On March 27th, I encourage everyone in Franklin to vote YES for the new Franklin High School. It’s the right decision for Franklin, its taxpayers and most importantly, its students.
As a graduate from Franklin High School in 2007, I’ll be the first to tell you we have an excellent school system. I strongly believe I received a great education in Franklin and thank my parents for moving here shortly before I was born to make that possible.
The accolades Franklin frequently receives as one of the best places to raise a family are well deserved. For some reason, some people point to our high performing – and efficient – school system as a reason to vote against the new school. While I agree great teachers are the most important aspect to a good education – and Franklin has them – we also can’t ignore the learning environment.
The current Franklin High School’s accreditation by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC) has been on warning status since 2005 for numerous reasons related to the building. Lack of Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) compliance, outdated science labs, inadequate facilities such as the nurse’s area, minimum recommended size classrooms, lack of a full sprinkler system and field house structure and roof being in poor condition are among the reasons cited by NEASC and an existing conditions report done by Kaestle Boos Associate. It is vital we correct these issues both for our students and to remove our high school from warning status.
After six years of work and exploring all possibilities, both the Franklin School Building Committee and the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA) agreed building a new model school made the most sense for the students and for the taxpayers in the long run. The costs of a model school are much more easily predicted since it has been built before, while an expensive renovation often runs into unforeseen costs along the way and problems related to an aging 40 year-old building will continue to appear after a renovation is done. The model school also comes with a much better reimbursement rate from the state, 59.52% of reimbursable costs, than a renovation would have, leaving Franklin taxpayers to pay $47 million on a $104 million school.
I’ve heard some “no voters” talk about the school as extravagant – that we’d be better off saving a few bucks to build a school that more closely resembles a prison than a place of education. I strongly disagree with the classification of new high school as extravagant. Thanks in part to the extravagance of Newton North – which among other things included a pool and cost two times as much as the proposed FHS for just a 12% bigger student population – the state will no longer reimburse a town if they wish to build an extravagant high school. The proposed Franklin High School’s cost is comparable to the other high schools that have recently been built across the state and on a per pupil basis actually is more cost effective than many of them.
The exterior of the new Franklin High School facing the woods or otherwise not easily visible is just as drab as some of the “no voters” would like the entire building to be. The front, or exposed parts of the building, has a few design elements to draw attention to the main entrance – I’d hardly call that extravagant. I see the new Franklin High School as a place where students would be excited to go to learn in every day, I don’t think we should underestimate that value.
Another complaint brought forth from some “no voters” has been the false claim that everything inside the current building will be thrown away. That is simply untrue. While part of the cost of the new high school is much needed new technology, the technology and any useful furniture in the current high school such as smart boards, computers and anything else that would be helpful will be transferred to the middle and elementary schools providing them with a needed upgrade in technology as well. In that sense, building a new high school will benefit all the schools.
I’ve also heard plenty of questions about maintenance of the high school. We can’t change the past, but I can tell you changes have been made and having recently toured all the Franklin schools, our maintenance staff is currently doing a great job of keeping our combined middle/elementary schools looking like new and our older elementary schools are being kept in good shape. That leaves me confident a new high school would be well maintained.
I have no children of my own or family members that will directly benefit by attending the new high school, but I’ll be voting YES, along with my family, on March 27th because it’s the right thing to do for Franklin and its students. I hope you’ll join me – one vote could make the difference.
-Sean Donahue, Franklin School Committee
I met with Steve Sherlock of Franklin Matters a few weeks ago to answer some questions. Here’s the resulting piece:
If you’re interested in a sign, contact me at seanldonahue@gmail.com and I’ll personally deliver it (and pick it up after the election). I’d be happy to discussion any campaign/school issues with anyone who is interested.
In the build up to the November 8th elections I’ll be outlining my goals for the School Committee in the next two years. I started with improving communication and ensuring challenging classes for students of all ability levels. This week I’ll look at changing the metrics by which we judge our schools’ success.
GOAL: Better Metrics for Measuring Success
When we hear about improvement in the Franklin Schools, it’s often in relation to MCAS scores. Improving MCAS scores indicate our schools are doing well in the core subject areas, but do not give a complete picture of the education we are providing our students.
When programs are cut, the effects may not show up in MCAS scores, but that doesn’t mean they are not affecting the education Franklin students are receiving. Are our students still getting into the same level of colleges they did in the past? Are we preparing them well enough for college? For those entering the workforce, are we providing them with the life skills needed?
