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By Bryan Maersch
Wednesday, Sep 24 2008, 07:00 AM
This is nothing more than political grandstanding, was a common theme as several people spoke in reference to Item G2 at last nights Common Council meeting which was Alderman Steve Olson’s “Ordinance to suspend elected official’s expense and mileage payments authorized under §55-3. of the Municipal Code.”
This includes my friend Fred Keller (Bullseye), Mayor Taylor, and Alderman Wilhelm.
My response is similar to Alderman Sohns who said “Only Alderman Olson knows in his heart what his intention to introduce this ordinance is”. I further agree with Alderman Olson on this ordinance and would encourage our city leaders to find other small and large cuts for taxpayers. I would like to see a similar request put together for the Franklin School Board also. Last Common Council meeting (September 8th) Council President Steve Taylor proposed and received the abolishment of fee waivers to Franklin Non-Profits which was quickly vetoed by the Mayor on September 11th. A supposed $5,000 dollar savings to Franklin taxpayers. I guess there was no political grandstanding going on there!!!!
Frankly I don't care if Olson's ordinance was political grandstanding as it sounds like there is plenty of that going around city hall.
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By Bryan Maersch
Wednesday, Aug 27 2008, 12:00 PM
If you are bored tonight you can attend the dog and pony show that the Franklin School Board has for the electorate every year. Yes it is time for the always entertaining Annual Meeting of the Electors at 6:00 PM tonight in the Education and Community Center.
Here they will have staged people in the audience with motions to approve all the proposed budgets for the 2008 – 2009 school year.
The entertainment will include:
A) You the Electors, being given a chance to speak out about the budget, while most of the School Board Directors feign interest in what you have to say. Which is great for your ego, but from past experience, most of them won’t listen. (Well at least the two new members will listen to you.) Most likely Directors will use the state mandates as the reason for the increases. By the way, have any of them gone to talk to State Senator Mary Lazich, to get her to help reduce those mandates. I recently went to the Senators web site and don't see any legislation to that end and you know she is always willing to listen to you as she told us last year.
B) Having Jim Milzer the Franklin School District Business Manager try to explain the District budget and the Rec department budget in plain English. Janet Evans has blogged about Linda Witkowski getting shot down on that! (See School Board Meeting 07/23/08 link below)
C) Some lucky person will be selected to read off a card to make the motion to approve the tax levy for the Franklin Public School General Fund, Franklin Public Schools Debt Service, and Community Education and Recreation. (What was that increase again, oh yah 3.77% and what was the increase the electorate approved at last years meeting, if you guessed 5.6% you were right. And what did we end up with, ahhhhh 11.7% increase)
D) And I wonder who will be picked to make the motion to approve the School Boards salary and expenses. Maybe it will be you…..
Lastly I want to apologize to School Board member Linda Witkowski that I ever doubted her tenacity to keep the budget in line. I understand she and David Works were important motivators for keeping the increase to a proposed 3.77%. Please ... Please -- Please ... Don't forget to listen for Mary Karolewicz to say at least once the phrase "Education for the 21st Century"
I know that my fellow blogger Janet Evans will be there, as she has been great at covering the School Board meetings of the past. I on the other hand will be listening to the proposal for the $640 toilet seat by City of Franklin’s Technology Commission that “rent a tech” J. Gravelle (the Daily Scoff) talks about as a guest blogger on “This Just In, when I am on WISN”. By the way “J” the Technology Commission meeting is on Wednesday August 27th not Friday August 22nd but I guess that is why you are just a fill in for Kevin Fischer out of boredom!
OTHER READING:
* Agenda for the Annual Meeting of the Electors
* Janet Evans - Franklin School Board Meeting 07/23/08
* Janet Evans - Franklin...Future Shock: $9,700,000
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By Bryan Maersch
Friday, Jun 6 2008, 07:00 AM
I have had time to digest the information that was presented to public in the first draft presentation of the 2009 Franklin Public School budget. Especially the excellent Blog Report and suggestions made by FranklinNOW blogger Janet Evans. I admire her tenacity and dedication as to reporting and participating in the Franklin Public School meetings.
From the reports that came from other bloggers who attended the meeting one thing stood out that disturbs me, was the opinion of Superintendent Patz on funding extracurricular activities by increasing fee’s. I hope this is not a reaction that all School Board members feel the same.
FranklinNOW blogger Greg Kowalski reported:
Superintendent Patz and at least one Board member (I forgot whom exactly) didn't like the idea of fee increases, stating that the increases would lead to discrimination of students based on how much they (or their families) can afford, and that it will end up negligible in the end. I'll profoundly disagree.As a member of a 5-member household, with 2 very active younger sisters, I know firsthand of some extra-circular activities. Volleyball, basketball, summer camp, dancing, gymnastics, etc, etc, etc. All those cost money, and I can assure anyone that my family isn't the wealthiest in Franklin. We afford it, and it's what my sisters want to do. I stood in agreement with Board President Dave Szychlinski when he talked about his own family and daughters, and how he'd be more than happy to pay the extra fees if some of things they took were offered at FPS. I believe many families would join my own and the Szychlinski's.
