Friday, October 14, 2011

Taste of the Region - Oct 25th




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Taste of the Region 2011 



The United Regional Chamber of Commerce | 42 Union Street | Attleboro | MA | 02703

Thursday, October 13, 2011

Library book sale: Sat 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM

The Friends of Franklin will hold their fall book sale this weekend.

Franklin: Library Book Sale 10/20/07

In conjunction with the book sale, there will be a collection of dry goods for the Franklin Food Pantry
If you are looking to give something the Food Pantry has on the current needs list, the list can be found here


The book sale will be held at the DPW garage off Hayward St


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In the News - Pellegri, scrapbooking



Meet the Franklin Candidate: Deborah Pellegri, town clerk

St. Mary's Catholic club to offer scrapbooking lesson

In the News - FHS cabaret, art center, distinguished



Franklin High theater to host cabaret, Oct. 18 and 20

Franklin Art Center offers kids' art

Gazette named a ‘distinguished newspaper’ in New England

Race to Nowhere

The Franklin Public Schools, in conjunction with the Joint Parent Communication Councils of Franklin, is hosting a screening of the film Race to Nowhere on Tuesday, October 18, 2011 at 7 p.m.  


The film will play at the Mercer Auditorium at Horace Mann Middle School on Oak Street.  A panel discussion will follow the screening.

Featuring the heartbreaking stories of young people who have been pushed to the brink and educators who are burned out and worried that students aren’t developing the skills needed for the global economy, Race to Nowhere points to the silent epidemic running rampant in our schools. The film is the product of Vicki Abeles, a concerned mother turned filmmaker, who aims her camera at the culture of hollow achievement and pressure to perform that has invaded America’s schools.  As Abeles notes, “it is destroying our children’s love of learning and feeding an epidemic of unprepared, disengaged, and unhealthy students.” The film is a call to families, educators, experts and policy makers to examine current assumptions on how to best prepare the youth of America to become the healthy, bright, contributing and leading citizens in the 21st century.  You can learn more about the film athttp://www.racetonowhere.com/.

The event is free and open to the general public.  However, those who wish to attend the screening must register online for tickets at http://rtnfranklinpublicschools.eventbrite.com


Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Finance Committee - 10/11/11

I chose to "follow the money" and attended the Finance Committee (FinCom) meeting on Tuesday evening. It was the first time that the FinCom met this fiscal year. The committee is now nine members (down from eleven) due to the charter change passed in 2009. The committee members were sworn in by the Town Clerk and then  set their organization for this fiscal year.

Jim Roche continues as Chair.
Chris Quinn was voted as Vice Chair.
Phyllis Messere was elected Clerk.

Jeff Nutting, Susan Gagne and Jim Dacey participated to help inform the new committee of the various financial process, procedures and issues that the FinCom will be facing.

Several action items were discussed in detail to provide some background for the new members before they voted. The details for the meeting are contained in the following links.




After the meeting, the committee took a new photo to update their page on the Franklin website. The listing of members will also be updated to show the current membership.
http://franklinma.virtualtownhall.net/Pages/FranklinMA_Finance/index




"I see growth and I see improvement"


Each of the schools, Remington, Horace Mann, and Annie Sullivan, had similar struggles with their annual yearly progress goals under the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System this past year. None of them met their math or special education and low-income student requirements. 
The principals noted that this failure was not a reflection of the school system or their students, but rather somewhat unrealistic goals on the part of the state for high-performing schools like Franklin. 
"When you're in a successful district, once you get into that 90th percentile, (it becomes harder)," said Paul Peri, principal of Remington Middle School. Peri added that Franklin is in the top two levels of seven that the state sets. 
"The way the formula is set up ... the better you do, the harder it is to reach that goal," said Beth Witcoff, principal at Annie Sullivan Middle School.

Read more: http://www.milforddailynews.com/archive/x1092316431/Franklin-board-extends-superintendents-contract#ixzz1aYhM5wlZ