Local and state policy dominate discussions

I'll add additional summary comments to this later but for now here is the collection of posts reported from the School Committee meeting on Tuesday, Feb 10.

Quick bites to summarize

• legislative delegates visited and provided updates on State House actions regarding the budget and unfunded mandates.
• the draft calendar for 2015-2016 is being redone as the initial version violated the current teacher contract regarding the start date for school. 
• the policy on the memorials and gifts which was redone by the policy subcommittee and brought forward to the full school committee drew some sharp distinctions. The process of review showed openness but some members are concerned about future implementation issues this policy enables. The policy was moved to second reading by a 4-1 vote. Two members of the School Committee were absent from the meeting.
• current snow days, 2 are left within the claendar, if we need more than that, the decision to make up on Saturdays and or take from the April vacation is open and no decision has been made at this time.
• there is a parent meeting on PARCC at Horace Mann Wednesday evening at 6:30 PM

• Live reporting: Closing items
• Live reporting: Action items
• live reporting: Discussion only items
• Live reporting: Middle School blended learning
• Live reporting: School Committee - Feb 10, 2015

Parmenter Elementary school in the snow Tuesday morning, Feb 10

Franklin Library: Adult Coffee and Craft - Fri, Feb 13th

The next adult coffee and craft is scheduled for Friday, February 13 at 1:30 PM. Get out from behind the snow to make a fabric covered memo board. Bring your own material or use what is available.

adult coffee and craft - Friday, Feb 13th

This was shared from the Library page here
http://franklinpl.blogspot.com/2015/02/adult-coffee-craft.html

"Towns will be lucky to see the assistance by the end of the fiscal year"

In the category of "nothing ventured, nothing gained" Franklin has joined other MA communities in filing for Federal assistance for dealing with the snow.

Cities and towns across the region are filing for federal assistance to help ease budgetary pains as a wave of consecutive snowstorms now stretches into its third week. 

“Every town in Worcester County and east is applying right now,” said Peter Judge, a Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency spokesperson. They're submitting for the initial storm costs, like plowing and extra police staff. Milford and Medway filed for roughly $160,000. Franklin filed for a little more than $350,000. 

The applications were due Tuesday. After MEMA receives a statewide total, they’ll appeal for federal assistance in the next several weeks, said Judge.

Continue reading the article here: http://www.milforddailynews.com/article/20150211/NEWS/150219440/1994/NEWS#sthash.c3goDUPG.dpuf

On the Town Council agenda scheduled for Wednesday, the one action item is to authorize expenses in excess of what is budgeted. This is a 'normal' action in years where there is a lot of snow. Without such an authorization, Franklin would be forced to stop plowing and salting (which is not really an option in the middle of winter). 

Franklin will end up balancing the snow and ice budget with funds from 'free cash' which means the captial requirements of the town's departments will take a hit. How much remains to be determined.

sunset through the trees over a pile of snow

Live reporting: Closing items

5. Information Matters

Superintendent’s Report
school wellness award (School Wellness Advisory Council - SWAC) 

more SWAC news
funding for middle school students
to promote healthy options

recognition of the DPW to keep roads cleared and safe
glad to hear Sen Ross's comments on the roads in Franklin

we are in a snowy pattern, yesterday was out 5th snow day
we are looking at possible Saturday's possible April vacation
no decision yet
we have two days left, we do need 180, Fri Jun 26th
Annie Sullivan Jun 29th
will be talking with the FEA about this, we are not alone
I do not know if the DESE will consider any options

Can we have a discussion item in the future? yes.

