The Tri-County gym sold all its seats for the fund raiser for Annie Sullivan School on Friday night.
The Sullivan Rockets gave a valiant effort in holding the Harlem Wizards to under 100 points.
A basketball game? Not really from the purest sense but there was great family entertainment!
The Sullivan PCC must be pleased with the turnout.
I should have some pictures up to show some of the action later this weekend!
Saturday, March 14, 2009
"chickens are going to come home to roost"
GHS
FRANKLIN —
After learning the town spends $2,700 less per pupil than the state average, Superintendent Wayne Ogden said he is growing increasingly worried Franklin will soon reach the state's minimum spending threshold.
The per-pupil statistics can be viewed as either "very positive or very depressing," depending on one's perspective, Ogden said.
According to the Massachusetts Department of Education Web site, Franklin spends $9,750 per pupil, and the state average is $12,497 per pupil.
Despite Franklin's comparatively low spending per pupil, the district performs at an above-average level in all categories, Ogden said.
"Your teachers and kids continue to do a great job with the resources available," he said.
Read the full story on the low cost per student and high performance in the Milford Daily News here
Andro's Pizza - worth stopping for
I stopped at Andro's Pizza for a late lunch Friday afternoon. Their small cheese calzone was decadently delicious. I'll need to stop back for their pizza sometime.
Have you tried Andro's yet?
Have you tried Andro's yet?
Friday, March 13, 2009
Thank you!
thank you for taking the time to return my running wallet containing my ID and e, originally uploaded by shersteve.
To whomever picked this up downtown and took the time to return it to me. This is much appreciated.
I had dropped it when running last Thursday morning. I know I had it in my pocket at the corner of Summer and East Central. When I checked again on Wachusett it was gone. I completed my run, got into the car and retraced my route. As I went along Union, I was dismayed to find that the DPW crews were out street sweeping. Good for them and cleaning up the town but that also meant that if I had dropped it on Union, I had no chance of getting it back. It would have been gobbled up in the sweeper.
With it returned, it must have fallen out somewhere along East Central before I turned on Union.
Anyway, my thanks to the person who picked it up and was kind enough to return it. Franklin does have fine people living here. Don't let anyone say otherwise!
"its report would be totally transparent, objective and accurate"
GHS
FRANKLIN —
The longterm fiscal planning committee is nearly ready to present its multi-year financial projections, and is aiming for an audience of hundreds at an April 27 presentation at Horace Mann Middle School.
"I feel a hugely important objective is education, to inform the public as to why we're under (financial) pressure on a yearly basis," said Councilor Stephen Whalen.
As part of its efforts to dispel some misconceptions, the group last night emphasized the importance of making the town's finances understandable.
For instance, while reviewing Franklin's relatively low per-pupil spending, which is $2,700 below the state average, members commented that many residents don't realize the value they get for their educational dollar.
"There are so many people in town who think this town wastes money and is poorly run, but there is no evidence" to support that, Whalen said.
Read the full article from the Financial Planning Committee meeting in the Milford Daily News here
"merit pay that is based on student performance"
Read the full article in the Milford Daily News hereGHS
Following President Obama's support of linking teacher pay to student performance and his promotion of charter schools, area educators say they are willing to listen. But, they say, they want to hear more specifics from him first.
"He's got a lot of good ideas for education," said Massachusetts Teachers Association President Anne Wass, though she noted that the state association disagrees with Obama on teacher pay and charter schools.
Teachers unions, a key force in Democratic party politics, have in the past vehemently opposed both of those ideas. Obama acknowledged that conflict.
-----
Chandler Creedon, president of the Franklin Education Association, said school districts vary widely on per-student funding, and any talk of merit pay also needs a discussion of how districts would fund it.Franklin's expense per student is roughly $9,500, about $3,000 less than the state average, he said, and the schools might lay off 60 teachers and raise class sizes.
"We certainly don't have a level playing field to make these comparisons," said Creedon.
Fun Friday - How much is one trillion?
Let's have a little fun as the week closes this Friday the 13th.
