Franklin MAtters Weekly

Monday, October 22, 2012

Week ending Oct 7, 2012

Catching up to the summary for the prior week.

10/14/12

10/13/12

10/12/12

10/11/12

10/10/12

10/09/12

10/08/12

Monday, October 8, 2012

On this Columbus Day, I want to share a little bit about what I have explored here and the results of those explorations. The Franklin Matters webpage achieved a milestone of sorts this week when the 7,000 post was published. A nice round number! There is a whole lot of data here. Actually, not just data. A whole lot of information. The chart here shows the yearly growth through October 7, 2012. Thus far this year we have already exceeded last years totals with the remainder of Oct, and all of Nov and Dec to report on.

The green bar shows page loads. A page load occurs when a single post is read. It can be found via a Google search, a click through from the newsletter, from Facebook or from another post on the site.

The blue bar shows total unique visitors. There is another stats that shows repeat visitors. Because that is based upon cookies, I don't rely on that one. Total visitors is a more accurate count.

What do regular readers find here?

Live reporting from important Town Council, School Committee and other meetings. There were over 50 meetings reported on live per year for 2008, 2009 and 2010. This dropped off during 2011 and 2012 to over 20 per year as I spent more time working with the Franklin Food Pantry.

Pictures: There are hundreds of photos of meetings and events in and around Franklin.

Original analysis and record keeping. The override history and attendance tracking are two good examples of information made available for the Franklin voters and residents.

The volume of visitors has continued to climb as shown in the chart above. The number of subscribers to the daily email newsletter is over 200 and growing. The number of Facebook friends is over 870 and growing.

This webpage, newsletter and Facebook page is all part of my public service effort for Franklin. I can use your help. How can you help, you ask? If you have an interest in Franklin and would like to explore the use of social media tools to create and share information, we should talk.

If you have an interest in covering any of the meetings, for example, the Planning Board, Conservation Commission and or the Zoning Board of Appeals, please let me know.

And as always -

If you like this, please tell your friends and neighbors
If you don't like this, please tell me.

Thank you for reading!

10/7

10/6

10/5

10/4

10/3

10/2

10/1

The week that once was

has come and gone. Overcome by other events, the update I could have shared would no longer make sense. The summary still stands and that can be shared. I hope to be more consistent as we go forward.

9/30

9/29

9/28

9/27

9/26

9/25

9/24

Sunday, September 23, 2012

Leaves turning color already

It seems like school just started and yet, the end of September is upon us already. The leaves are beginning to change colors.

The modular units at Parmenter School which were supposed to be taken down before school started have indeed been removed. The last one left earlier this week. The DPW is working on landscaping the area where they were once located.

The construction bids for the new high school get opened on Tuesday of the coming week. how close will they be to the estimates? Will the competitive construction climate bring the cost in under the estimates? We'll find out Tuesday.

Also on Tuesday, the School Committee will hear from Principal Peter Light on this years Improvement Plan. A copy of the plan was published and can be review in advance of the meeting. http://www.franklinmatters.org/2012/09/franklin-high-school-improvement-plan.html

What caught my eye in the Executive Summary was the following:

Based on March 2012 SIMS data, the ethnic makeup of our school is: 1486-Caucasian, 13-Black/African American, 60-Asian, 4-American Indian, 3-Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander, 24-Hispanic or Latino. The current inclusion model has 277 members of the student body classified as special needs students. Less than 1% of the student body comes from homes where their first language is not English. In March of 2009, 52 students were provided with free/ reduced price lunches and as of June 2012, 137 Students qualified for free/reduced price lunches (62% increase over three years).

Assuming the high school is a fair representation of the community as a whole, a 62% increase in the number of students qualifying for free/reduced lunch shows what effect the economy is having upon Franklin. This is also reflected in the increase in business that the Franklin Food Pantry is seeing. While Franklin is fortunate in so many ways, the economy has not left us untouched.

Friendly reminder that there will be no school on Wednesday, Sep 26th

Let us all hope for continued good weather next weekend. The annual Harvest Festival will be held in and around downtown Franklin. It will be a good time to meet and greet your neighbors. To reconnect in some cases with those who moved from your neighborhood to another. To see the business displays, to find out how they can help you.

I am sure there will be a politician or two around. Be prepared to ask them a good question. See if their answer is what would help you decide as Nov 6th approaches.

And one more friendly reminder: