Budget Is Getting Voted On AGAIN

City Council had voted in this budget last summer, but they have to vote on it again because they didn't advertise the budget amounts as required by law, so they have to do it again.

March 22nd, 6:30PM. Public input is encouraged.

I'm planning on being there. Make sure you are, too.

Another Note: Concord Monitor

Last night I got a call from a reporter for the Concord Monitor regarding a story they are doing on the TEA Party movement in New Hampshire. Union Leader did a similar story a few weeks ago (and I got a call from them, as well, in which they just noted that I was a "TEA Party of One"). So when they publish their story I'll post it here.

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.

Monday Inauguration Address

I tried posting this the other night, but was having some computer issues. Here is Mayor Ken Merrifield's address to the electorate on Monday night.

Father Gagnon, Members of the City Council for 2009 and 2010, honored guests, family, friends, and fellow citizens of Franklin:

Shakespeare thought that “brevity [was] the soul of wit”, but it is also an indispensible attribute for any political leader. I will attempt to make good use of “brevity” tonight.

During my campaign for mayor this fall, a great friend and supporter said to me that “some things really need to change in Franklin. And some things absolutely have to stay the same.” The trick, for us, is to figure out which is which.

I offer to you that, despite our challenges, Franklin is a very attractive destination. Recall the high school seniors from Merrimack who visited every NH city and town this past summer – and chose Franklin as their favorite! Certainly, we are blessed with abundant natural beauty, great community spirit, and a frugal city government, and you should also know that between 2001 and 2008, property values in Concord rose 71% and in Dover about 68%... in Manchester and Rochester they rose about 66%. In Bow, property values gained 44% from 2001-2008.

In Franklin, our property values rose over 90% - faster than the entire state of NH. People are clearly voting with their dollars for this great city. I plead with our city leadership to recognize that greater litigation, greater taxation, and greater regulation will only reverse this positive trend.

So how do we improve (what I like to call) the “best place on earth”? The city council has taken significant action to address great strategic issues and change the city. These plans will be a large part of their efforts in 2010. They will demand the focus and skill of the best professional municipal team in NH to become a reality. And thank God that team is in place here.

Councilors have invested heavily in a new curbside recycling program that will change the nature of a critical city service. It will require the active participation of our residents to succeed.

With a heavy financial effort from our rate-payers and assistance from outside sources, the city will implement a water filtration system that will improve our drinking water quality, ending a decades-long problem in Franklin.

We will also reconfigure the flow of downtown traffic – opening the Franklin Falls Mill District to auto traffic and subsequent capital investment and economic growth.

On a separate, but I think parallel, track with the Council, I have been very grateful for the widespread interest in the Mayor’s “Alcohol and Drug Abuse Task Force”. Thanks to the efforts of a tremendous volunteer group that seems to grow every day, our city may soon benefit from significant grant funding to combat a long-standing social problem that plagues not only Franklin, but NH and a nation beyond --- and may perhaps make Franklin a dramatic example of improving social health.

Also, a few weeks ago, I was delighted to recognize and proclaim a “sister-city” for Franklin: Pedro Afonso in the state of Tocantins in Brazil. I look forward to working with Mayor Chagas and Governor Enrique Amorim in 2010 – to explore what bonds we can create in science, commerce, and through our schools.

And last year I challenged to the City Council and the Planning Board to contact a successful business outside Franklin and invite them here. I also asked them to adopt a local business and learn their needs.

This year, I would like to expand the effort and really “go for broke”. I want to ask every citizen of Franklin to become an ambassador to a new business. Reach out to a potential employer for our people and ask them to “Choose Franklin”—where the trend-breaking example & our largest employer is Webster Valve…. now celebrating an amazing 50 years of operation and the return of manufacturing jobs to Franklin from China.

And let us all commit to support our Franklin businesses whenever and wherever we can. I hope that 2010 will see a concerted effort by the business community and our citizens to do exactly that, because it will benefit all of us if we do.

And finally, let the change that is coming this year in our school district mark a beginning-- and not an end—knowing always that student achievement is the true bottom line. And that Franklin students are capable of delivering the very best results. We know this to be true.

In closing, I hope you will allow me to rephrase Ronald Reagan a bit, when I say that we are “too great a [city] to limit ourselves to small dreams… Let us renew our determination, our courage, and our strength… our faith and our hope… We have every right to dream heroic dreams.”

So let’s dream “big” for 2010, Franklin, so that the words of Isaiah about Jerusalem will be true for us as well: “… [That your] heart shall thrill and be enlarged; …[because] the wealth of the nations shall come [to you].”

I wish you all a happy New Year with my best wishes, and may God bless our great city.

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.