How much is one trillion?
What does one trillion look like?
The slideshow put together using Google Docs starts with a familiar object, the size of a dollar bill and puts together what one trillion looks like.
Quite impressive!
Enjoy!
Thanks to Ms Meyer, an English teacher from Conroe, TX for putting this together to share.
How much is one trillion?
What does one trillion look like?
The slideshow put together using Google Docs starts with a familiar object, the size of a dollar bill and puts together what one trillion looks like.
Quite impressive!
Enjoy!
Thanks to Ms Meyer, an English teacher from Conroe, TX for putting this together to share.
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Financial Plng Comm 03/12/09
The live reporting for the Financial Planning Committee meeting on March 12, 2009 can be found here:
Panel on Government and its role in the Economy (Summary)
The panel discussion on Monday morning, Mar 9, 2009 at Franklin High school was an instructional moment in politics and civics. The discussion was recorded and is available for listening in three parts.
Part One
Vice Principal Joe DiLorenzo provided the welcoming remarks and the introduction of the panel.
The panel included:
The first question that everyone on the panel got to answer was summarized as: "What is the proper role of government in our economy?" They spoke in the following order so you can make out who's voice belong to who. McGovern, Spilka, Brown, Vallee, Nutting, and Feeley.
Listen to Part One here
Part Two
Question - Senator Brown, you spoke of reform in your response, indicating that Governor Patrick has been in office for 2.5 years and has not done any meaningful reform, if you were in charge what reform would you make?
Answered by Brown, Spilka
Question - How do you think that market panic has contributed to the economic downturn?
Answered by Feeley, Nutting, Vallee
Question - How do we help people with mortgage foreclosures and business on Wall Street with bailouts?
Answered by McGovern, Brown, Spilka
Listen to Part Two here
Part Three
Question - When you are creating bills to help people in the foreclosure crisis, do you plan on differentiating between predator lenders, those who made poor choices and those with unfortunate circumstances? or do you plan on doing so?
Answered by Brown
Question - Have you agreed to a salary freeze for next year?
Answered by Nutting, McGovern, Vallee, Brown, Spilka, Feeley
Question - What's your opinion on the stimulus package that was recently passed?
Answered by McGovern, Brown, Spilka
Interesting side note: Brown challenged McGovern on the number of earmarks supposedly in the package. McGovern came right back with "There are none." Brown insisted there are and that they would take it offline to resolve. This occurs about 9:50 into the recording.
Senator Spilka gets cut short as the bell rings.
Listen to Part Three here
Pictures from this event can be found here
Part One
Vice Principal Joe DiLorenzo provided the welcoming remarks and the introduction of the panel.
The panel included:
- Congressman James McGovern
- State Senator Scott Brown
- State Senator Karen Spilka
- Majority Leader of the House, Representative Jim Vallee
- Town Administrator Jeff Nutting
- Town Council Chairperson Chris Feeley
The first question that everyone on the panel got to answer was summarized as: "What is the proper role of government in our economy?" They spoke in the following order so you can make out who's voice belong to who. McGovern, Spilka, Brown, Vallee, Nutting, and Feeley.
Listen to Part One here
Part Two
Question - Senator Brown, you spoke of reform in your response, indicating that Governor Patrick has been in office for 2.5 years and has not done any meaningful reform, if you were in charge what reform would you make?
Answered by Brown, Spilka
Question - How do you think that market panic has contributed to the economic downturn?
Answered by Feeley, Nutting, Vallee
Question - How do we help people with mortgage foreclosures and business on Wall Street with bailouts?
Answered by McGovern, Brown, Spilka
Listen to Part Two here
Part Three
Question - When you are creating bills to help people in the foreclosure crisis, do you plan on differentiating between predator lenders, those who made poor choices and those with unfortunate circumstances? or do you plan on doing so?
Answered by Brown
Question - Have you agreed to a salary freeze for next year?
Answered by Nutting, McGovern, Vallee, Brown, Spilka, Feeley
Question - What's your opinion on the stimulus package that was recently passed?
