In the News - Principal, July 4th, James Johnston

By Joyce Kelly/Daily News staff

GHS

Posted Jan 14, 2009 @ 12:15 AM

---

FRANKLIN —

Superintendent Wayne Ogden and Superintendent-in-waiting Maureen Sabolinski officially named Peter J. Light permanent principal of Franklin High School last night, a decision which delighted School Committee members.

Ogden had appointed Light, currently one of four assistant principals at the high school, as interim principal following Pamela Gould's announcement last week she is resigning her post for a new role as assistant superintendent of human resources for the Plymouth School Department.

Gould leaves Jan. 23, and Light takes the helm Monday, Jan. 26.

"When we were dealing with the surprising news of Pam's leaving ... Maureen and I spent a lot of painful hours figuring out how to move forward," said Ogden, who is also leaving his job at the end of June.

Read the full article in the Milford Daily News here

------------------

By Joyce Kelly/Daily News staff

GHS

Posted Jan 13, 2009 @ 10:27 PM

---

FRANKLIN —

The Fourth of July Coalition is planning to keep the town's honored five-day celebration, and this year, they're determined to bring back the parade, said Warren Revell, the group's secretary.

"Personally, I think a parade before fireworks, because it keeps more people around," said Revell, noting that Franklin doesn't benefit from non-residents who come to see the fireworks for a half-hour and immediately leave.

A parade, on the other hand, draws people to the common and keeps them entertained longer, he said. And with a parade, he said, "They're more apt to spend money there."

The group hasn't made any major decisions yet, and tomorrow at 7 p.m. at the municipal building they will discuss ideas for how to celebrate Independence Day this year.

Read the full article in the Milford Daily News here

-------------------

By James Johnston/Daily News columnist

GHS

Posted Jan 13, 2009 @ 09:17 PM

---

FRANKLIN —

Among the many things wrong with the Republicans in Congress today is that they hate unions and that they hate American labor. I think that they would like to go back to 1900 when you could hire a "girl" to work for you as a "maid of all work" for about two dollars a week.

This point is well illustrated by Ronald Reagan's breaking of the Air Traffic Controller's Union back in the early '80s. That union has never recovered, and air traffic controllers are not paid much more today than they were in 1981 nor are their working conditions much improved.

Union jobs have been driven out of the country, and trade union membership nationally is made up of only about nine percent of all white and blue collar workers today. The Republican conservatives look at this as a victory.

Read the full article in the Milford Daily News here

Senior Center

Continuing to explore the 2008 Annual Report I find information on the Senior Center.

Did you know that there are over 100 people living here in Franklin over 90 year old?

The Senior Center is an active place. Here is a slide show of photos taken during the Open House held November 11, 2007.





If you have not picked up your hard copy of the report at Town Hall, you can try to view it online here: http://www.town.franklin.ma.us/pages/FranklinMA_Clerk/2008arpt.pdf


Note: Most of these photos were published here on Franklin Matters at that time. )

School Committee Meeting 1/13/09

This is the collection of posts covering the School Committee meeting of 1/13/09

• Live reporting - subcommittee update
• Live reporting - Superintendent update
• Live reporting - action items
• Live reporting - building committee update
• Live reporting - Oak St Improvement plan
• Live reporting - Peter Light - part 2
• Live reporting - Peter Light
• Live reporting - Art Gallery
• Live reporting

• School Committee - Agenda - 1/13/09

The video replay of the School Committee meeting is now available on the Town web site here

Live reporting - subcommittee update

Rohrbach - providing an update on the Strategic Planning Steering Committee; two meetings held so far; one organizational, one working session. PR statement in draft, we will be reaching out to the various stakeholders with a couple of surveys and back here to provide an update on the planning process.

Live reporting - Superintendent update

The conversation has been underway all through the night with weather and condition updates. The judgment is based upon the readiness of the town DPW and facilities to get the streets, sidewalks, parking lots, and schools ready.

Decision needs to be made before 5:30 AM to enable proper communications take place in time.

Governor had weighted in on the discussion for the Friday before Christmas. They were fearful of a repeat of the situation of the year ago. The best information at the time for the 12/19 decision was to close rather than open and have an early dismissal. The forecast had been for snow to begin in Franklin at between 11:00 and 1:00 PM.

Sabolinski - We need to get the message out early enough for our staff who are traveling some distance to hear about it before leaving their residence.

Armenio - what about hockey practice that starts at 5:00 AM?

Ogden - I say this lovingly because I was one. Hockey parents, don't stop going somewhere because of snow and ice.

Cafasso - what are you hearing about the conditions for the walkers?

Ogden - one sidewalk at Oak/Mann complex was not done until later in the day. One of the sidewalk plows is out of business. There is a priority listing for what sidewalks should be done in order. The Oak/Mann/High School covers approx. 50% of our students. Those sidewalks need to be done.

Live reporting - action items

Action Items

• I recommend acceptance of a check for $3,625.00 from the Annie Sullivan PCC for the 7th Grade field trip to the Krista McAuliffe Space Center. Approved 7-0

• I recommend acceptance of a check for $800.00 from the Horace Mann PCC to support in-house enrichment activities. Approved 7-0

• I recommend approval of the job posting for School Nurse at the Annie Sullivan Middle School. Approved 7-0 (this is the least expensive obligation to take, it is required)
  

• I recommend acceptance of the school improvement plan for Oak Street Approved 7-0

Live reporting - building committee update

Ed Cafasso discusses the agenda item for the next building committee meeting
aside from the process around the High School, doing a facility plan for the remaining buildings

Armenio - defer the actual building capital budget to Mike D'Angelo; would otherwise like to see the wireless at the high school and then the text books as the classroom needs for capital.

Trahan - agrees with Armenio in deferring to D'Angelo; otherwise the text books and wireless seem to be the needs

Rohrbach - high school is our most pressing issue

Roy - (1) Not sure just what the mission of the building committee is, the high school is a priority, 90-100 million is too sizable a project for the community to digest. I thought we were looking for the building committee to try and parce out the high school project into smaller digestable bites. When will we hear what the MSBA say about the needs at the high school? Will the committee be able to develop a proposal to fund at a specific level?

(2) With regards to these projects, and they add up to about $5 million dollars. Is the building committee looking to fund just these facility projects? I assume they are not looking to take care of the other text books, wireless, etc. needs.

Cafasso -we are far enough along to have the Chairman and some members of the committee here to have that discussion. The committee was set up so that we would be in a position to respond quickly to the MBSA requirements.

Roy - the number one item is not on this list, that is the high school. I would be concerned with moving forward with some other projects (i.e. the elevator at Davis Thayer), I think the community would be less inclined to support us. We need to be clear on our priorities.

Cafasso - 1st priority is the renovation or building new the high school. The second objective is to do what is necessary for Thayer, Kennedy and Parmenter as they have been identified as other schools with needs.

Ogden - Mike D'Angelo is onboard with the high school as the number one priority. There are two things on this listing that are of critical need (#10 - replace gym and cafeteria heating units) and (#25 - Upgrade phone switches and voicemail). Our Plan B, if the MSBA comes back with something negative, then I think we would still need to go forward with something for the science labs. That has been an accrediation issue and we won't have a long time to fix it.

Mullen - if lesser money is all we get, then the science labs and other space reconfiguration items would come to the front.

Trahan - seems like none of this could take place until we hear.

Cafasso - this discussion is around A, B and C options depending upon what State funding we will get. If we had to do a series of projects at the high school what would they be? High school is top priority, safety issues top, then the #10 and #25 have priority. That is good priority for us to take forward to the meeting tomorrow.