Davis Thayer Facility Analysis - Community Info Session - Recap - 11/4/20

Quick Recap:

• With info gathered, they can update their five step process, they are currently in Phase 2
• Overview of the highlights of the facility analysis report and presentation as covered in the prior School Committee meeting 10/27/20
• Discussion of possible timeline for the next steps
• Survey out for community input

Photos captured during the meeting and shared via Twitter can be found in the album  https://photos.app.goo.gl/MbtLUoz3KH8CFs3q9

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As with most meetings in this pandemic period, I took my notes via Twitter during the meeting reporting in real-time via the virtual session.
 
The Twitter hashtag can be found online  #dtfa1104
https://twitter.com/hashtag/dtfa1104?src=hashtag_click

• #dtfa1104 meeting starting now ... Concern of too many SchComm members present although they are not deliberating, just sharing info already shared
• Menti.com being used for interaction tonight #dtfa1103
• #dtfa1104 agenda slide
• #dtfa the five step process
• #dtfa1104 overview of report on facility capacity. Educational adequacy explored and rated, schools and under capacity
• #dtfa1104 enrollment declines continue over next 7 years before turning up
• Enrollment decline more so on middle school level. (And less speculation here, the students for the most part are already in the system) (elementary students projections generally already seen in birthrates) #dtfa1104
• #dtfa1104 the budget issue worsens if nothing done (yup) and any school budget looking for more money would need to have a clear answer to this situation.
• Review of the various options #dtfa1104 focus of subcommittee remains on the DT potential closing and factors thereoff
• Considering physical distance factors in this part of the work #dtfa1104 decision will be based upon multiple reports, info, factors (hoping they don't get overwhelmed with analysis paralysis) possible 3rd info session to be considered
• Possible to work through stages 1-4 during winter and depending upon pandemic status get to point on when Stage 5 would start #dtfa1104
• Getting ready for questions, #dtfa1104 what work would be req'd for middle schools regarding firing the elementary students within (i.e. Keller using some of Sullivan)
• Title I is associated with the students more than with the building. #dtfa1104 would require a recalculation and maybe a redistribution among the schools
• Yes, getting this done within the current SchComm term (Nov 21) is a motivator but not the only key, the decision needs to be made when it can be #dtfa1104 Keller sprinkler issues raised (occured twice) should be resolved to prevent reoccurrence
• Spencer speaking as mom, not SchComm member; is concerned about loss of staff at DT, principal already gone (interim in place this year) response - staff considered within district and according to bargaining agreement #dtfa1104
• Info session coming to an end, Q&A to be posted on DT page akin to the first session. #dtfa1104 

Additional info on the Facility Analysis

https://www.franklinps.net/district/davis-thayer-facilities-analysis

Davis Thayer Facility Analysis - Community Info Session - Recap - 11/4/20

 

Board of Health - Nov 4, 2020 meeting recap

Quick Recap:

• Motion to approve prior meeting minutes passed via roll call vote 3-0
• Motion to grant waive on leaching field/Title 5 specifications to create a working system passed by roll call 3-0 vote
• Manicure establishment regulation to be subject of a future public hearing before removing the regulation as it is duplicative with what the State already does
• Updates on recruiting for future clinic in process; building at 27 Winter condemned, proceedings appreciated by Franklin Police
• No questions from committee on Gov Baker’s updates to COVID-19 restrictions, facial covering requirements, etc.

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As with most meetings in this pandemic period, I took my notes via Twitter during the meeting reporting in real-time via the virtual session.
 
The Twitter hashtag can be found online  #boh1104
https://twitter.com/search?q=%23boh1104&src=typeahead_click

• Busy meeting night ahead; getting ready for real time reporting for the Board of Health meeting coming at 5PM agenda and connection info here https://franklinma.gov/sites/g/files/vyhlif591/f/agendas/agenda-11-4-20_revised.pdf. #boh1104
• Choice of School Committee Davis Thayer facility Community meeting or Town Council meeting at 7 PM, as the Franklin TV will do the Town Council, I'll audio record the DTFA info session #boh1104
• #boh1104 underway
• #boh1104 motion to accept prior 3 meeting minutes approved via roll call 3-0 next up for discussion title 5 plan for 4 Abbey Lane looking for two local upgrade approval. Tank going back in same place at 30 years ago, can't be changed otherwise. Moving leaching field higher
• Motion to grant variance as requested passes 3-0 via roll call. Chap 238 manicure establishments, already covered by State, no real value add for Franklin coverage. Should consider a public hearing to provide due diligence for removal of regulation #boh1104
• Recruiting for volunteers for clinic, 39 responses still open, when time comes we should be ready ... Look out for nursing schools to provide some students who need opportunity to help (due to the pandemic) #boh1104 paperwork processing, post shot checks, etc.
• New orders on gatherings, face coverings, etc. Don't anticipate going red, went from 11 to 14 cases. Chair to send calculation to Dir. Liberty 27 Winter st, #boh1104 condemned the dwelling due to condition, multiple complaints over recent years. Criminal charge for disturbing
• Places like this take up too much time by the Police to respond to. Doors are locked, windows on 2nd floor broken open but otherwise access is restricted. #boh1104
• Chair turned duties to vice chair, no public comments, motion to adjourn, passed 2-0 #boh1104 

