There be tires!

It starts with one person. Dave Dobrzynski, local coordinator for the Charles River Watershed Cleanup activities. Dave is at the Whole Foods Market in Bellingham, handing out t-shirts, coordinating assignments for the 300 plus volunteers working to clean the junk along the Charles.

He gets off the phone and says, I have a story for you. The BSA Venture Crew 22 has just pulled 125 tires from along Mine Brook to fill a dumpster at the VFW Post on Pond St. Dave had talked with Brutus Cantoreggi earlier to get a dumpster positioned there and to have a Bobcat clear out some of the prickly underbrush to enable volunteers to get in close to the brook. All that was successful! Dave adds: "A special thanks also to Ken Gormley in the Highway Division of the Franklin DPW for handling all the logistics of getting me the dumpster and clearing out the brush for us."

I headed to the VFW Post 3402 on Pond St.

As I approach, the parking lot has a bunch of cars, a full dumpster, and there is a group of folks with the Charles River clean up blue t-shirts.

Linda Rafuse, leads the Venture Crew. This group was founded about four years ago, has had up to 28 members and currently has 12, half of whom should up to do the volunteer work today.

The work wasn't easy. The tires and other junk has accumulated over the years. Some of the tires actually has small trees growing around or in them.

The photo on the left is deceptive but there is a slope down from the area on the parking lot to the wet lands long Mine Brook.

The work was dirty as evidenced by this close up of Laura Rafuse's jeans.

They used to be a nice clean blue. Not now, after moving the tires and junk up they are filthy!

Yes, there be tires. 125 of them by their count.


I'll validate that the dumpster is indeed full.


Great work folks!



Here is the happy group: (from left to right, front row: David Johnson, Linda Rafuse, Larry Bederian - VPW Post Comander; from left to right, back row: Laura Rafuse, Eric Harden, Robert Marini, Erica Pollock, Nadia Johnson, and Chris Johnson)

Great work folks, Mine Brook thanks you!


If you are between 14 and 20 and would like to join the BSA Venture Crew, you can find additional information on their activities on Facebook here
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=15419337901

and here
http://www.americantowns.com/ma/franklin/organization/bsa-venture-crew-22

DPW News: new trash/recycling carts

The new Trash/Recycling carts have been placed around the town for residents to see, feel and try  during the regular business hours at the following locations:

Town Hall

Senior Center

Recreation Center

Police Station

This is a great opportunity for people to see and feel the new carts. One of the reasons these carts were picked is they are easy to handle.


This was originally posted on the Franklin, MA web page here
http://franklinma.virtualtownhall.net/Pages/FranklinMA_News/01562E42-000F8513

"A key challenge is the fundamental structure of the K-12 education establishment."

Continuing to entice you to dive in and read the 2010 Horizon Report: K12 Edition:

• A key challenge is the fundamental structure of the K-12 education establishment. As long as maintaining the basic elements of the existing system remains the focus of efforts to support education, there will be resistance to any profound change in practice. Learners have increasing opportunities to take their education into their own hands, and options like informal education, online education, and home-based learning are attracting students away from traditional educational settings. If the system is to remain relevant it must adapt, but major change comes hard in education.

Many activities related to learning and education take place outside the walls of the classroom — but these experiences are often undervalued or unacknowledged. Beyond the classroom walls, students can take advantage of online resources, explore ideas and practice skills using games and other programs they may have on systems at home, and interact with their extensive — and constantly available — social networks. Within the classroom, learning that incorporates real life experiences like these is not occurring enough and is too often undervalued when it does take place. This challenge is an important one in K-12 schools, because it results in a lack of engagement in learning on the part of students who are seeking some connection between their world, their own lives, and their experience in school.

These trends and challenges are having a profound effect on the way we experiment with, adopt, and use emerging technologies. These aspects of the world that surround and permeate education serve as a frame for considering the probable impacts of the emerging technologies listed in the sections that follow.

Franklin, MA

"we try that and we see if that works"

GIST: I think that for far too long we have just tinkered around the edges of our schools that have struggled. Central Falls High School is an example of a school like that. For over eight years, [it] has been on various lists of needing to improve. There are wonderful people in that school, there are excellent teachers in the school. They’ve had strong leadership. They’ve tried different models for reform. But we tend to do one thing, and then we wait and see if that works. And when it doesn’t or maybe it’s incremental, we say, OK, let’s try some new professional development for the teachers. And then we try that and we see if that works, and a few more years go by, and then we say, obviously we need a new principal because that one’s not doing the job. So we bring in new leadership, and we try that. We bring in new materials. We try that.

