School Comm Hears of Digitization and Vaccination

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Above, the Franklin School's digital learning team at the Tuesday School Committee meeting.

Franklin School Committee met at 7 pm on Tuesday evening in the Council Chambers with some members in person and others participating via Zoom.

Shortly after the opening of the meeting three citizens shared comments and concerns. The first, Steve Sherlock mentioned his initiative, the Franklin Area Non-profit Network (FANN), a mutual help and networking organization for non-profits in the town. Sherlock said he wanted to make the school community aware of the group and suggested that PCCs, which are non-profits, might benefit from participating in FANN.

The second, a parent from October Drive, said she was “heartbroken” by the curriculum night at her son’s school. Instead of getting to know her their children’s teachers, she said parents were shuttled from place to place and kept busy filling out forms most of the time, providing no chance to “reconnect” after a year of remote learning.

The third comment came from Mark Bisson, a candidate for school committee, who questioned when and on the basis of what data would the School Committee finally make a decision on eliminating masking. Referring to the continued acceptance of state guidance, Bisson added, “It just seems like you are doing what you are told but you should be serving the people of Franklin.”

Two student representatives also spoke. One, MacKenzie Atwood, senior class treasurer, provided updates on activities at the school, including the Junior Prom, cancelled due to Covid, and now reborn as a Senior Prom, and scheduled for Oct. 15.

Atwood then said she wanted to speak about something more serious, and went on to discuss the homo- and transphobia regularly experienced at the high school. Atwood stated that Atwood had “come out” nine months ago and has been hurt and made fearful by the things experienced since, among which were slurs directed at Atwood, a vandalism and graffiti incident, and “a group of boys” stomping on pride flags and laughing, “as if being gay is funny.”

School Committee Chair, Bergeron thanked Atwood for having courage and said “there had to be moral outrage, we have to come together as a committee.”

“We are proud of you and take this message to heart,” she added.

As the meeting progressed, Lily Rivera, the new Town & School Marketing/Communications Specialist, was introduced. She stated that she was very excited to be working with the schools and briefly described her prior background working in other municipalities, including Winthrop at the time when that community recorded the first Covid death in the entire state.

Digital Learning

The School Department Digital Learning Plan and team – Alison Finley, Kate Merten, Chris Penza, Marianne Zogby and John Leighton – provided a presentation on their work and its implication for students and faculty. As introduced by the Superintendent Sara Ahern, they are “digital learning integrationists” working together on a digital learning plan with a goal of being “visible as a team in all the schools.” Individually they are assigned to specific schools that visit weekly “so we can provide a face for all the schools that we work with.”

For example, Leighton, a teacher at the high school for 21 years said he is involved with the team part time. “So, I'm still in the classroom, [and] working with staff on the outside,” he explained.

The team has been providing support to curriculum and instructional digital tools, websites and other means of helping faculty and students better use digital capabilities.

School Committee member Jen D’Angelo asked the team to explain about elementary school makers and how many students are engaged in that. She was told that each student in grade three and four is involved in the makerspace for a third of the year in a rotation with chorus and art. Fifth graders have more choices. The makerspace itself includes many options such as building an engineering design or working with computers and technology. Different schools are at different places with the implementation.

Vaccination Status

Ahern also reported on the state of vaccination. Vice Chair Denise Spenser referenced the existing vaccination level of 73 percent and said he was worried. “The vaccination has been available to students for so long yet only 73 percent have received both doses; what happens if we don’t get to 80 percent?”

“I see other schools in the news that are at 94 percent already,” she added.

Ahern said if the school doesn’t reach 80 percent it would remain under the state mandate for the duration of the mask mandate.

“Could we have raffles or something to encourage people – you guys laugh but I know some schools are having incentives like that to get people vaccinated,” Spencer added.

Ahern did agree that the state had used the lottery to promote vaccination and said that ice cream had also been used as an inducement.

The School Committee also dealt with a matter held over from a previous meeting, and approved Rose Turco, to serve on the Franklin TV Board of Directors.

Spencer was appointed to serve as the Committee's delegate to the annual Massachusetts Association of School Committees (MASC) Annual Meeting of Delegates.

The remainder of the meeting dealt with ongoing mask policies, ESSER III funding (federal funding to support the safe reopening and sustaining safe operations of schools while meeting students' academic, social, emotional, and mental health needs resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic) and several other matters.

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