Answered by McGovern, Brown, Spilka
Interesting side note: Brown challenged McGovern on the number of earmarks supposedly in the package. McGovern came right back with "There are none." Brown insisted there are and that they would take it offline to resolve. This occurs about 9:50 into the recording.
Senator Spilka gets cut short as the bell rings.
Listen to Part Three here
Pictures from this event can be found here
FM #35 - Panel on Gov't and Economy - P3
This is #35 in the series of podcasts on what matters in Franklin MA. This is the third part of a three part panel discussion recorded at Franklin High School on Monday Mar 9, 2009.
Time: 13 minutes, 57 seconds
MP3 File
Session Notes: FM #35
Music intro
My intro
This internet radio show or podcast for Franklin Matters is number 35 in the series.
This session is a special one. On Monday morning, March 9, 2009, there was a panel discussion on the government and its role in the economy. The panel included Congressman James McGovern, State Senator Scott Brown, State Senator Karen Spilka, Majority Leader of the House, our own Jim Vallee, Town Administrator Jeff Nutting, and Town Council Chairperson Chris Feeley. The panel was held at Franklin High School and put together by Michael Walsh. The moderator was FHS Senior April Crehan. The session was well attended by students but only a handful of citizens took part.
Now you can share in that opportunity. What follows is the audio recording of the panel discussion split into three parts.
The first part covers the introduction of the panel and moderator and the first question which all had a chance to talk to.
The second part covers three questions. This third part also covers three questions and the closing is cut off by the bell for the students to change class periods.
Thanks to all the panelists for sharing their thoughts in this forum.
Thanks also to Mike Walsh for the opportunity to provide this recording for those who missed to take part.
--------------
This podcast has been a public service provided to my fellow citizens of Franklin, MA
For additional information, please visit Franklinmatters.blogspot.com/
If you have questions or comments you can reach me directly at shersteve @ gmail dot com
The musical intro and closing is from the Podsafe Music Network
Jon Schmidt - Powerful Exhilarating Piano Music
Time: 13 minutes, 57 seconds
MP3 File
Session Notes: FM #35
Music intro
My intro
This internet radio show or podcast for Franklin Matters is number 35 in the series.
This session is a special one. On Monday morning, March 9, 2009, there was a panel discussion on the government and its role in the economy. The panel included Congressman James McGovern, State Senator Scott Brown, State Senator Karen Spilka, Majority Leader of the House, our own Jim Vallee, Town Administrator Jeff Nutting, and Town Council Chairperson Chris Feeley. The panel was held at Franklin High School and put together by Michael Walsh. The moderator was FHS Senior April Crehan. The session was well attended by students but only a handful of citizens took part.
Now you can share in that opportunity. What follows is the audio recording of the panel discussion split into three parts.
The first part covers the introduction of the panel and moderator and the first question which all had a chance to talk to.
The second part covers three questions. This third part also covers three questions and the closing is cut off by the bell for the students to change class periods.
Thanks to all the panelists for sharing their thoughts in this forum.
Thanks also to Mike Walsh for the opportunity to provide this recording for those who missed to take part.
--------------
This podcast has been a public service provided to my fellow citizens of Franklin, MA
For additional information, please visit Franklinmatters.blogspot.com/
If you have questions or comments you can reach me directly at shersteve @ gmail dot com
The musical intro and closing is from the Podsafe Music Network
Jon Schmidt - Powerful Exhilarating Piano Music
Live reporting - Financial Plng Comm - cont'd
Data integrity checks; keeping the original sources marked and separate to come back to when the deck is complete
always took the conservative number and one that could be reasonably justified
bulk of employment has gone down from the schools but the school population has still increased
the town employment side has lost employment while the number of roads, houses, population has all increased
there are a lot of interesting things that aren't going to make the cut
one of the key values of the chart showing the overall per pupil cost in comparison to other relative communities, is that we are not overspending
The state aid will be a variable within a range, what reasonable conclusions can we draw about the possible ranges for state aid? Could it be flat, sure. When will the recovery occur? Anyone's guess but when it does come back, all the revenue streams, income tax, excise tax, etc. will increase and help.
