Franklin Matters

Road Closure Alert ..... Partridge St, between Dover and Harborwood, will be closed to through traffic for construction from Monday October 24 through Thursday November 10.

The Town Council had voted approval of the funds to do the work at their meeting on October 5th. Notes from that part of the meeting were reported live and can be found here

http://www.franklinmatters.org/2011/10/live-reporting-action-items.html

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Escape the Cold! Free Community Indoor Walking Program

For the second year, Franklin High School will open its doors to adult walkers in the community who wish to escape the impending cold and slippery sidewalks. Walkers will be able to accumulate mileage despite inclement weather or dark sidewalks.

The Community Walking Partners program is offered through Lifelong Learning and begins on Monday, November 7, 2011 and ends on Wednesday, April, 11, 2012. The program is free.

Walking will be available on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays from 5:30 PM – 7:30 PM, except when school is closed for holidays or snow events.

For safety reasons, no bikes, skates, skateboards are allowed in the school.

Interested walkers should enter the Franklin High School through the H-wing door and stop at the Lifelong Learning/Adult Education office, sign in, and receive a lanyard, which will identify the walker to school personnel.

For more information, please contact the Franklin Adult Education office at 508-541-2100 x 3178 or email adulted@franklin.k12.ma.us.

Via the Life Long Learning Program. For additional offerings check out their schedule and register at the Life Long Learning website

In the News - Vallee, bottle drive, bake sale, Tri-County services

Meet the Franklin Candidate: Robert Vallee

by Alison McCall/Daily News staff

Franklin wrestling boosters to hold bottle drive Oct. 29

by GateHouse Media, Inc.

St. Mary's Women's Club having harvest bake sale

by GateHouse Media, Inc.

Tri-County students offer services to the public

by GateHouse Media, Inc.

Franklin drummer to judge drum competition

by GateHouse Media, Inc.

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Sent to you by Steve Sherlock via Google Reader:

Get ready folks for a spectacular performance of song, dance, and most importantly, humor by our very own Franklin High students! Cabaret will be 7pm-9pm on both Tuesday the 18th and Thursday the 20th. Tickets will be $5 for students and $10 for adults. What is cabaret all about? Well there's going to be ridiculously fun [...]

Things you can do from here:

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"It's not a philosophical difference. It's a funding issue"

The Milford Daily News article on Monday night's Joint Budget Subcommittee meeting reveals:

"I allocated the budget based on that answer," Powderly said. "If that answer was incorrect, I believe that if the chair of the School Committee is present for the question, he has the responsibility to fix the misperception."

Roy, the chairman, said discussion about potential teacher raises began in January and that he had a presentation, with slides, prepared for the Town Council at that meeting in June, had they asked him that question.

"I did not hear that question. No one on the School Committee answered that question," said Roy, who quoted the minutes and video of that meeting in saying he did not think the discussion was about the school budget. "No one asked a single question of anyone on the School Committee."

Roy defended the raises, saying they were swapped for a promise from the union to negotiate without pre-conceived demands in the next contract, and to work on changing the salary table, which drives automatic teacher raises that he said the town can no longer afford.

Read more: http://www.milforddailynews.com/archive/x1876835432/Franklin-Town-Council-says-promise-of-no-raises-was-made#ixzz1b7pO3iW3

My live reporting from this meeting is summarized here and here

Monday, October 17, 2011

What will happen Oct 26th remains unknown

The short version of the Joint Budget Subcommittee meeting held on Monday, Oct 17 (yes, even shorter than what I just published) I'll summarize as

both sides shared info
both sides learned of stuff they had not known before
both sides remain apart, agreeing to disagree
both sides have some passion about this topic (the shorter version I already published is sufficient for the "he said/she said" type recap, there is no value add in continuing this)

No one side can win this argument. The sad part is that there is a whole lot of good work on both sides that is now being put aside to make room for this discussion.

Bringing both sides back together to have a regular, civil, and detailed conversation is a must.

Two key points of the meeting:

The Town Council approved a budget in June that they did not know contained money for an increase to cover the teachers contract
The School Committee at the time of the budget did not have an agreement with the teachers and did not feel likely to have one but did have money in the budget to cover their 'known and anticipated' increases

Several events occurred since June to resolve the teacher contract while little or no communication was formally made between the Town Council and School Committee on this topic. All of which lead to the events of the contract announcement and the Council uproar... and leaves us where we are. Frustrated!

What will happen Oct 26th remains unknown.

Back story: The next Town Council meeting is Oct 26th. In case you missed it, the Town Council has re-opened the Fiscal Year 2012 budget in order to get the School Committee back to the table to talk since they did not show up to the prior Council meeting. At the close of this meeting (Oct 17th) the School Committee did say they would participate in the Oct 26th meeting.