Budget Passes Again

No surprise there -- the whole thing was basically to just correct an oversight made the first time. And again, Mayor Ken Merrifield tried to veto the measure, which again was overridden. His stance being that the City Council really didn't have the authority to override the cap under the circumstances.

Just remember to vote out the members up for re-election this year, and keep the motivation for the TEA Party alive and well in Franklin.

Budget Committee meetings are coming up starting this month. Like I said last time, there's talk of the council overriding the cap again, so make sure you go to the meetings to see what's going on.

I'm Starting To Think That The Wrong Person Was Put On Leave

Even though the minutes from the last non-public meeting were due to be released yesterday in regards to the suspension of Franklin High School principal Alice Rogers-Farris, it's been revealed that no minutes were written down for the meeting.

Who was in charge of those minutes? Superintendent Jo-Ellen Divol. Apparently she thinks the people of Franklin are mind readers.

When the Franklin High School principal was suddenly put on paid administrative leave in September, it wasn't for illegal activities, insubordination or incompetence, Superintendent Jo Ellen Divoll said yesterday.

But more information about a school board meeting where Principal Alice Rogers-Farris was re-instated will never be released, despite a unanimous vote by the board. That's because Divoll never took minutes from the meeting - at least not on paper.

Instead, Divoll said, she kept a record of the meeting in her mind. During the meeting, she was too busy explaining why state law prevented her from discussing personnel issues to take notes, she said.

"I'm a terrible minute taker," said Divoll. "I didn't do a very good job."

Because it was a non-public session, only board members and Divoll were allowed in the room, leaving the secretary who normally takes minutes outside.

At the close of the Oct. 9 meeting, the board voted to release minutes from the meeting in 60 days, which was yesterday.

Apparently there was a tape recorder going during the meeting -- which lasted for two hours -- so minutes will be created. But the board had voted to seal minutes from a meeting that they thought they had minutes for, as one board member put it. You can imagine that the board members are not too pleased with this, especially since it violates state law NOT to take minutes of public meetings.

City Approves New Waste Truck

Maybe I'm not understanding something, but where is this money coming from? Especially since the city just bonded $850,000 for a recycling plant that we don't need right now.

Although it delayed the vote to adopt a revised solid waste ordinance until December, the City Council will spend an additional $98,000 on a truck to haul its own construction debris to the incinerator.

The 68000 GVW cab-and-chassis truck will replace a 2000 27000 GVW truck and will also allow the city to pick up its own snow from Central Street.

...Municipal Services Director Brian Sullivan made the recommendation after he learned that the state will not allow new construction debris to be burned in the Wheelabrator incinerators after 2011, meaning the city would have to pay an outside contractor to haul new debris as well as demolition debris.

"The [new truck] is consistent with previous City Council action to control solid-waste disposal costs and to seek out long-term solutions," Sullivan said in his written recommendation.

He said over the past 12 months, the city paid $21,500 to an outside contractor to haul demolition debris and, with the new truck and two additional 30-yard containers, the city could do it for $17,136. In two years, when the city will have to haul clean construction debris as well, he said the cost savings will be even greater.

As part of its projected switch to single-stream recycling by April 2010, the city council also needs to adopt a revised solid waste ordinance.

The Fate Of The Principal

Another bit of news: tonight the Franklin School Board will be discussing the fate of Franklin High School principal Alice Rogers-Farris, who was suddenly put on administrative leave last week.

The meeting is non-public, so I don't know if they are going to eventually give the reason why the action was done. But she's only been in there a short time. The school district here has a lot of problems as it is -- I would think that it would have to be at the level of a previous Laconia middle school principal in order to warrant a firing.

We'll keep an eye on this. In the meantime, if you leave a comment either in support or against Rogers-Farris' firing, make it respectable, please.

Where is Our Money Going?

Parents in the Franklin School District are not getting the answers they need from the school district. The lack of communication has been known for awhile. But this just kind of takes the cake.

Triggered by a complaint from parent and City Council candidate Brian Boynton about a lack of textbooks in his children's classes, Superintendent Jo Ellen Divoll said she was unaware of the problem.

"I can't address what I don't know about," said Divoll who said if the complaint was never mentioned to the teacher and/or the principal, then it would not have been on her radar.

"The teacher told me she had no right to speak to me and told me to talk to the superintendent," said Boynton.

"That's wrong," replied Divoll who said the agreed-upon communication route between parents and faculty was for the parent to speak first to the teacher, next to the principal, and finally to the superintendent. If there was no resolution, the School Board would take up the issue.

I think I found this part of it disturbing, but not all that surprising. When I was a reporter, and covered certain Franklin school district events, I had heard these complaints, as well.

Parent Lawrence McGrath said he has heard that some teachers are "intimidated" by the administration and School Board from speaking to teachers about their problems.

My son is going to be going to school in this district in about five years. I am hoping that these issues get fixed before he starts school, or they are going to be seeing me on a regular basis at the school board meetings.

To be fair, they said that the textbooks have been ordered, but it shouldn't have taken a month into the school year to address this problem.

Petition Brought to City Council

Sorry I didn't get this in sooner -- busy week for school! Plus I have an assignment that I have to get done by tonight, so I wanted to make sure this got posted now.

There was a city council meeting this week. And the Citizen was there.

Petition calls for review of Franklin budget

Because of school I completely flaked on going to the meeting myself. But read the article to get an idea of what happened.

Next City Council Meeting -- August 3, 7 PM

The next City Council meeting will be on August 3 at 7 p.m. I plan on being there, because there may be a chance that the cap might not be broken.

Bob Desroschers is getting a petition together of Franklin residents who oppose the tax cap. So far, he reportedly has 200 signatures, and he plans on presenting this at the next city council meeting. If you would like to add your name to the petition, let me know and I will tell you how to get in touch with him. (I'm reluctant to give his phone number out on the website until I've talked with him myself)