Berry Ins helps the Franklin Food Pantry

From the Berry Insurance blog:

Donations are taken year-around and especially appreciated during the holiday season. Berry Insurance has donated to the Franklin Food Pantry for ten years and this year will be no exception! For each new Facebook Fan acquired on the Berry Insurance page over the months of November and December, the agency will donate $2 to the Franklin Food Pantry!

Don’t allow anyone visiting the Franklin Food Pantry to go hungry this holiday season! You can donate time, money or food to help this worthy cause. So please, help us today in ending hunger and help support the Franklin Food Pantry!

If you have a Facebook account and have not yet become a Fan of Berry Insurance, please do so and help the Food Pantry!


Note: I am on the Board of Directors of the Food Pantry, volunteering some of my time as Community Information Director to help tell the good work that they do.


Franklin, MA

Franklin Town News

The new Franklin Town News arrived in my mailbox today. I think it looks pretty good for a first edition. I look forward to seeing next month's issue already.

What do you think of it?



Franklin, MA

"Let’s Talk about Cyberbullying"

Thursday, December 9, 2010

7:00PM – 8:30PM

Dean College

Campus Center Multi-Purpose Room

We are all reading about cyberbullying in the news. Now Franklin’s own home-grown expert Teenangels and their founder, cybersafety expert and head of StopCyberbullying.org, will help the Franklin community understand how it works, how big a problem it is and what we can do about it. The Teenangels are teens who train under Dr. Aftab for 2 years to become cybersafety experts in their own right. They are sought after by the media, governmental agencies and Congress for what they know and their practical approach to addressing cyber-risks.

Parry Aftab is Executive Director of WiredSafety.org, the largest online safety and educational program and the cybersafety contributor to the Today Show, Good Morning America, Dr. Phil, CNN and MSNBC. She is best known for empowering families to use digital technologies more safely and responsibly. She is a member of Facebook’s five member international safety advisory board and MTV’s advisory board.

This event is sponsored by: Franklin WiredTeens Club, Franklin Community Health Council, and the Franklin Anti-Bullying Task Force.

The flyer for the event can be found here:

Aftab Cyber Bullying Event 12-9-10

Related posts on Cyberbullying
http://franklinmatters.blogspot.com/2010/11/bullying-plan-presentation.html

http://franklinmatters.blogspot.com/2010/11/bullying-plan-comments-wanted.html



Franklin, MA

Town Council - 12/01/10

The collection of live reported posts from the Town Council Meeting on Weds Dec 1, 2010 can be found here:

• Live reporting - Closing
• Live reporting - Legislation for Action
• Live reporting - license transfer
• Live reporting - Town Council

Franklin, MA

Old News: No "Race to the Top" for Franklin

Massachusetts was one of 11 states plus the District of Columbia to win the competitive funding, designed to promote statewide education reform. States vying for a share of the $4.3 billion fund had to pledge to pursue reforms in four areas: adopting standards and assessments aimed at increasing student success in college and the workplace; recruiting and rewarding effective teachers; building state data systems to measure student growth; and turning around the state's lowest performing schools.

Districts had to secure the support of the superintendent, the school committee, and the local teachers union to participate and be eligible for the federal funding. In Milford, as with many districts that opted out of the effort, union opposition was the stumbling block. 

You can read the full article in the Milford Daily News

Franklin is also one of the districts that opted out of "Race to the Top" because it already is at the top and would not gain via this program.

The Race to the Topic decision was made in Franklin in January. Details on the discussion from the School Committee meeting can be found here


Franklin, MA

In the News - water/sewer lines, Tri-County grant, Nutcracker

Franklin to fix water, sewer lines

from The Milford Daily News News RSS by Brian Benson/Daily News staff

Tri-County gets grant to help fix AC, heating systems

from The Milford Daily News News RSS by Brian Benson/Daily News staff

FPAC to stage 'The Nutcracker,' Dec. 11 and 12

from The Milford Daily News News RSS by GateHouse Media, Inc.

Franklin, MA

Live reporting - Closing

Old business
no

New business
no

Council Comments
Powderly - thanks to the Concerts on the Common for their work volunteering for the Christmas tree lighting

Kelly - thank you for the holiday tree celebration

Jones - thanks to the new reporter for the article about the transplant, it is a good story and good

Pfeffer - I received something about the GIC
Nutting -

Pfeffer - what about the prohibition of commercial plates at Beaver St?
Nutting - it wasn't our intent to stop commercial use of the individual cleaning out their yard, we do want to stop the real commercial use. The process has been suspended, we will be coming back with a change in the bylaw regulation

Pfeffer - since we passed the bylaw on the abandoned buildings, what about the Masonic Lodge?
Nutting - We'll take a look at it.

Vallee - motion to adjourn
passed 8-0



Franklin, MA