These are some of the questions we should be looking to answer. Some of the new online initiatives in the high school should help compare college acceptance data in the future, but it would be worthwhile to compare the data we have of college acceptances today to that of five years ago, if it is still available.
Additionally, looking to create a focus group each year of high school graduates a year after they leave Franklin High School could prove incredibly beneficial. During some of the summer months, the School Committee often has a smaller agenda and it would be the perfect time to try to form a volunteer focus group of students after their freshman year of college to hear what areas they felt prepared for and where they feel Franklin schools didn’t prepare them well enough.
The same could be done for students who enter the work force rather than go on to higher education. Seeking such information could prove helpful in finding ways to improve our school system.
Furthermore, Tough decisions have to be made during these hard economic times, but when programs are cut that shouldn’t be the end of the discussion. For example, with gym class requirements lessened at the high school, will we start to see an increase in teenage obesity in Franklin? This is something that should continue to be followed, so if a problem is found we can reverse course before it is too late.
Changing the ways we measure success is crucial to ensuring an informed School Committee and public to how our schools are really doing. Only then will we truly know if our schools are doing enough.
If elected November 8th, I intend to find ways to better assess how well Franklin Public Schools are preparing students for their futures.
-Sean Donahue, Candidate for Franklin School Committee
In the build up to the November 8th elections I’ll be outlining my goals for the School Committee in the next two years. I started with improving communication. This week I’ll look at providing challenging classes for students of all ability levels.
GOAL: Challenging Classes for Students of All Ability Levels
It is of vital importance that our schools continue to provide classes at various levels, giving students of all ability levels the chance both to succeed and be challenged. In March, we learned that Franklin High School was looking to offer fewer Advanced Placement courses, especially in science, due to recent scores on AP exams not reaching expectations. This is a step in the wrong direction.
From both my own experience, that of my peers and the parents of recent students I’ve talked to, AP classes and exams not only provide a great way to differentiate oneself when applying to college, but also great preparation for the rigors college classes. Additionally, these classes can lessen the college course load or allow students to graduate early by giving students college credit at most schools if they achieve a 4 or a 5 on the AP exam.
Our AP classes are heading in the wrong direction. I’ve heard stories of outdated textbooks and curriculum and in some cases teachers lacking the support needed to teach such high level classes. I’ve also heard of straight “A” honors students not being recommended for AP classes because of teachers’ desires to keep AP class sizes down.
If a class doesn’t have the tools to succeed, such as proper instruction, books, and curriculum, then holding the class is a disservice, but that does not mean the answer is to eliminate these classes. Instead, we need to find ways to strengthen the AP programs at the high school.
Back when I graduated in 2007, most of our AP programs were thriving and it was the norm for top students to receive a 4 or 5 on exams. There is no reason why that cannot still be the case.
These classes need to be offered in a variety of areas so students interested in different fields can all have a chance to challenge themselves and prove they can succeed at a high level. At a time when our country is falling behind in science, it is particularly disheartening to hear classes in that area are being cut.
If elected on November 8th, I’ll work to make sure Franklin High School has the budget to properly fund our AP classes, providing up-to-date text books and curriculum and insuring our teachers have the proper training for those courses. Students of all ability levels need to be challenged in our schools and I’ll work to make sure we support classes for those who may need a little extra instruction as well as for those ready to take on a college level course and everyone in between.
-Sean Donahue, Candidate for Franklin School Committee
With the Milford Daily News running candidate profiles every morning, it’s great, though expected, to see that every candidate’s goals are about doing what is best for the students and the town. For whatever reason, however, almost none of these profiles include any specifics.
To be held accountable, I think it is important that candidates offer some specific goals that allow the voters to come back in two years for the next election and be able to ask what progress has been made towards those goals.
With that in mind, I’ll be outlining areas over the next week that I’d like to see the Franklin School Committee work to improve during the next two years. I’ll start with communication, an area that has become particularly relevant with the recent controversy in regards to the new teachers’ contract.
COMMUNICATION:
This is perhaps the most obvious area of needed enhancement. The School Committee has made some improvements in this area, particularly the School Committee Blog which appears to be largely maintained by Chairman Jeffrey Roy who is leaving to run for Town Council, but it is not nearly enough.
There are some specific areas that can be addressed easily such as the tardiness or complete absence in some cases of updates to the School Committee’s calendar, meeting minutes and agenda, but it goes far beyond that. As mentioned, the blog was a good addition, but could be updated more frequently and its future is in doubt with Roy’s departure after the November elections.
