A Message from Rep. Elect Kathy Lauer-Rago

Rep. Elect Kathy Lauer-Rago has the following going into newspapers in the upcoming week, so I thought I would post it here beforehand.

To the Residents of Franklin and Hill,
 
Thank you so much for your vote and support on November 2nd.  I will do my very best to represent Franklin and Hill with excellence.
 
I do not take this responsibility lightly and will work hard to bring common sense values back to the Statehouse as I represent you.
 
If there is any issue you wish to discuss with me please know that I am always available.  You can contact me by email at kathyrago4nh@yahoo.com, my website atwww.kathyrago4nh.webs.com or the contact information below.
 
Thank you again.  Let's roll up our sleeves and get to work!
 
Kathy Lauer-Rago
Representative - Elect
53 Maple Square
Franklin, NH
934-8223

Addendum to Guest Blogger call

This is an addendum to the last post calling for Guest Bloggers.

For Franklin TEA Party, in particular I'm looking for someone who can blog on the Franklin School District.  Because now that I have an internship at the high school I can't blog on that aspect anymore because, to me, it's a conflict of interest.

Any interested parties? E-mail me at scooppc11@yahoo.com.

The Search Begins...

SAU 18 had their meeting last night regarding the superintendent search to replace Jo Ellen Divoll. The Citizen was there to capture it.

Some of the highlights:

-- I didn't realize that the salary was $91,000 for this position.
-- At that salary it will be tough to find someone that meets all the qualifications that residents are looking for.
-- The search will last for three weeks, in which case they'll narrow the field down to three candidates.

Hopefully this time the candidate will be a little more qualified than the last one.

School Superintendent Search Starts March 3

One of the problems with being the only blogger on here who's taking care of an 18 month old and in graduate school is that I tend to miss stuff. Which is why I am going to ask you guys that read this site to let me know when stuff like this happens that I completely miss (or better yet, guest blog for me!).

Jo Ellen Divoll, superintendent for SAU 18 (covering Franklin and Hill), will no longer be the superintendent after this school year. The board voted not to renew her contract last month.

On March 3rd, the search committee will be meeting with the public on the matter so they can start their search. The meeting will be at Paul Smith Elementary School at 7 p.m. Since my little one will be entering the district eventually, I plan on attending this meeting.

Rogers Farris to retire

Franklin High School principal Alice Rogers Farris announced last night that she was going to retire from her position.

After a brief thank you, the Franklin School Board accepted, with regrets, the retirement of High School Principal Alice Rogers Farris Tuesday night.

Farris came to Franklin High School at the beginning of the 2007-2008 school year and previous to that served as a member of the Hill School Board. She taught French at the Winnisquam Regional High School.

In her two years as principal, Farris brought Freshman Academy — a program designed to ease student transition from middle to high school — to Franklin but was also the subject of controversy when she was placed on administrative leave this past September.

I wish her well.

Now all we need is those minutes...

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.

Rogers-Farris to Return To Work

Sorry I wasn't able to get this up until today (again, looking for guest bloggers!), but it looks like Franklin High School principal Alice Rogers-Farris will be returning to work starting on Tuesday.

And Superintendent Jo Ellen Divoll's answer is so vague, we still don't know why she was put on leave in the first place.

"It is my responsibility to ensure the integrity and safety of our high school," said Divoll. "This required a short administrative leave in order to investigate complaints and ongoing concerns, and create a plan to address them. This has been done."

When I mentioned this to my husband, he said he was sick of having the town take his tax money and not have an explanation of what happened. Especially since all this answer is going to do is fuel more rumors about what happened.

If they are going to put her back in her position, wouldn't it be a good idea to have the facts out there on what happened instead of people speculating and making stuff up?

Important Upcoming Dates

1) Franklin City Elections are tomorrow. The Citizen has the details.

2) This Friday, October 9, the Franklin School Board will be holding another emergency hearing on the fate of Alice Rogers-Farris, the Franklin High School principal currently on administrative leave. People still don't know what happened, and I don't know if they are also going to make that issue non-public, but nothing is even leaking for credible rumors. I'm planning on being at this meeting because it might affect me next year, so watch this space.

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.