Franklin resident to make cake on Food Network show
Tracie Turinese will be appearing in a cake competition.
Proposed federal change would reduce fluoride in drinking water
Franklin, MA
Sunday, January 23, 2011
In the News - cake design, fluoride reduction
Tracie Turinese will be appearing in a cake competition.
Franklin, MA
Saturday, January 22, 2011
Mass in Motion - healthy activity survey
The Town of Franklin is one of fourteen communities selected as a Mass in Motion Community – a comprehensive action initiative to address the extent and impact of the obesity crisis. The Franklin community has a chance to share the priorities and actions they would like to see taken to reduce inactivity and poor nutrition.
We are encouraging all Franklin residents, business owners and employees within the town to choose their top five areas of interest from each sector, or add their own ideas and comments. Please visit the website below to complete the survey. Community input is critical to the Town of Franklin’s success. Survey closes Tuesday, February 1st, 2011.
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/XNN9YSL
For additional information, please contact Lauren Marciszyn at 774-235-2737 or via email at
Laurenm@hockymca.org.
Franklin, MA
We are encouraging all Franklin residents, business owners and employees within the town to choose their top five areas of interest from each sector, or add their own ideas and comments. Please visit the website below to complete the survey. Community input is critical to the Town of Franklin’s success. Survey closes Tuesday, February 1st, 2011.
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/XNN9YSL
For additional information, please contact Lauren Marciszyn at 774-235-2737 or via email at
Laurenm@hockymca.org.
Franklin, MA
Franklin posts a good ROI for education
The Center for American Progress has published a report on "Return on Educational Investment
A District-by-District Evaluation of U.S. Educational Productivity"
Download the full report PDF file and read it on your own here
You can also view an interactive map of the MA school districts to see visual comparisons of Franklin and surrounding communities. (You can also view other states and school districts.) The interactive map is found here.
In between the map and the table of MA communities, there is a link that you can follow to find each school districts full report. The Franklin district report is here. As the district is credited with 11 schools I assume that the charter school is considered part of this.
I found these stats of interest:
Who pays for the Franklin Public Schools to educate our children?
Revenue by source:
Federal - 3%
State - 50%
Local - 47%
Maybe those who say the School District has too many administrators will recognize that this says otherwise
Total current expenditures
Instructional expenditures - 72%
Student and staff support - 7%
Administration - 6%
Operations, food service, other - 15%
If you think there are changes that should be made to the way Franklin spends it money, you can participate in this survey to help determine our priority listing.
Updated: via email from Maureen Sabolinski, Superintendent of Schools, I am reminded that the data reflected here was taken prior to the most recent budget cuts. The academic focus is solely on the MCAS results. Both of these factors should be taken in consideration as you review the report. Franklin's schools do more with less than is reflected here.
Franklin, MA
A District-by-District Evaluation of U.S. Educational Productivity"
This report is the culmination of a yearlong effort to study the efficiency of the nation’s public education system and includes the first-ever attempt to evaluate the productivity of almost every major school district in the country. In the business world, the notion of productivity describes the benefit received in exchange for effort or money expended. Our project measures the academic achievement a school district produces relative to its educational spending, while controlling for factors outside a district’s control, such as cost of living and students in poverty.You can read the introduction and summary here (PDF file).
Download the full report PDF file and read it on your own here
You can also view an interactive map of the MA school districts to see visual comparisons of Franklin and surrounding communities. (You can also view other states and school districts.) The interactive map is found here.
In between the map and the table of MA communities, there is a link that you can follow to find each school districts full report. The Franklin district report is here. As the district is credited with 11 schools I assume that the charter school is considered part of this.
I found these stats of interest:
Who pays for the Franklin Public Schools to educate our children?
Revenue by source:
Federal - 3%
State - 50%
Local - 47%
Maybe those who say the School District has too many administrators will recognize that this says otherwise
Total current expenditures
Instructional expenditures - 72%
Student and staff support - 7%
Administration - 6%
Operations, food service, other - 15%
If you think there are changes that should be made to the way Franklin spends it money, you can participate in this survey to help determine our priority listing.
Updated: via email from Maureen Sabolinski, Superintendent of Schools, I am reminded that the data reflected here was taken prior to the most recent budget cuts. The academic focus is solely on the MCAS results. Both of these factors should be taken in consideration as you review the report. Franklin's schools do more with less than is reflected here.
