Hi, Rene, Thanks for keeping me in the loop on so many aspects of the town's financial picture. As we started to put the Alliance for Educational Equity together, our group that intends to work diligently for increased Chapter 70 funding, you mentioned that you were not intending to fight the charter school battle. As the cc indicates, your emails are spreading far and wide across Framingham. As the parent of a FCCS student, and an eduation activist since 1987, some perspective on the "unasked for, non-voter approved" charter school is required. Middle level education in Framingham, as well as across the nation, has long been the weak link. The research on this age group, its needs, its requirements, how these children learn, how not to lose them, how to instill life-long learning, is now two decades old. In so many communities, it exists as reasearch only, not practice. Here in town, that amounts to close to 2000 pre adolescents. That is too many for me to see warehoused into sterile rooms of long rows, with a bored adult pointing to a blackboard. As you know, Options in Education existed in Framingham 14 years ago, but in 1997, I began a series of forums exploring middle level education, desparate to move from the junior high model that existed to a research-based middle school. TWPTO held forums, we were part of the Middle School TAsk Force, I spoke at Sch Cmte, working constantly to create developmentally responsive middle schools in Framingham. Well, it didn't happen. The support from our elected officials was absent. Rather than hearing the questions advancing high-quality education in Framingham, officials congratulated presenters at their meetings on a job well done. It is years of inaction that has provided the fertile ground which has allowed a charter school to take root. Those of us who have met with officials for many, many years, begging for change for 2000 children have seen our pleas fall on deaf ears. The children who will attend the FCCS are children of taxpayers. Already, however, the charter school is having a positive effect on middle school education: practices long espoused by the National Middle School Assn are being put into place as the charter school comes to fruition. For this I am grateful. Possibly the charter school advocates foresaw the financial implications - clearly our elected officials did not. The Chair of the Sch Cmte stated last night that as our education system now crumbles due only to the presence of the charter school, other charter schools will move in. The law states that no more than 9% of a communities children may be enrolled in charter schools. The FCCS is 1% of our kids, so do you think we should be proactive here?
Katie ----- Original Message ----- From: "Rene s Mandel" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Paul Willitts" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Cc: "dcollier" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; "N. Cataldo" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; "frambors" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; "Elanor Ingham" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; "Maria Muszynski" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; "Crosses" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; "Chris Visminas" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Friday, August 09, 2002 7:30 AM Subject: Re: The Last Chance for South F'ham > Leslee- > > It's unclear whether your number refers to estimated realization of > profits from sold property - and I think, in that case, you are absolutely > right about the illusions fostered by a real estate bubble - or the amount > of money the town is short. I am addressing it as the latter. > > Having spent last evening watching the school department and school > committee make changes to the school budget that will reduce the quality > of service and increase class size at our middle schools so that the state > can fund an unasked-for, not voter-approved, middle school charter school > in Framingham this year, out of our local taxpayer's money, rather than > state money as promised in the Education Reform law, I am not inclined to > believe that cash shortages in this town are a matter of rhetoric. Nor, > seeing headlines in the today's paper about things like shortages in the > state pension fund - which I believe affect our required contributions as > well - am I inclined to believe the numbers will stabilize any time soon. > > Conserving land is one thing. Slamming town officials for "making up" a > fiscal deficit which is palpably real seems absurd and counterproductive. > > Rene > > On Fri, 9 Aug 2002, Paul Willitts wrote: > > > Oh, but it is a great number. You just keep watching and see how many times > > that figure comes about. Hey it may even now go up to 2 million!!! > > Leslee > > ----- Original Message ----- > > From: "dcollier" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > To: "Rene s Mandel" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; "Paul Willitts" > > <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > Cc: "N. Cataldo" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; "frambors" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; > > <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; > > <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; "Elanor Ingham" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; "Ned Price" > > <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; "Maria Muszynski" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; "Crosses" > > <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; "Chris Visminas" > > <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > Sent: Thursday, August 08, 2002 5:57 PM > > Subject: Re: The Last Chance for South F'ham > > > > > > Thanks Rene > > Recall that money from sale of land is only good > > for capital expenditures not operating $ > > > > Ned Price > > > > > > > > [ To unsubscribe, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED]?body=unsubscribe > Archives available at http://www.mail-archive.com/ > For help send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Web interface at http://frambors.syslang.net] [ To unsubscribe, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED]?body=unsubscribe Archives available at http://www.mail-archive.com/ For help send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Web interface at http://frambors.syslang.net]