The best guess is the most conservative, flat next year, and modest increases thereafter.
It could go below flat if we don't get a recovery for 2011
Next meeting: March 26th
Focus group: April 2nd
always took the conservative number and one that could be reasonably justified
bulk of employment has gone down from the schools but the school population has still increased
the town employment side has lost employment while the number of roads, houses, population has all increased
there are a lot of interesting things that aren't going to make the cut
one of the key values of the chart showing the overall per pupil cost in comparison to other relative communities, is that we are not overspending
The state aid will be a variable within a range, what reasonable conclusions can we draw about the possible ranges for state aid? Could it be flat, sure. When will the recovery occur? Anyone's guess but when it does come back, all the revenue streams, income tax, excise tax, etc. will increase and help.
The best guess is the most conservative, flat next year, and modest increases thereafter.
It could go below flat if we don't get a recovery for 2011
Next meeting: March 26th
Focus group: April 2nd
Live reporting - Financial Planning Committee
Attending: Cameron, Hardesty, Whalen, Bartlett, Nutting, Zollo, Wilschek
Absent: Kelly, Trahan, Roche, Ogden,
Discussion on override history added to one table but while the numbers are not completely accurate, even if it were, it doesn't add much of relevance to the discussion.
Some handouts for review, not all the package was reprinted.
Objectives for tonight:
discussion on relevance of data that is directly from the DOR Franklin at a Glance section
Absent: Kelly, Trahan, Roche, Ogden,
Discussion on override history added to one table but while the numbers are not completely accurate, even if it were, it doesn't add much of relevance to the discussion.
Some handouts for review, not all the package was reprinted.
Objectives for tonight:
- revisit the assumptions from last week's draft
- objectivity of the process
- ensure accuracy of the data and report
discussion on relevance of data that is directly from the DOR Franklin at a Glance section
FM #34 - Panel on Gov't and Economy P2
This is #34 in the series of podcasts on Franklin, MA Matters. This is the second part of the panel discussion on government and their role in the economy recorded at Franklin High School, Monday, March 9, 2009
Time: 21 minutes, 32 seconds
MP3 File
Session Notes: FM #34
Music intro
My intro
This internet radio show or podcast for Franklin Matters is number 34 in the series.
This session is a special one. On Monday morning, March 9, 2009, there was a panel discussion on the government and its role in the economy. The panel included Congressman James McGovern, State Senator Scott Brown, State Senator Karen Spilka, Majority Leader of the House, our own Jim Vallee, Town Administrator Jeff Nutting, and Town Council Chairperson Chris Feeley. The panel was held at Franklin High School and put together by Michael Walsh. The moderator was FHS Senior April Crehan. The session was well attended by students but only a handful of citizens took part.
Now you can share in that opportunity. What follows is the audio recording of the panel discussion split into three parts.
The first part covers the introduction of the panel and moderator and the first question which all had a chance to talk to.
This second part covers three questions. The third part also covers three questions and the closing is cut off by the bell for the students to change class periods.
Thanks to all the panelists for sharing their thoughts in this forum. Thanks also to Mike Walsh for the opportunity to provide this recording for those who missed to take part.
--------------
This podcast has been a public service provided to my fellow citizens of Franklin, MA
For additional information, please visit Franklinmatters.blogspot.com/
If you have questions or comments you can reach me directly at shersteve @ gmail dot com
The musical intro and closing is from the Podsafe Music Network
Jon Schmidt - Powerful Exhilarating Piano Music
Time: 21 minutes, 32 seconds
MP3 File
Session Notes: FM #34
Music intro
My intro
This internet radio show or podcast for Franklin Matters is number 34 in the series.
This session is a special one. On Monday morning, March 9, 2009, there was a panel discussion on the government and its role in the economy. The panel included Congressman James McGovern, State Senator Scott Brown, State Senator Karen Spilka, Majority Leader of the House, our own Jim Vallee, Town Administrator Jeff Nutting, and Town Council Chairperson Chris Feeley. The panel was held at Franklin High School and put together by Michael Walsh. The moderator was FHS Senior April Crehan. The session was well attended by students but only a handful of citizens took part.