Franklin, MA
State Budget updates
The Legislature and the administration of Gov. Deval Patrick yesterday set the consensus revenue figure for FY12 at $20.525 billion. This revenue figure will now be the starting point for budget proposals that will come from the Governor, House and Senate.
The Governor's proposal, to be released later this month, will deal with a structural deficit of approximately $1.5 billion created largely by the absence of federal stimulus funds, limited state reserves, case load pressures and inflationary growth, particularly in health care related programs. As he indicated in his inaugural address, Gov. Patrick's proposed budget is expected to highlight investments in education, health care and in job creation, as well as to propose government reforms.Read the full post on the DOR website here
Nearly all future state and municipal employees would work five years longer, contribute more to their pensions, and have their benefits slashed if they retire early under a bill Governor Deval Patrick and legislative leaders unveiled yesterday.
Eighteen months after state leaders eliminated loopholes in the pension system, the new proposal would go beyond merely curbing abuses. It would, Patrick said, fundamentally change retirement benefits for thousands of future teachers, police officers, firefighters, and other public workers, in an attempt to save $5 billion over the next 30 years.Read the full post here on the Budget Blues website
Why should the State budget matter to Franklin?
Half, yes, you heard that correctly - half our school budget is funded by the State.
Franklin, MA
Friday, January 21, 2011
Patrick proposes $65M local aid cut in Mass.
Hey, when the numbers and details on the Governors proposed budget comes out Jan 26th, we'll be able to see what it looks like and begin to understand how realistically the chance is that the Legislature will be providing the relief - there may be hope down the road.
Why not help now?
The Legislature has to act real soon to get something enacted to help this budget cycle. Then it has to go to the communities for them to incorporate into their business. Franklin has 13 unions, the current contract negotiations have been underway for some time. A couple have already reached agreement. How close the others are is not publicly known yet. It might very well be the next cycle that this would have an effect.
Gov. Deval Patrick told Massachusetts city and town leaders today he will cut some of their local aid in the fiscal 2012 budget he proposes next week, but attempt to offset the reduction with legislation granting them long-sought power to trim municipal employee health insurance costs.
Why not help now?
The Legislature has to act real soon to get something enacted to help this budget cycle. Then it has to go to the communities for them to incorporate into their business. Franklin has 13 unions, the current contract negotiations have been underway for some time. A couple have already reached agreement. How close the others are is not publicly known yet. It might very well be the next cycle that this would have an effect.
Sent to you by Steve Sherlock via Google Reader:
via The Milford Daily News News RSS by Glen Johnson on 1/21/11
Gov. Deval Patrick told Massachusetts city and town leaders today he will cut some of their local aid in the fiscal 2012 budget he proposes next week, but attempt to offset the reduction with legislation granting them long-sought power to trim municipal employee health insurance costs.
Things you can do from here:
- Subscribe to The Milford Daily News News RSS using Google Reader
- Get started using Google Reader to easily keep up with all your favorite sites
"help people who don't have the time, money, or opportunity to eat better"
Corby Kummer writes in The Atlantic:
Walmart will be making changes to what food it sells. It will be moving to provide healthier choices.
What kind of changes?
Franklin, MA
Before getting into the particulars of today's announcement, it's worth noting two things. First, no one at the White House can be unaware of ongoing controversy over Walmart's labor practices. And the very public support for Walmart will not mean that the White House nutrition team, led by Sam Kass, will stop the work it is already deep into with other corporations and food manufacturers, and with many federal and state agencies, to improve access to fresher food and opportunities to exercise. But Walmart has a power across the entire supply chain, from farm to transportation to store, that no other marketer or grocer has. If and when it can choose to be a force for good—and if that impulse is largely the result of market demand and market share it doesn't want competitors to claim—the First Lady's team (and anyone else who cares about the country's health) would be foolish not to try to guide the company in the directions it wants to see the whole food industry head.What is the big news?
Walmart will be making changes to what food it sells. It will be moving to provide healthier choices.
What kind of changes?
Of the "key elements" Walmart announced, several are ones I reported on last March: shorten travel distances between farm and distribution centers, support smaller farmers than it had previously bought from, bring back staple crops to areas where they had vanished because of competition from California and Florida, and bring fresh food into "food deserts" both in cities and, importantly, rural areas without supermarkets.Read the full article about Walmart's announcement here
Franklin, MA
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