The Brick Task Force presents their report (photo)
Brick report intro (audio)
Brick report presentation (audio)
As additional sections of the audio from the meeting are prepared, they will be posted here.
Tuesday, January 8, 2008
Brick Task Force Report Intro (audio)
Franklin School Commitee Chairman Jeffrey Roy with introductory remarks before the task force made their presentation.
Time: 3 minutes, 33 seconds
MP3 File
Time: 3 minutes, 33 seconds
MP3 File
Brick Task Force Presentation
Members of the Brick Task Force made their presentation to the School Committee meeting Tuesday, January 8th.
Their report can be found here.
Audio files from the presentation and question answer period will be made available here during the week.
Per Chairman Jeffrey Roy before the presentation was received: The School Committee would not be taking a vote or action on the report tonight. Any decision on the Brick classroom will be "resolved in due course during the budget process".
Level service, school job cuts in the news around the state
Level-service budgets may no longer be practical
| MEDWAY - As they start preparing for the next fiscal year, town officials said yesterday the level-service budgets they have used the past few years are hurting municipal services. |
Welcome to Lawrence's budget woes
| More than 40 city workers were laid off last month to close a budget deficit. Then the outgoing City Council failed to approve new tax rates and declined to raise the water rates before leaving office. Now the city assessor... |
Job cuts announced for Salem's schools
| The equivalent of about 80 full-time Salem Public School jobs need to be cut as a result of a $4.7 million deficit caused by underbudgeting and a former business manager's practice of paying old bills out of the current year's budget, Superintendent William J. Cameron Jr. said last night. |
Help is needed for the 4th of July
Yes, the call for help is going out. The long time volunteer effort from Deborah Pellegri and Charles Oteri has come to an end. They are both stepping aside from their leadership roles in coordinating the 4th of July celebration for Franklin.
For more than two decades, Pellegri has served as either the chairwoman or a co-chairwoman of the town's Fourth of July celebration, begun in 1982 to provide a family venue for the holiday to keep the community's children safe. Last year, the six-day event included fireworks, a parade and daily entertainment, and was touted in Family Circle magazine when Franklin was named one of the top 10 places in the country to raise children.
But during a November thank-you party for volunteers, Pellegri announced she would no longer be organizing the event, sponsored the past three years by the town's Lions Club. Oteri, a fellow Lions officer, followed suit, leaving the celebration without leadership or a sponsor.
"We're ready to retire," Pellegri said, agreeing with Oteri that it was time for new blood.
"Fresh ideas," Oteri added.
To that end, Pellegri and Oteri plan to hold an information session Jan. 17 at 7 p.m. in Town Hall for members from other clubs willing to take over their duties.
Read the full article by Michael Morton in the Milford daily News.
If you can step forward as a volunteer, consider attending the information session on January 17th.
Monday, January 7, 2008
Educational Quality Accountability results coming 1/22/08
From the Franklin School Committee blog:
In April and May 2007, the Massachusetts Office of Educational Quality and Accountability (EQA) conducted an independent examination of the Franklin Public Schools for the period of 2004–2006. The EQA analyzed Franklin students’ performance on the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) tests and identified how students in general and in subgroups were performing. The EQA examined critical factors that affected student performance in six major areas: leadership, governance, and communication; curriculum and instruction; assessment and evaluation; human resource management and professional development; access, participation, and student academic support; and financial and asset management.
On Tuesday, January 22, 2008, the audit report will be presented to the School Committee.
and:
And:The state report finds that, on average, three-fourths of all students in Franklin attained proficiency on the 2006 MCAS tests, much more than that statewide. More than four-fifths of Franklin students attained proficiency in English language arts (ELA), more than two-thirds of Franklin students attained proficiency in math, and nearly two-thirds of Franklin students attained proficiency in science and technology/engineering (STE). Ninety-seven percent of the Class of 2006 attained a Competency Determination.
The report also pointed to shortfalls in school funding, which was “insufficient” to fully fund costs associated with increased enrollment, additional special-education teachers, contractual salary increases, and utilities. But the report praised Franklin for passing a $2.7 million property tax increase last spring, which “solidified the community’s commitment to the school district and the educational needs of the children in Franklin.”
The EQA was created by the Massachusetts Legislature in July of 2000, to provide independent and objective programmatic and financial audits of the 350-plus school districts which serve the cities and towns of Massachusetts. The agency is the accountability component of the Education Reform Act of 1993, and was envisioned in that legislation. The complete standards can be read by clicking here.
The full 28 page EQA report on Franklin can be read by clicking here.
Mark your calendar for the Jan 22nd meeting!
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