning.
How about packing a picnic? 

Thanks for your continued support & we hope to see you at the Garden on Saturday!

Need a map to find us?  The Google map link is below:


Thank you for helping out!

The Franklin Community Garden Green Team


"We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children." -Native American Proverb
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In the News - bath salts, water ban



Franklin man charged with using bath salts

New Health Care Report and Updated Budget Browser



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Friday, April 20, 2012

Franklin, MA: FY 2013 budget documents

When you start a budget, you need to know what revenues you expect to have. For your household, the revenue number would be your expected annual salary (i.e. take home pay). This document walks through the sources of Franklin's expected revenue for FY 2013.

Recall that FY 2013 will begin on July 1 and run through Jun 30, 2013. We are currently operating in FY 2012 which began on July 1, 2011 and will complete on Jun 30, 2012.

The Franklin, MA expected revenue for FY 2013:

Franklin Budget Revenues FY2013


With the revenue number to work with for FY 2013, each department goes through their budget to determine what they will need to operate with for the coming year. The capital requirements are separated and were recently approved by the Town Council. This is the operational budget at a summary level for each line of the budget.

The Finance Committee will review the budget at a detail level with each department manager. This detail review occurs over the course of several meetings. The department manager makes their recommendation, the Town Administrator makes his recommendation (which may differ) and the Finance Committee approves of their version (which may be the same as the Town Administrators or differ in some aspects).

This set of recommendations is what the Town Council will review in their two budget hearings currently scheduled for May 23 and 24. The budget total is voted on and becomes effective July 1, 2012.

The Franklin, MA proposed FY 2013 budget:

Franklin Budget Voting FY2013

Note that at the time the Franklin budget was put together, the School Dept had not yet submitted their budget. The place holder that was included 52,710,000 fortunately comes out to be exactly the number the School Dept appears to be bringing forward. I say appears to be as this document is up for discussion by the School Committee and they may make some changes before it goes to the Finance Committee and Town Council.

The School Dept budget as proposed for review by the School Committee:

FPS_FY2013_ExecSummary


You can also view or download these docs from the Franklin Matters Google doc folder
FY 2013 Expected Revenues
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B0wjbnXDBhczQnc2a19DSk12cmM

Franklin Budget
https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B0wjbnXDBhczMmdIMjB1NENGOEk

School Budget
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B0wjbnXDBhczY0JaRnlQalRkVXM