This is happening the whole month of April, collect for them!
Saturday, April 11, 2009
Unfunded Mandates: Another for the listing
Earlier this week, the Massachusetts Public Health Council, a creature of the state which lacks any “administrative or executive functions” announced a new set of unfunded mandates for local school districts. Beginning with the next school year, school districts will be “required” to calculate student heights and weights into a Body Mass Index measuring their overall proportions. The results must be sent home to parents for students in first, fourth, seventh and 10th grades in a package explaining what they mean and how parents can best combat obesity. The new regulations will be phased into schools over the next 18 months. The full text of these regulations can be viewed by clicking here.Read the full posting on the Franklin School Committee blog here
This will be another unfunded mandate to add to the listing previously published in the series of 11 posts here.
Sending the message home to the parents/guardians is going to work, right? Aren't those the same folks letting their kids sit and watch TV or play computer games instead of being outside to get exercise?
How does this happen?
A well meaning group of people get together to address a problem and find a solution without completely thinking it through.
Thinking it through needs to include paying for it. The school systems are not sitting around with free time on their hands.
Friday, April 10, 2009
Kings Firecrackers
For some fun on a Friday, here is quite an athletic performance by the Kings Firecrackers, a group of 4th through 8th grade girls that do some amazing things with jump ropes. They are from the Kings Local School District in Ohio. This group is a lot of fun!
Who knew jumping rope could be so exciting?
Thanks to Doug B for sharing this video!
Who knew jumping rope could be so exciting?
Thanks to Doug B for sharing this video!
Thursday, April 9, 2009
"bold moves to change the public perception"
Read the full article written by Rep Jim Vallee in the Franklin Gazette hereTo the Editor:
As part of my transition into the role of Majority Leader this session, I will focus my energy on several key issues — many of them substantive and some symbolic.Amidst a dire economic climate and talk of increasing taxes, it is imperative that we as public servants do more to regain the trust of our constituents that has been so badly eroded. The cloud of controversy under which three Speakers of the House have left their posts is an example of a few spoiling the view of the many. How do we — the countless other public servants who work honestly on behalf of the citizens of this state — begin to alter the public perception?
The answer is an ethics overhaul. We need thoughtful, meaningful, and sweeping reform that will effectively — albeit slowly — rebuild the integrity of elected officials and restore trust to those who elected us.
World Wide Web in Plain English
As part of our continuing series on Web 2.0 technologies, the folks at Common Craft have come up with a new video to explain the world wide web in plain English.
Enjoy!
Enjoy!
"It saves taxpayers money, it saves children"
Milford Daily News
BOSTON —
House Majority Leader James Vallee was one of two state legislators honored at the State House yesterday by the Children's Trust Fund of Massachusetts. Lt. Gov. Timothy Murray joined with the organization to proclaim April as Child Abuse Prevention Month.
The event, called "Step up for Prevention," featured a display of 700 children's shoes to represent the average number of children abused in Massachusetts each week. Suzin Bartley, executive director of the fund, said Massachusetts has the second highest rate of substantiated child abuse neglect in the country.
"This display reminds us of the sad presence of child abuse in Massachusetts," Murray said. "It impacts all of us - not just the children that are abused, but their families, their friends, and their classmates."
Read the full article in the Milford Daily News here
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
FM #37 - Focus group recap
This is #37 in the series of podcasts on what matters in Franklin, MA. In this session I recap the feedback from the two Focus groups that the Financial Planning Committee held on 4/2/09.
Time: 14 minutes, 14 seconds
MP3 File
Session Notes
I spent some time going back through the Focus Group notes that were published here and here to try and come up with a summary. The multiple pages of the two sets of notes can be overwhelming. Of course, the report the Financial Planning Committee is putting together is at the root of this. As much as there is in the report, it needs to be as simple as possible and answer as many questions as possible. That is the challenge!
Why were there two sessions?
To simplify the feedback, one group was given the Executive Summary and the other group was given the detailed report. Each session handled one section of the report.
Initial reactions
What does this tell me?
Across both sessions, the initial reactions were similar. The responses were similar whether they saw the Executive Summary or the detailed report. The numbers are staggering but they are what they are.
Interesting to find out that this (five year plan) has been done before. One indicated at least three times but each time the information was not maintained and hence obsolete quickly.
Other key comments
While Jeff Nutting is fond of saying "There are no secrets here", there are quite a few folks who don't believe that. Transparency is not just a good thing. Transparency is a requirement.