Board of Health - Nov 4, 2020 meeting recap

 

FPAC to Present Socially Distanced Production of ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND - Nov 8

"The Franklin Performing Arts Company (FPAC) will present a creative and socially distanced production of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland on Sunday, November 8. A nomadic audience of 10 will meet Alice and follow her from venue to venue as her adventures unfold. Dressed to be outside and in, audience members will walk from vignette to vignette, on THE BLACK BOX and 38 Main Street campus. Masks are required.

The creative production was conceived and directed by Nick Paone. Paone has a BA in Theater from Occidental College. A former Equity actor, his performing credits include Cabaret, Little Shop of Horrors, Oklahoma, Red Roses, Brighton Beach Memoirs, and Romeo and Juliet. He has written and directed numerous shows, produced an evening of one-act plays in NYC, and traveled extensively performing with TheatreWorks USA. Nick's numerous FPAC credits include The Music Man, Fiddler on the Roof, Seussical, The Addams Family, Peter Pan, Les Misérables, Humbug!, Newsies, Little Shop of Horrors, and many more. He is the creative mind behind FPAC's original musicals Humbug!, Zero, and multiple holiday pantos."

Shared from https://www.broadwayworld.com/boston/article/FPAC-to-Present-Socially-Distanced-Production-of-ALICES-ADVENTURES-IN-WONDERLAND-20201102?

Tickets can be purchased online  https://www.theblackboxonline.com/events.php?id=1421&month=11&year=2020

ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND - Nov 8

 

Franklin Community Garden: Maintenance Day - Nov 11

We are planning on having a maintenance day on November 11th from 9am-12. By then all garden beds should be cleaned out and if you are planning on renting next year that would be a great day to amend your soil.  With beautiful weather in the forecast for the next week, we really need to spend a few minutes cleaning out the beds.  It's also a good time to plant garlic for next year as well.  

What will be doing on that day? You can care for your garden by cleaning it out and then we need help moving the picnic tables and covering them, washing the tools (important so that when we use them next year if there were any disease on the tools it will not be transferred to someone's garden), cut the grass one last time, stack all the tomato cages in the back of the shed so they don't blow away, put the hoses away, put down some clover and clean out the shed. After November 11th the water will be shut off.

It's time to clean out your garden beds of all fallen produce, perennials that do not belong (strawberries, raspberry bushes, corn stalks and mint.)  If you would like to grow mint then you need to put it in a plastic pot and then plant the pot in the garden.  This way it does not multiply throughout the whole garden.  If you ever decide not to use that garden space and the mint had been growing then it would be a big deal to remove it and this holds true for the strawberries and the bushes.

The University of Rhode Island Cooperative Extension offers these free one hour LEARN AT HOME webinars.  This one is perfect for us: "Putting  the Garden to Bed: Tips and Tricks for Success Next Year" . https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nuuAh1Ir4Es  There are others and once you visit their website you can choose whatever seems to be of interest to you.

Lastly, I want to thank all our volunteers for their hard work keeping the Community Garden going so smoothly.  Deb Schwab has really stepped up to be our liaison from the Recreation Dept to all of you.  She has been behind the scenes organizing all the eagle scout projects, managing the volunteers for the maintenance days and I can't thank her enough.  Teresa Triana, Jen Kuse (Franklin Food Pantry), Melanie Hamblen and all our eagle scouts.  This has been our best year by far and it's because of all of these individuals.  Thank you letters will be going out to our eagle scouts today.

We will open up registration to all returning gardeners for 2021 on Monday, February 1st, 8:30am. 

amend your soil link https://organicforecast.org/2015/11/five-reasons-to-amend-garden-soil-now/

Jen Kuse and Lynn Calling viewing the garden beds that the Franklin Food Pantry used this year

Franklin Public Schools: Haunted Clocks Full Virtual Performance

"Amazing performance!  Great job to ALL involved!"