Now you can share in that opportunity. What follows is the audio recording of the panel discussion split into three parts.
The first part covers the introduction of the panel and moderator and the first question which all had a chance to talk to.
This second part covers three questions. The third part also covers three questions and the closing is cut off by the bell for the students to change class periods.
Thanks to all the panelists for sharing their thoughts in this forum. Thanks also to Mike Walsh for the opportunity to provide this recording for those who missed to take part.
--------------
This podcast has been a public service provided to my fellow citizens of Franklin, MA
For additional information, please visit Franklinmatters.blogspot.com/
If you have questions or comments you can reach me directly at shersteve @ gmail dot com
The musical intro and closing is from the Podsafe Music Network
Jon Schmidt - Powerful Exhilarating Piano Music
FM #33 - Panel on Government and the Economy
This is #33 in the series of podcasts for Franklin Matters. The panel discussion was recorded at Franklin High School on Monday Mar 9, 2009 and split into three parts for ease of listening. This is part one of three.
Time: 24 minutes, 12 seconds
MP3 File
Session Notes: FM #33
Music intro
My intro
This internet radio show or podcast for Franklin Matters is number 33 in the series.
This session is a special one. On Monday morning, March 9, 2009, there was a panel discussion on the government and its role in the economy. The panel included Congressman James McGovern, State Senator Scott Brown, State Senator Karen Spilka, Majority Leader of the House, our own Representative Jim Vallee, Town Administrator Jeff Nutting, and Town Council Chairperson Chris Feeley. The panel was held at Franklin High School and put together by Michael Walsh. The moderator was FHS Senior April Crehan. The session was well attended by students but only a handful of citizens took part.
Now you can share in that opportunity. What follows is the audio recording of the panel discussion split into three parts.
The first part covers the introduction of the panel/moderator and the first question which all had a chance to talk to.
The second part covers three questions. The third part also covers three questions and the closing is cut off by the bell for the students to change class periods.
Thanks to all the panelists for sharing their thoughts in this forum. Thanks also to Mike Walsh for the opportunity to provide this recording for those who missed to take part.
--------------
This podcast has been a public service provided to my fellow citizens of Franklin, MA
For additional information, please visit Franklinmatters.blogspot.com/
If you have questions or comments you can reach me directly at shersteve @ gmail dot com
The musical intro and closing is from the Podsafe Music Network
Jon Schmidt - Powerful Exhilarating Piano Music
Time: 24 minutes, 12 seconds
MP3 File
Session Notes: FM #33
Music intro
My intro
This internet radio show or podcast for Franklin Matters is number 33 in the series.
This session is a special one. On Monday morning, March 9, 2009, there was a panel discussion on the government and its role in the economy. The panel included Congressman James McGovern, State Senator Scott Brown, State Senator Karen Spilka, Majority Leader of the House, our own Representative Jim Vallee, Town Administrator Jeff Nutting, and Town Council Chairperson Chris Feeley. The panel was held at Franklin High School and put together by Michael Walsh. The moderator was FHS Senior April Crehan. The session was well attended by students but only a handful of citizens took part.
Now you can share in that opportunity. What follows is the audio recording of the panel discussion split into three parts.
The first part covers the introduction of the panel/moderator and the first question which all had a chance to talk to.
The second part covers three questions. The third part also covers three questions and the closing is cut off by the bell for the students to change class periods.
Thanks to all the panelists for sharing their thoughts in this forum. Thanks also to Mike Walsh for the opportunity to provide this recording for those who missed to take part.
--------------
This podcast has been a public service provided to my fellow citizens of Franklin, MA
For additional information, please visit Franklinmatters.blogspot.com/
If you have questions or comments you can reach me directly at shersteve @ gmail dot com
The musical intro and closing is from the Podsafe Music Network
Jon Schmidt - Powerful Exhilarating Piano Music
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