A unified front will help dispel the inaccurate perceptions. If the Town Council, School Committee and Finance Committee join together in saying with one voice, this is what needs to be done, then there will be some credibility. If there are disconnects, there will be problems.
As much as there were comments about "there is too much information", what ever is published needs to be accurate and simple. One page needs to tie to another. Some basic information and terms need to be explained. We (deliberately, the "collective we") need to set the table for the discussion with the proper definitions and explanations so that the discussion can proceed around the same set of facts.
--------------
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: 14 minutes, 14 seconds
MP3 File
Session Notes
I spent some time going back through the Focus Group notes that were published here and here to try and come up with a summary. The multiple pages of the two sets of notes can be overwhelming. Of course, the report the Financial Planning Committee is putting together is at the root of this. As much as there is in the report, it needs to be as simple as possible and answer as many questions as possible. That is the challenge!
Why were there two sessions?
To simplify the feedback, one group was given the Executive Summary and the other group was given the detailed report. Each session handled one section of the report.
Initial reactions
- There was fear in reading this, we moved here because the school system was good, now that it appears to be going down hill, what will it be like when my kids get there (into school)?
- This is information never really seen together, the facts are good, also left (me) with a lot of questions.
- It's scary that this hasn't been done before.
- I am shocked to see how much disproportionately we are dependent upon the state compared to other towns. This raises some concerns that we can do what we think is right but that the state can change and we don't have control.
- Gee, we are getting an extraordinary value for what we are getting.
What does this tell me?
Across both sessions, the initial reactions were similar. The responses were similar whether they saw the Executive Summary or the detailed report. The numbers are staggering but they are what they are.
Interesting to find out that this (five year plan) has been done before. One indicated at least three times but each time the information was not maintained and hence obsolete quickly.
Action - Franklin does need to maintain this plan, period!
Other key comments
- Call to action, unified communications will be key
- Perception is that the town is always finding money.
- One of the first things that struck me was one of the last things you say on Page 9; “our forecasts excludes certain future costs” I understand why you need to say that but will anyone of those blow up and destroy what we have done in this report?
- I think our town needs to look at this at the community as a whole, I think there are parts of the town that look at one department or the other, there is a perception of that, starting from the top,
- With all the issues that Franklin has, it does come down to school, it is a big part of town,we are talking of the future of this town, it drives the property values, if we don't come together now and fix it, we are talking of the future of the town.
While Jeff Nutting is fond of saying "There are no secrets here", there are quite a few folks who don't believe that. Transparency is not just a good thing. Transparency is a requirement.
A unified front will help dispel the inaccurate perceptions. If the Town Council, School Committee and Finance Committee join together in saying with one voice, this is what needs to be done, then there will be some credibility. If there are disconnects, there will be problems.
Choice: United, we will stand. Divided, we will be conquered.Additional Explanations Needed
- Charts need to be fully labeled
- How do we explain the State Aid formula?
- Tri-County funding, what do we pay per student compared to Franklin?
- Need a better explanation of the DOE numbers where the line was added to ensure a total.
- Can we compare the % of the Franklin school, fire, police budget to the other communities?
- Explain tax levy (what it includes, excludes).
- What about the consolidation efforts on the Town side, not very visible.
- Explanation of capital versus operational dollars
- Review pages (eg. Page 4, 5, 17) to see if graphs or pie charts would make the information easier to read.
- Page 21, it says “what can we do about it?” but there is not enough detail here to make a decision. "Improving process efficiency" What does that mean?
- Split tax rate, needs an explanation of why or why not.
- Explain debt service as a part of operational dollars
As much as there were comments about "there is too much information", what ever is published needs to be accurate and simple. One page needs to tie to another. Some basic information and terms need to be explained. We (deliberately, the "collective we") need to set the table for the discussion with the proper definitions and explanations so that the discussion can proceed around the same set of facts.
Action: Some minor tweaks remain to tighten up the numbers and explanations.
--------------
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
"Recycling is the right thing to do"
Milford Daily News
FRANKLIN —
Call him a recycling evangelist.
Every morning, Chris White hits the streets, checking the trash and recycling habits of his fellow residents.
He begins at 8 a.m., aligning his schedule with trash collection, to see how well people are recycling.
If they are doing a good job, White hangs a thank-you tag on their doorknob, and suggests a few additional things they can do to keep trash out of landfills, said White, the part-time recycling coordinator for the Department of Public Works.
Non-recyclers get another tag on their doors, urging them to change their wasteful ways, and he adds a little sticker explaining what steps they can take to get started, such as picking up free bins at the DPW.