Performance by Annie Sullivan, Horace Mann, and Remington Middle Schools in Franklin Massachusetts

Shared from Twitter: https://twitter.com/FranklinPSNews/status/1324116511758364674?s=03

Video link =>   https://youtu.be/WxetbNjvm2M 

 

Franklin School Committee - Newsletter - 11/4/20

You can view the current (and prior) newsletter updates from the School Committee online  https://www.franklinps.net/district/school-committee/pages/newsletters

 

https://www.franklinps.net/district/school-committee/pages/newsletters

 

Senator Rausch: Onward!

I am deeply honored and humbled to be re-elected as State Senator representing the great communities of the Norfolk, Bristol and Middlesex District!

 

I am deeply honored and humbled to be re-elected as State Senator representing the great communities of the Norfolk, Bristol and Middlesex District! Thank you to the voters for putting your faith in me for another term, to continue pushing for progress and delivering results.

Before I go any further, I want to say a massive thank you to my tremendous campaign team. Many of you got to meet and work with some of these incredible people over the course of this campaign, so you know just how phenomenal they are. Thank you doesn't begin to cut it here. I am so grateful for all of you, for the formidable campaign we built and ran even during a global pandemic, and for your deep dedication to justice, equity, democracy, and collaboration. Thank you to our fellows, our youth coordinators, and all of our amazing volunteers. And, thank you to my family, especially my husband Lior and our children, for your patience, love, understanding, and strength.

Friends, this victory is about all of us, and the values we share. Values of justice, fairness, and equity for all. Values that manifest in public health, reproductive freedom, election access, antiracism, education, intersectional civil rights, and so much more. Values that have been under attack seemingly everywhere we look. But yesterday and over the last few weeks, all of you here and tens of thousands of voters in our district said no to unraveling progress. This victory is a resounding YES for truth, science, civility, and policymaking that uplifts our individual and collective humanity.

We all know this is not the first time in history that our shared values have been attacked, or trampled. My grandfather was a Holocaust survivor. His 100th birthday would have been this past weekend, while all of us were busy talking to voters. He passed away when I was young, but one of the things I remember most about him is his love of music. On Monday morning, as I was dropping off our younger son at pre-K, a piece of music my grandfather loved and brought into our family came on the radio. Not just a snippet of the piece either, the whole thing. Hearing it reminded me of our unique legacies, and how those legacies influence the people we become.

I'd never been to Germany until just a few years ago, and it wasn't until that trip that I learned my great great grandfather was a local politician before Hitler rose to power. Before my ancestors' lives were taken from them. Before the values of justice and equity and decency were so horrifyingly overrun by hate and fear.

These have been dark times in our nation – a serious stain on our American story that was unthinkable before 2016. We do not yet know what the outcome will be at the top of the ticket or in other critical races across the country. That great unknown is hard. It's hard to sit in ambiguity that so drastically impacts our lives now and the brighter future we all want to build for our children and generations to come. While we do not yet know the outcome, we know this: we can do hard things. We've been doing it for years, some of us longer than others. And we know that eventually, the arc will bend our way. Good will triumph over evil. Love will triumph over hate. Truth will triumph over lies and manipulation. Democracy will triumph over the denigration of American ideals.

We also know this: whatever happens at the federal level, the sites of social change for the next several years will be state legislatures. And that's what makes our victory particularly important, and hopeful. I'm proud to have achieved many great successes in my first term, from passing two reproductive justice bills on the Senate floor by unanimous, bipartisan votes, to advancing infectious disease prevention legislation, to enhancing transparency in the legislature, to bringing real and meaningful service to every corner of my district. That's what my leadership looks like. That's what voters in this election confirmed they want. And that's exactly what I'll continue to deliver in my next term – actual progress on public health, reproductive justice, election reform, climate action, intersectional civil rights, a government and places of employment free from harassment and discrimination, and more. That's the world we're striving to achieve. That's the sense of community we're fighting to restore.

When I think about our kids, and your kids, and all the young people out there who have shown up and spoken up and reached out and gotten involved, whether through climate strikes or a teen town hall or letters to me or learning how to read… I am inspired by them, and motivated to do better and keep pushing for the brighter future they deserve. That's a legacy I hope our work together will leave for them, both the work that's brought us to this moment and the work still to come.

I hope we achieve that legacy. I hope I'm living up to the legacy my family crafted for me. And I hope I continue to make all of you proud.

To each and every one of you, from the bottom of my heart, thank you for your incredible support and for dedicating your time, talent, and treasure to this campaign, to our values, and to hope. We have paved a path forward; let's keep pushing for progress and getting it done, together.

Thank you, everyone.

In solidarity, 

 

Becca Rausch