What the School Committee really needs is a forum for sending out bi-weekly updates to the town. As part of its new technology outreach programs, Franklin High School is already building a database of parents’ e-mail addresses and it would be a good start to use that, along with the School Committee’s website and reaching out to the local news organizations, to create a mailing list. This could then be used for a bi-weekly e-mail explaining the important items discussed at the most recent School Committee meeting as well as for presenting the case for complicated and potentially controversial decisions that have been made that will affect the town.
In the case of both the new high school and the teachers’ contract, the School Committee hasn’t done enough to inform the public about the details and the reasoning behind the decisions in a timely fashion. In failing to ensure an informed public on why a new high school is really the only financial viable option at this point (and I’ll explain why that is the case in a future post), the School Committee has allowed others to set the tone of the conversation and misinformation to spread. Helping the public form an opinion based on facts is a lot easier than attempting to change that opinion after it has already been formed on misinformation.
When it comes to the teachers’ contract, only the School Committee and others involved know what went on behind closed doors in the negotiating process. I think after seeing the contract pass unanimously most of the public were willing to give the School Committee – unpaid volunteers – the benefit of the doubt. However, when the School Committee again failed to properly present their reasoning to the public, it allowed others, including the Town Council to set the tone of the discussion and portray the School Committee in a bad light. Whether just or not, the way this issue has been handled has hurt the School Committee’s credibility.
The School Committee and the Town Council also need to do a better job of communicating and working together. The Town Council called out the School Committee for not showing up at the most recent meeting to defend the teachers’ contract, but it also would’ve been great for some Town Council members (outside of just Glenn Jones who admirably stayed through the meeting) to have been at the previous School Committee meeting discussing the contract.
Over the past ten years, I’ve worked with various organizations to help improve their communications through various forms of media, especially the internet. If elected, I’ll work to help overhaul the School Committee’s website to increase accessibility and assure it is kept up-to-date. I’ll also work to find more effective and efficient ways of communicating with the public to help restore credibility and prevent the future spread of misinformation.
-Sean Donahue
I obviously won’t be running any ads on television for this campaign, but that didn’t stop me from making one:
Just over four years ago I graduated from Franklin High School, ending my 13 years in Franklin Public Schools. My time in the schools was highlighted by my participation in the National Honor Society, Peer Leaders, jazz and concert bands, high school soccer and tennis, AP classes and more.
My education in Franklin prepared me for a successful college career that ended in my graduation, summa cum laude, from Bryant University in 2011 where I was a member of the Honors Program and was named by the faculty the top student in both Political Science and Communication. But the knowledge gained in Franklin schools took me beyond just success in the classroom.
At 13, while still at Horace Mann Middle School, I started a career in journalism that led to me becoming the youngest credentialed member of the press at Gillette Stadium and earning freelance work for the Associated Press and ESPN Boston. I also hosted my own weekly hour-long talk radio show in Providence and Woonsocket from 2005 till 2008. In 2006, I was recognized for my community service work, my work in journalism, and excelling in the classroom by being named a “Future Leader” by the Milford Daily News.
Now, I feel it’s time for me to give back. I had the benefit of gaining a fantastic education in the Franklin Public Schools and I feel I owe it to the community to help assure the town’s youth are afforded the same opportunities I was.
I feel I’m at a point in my life where I can offer something different to the School Committee. With 13 years in Franklin Public Schools ending just over four years ago, I would bring a unique perspective to the committee with an ability to look back on the way my education in Franklin helped me going forward.
We all need to fight to make sure the town’s school system is among the best, not just in the state, but in the country. A difficult economy is no excuse for letting our schools and our community’s children’s futures suffer.
It’s of the utmost importance that Franklin manages to keep and continue to recruit the best teaching talent available. We can’t continue to keep laying off teachers and expect to get the same results. Bigger class sizes, fewer class options, less opportunities for the top students (such as cuts to AP programs) and other negative results from a lack of funding are unacceptable.
The best way to assure our country and our community stays mired in a poor economy is to let our public education system falter. As a member of the Franklin School Committee, I intend to do everything I can to assure that the youth in the community are afforded every opportunity possible to succeed going forward in their lives.
Finally, I want to make it as easy as possible for students, parents and the rest of the community to make their concerns heard via e-mail, Facebook and other methods. It is vital the School Committee keeps their website as up-to-date as possible to make sure everyone in the community is informed on new developments.
I hope, on November 8, 2011, you will give me the opportunity to do that.
Sincerely,
Sean Donahue