"The great thing about Franklin is, you can put out as much recycling as you want. So if you have 40 bins of papers, we'll take that, but you can only take out three barrels of trash," White said.
Read the full article on recycling in the Milford Daily News here
"Cutting full-day kindergarten lowers the quality of education"
Milford Daily News
FRANKLIN —
Facing a budget deficit of $2.5 million, "nothing is off the table" in terms of cuts, but officials are optimistic they can preserve full-day kindergarten, says School Committee Chairman Jeffrey Roy.
The 9-year-old program, which serves all of Franklin's kindergarten students (447 this year), is in jeopardy due to this year's severe budget constraints.
Elementary school principals, who needed to cut 30 positions, recommended that the schools eliminate full-day kindergarten since it is not mandated by law.
Such a move would keep class sizes in other grades to a somewhat reasonable level. Otherwise, class sizes would shoot to more than 30 students in many instances.
Read the full article on kindergarten in the Milford Daily News here
Inside the Focus Groups
I spent some time going back through the Focus Group notes that were published here and here to try and come up with a summary. The multiple pages of the two sets of notes can be overwhelming. Of course, the report the Financial Planning Committee is putting together is at the root of this. As much as there is in the report, it needs to be as simple as possible and answer as many questions as possible. That is the challenge!
Why were there two sessions?
To simplify the feedback, one group was given the Executive Summary and the other group was given the detailed report. Each session handled one section of the report.
Initial reactions
What does this tell me?
Across both sessions, the initial reactions were similar. The responses were similar whether they saw the Executive Summary or the detailed report. The numbers are staggering but they are what they are.
Interesting to find out that this (five year plan) has been done before. One indicated at least three times but each time the information was not maintained and hence obsolete quickly.
Other key comments
While Jeff Nutting is fond of saying "There are no secrets here", there are quite a few folks who don't believe that. Transparency is not just a good thing. Transparency is a requirement.
A unified front will help dispel the inaccurate perceptions. If the Town Council, School Committee and Finance Committee join together in saying with one voice, this is what needs to be done, then there will be some credibility. If there are disconnects, there will be problems.
As much as there were comments about "there is too much information", what ever is published needs to be accurate and simple. One page needs to tie to another. Some basic information and terms need to be explained. We (deliberately, the "collective we") need to set the table for the discussion with the proper definitions and explanations so that the discussion can proceed around the same set of facts.
Why were there two sessions?
To simplify the feedback, one group was given the Executive Summary and the other group was given the detailed report. Each session handled one section of the report.
Initial reactions
- There was fear in reading this, we moved here because the school system was good, now that it appears to be going down hill, what will it be like when my kids get there (into school)?
- This is information never really seen together, the facts are good, also left (me) with a lot of questions.
- It's scary that this hasn't been done before.
- I am shocked to see how much disproportionately we are dependent upon the state compared to other towns. This raises some concerns that we can do what we think is right but that the state can change and we don't have control.
- Gee, we are getting an extraordinary value for what we are getting.
What does this tell me?
Across both sessions, the initial reactions were similar. The responses were similar whether they saw the Executive Summary or the detailed report. The numbers are staggering but they are what they are.
Interesting to find out that this (five year plan) has been done before. One indicated at least three times but each time the information was not maintained and hence obsolete quickly.
Action - Franklin does need to maintain this plan, period!
Other key comments
- Call to action, unified communications will be key
- Perception is that the town is always finding money.
- One of the first things that struck me was one of the last things you say on Page 9; “our forecasts excludes certain future costs” I understand why you need to say that but will anyone of those blow up and destroy what we have done in this report?
- I think our town needs to look at this at the community as a whole, I think there are parts of the town that look at one department or the other, there is a perception of that, starting from the top,
- With all the issues that Franklin has, it does come down to school, it is a big part of town,we are talking of the future of this town, it drives the property values, if we don't come together now and fix it, we are talking of the future of the town.
While Jeff Nutting is fond of saying "There are no secrets here", there are quite a few folks who don't believe that. Transparency is not just a good thing. Transparency is a requirement.
A unified front will help dispel the inaccurate perceptions. If the Town Council, School Committee and Finance Committee join together in saying with one voice, this is what needs to be done, then there will be some credibility. If there are disconnects, there will be problems.
Choice: United, we will stand. Divided, we will be conquered.Additional Explanations Needed
- Charts need to be fully labeled
- How do we explain the State Aid formula?
