If you are interested in helping to decide the future of the Brick School you can volunteer to join the Task Force being put together to work on this. Contact the School Committee
Recall that the Brick School was on the cut list even if the override passed.
Yet private money coming froward at the 11th hour, talked the School Committee into a unanimous vote to keep it open another year while the task force does it's thing.
Good luck to the Task Force!
More details can be found in Michael Morton's Milford Daily News article today and Tuesday.
Steve - just wanted to point out an inaccuracy in your blog entry - "Recall that the Brick School was on the cut list even if the override passed.”
ReplyDeleteDuring the School Committee Meeting on May 8th - it was unanimously voted (7-0) for Mr. Ogden to enter into discussions with the Brick School Association to keep the school open if funding were increased. Therefore, the school was not slated to close with or without the override – it was to be decided based on the meetings between the school committee, the superintendent and the BSA – this seems to be a sticking point with some Brick School opponents in the town and just thought we should present the accurate record.
“72. Mr. Roy made a motion to direct the superintendent to enter in to discussions with the Brick School Association and bring back information to the School Committee at a later date, where we will discuss whether we would accept a targeted gift outside of the override. Mrs. Scofield seconded. All were in favor. The motion passed 7-0.” The link to the meeting notes is below
http://www.franklin.ma.us/auto/schools/fsc/meetings/minutes/2007minutes/50807.htm
It may be but that was not the common knowledge around Franklin in May. Yes, it was mentioned during the meeting and the meeting notes you referenced were not approved and posted until after the election on the 22nd.
ReplyDeleteYou could have chimed in to correct the record in the posting on Brick I did on the 19th. http://steves2cents.blogspot.com/2007/05/yes-brick-school-should-close-as.html
Waiting until July is way too late.
Am I being scolded on a blogs?
ReplyDeleteThe only reason I am pointing this out now is the recent comments bounding around town regarding this issue and reading about town council members making similar assertions in the local press as well as your blog posting. You had never mentioned "closing either way' in any of your blog entries reguarding the Brick School - so the assumption was that it was common knowledge there was a possibility that it would stay open or else all these discussions and entries and comments would be pointless.
There were many posts from Beth Barry, Kristin, Janet etc. who discussed BSA expanding their "ongoing" donations....
Again, not trying to get into an argument, I know many people read your blog for information on the Franklin and was just hoping to set the record straight.
Scolded, not by me. You asked me to do something and I declined.
ReplyDeleteI wish I had the timeline mapped out but there were far more people at the May 1 Forum at Horace Mann (I was there) to see the slide show clearly outline that Brick was on the cut list even if the override passed. It was during the Q&A session that the offer by the BSA was first made and acknowledged and then formalized as you indicated in the 5/8 meeting (attended by far fewer folks) with the minutes not coming out until after the 5/22 vote.
The talk around town (and particularly in my neighborhood) was that there was a chance it could remain open but it was not good. Many in fact, did not even expect the override to pass.
Those are just the facts as I lived them and I am declining to re-write history now.
I went back into my postings to see if the school budget presentation was still on line and if it is, I have not found it. All the links I made to it seemed to be no longer valid. The Milford Daily News of May 4th does have this line:
"An override would restore those programs, but only 20 of the positions because of the remaining funding gap. The one-room Red Brick School is slated to be cut no matter what."
You can read it for yourself here:
http://www.milforddailynews.com/homepage/x1403673576
It is worthy of note that this came out after the May 1 meeting.
If anything, now the whole discussion is really in the hands of the task force (charged with answering six questions) and which the School Committee will ultimately use to make its decision.
I think it is interesting that one of the questions is not "Should Brick remain open?" The task force gets to dig for the answers and report but doesn't get to answer the big question (although while they haven't been asked to, I would be very surprised if they don't go ahead and do so). I understand why the School Committee did what it did but I found it interesting anyway.