weed whacking

There were lots of weeds growing up through the bricks on our walkway that I finally had a chance to tackle. Patiently uprooting them should provide a better long term solution than taking the weed whacker to them.


The 'before' shot




The 'after' shot




Did you do any work around the house this weekend?

Dangerous precedent, if true

I think several points raised the Milford Daily News article today deserve some elaboration.

'The School Committee... seems to be accepting grants, so I don't know why they couldn't accept a grant from the Brick School (Association),'' said Hunter.

They will if the grant is for supplementing not supplanting what the school budget provides.

"They've said they won't accept donations to pay for a teacher, but last week, they accepted $2,000 for a teacher to use in her classroom through a `Teacher of the Year' award,'' Sandham said.

I guess you don't understand the difference between supplement and supplant. The money is an award for the teach to use in her classroom, it does not pay the teacher's salary.

"We're hoping there will be some way we can work with them,'' she said. The committee's policy should not prevent funding via grants, Sandham added.

There is a way. Make the grant non-specific and they'll accept it based upon the policy revision to use it to supplement and not supplant the school budget.

Rep. James Vallee, D-Franklin, has also told the group he has earmarked $25,000 for the Brick School, Hunter and Brick School House Association Secretary Paula Sandham said.
Vallee could not be reached to confirm the earmark, though his staff director, Erin L. Souza, said he has not yet made a decision on the association's request for the funds.

This would be a dangerous precedent if true. While Rep. Vallee has been very successful in providing funds to Franklin via the Chapter 70 allocation and other grants, an earmark would cross the border of who controls and determines the funding for education in Franklin; our state Rep or the School Committee?

As I have mentioned elsewhere, the real focus needs to be on the total budget for Franklin education. We can not afford to loose 45 teachers. The trend in the last several years is for providing less than the level service of the prior year. If the cuts (as forecasted) do go through, the trend of being a high performing district will begin to show up in next year's MCAS results. Another year or two of more cuts and we'll be in similar straits as Randolph.

Franklin has gotten used to living of the largess of the Commonwealth. Chapter 70 provides half the funding for our schools (see the state trending information put together by two Arlington residents).

Will Franklin decide to start paying their own way?
How much educational funding will that equate to?

Access a concern at Brick classroom

Michael Morton reports on the Brick Task Force meeting last night.

For years, students with health issues or disabilities have been steered away from the town's one-room Red Brick School and into its parent elementary school, Davis Thayer, a move parents have agreed is in their children's best interest.

But at a meeting last night, Brick School Task Force member Kevin Walsh asked what would happen if a parent pushed to enroll their child at the historic schoolhouse, which lacks a nurse, special education staff, and access for the physically disabled.

Hmm, what if someone really, really wanted to go?

Read the full article in today's Milford Daily News

Brick Committee backs off claim

Oldest or not the oldest, that was the question.

Last night, the Brick School Task Force gave its answer.

"I wish I could sit before you and say we are the oldest continuously operating (one-room) brick schoolhouse in the nation," said Town Clerk Deborah Pellegri, a task force member assigned to investigate the question. "But I can't. It cannot be documented."

Pellegri was referring to Franklin's Red Brick School, built in 1833 and placed on the National Historic Register in 1976. Threatened with past closures that it survived, the school was placed on the chopping block this spring because the district faced a funding gap and administrators deemed the building too costly to run.

Read Michael Morton's full article in the Milford Daily News

One room or two? What's a room?

The debate continues.

Read the story by Michael Morton in the Milford Daily News.

Brick School not first

The one room red brick school house in Croyden, NH was built in 1780 and has been in continuous use since.

That beats the Brick School by 50 years.

Oh well!

Now to find out if it can be operated as safely, effectively, and cost no more than a normal classroom in one of Franklin's other elementary buildings.

Michael Morton has the details of the Croyden situation in the Franklin Gazette.

Brick School Study first meeting

Courtesy of the good reporting by Michael Morton, catch up on the article as printed in Sunday's Milford Daily News.

Brick School Task Force Named

The Milford Daily News outlined the six charges that the task force has been asked to answer, the first of which is the school actually the oldest one room operating brick school house. The answers to the six questions are due back to the School Committee by December 18th. The final decision rests with the committee and based upon the answers to the six questions, they should be able to plan accordingly for the next budget cycle.

The names of the task force and additional details can be found in today's article.

Good use for Franklin's Brick School

Good use for Franklin's Brick School
Originally uploaded by shersteve

Lucky for me on the vacation road this week in the wilds of PA, I happened upon this one room school house that is now functioning as a museum.

The new Brick School Futures committee, or task force, or whatever it will be called could take a field trip here.

This would be a good use for the current building (with the classroom moved into an elementary school building.)

Brick Task Force - Update

The Franklin School Committe blog has a link to send an email with your request to vounteer for this task.

Click here to get to the link.

Good luck!

Brick School Task Force recruiting

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.

Franklin Brick Crosswalks

Franklin Brick Crosswalks
Originally uploaded by shersteve

The construction along Union St is making progress. Trees and landscaping details are being worked. Dolores and I taking our weekend morning walk also find that they are putting in brick crosswalks.

For the side roads, I can see this (top photos)

The brick is attractive and goes well with the brick accent (lower right photo)

For Union itself, I don't see these making sense. They are working on one near the Union Cafe (bottom left photo) and have road makings to indicate others to be done.

How long will these last?

Does Frankin have the budget to maintain these?