We just try one thing after another instead of recognizing that it’s not just one thing, it’s actually the combination of all of those things and the way they fit together. When you look at high-performing schools, it isn’t just one thing that they’re doing. It’s a combination of many things, and at the center of all that are high expectations for students. And so part of the work is to change the culture in the school to one where everyone expects that students will achieve and raises the bar for performance.

Read the full article including an interview with Deborah Gist, the RI Commissioner of Education, who has been the subject of much headlines on the Central Falls High School situation. Very interesting reading:
http://www.commonwealthmagazine.org/Voices/Conversation/2010/Spring/Putting-teachers-on-notice.aspx

Curbside Yard Waste Collection

Franklin’s Curbside Yard Waste Collection will be held on Saturday May 1^st and May 15^th. 

Be sure to have all material in paper bags, trash barrels or cardboard boxes.  

Brush must be bundled and shall not be more than 4 feet in length and 6–inches in diameter.  

DO NOT USE PLASTIC BAGS THEY WILL BE REJECTED



Franklin, MA

HMEA 5K Race/Walk - May 23rd

What happens on May 23rd?

Who is HMEA?

Why you should help?

These questions and more can be answered in this brief video.




If you'd like to register to run or walk, you can go to HMEA.org.
If you'd like to contribute as part of my fund raising page, there is a widget on this page or here: http://www.firstgiving.com/stephensherlock

I hope to see you on May 23rd!

Franklin, MA: Role of the Town Council

From the Town Council page on the Franklin website comes the following:

1. A member of the Council, in relation to his/her community should:

A. Realize that his/her basic function is to make policy, with administration delegated to the Administrator.

B. Realize that he/she is one of a team and should abide by, and carry out, all Council decisions once they are made.

C. Be well-informed concerning the duties of a Council member on both local and state levels.

D. Remember that he/she represents the entire community at all times.

E. Accept the office as a means of unselfish service, not benefit personally or politically from his/her Council activities.

F. In all appointments, avoid political patronage by judging all candidates on merit, experience, and qualifications only.

G. Abide by the ethics established by the State and not use the position to obtain inside information on matters which may benefit someone personally.


2. A member of the Council, in his/her relations with administrative officers of the Town, should:

A. Endeavor to establish sound, clearly defined policies that will direct and support the administration for the benefit of the people of the community.

B. Recognize and support the administrative chain of command and refuse to act on complaints as an individual outside the administration.

C. Give the Administrator full responsibility for discharging the duties of his/her office.

3. A member of the Council, in his/her relations with fellow Council members, should:

A. Recognize that action at official legal meetings is binding and that he/she alone cannot bind the Council outside of such meetings.

B. Not make statements or promises of how he/she will vote on matters that will come before the Council until he/she has had an opportunity to hear the pros and cons of the issue during a Council meeting.

C. Uphold the intent of executive session and respect the privileged communication that exists in executive session.

D. Make decisions only after all facts on a question have been presented and discussed.

E. Treat with respect the rights of all members of the Council despite differences of opinion.

This is all good information. Let's hope all of the Councilors actually have recently read and actually follow this. The key for me is "Remember that he/she represents the entire community at all times."

Why?
Word already is around that some councilors don't want to put an override question before the voters. No matter whether they think it should be passed is not the question. The voters are the ones who should make that final pass/fail decision with their votes. All we ask is to be given the opportunity, then let the majority rule.

To already have word that there is not a majority on the Council who would put the question before the voters, seems to be flying against the precept:
"Not make statements or promises of how he/she will vote on matters that will come before the Council until he/she has had an opportunity to hear the pros and cons of the issue during a Council meeting."

As citizens and voters, we should be well informed of what could occur during the Town Council meeting on April 28th. This meeting may be one to attend in person rather than from the couch watching the cable feed.

There is plenty of information amongst these pages on the budget and budget drivers.

You can review all or parts of the 3 hour budget workshop held in January
http://franklinmatters.blogspot.com/2010/01/budget-workshop-collection-12510.html

You can review the Financial Planning Committee report here
http://franklinma.virtualtownhall.net/Pages/FranklinMA_BComm/financial%20planning%20committee%20report/

You can find out the latest on the School budget by either attending (or watching) the School Committee meeting Tuesday April 27th or visiting here later that night or Wednesday morning for the recap.
http://franklinmatters.blogspot.com/


Be informed! Ask for the opportunity to vote on an override!  
Your vote should determine the services this Town will offer to all of us.