PARCC parent night 6:30 - 8:30 at HMMS


School Committee Sub-Committee Reports
none

School Committee Liaison Reports
none

6. New Business

To discuss future business that may be brought before the School Committee.
Trivia bee, Apr 8th Wednesday night to support the Franklin Educational Foundation

8. Adjourn

motion to adjourn, seconded, passed 5-0

Live reporting: Action items

4. Action Items

a. I recommend adoption of the 2015-2016 School Calendar as discussed.  (Note the draft calendar can be found here http://www.franklinmatters.org/2015/02/franklin-public-schools-draft-calendar.html )

b. I recommend approval of the budget transfers as detailed.
motion to approve, seconded, passed 5-0

c. I recommend elimination of Policy GCBA – Professional Staff Salary Schedule as discussed.
motion to approve, seconded, passed 5-0

d. I recommend moving the following policies to a second reading:

1. KCDA – Memorial Commemorations 

2. KCD-E1 – Non-Budgeted Funds Donation Form 

3. KCD-E2 – Guidelines for Donations of Gifts/Memorials Non-Budgeted Funds to the Franklin Public Schools

motion to move to second reading, seconded, passed 4-1

e. I recommend approval of the request of Anthony Joseph to take Keller 5th graders to Roger Williams Zoo in Providence, RI on May 1, 2015 as detailed.
motion to approve, seconded, passed 5-0

f. I recommend approval of student activities as detailed.
motion to approve, seconded, passed 5-0

g. I recommend acceptance of the donation of pottery glaze from EMC (valued at $68.30) for the Empty Bowls program at Oak Street Elementary School.
motion to approve, seconded, passed 5-0

h. I recommend acceptance of a check for $1,394.00 from the Keller PCC for field trips.
motion to approve, seconded, passed 5-0

i. I recommend acceptance of a check for $1,000.00 from the Davis Thayer PCC for Library books.
motion to approve, seconded, passed 5-0

j. I recommend acceptance of a check for $1,000.00 from the Franklin Music Boosters for Extra Curricular Music.
motion to approve, seconded, passed 5-0

k. I recommend acceptance of a check for $305.50 from All American Publishing for the Athletic Department.
motion to approve, seconded, passed 5-0

l. I recommend acceptance of a check for $3,725.00 from the Gen Youth Foundation for Remington Middle School.
motion to approve, seconded, passed 5-0

m. I recommend approval of the request of Dawn Lacerda to take 5th grade JF Kennedy students to the Marine Biology Center in North Kingstown, RI on March 10, 2015 as detailed.
motion to approve, seconded, passed 5-0

live reporting: Discussion only items

3. Discussion Only Items

Calendar revisions

Winslow - talking to calendar adjustments (need to get new copy of draft)
would need to bring back for the next meeting

Rohrbach - school year ending on Monday? without snow days
Winslow - if we have any snow days, it would go beyond Monday

O'Malley - I would suggest to have the Friday before as off, last fling of the summer
why do we have Election day

Winslow - no students, but it is a professional day and we do need two, so that gets also into the Election day which is the second day for professional day

motion to make the Sep 4th as a no school day, seconded
discussion around the lack of full weeks in Sep

Chandler-  what you have makes sense
vote 1 for, 4 against, motion fails

Policy

Policy – Second Reading – For Elimination

o GCBA – Professional Staff Salary Schedule

Policy – First Readings

o KCDA – Memorial Commemorations 

o KCD-E1 – Non-Budgeted Funds Donation Form 

o KCD-E2 – Guidelines for Donations of Gifts/Memorials Non-Budgeted Funds to the Franklin Public Schools

The policy documents can be found here
http://www.franklinmatters.org/2015/02/franklin-public-schools-memorial-policy.html

discussion around the Graci family gift and revisions to the policy

should it say "supplemental supply" rather than supply?

Clement - I was on the policy committee and will be voting against the change. They did work with several good experts on grief. The policy was unanimously approved twice. A total of four people came to the meetings, there may have been online participation but it did not result in seats in the chairs. In making the accomodations according to the experts, we have have gutted the policy. The policy is the same as having no policy by leaving it up to the principals. The first time the principal says no, they will be before us. The school is for the students who are there. 

In the sense of community, the Franklin student representaives talk about what is happening with their sports, their scholarships, etc. what they are doing. As far as the Graci memorial is welcomed at the sculpture park. The girls softball team wears a ribbon in their hair to remember. She was in college at the time she passed. 

