Franklin TV Broadcast: It Takes A Village: Drug Panel

The panel discussion lead by Dr Anne Bergen and Franklin's town leaders on the crisis around opiate use and misuse will be aired on Verizon (channel 26) and Comcast (channel 8) on the following days this week:

• Tuesday, June 16th - 9:00 am
• Wednesday, June 17th at 7:00 am



Franklin TV

• Saturday, June 20 at 8:30 pm

The interview with Norfolk Country District Attorney on the same issue will be aired on Thursday evening, June 18 at 6:30 pm.



For the full listing of shows on the broadcast schedule for this week, check here
http://franklin.tv/programguide.pdf

Hockomock 2015 Track and Field All Stars

Congratulations to the Franklin High School representatives on the Hockomock Track & Field All Stars as voted on by the coaches in the league.

Girls Track

Jess Kroushl

Honorable Mention - Beth Neal

FHS Panthers

Boys Track

Logan Mitchell

Honorable Mention - Ryan Spelman


For the full listing of girls on the Hockomock All Stars
http://www.hockomocksports.com/blog/2015-hockomock-league-girls-track-field-all-stars

For the full listing of boys on the Hockomock All Stars
http://www.hockomocksports.com/blog/2015-hockomock-league-boys-track-field-all-stars

"Holliston close to owning entire rail trail property"

For fans of rail trails, the news out of Holliston is good.

Officials expect the town will own all of roughly 7-mile section of the Upper Charles Rail Trail that passes through Holliston by the end of the year, as the town has received the money to purchase two remaining segments of the trail from CSX Transportation. 

The town is ready to close on a 1.9-mile section from Hopping Brook Road to Cross Street. According to Upper Charles Rail Trail Committee Chairman Robert Weidknecht, the land will be purchased using $660,000 of Community Preservation Act money that was approved by Special Town Meeting in October. A purchase and sale agreement between selectmen and CSX was signed earlier this year. Town counsel is in the process of closing on the property.

Continue reading the article here
http://www.milforddailynews.com/article/20150616/NEWS/150617410/1994/NEWS

MassBike image

For more on the Upper Charles River Trail -> http://www.uppercharlestrail.org/ 

or here ->  http://www.milfordtrail.org/

or from the MassBike site here  http://massbike.org/resourcesnew/pathstrails/

Additional trail maps can be found here  http://www.arrtinc.org/index.asp

Solid Waste fee reduction approved

The Town Council meeting on Wednesday, June 10 was the first of two budget hearings as well as a 'regular' meeting agenda.

The budget hearing attempted to take a short cut by not having departmental presentations, to just read the budget voting doc, let the individual councilors put a hold on the item to come back to it for a question (or two) and possible discussion.

Several items resulted in a 'hold' and the discussion was focused on specific questions. This method worked better on Wednesday than it did on Thursday in the second of the two budget hearings. We'll cover the discussion Thursday in a separate posting.

In the legislation portion of the agenda, the Council approved the creation of several revolving accounts. This is an annual action. The accounts provide for proper record keeping for the funds coming in as fees and going out to pay for the services rendered.

The Council approved the rate reduction for solid waste (i.e. trash and recycling) from the current $216/year to $200/year. This is a result of improved collections and a renegotiation of the contract for the tipping fees. There will be additional communications coming on how to ensure that what is in recycling is really recyclable and that no trash gets mixed in.

The first reading of a sewer connection was held and the Council was upset that the beneficiaries (i.e property owners) did not come to the meeting. They have a chance at the second reading scheduled for June 24th.

The bylaw on door-to-door solicitation is up for a change to restrict the hours to basically daylight hours. This is the result of a private vendor making solicitations without having been properly permitted.

Franklin Municipal Building

My notes reported live from the meeting can be found here

• Live reporting: Closing
• Live reporting: Legislation
• Live reporting: Budget Hearing #1

"there’s a wide range to learning everything in the early years"

The Sunday edition of the Boston Globe has a good article summarizing the changes to kindergarten curriculum over the year. The title of the article asks: "Is the Common Core killing kindergarten?"

LAST SPRING, Susan Sluyter quit teaching kindergarten in the Cambridge Public Schools. She’d spent nearly two decades in the classroom, and her departure wasn’t a happy one. In a resignation letter, Sluyter railed against a “disturbing era of testing and data” that had trickled down from the upper grades and was now assaulting kindergartners with a barrage of new academic demands that “smack of 1st or 2nd grade.” The school district did not respond to a request for comment. 

But Sluyter’s complaints touched a national nerve. Her letter went viral, prompting scores of sympathetic comments by other frustrated teachers and parents. Sluyter’s letter was fresh evidence for groups of early-childhood educators who oppose the kindergarten expectations for math and English Language Arts, or ELA, set by the new Common Core, the academic benchmarks for K-12 that most states have adopted to replace the historic patchwork of standards.

Continue reading the article online here (subscription may be required)
http://www.bostonglobe.com/ideas/2015/06/13/common-core-killing-kindergarten/lydG3pnscVEnTEoELUZWdP/story.html

Susan Sluyter's resignation letter can be found here
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2014/03/23/kindergarten-teacher-my-job-is-now-about-tests-and-data-not-children-i-quit/

"limit the hours to what are essentially daylight hours"

Recent complaints from residents concerning nighttime visits from solicitors have prompted the town to consider a change to its bylaw on door-to-door sales. 

The Town Council last week took up a measure that would restrict solicitation to daylight hours. Its current bylaw allows solicitation from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. for businesses and advocacy groups that have registered with the police department and obtained a permit. The bylaw does not apply to political or religious organizations. 

The proposal would allow solicitors to work up until a half-hour before sunset, Town Administrator Jeffrey Nutting said, noting that depending on the time of year that could be as early as 4 p.m. or as late as 8 p.m.

Continue reading the article here
http://www.milforddailynews.com/article/20150615/NEWS/150617789/1994/NEWS


My notes from the Town Council meeting on Wednesday can be found here
http://www.franklinmatters.org/2015/06/live-reporting-legislation.html

Franklin High School: Class of 2015 - Scholarships and Awards

Over 100 organizations or businesses provided 146 scholarships to the Franklin High School's Class of 2015. The total value of the scholarships calculates to about $100,000 (as you review the list not all the amounts are provided). The total excludes the Dean College Scholarship which alone ls worth $120,000 (4 years at $30,000/year). 

The listing of scholarships and other awards for the FHS Class of 2015 and the underclass awards presented on June 4, 2015 can be found in the document here:

FHS dressed up for graduation

Thanks to Superintendent Maureen Sabolinski for coordinating to provide this information.