July 24 - DESE Releases Guidance on:
- Courses Requiring Additional Safety Considerations https://t.co/2uxffPxv0K
- Remote Learning - https://t.co/7FvkM0WLm3
pic.twitter.com/M1FH8HTlWB — M.A.S.S. (@massupt) July 24, 2020
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| DESE released guidance on 'Courses Requiring Additional Safety Considerations' and 'Remote Learning' |
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| Talk Franklin: "Mid-summer in Franklin: What's going on and what's coming up! |
Listen to "Mid-summer in Franklin: What's going on and what's coming up! " Tune in to stay updated! Thanks, @FranklinMatters #FranklinMA #ThePlacetoBe #StayConnected #news #events⚓ https://t.co/XFN0qCvpwY https://t.co/lY65wHbFpr(https://twitter.com/TOFranklinMA/status/1286751442947252225?s=03)
"Massachusetts tax collections in the fiscal year that ended June 30 are about $3 billion lower than what budget managers were expecting when they crafted the $43.3 billion state budget a year ago, according to preliminary data released Friday by the Department of Revenue.
Revenue officials said incomplete revenue collections for fiscal year 2020 so far total $27.276 billion, which is $2.417 billion or 8.1 percent less than fiscal year 2019 and $3.014 billion or 9.9 percent below the year-to-date benchmark.
But because the tax filing deadline was moved from April 15 to July 15 and DOR is still collecting fiscal 2020 taxes, the agency said the fiscal 2020 revenue total is expected to be updated over the next several weeks."
“Approximately 81 percent of the year-to-date shortfall is in non-withheld income tax, which is due in large part to the deferral of the deadlines for personal income tax returns and payments and the first two estimated payment installments to July 15, 2020,” Revenue Commissioner Geoffrey Snyder said. “DOR will be releasing a full FY2020 revenue report in September because recently enacted legislation requires the Comptroller to record income tax payments received between July 1 and August 31 as FY20 revenue. We will continue to closely monitor these delayed FY20 revenue collections.”Continue reading the article online (subscription may be required)
Here is a link to a video update I plan on sharing on a weekly basis. Please click the link under the video and submit questions / concerns around our return to school. I hope you all are able to have a peaceful weekend.
"The predictions of science are bleak based on our current approach to the problem of carbon pollution. But it doesn’t have to be that way. There is nothing inevitable about the predictions. We still have the option to construct a good future. We have the power to build a world that does more than simply avoid catastrophe. And we can create a thriving, sustainable future that our children’s children will thank us for.
Franklin had a very warm winter. According to The Globe it is “likely to end up being among the top five or six warmest since records have been kept.”
While it is easy to say we have been lucky, last winter’s warmth is not some fluke of good fortune. If we just keep on doing what we are doing, U.S. Government scientists say that for Massachusetts, by the year by 2100, the number of days above 90 degrees Fahrenheit will increase from the usual five to 20 days to an uncomfortable 30 to 60 days.
Imagine summertime in Franklin with all of July and August above 90 degrees! If last summer’s heat wave was uncomfortable, summers in the future will be awful."Continue reading the article online (subscription may be required)
"Massachusetts will impose new restrictions on travelers from most of the United States next week, threatening fines of $500 per day for those who do not quarantine or prove they tested negative for COVID-19, the Baker administration announced Friday.
Under Gov. Charlie Baker’s new executive order, anyone entering Massachusetts will need to fill out a form summarizing their travel, then either self-isolate for 14 days upon arrival or submit negative test results for the highly infectious virus no more than 72 hours old.
The new policy that takes effect Aug. 1 is an escalation of a travel advisory that has been in place for months, adding enforcement mechanisms as new infections continue to surge in states outside the northeast. Individuals who do not follow the mandatory quarantine order could be fined $500 per day, according to a press release from Baker’s office.
Travel from states considered low-risk -- defined as having a daily case rate of less than six people per 100,000 and a positive test rate below 5 percent -- will be exempt from the quarantine or test policies. As of Friday, eight states are on that list: Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey and Hawaii."Continue reading the article online (subscription may be required)
Gov. Charlie Baker on Friday morning signed the $1.1 billion COVID-19 spending bill sent to his desk last week, though he vetoed sections dealing with past MassHealth payments and a program spending floor.
The bill (H 4808) included hundreds of millions of dollars for some of the more obvious COVID-19 costs, like $350 million for personal protective equipment, $85 million spent on field hospitals and shelters, $44 million for the contact tracing collaborative, and more than $111 million in supplemental payments to hospitals and providers.
The Baker administration has said that many of the pandemic-related appropriations will be mostly reimbursed by the federal government, and the governor urged the Legislature to act quickly, saying that Massachusetts is in a race with other states to access a limited pool of resources available for reimbursement.
“Now that this authorization is in place, state agencies can finalize the documentation needed to secure federal reimbursement where available, in particular from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA),” Baker wrote in his signing letter. “Federal reimbursement will be supplemented with other federal funding sources, including but not limited to money from the Coronavirus Relief Fund established by the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act. As such, the net state cost is expected to be $0.”Continue reading the article online (subscription may be required)
Today I signed a supplemental budget bill that authorizes #COVID19MA spending and also establishes #Juneteenth Independence Day as an annual state holiday on June 19 in order to recognize the continued need to ensure racial freedom and equality.➡️READ: https://t.co/xg3iTJbjlu https://t.co/ZqIQBULeRo
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| Gov Baker signs funding bill and Juneteenth holiday legislation |