We would create an arms race, we are opening up a pandoras box. We need to close this box.

Rohrbach - I think of our committee as open minded, maybe we should look at this again and decide how we shold proceed. I am not sure how I feel about this specifically. i know you have strong feelings about this. i give the committee credit for re-looking at this.

Trahan - We were very open, we did take into consideration the items that the four people brought before us. A policy that we have vetted out with the experts, should be standing for the. I am in conflict with myself. I share your concern that at any other intervention we could be opening the doors again.

O'Malley - I suppose I should say something but perhaps you should say something first.

Mullen - I think the numbers are wrong when there seem to be only the four, these seems to be a Franklin thing. I disagree that we had experts when we had one and I did not always agree with everything which she said. I opened the policy up because it was a process issue, not motivated by fear. I think it is important to listen to what people have to say. I can't say I am going to do something without the support of the rest of the committee. 

O'Malley - first I appreciate the intelligence and thoughtfulness of Trevor's presentation. Roberta spoke it well. To capture grief in a policy is not possible. My leaning here is to the committee as an open committee, not withstanding the heartfelt feelings to the contrary

Live reporting: Middle School blended learning

b. Middle School Blended Learning – MS Principals



Paul Peri, Sean Fortin

halfway through the third year across the three schools

blended learning = online, classroom and combination of the two

The Blended Learning presentation document can be found here
http://www.franklinmatters.org/2015/02/middle-schools-blended-learning.html

"It is not about technology. It is about teaching and learning."

Google Drive and real time feedback is available

"It is about how are students are learning and how our parents learn about what we do"

Aspen - grades
Virtual Town - websites
BBConnectedEd - 
newsletters, blogs, twitter feeds

teachers teaching teachers how to early in the morning before school

O'Malley - blended is the way to go, technology needs to be the ingredient of
couple of questions, majority of students? how many are in the blended learning?

Principals - Every student in middle school has some exposure to it, some teachers are more adept at it than other; need to make sure the human interaction remains at well

O'Malley - if the teachers are coming in at 6:30, you cant trumpet it enough
how about the parents? how are they doing?

Fortin - we are working on the education piece, we are doing a lot of work for the high school, and that is not meant to be negative. There is a tech learning curve. Where we are struggling with two way communications, we are sending out communications, but getting engagement back, getting involved with what is going on in school is a challenge. 

Peri - need to make it user friendly

O'Malley - what do we need to do here to help this initiative? What else do you need to make this more viable?

Rohrbach - I have experienced my own blended learning at the college level, how long has it been in middle school?

Fortin - 8-10, it is evolutionary, it can enhance education. Some things we do that don't exist anywhere else

Peri - exponential growth, 

Rohrbach - it can evlove in a variety of ways? Is there research?

Fortin - there is, part of my thesis. part of it looks at motivation, motivated by the tech or by the teaching? inside and outside of school. There is lots of research but it is all new. Overwhelming positive. Transforming education which was not possible before

Clement - how far are we from mitigating unproductive snow days?

Peri - on the cusp, there is a live component of that, how much really remains to come

Mullen - how are the teachers dealing with it? yu had a bunch of papers to read, now they are being looked at to provide immediate feedback

Peri - together are navigating those types of things, 

Fortin - it does require an approach, it can not be doing more, it has to be doing better, by the time you are getting it, you are seeing the final peice; it used to be writing for the teacher, now you are writing for the world with a blog post.

Peri - there are paradigm shifts. My grade book when I started was mine, what I did with it was mine alone. Now teachers are posting the grades on line

Failure needs to be part of learning, I heard a new term of a snow plow parent, clearing out the way

O'Malley - as this evolves, maybe there is a concept of office hours. Maybe we don't put the student work out in the big wide world, maybe it is more shielded.

Winslow - where this started several years ago, Sabolinski wanted to see this, Sean has been the guineau pig so to speak, it is fascinating to watch and see how you have grown this