- Tri-County funding, what do we pay per student compared to Franklin?
- Need a better explanation of the DOE numbers where the line was added to ensure a total.
- Can we compare the % of the Franklin school, fire, police budget to the other communities?
- Explain tax levy (what it includes, excludes).
- What about the consolidation efforts on the Town side, not very visible.
- Explanation of capital versus operational dollars
- Review pages (eg. Page 4, 5, 17) to see if graphs or pie charts would make the information easier to read.
- Page 21, it says “what can we do about it?” but there is not enough detail here to make a decision. "Improving process efficiency" What does that mean?
- Split tax rate, needs an explanation of why or why not.
- Explain debt service as a part of operational dollars
As much as there were comments about "there is too much information", what ever is published needs to be accurate and simple. One page needs to tie to another. Some basic information and terms need to be explained. We (deliberately, the "collective we") need to set the table for the discussion with the proper definitions and explanations so that the discussion can proceed around the same set of facts.
Action: Some minor tweaks remain to tighten up the numbers and explanations.
NewBCamp - Providence College - Apr 19
What:
Come to learn and share about the new technology in social media tools! Blogs, podcasting, networking, Twitter, video blogging, etc.
Where:
Providence College
When:
April 19 - 10:00 AM to 3:00 PM
More Information and registration:
Click here
Come to learn and share about the new technology in social media tools! Blogs, podcasting, networking, Twitter, video blogging, etc.
Where:
Providence College
When:
April 19 - 10:00 AM to 3:00 PM
More Information and registration:
Click here
Franklin's Earth Day Celebration
Franklin's Earth Day Celebration
Saturday April 18th, 2009
Beaver Pond
Starts at 9:00 AM
Volunteer to clean up targeted areas and assist with planting flowers and shrubs around Franklin.
- Please bring your own water bottle.
- Please bring your own gloves and rakes.
- Community service certificates will be issued.
- T-shirts to the first 200 volunteers.
- Clean up goes to 1:00 PM
Get some Eco-Info at Beaver Pond:
- Water conservation kits and rain barrel display.
- Mercury thermometer exchange for digital thermometers.
- Recycling tips and composting information.
- Energy conservation tips.
- Much more ! ! !
You can register on the Town website here
Disclosure Statement
- This blog doesn't accept ads or sponsorships.
- I don't own stock or accept royalties from any company or product mentioned on this blog.
- I don't serve on the board of any company.
- If the occasion were to come up, I would consider accepting samples of stuff with a nominal value (under $20 or so).
- I will tell you that there is no correlation between mentioning stuff and whether or not someone sent it to me.
- I write about what I find interesting and I think will interest you as a reader.
My goal in maintaining this blog is to share my ideas and hopefully create a conversation that will generate something more than we each started with.
My success will be determined by your readership and comments (or lack thereof).
I consider myself an amateur writer, a lifelong learner.
Specifically with regards to the Franklin override votes that occurred previously on May 22, 2007, and June 10, 2008: You should be aware that my wife is a kindergarten teacher in Franklin. My two daughters are recent (2004, 2006) graduates of Franklin High School and both are doing well. One has completed college and is now out in the working world. The other is in the middle of her college years. There are a few other good reasons for me to be writing about this issue. I will continue to elaborate on them here.
One last matter: a number of folks have asked me from time to time, if I would consider running for a local office (either Town Council or School Committee).
The answer has been “No”.
I expect that the answer will not change anytime soon.
Especially now, while I am looking for work, I can not commit to something like running for a town position when I don't know what my work commitment will be. I also feel that I am providing a valuable public service in the writing and sharing of the information that I currently provide here on Franklin Matters.
I do this as my hobby. I was fully employed and did my blogging/writing, etc. in my "off hours". I expect to be fully employed again. Until that time, I will be working and networking to identify that opportunity.
Updated 3/29/15 - After several years of employment at RBS Citizens, I have resigned that position to accept a role with John Hancock in Boston, MA
Disclosure announcement
http://franklinmatters.blogspot.com/2010/08/disclosure-announcement.html
If anything changes with what I have said here, I will let you know.
I promise.
A similar version of this is found on the Why Franklin Matters page
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Clever Commute - video
I have posted previously about Clever Commute and what a good idea it is. Josh Crandall, the guy behind the idea, has this video to explain how Clever Commute works.
It is free and it works because you, and I, and others on the Franklin Line make it work.
Join Clever Commute here
It is free and it works because you, and I, and others on the Franklin Line make it work.
Join Clever Commute here
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)