I do not understand the not-thinking-outside-the-box attitude Patz is taking on this issue. A simple change to funding extracurriculars would allow for a parent that can not afford to pay the fees for the extracurriculars could simply fill out a form (such as the one for subsidized lunch) to allow the school system to subsidize that student for the extracurricular activity. Considering the average family income in the City of Franklin, I would tend to doubt that this would be a large financial burden on the FPS budget but the increased fees would help defray costs to actually pay to educate our children.
I totally agree with Greg’s statement:
FPS needs to prioritize their budget for the taxpayers in this rough time for our economy. Do they support academics, or athletics? I'd like to use common sense and take academics as the top priority, so we should focus on other alternatives to fund athletics.
Superintendent Patz, please don’t start telling us what we can’t do, start thinking of more ways that we can keep the budget down, even if it means unpopular fees to people who use a FPS service that is non-academic. That's not WAGGING THE DOG, that is just Common Sense.
On a positive note, the Board is doing a great job at keeping the taxpayer informed and involving them in the budget process.
Kudos to them to realize this is crucial especially in rough economic times.
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By Bryan Maersch
Tuesday, Jun 3 2008, 04:30 PM
With all the hype and promises made in the April School Board election, the time has come when the tires hit the road for planning next year’s school budget.
Our school system has invited us to begin by participating in the budgeting process with an invitation to Wednesday nights June 4th meeting of the Committee of the Whole in which they plan to discuss the budget for next year and are asking for citizen input.
Given that our very own City Council has recently told us about the difficulties they are running into with the current budget and have eluded to the near impossibility of keeping to a 3% increase for the 2009 budget, I can not help but wonder what our school system will be looking to do to keep increases in the FPS budget to a minimum.
Will they be looking at asking the taxpayer what programs are they willing to give up? Much like the city has asked us, what city services are we willing to give up. While expecting the answer to be “why none of course”. My answer to this question will have have to be, cut back on the extracurriculars or increase the amount that parents pay for them, while the academics should not be touched.
I can hear the cry of “but if they get rid of (fill in the blank) my son/daughter will not want to go to school. But that is OK with me, as they can pay the extra dollars that are spent on those extracurriculars. Those educational tax dollars that are collected in the City of Franklin are just that, to educate and not to entertain. If you want your children to be entertained and that is the only way you can get them to attend school, then you can pay for that entertainment.
I look forward to see the budgeting expertise of Linda Witkowski (a budget director for Waukesha) and the business savvy of David Works in the first version of the 2009 budget.
Something else to note and keep in mind, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel published these disturbing figures Tuesday June 3rd - " Foreclosures increased almost 45% in Milwaukee County during the first five months of the year compared with 2007 "
If you think that does not mean Franklin check out Foreclosures.Com that have 67 properties listed for Franklin. What would your priority be when trying to stay in your home, taxes or a mortgage? In addition our City Council has let us know that residential building in Franklin has come to a crawl, which has helped cause a shortfall in extra funds for the City and School System to use.
More info to read:
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By Bryan Maersch
Saturday, Apr 12 2008, 01:42 PM
FranklinNOW editor Mark Maley has come through as promised with the Honor Rolls for the City of Franklin. This feature should be updated on a regular basis according to Mark. I am a firm believer that academic excellence should be featured in the community just as we praise our students for their athletic and extracurricular achievements. After all, isn't this the key reason we are willing to pay the taxes we do, for the kids.
Bryan:
I just wanted to give you a heads up that we have posted the first semester honor roll for Franklin HS on a prominent location on FranklinNOW.com.
Here is direct link:
I understand from school officials that the third quarter honor roll will be released soon, and when it is, it will be PROMPTLY posted online.
We still have one or two minor glitches to work out on the online certificates for each student, but we thought it was important to get the names up there as soon as possible. There are more than 600 students on the honor roll, and we agree with you that it's important these outstanding students get recognition.
Your readers may wonder why there are other schools on this list, like DSHA and Marquette University HS. That's because those schools draw from all over the metro area, so we are including their honor rolls on all NOW sites.
I should also extend an open invitation to all Franklin schools -- private and public, middle school and elementary -- to send their honor rolls to me and I will include them on this list. The school district just sent us FHS; but other districts have been sending us middle school honor rolls, too.
Thanks for being so diligent about pursuing this issue.
Mark Maley
NOW Online Editor
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Community Newspapers
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By Bryan Maersch
Tuesday, Apr 8 2008, 07:38 PM
First off – Congratulations to Alderperson Elect Kristen Wilhelm. With the recount completed in the third aldermanic district and covered by John Michlig live on his Sprawled Out blog. I am sure we will all be watching closely to see the difference you make on the Franklin Common Council.
Second – A promise from FranklinNOW editor Mark Maley in response to my FranklinNOW editors we are still waiting posting about the lack of FPS and Franklin's private school Honor Roll postings. See Marks comments below.
Bryan, you're right...there is no excuse for this. Well, I have some excuses but won't get into them now. The bottom line is this should have been done a long time ago. We will get the honor rolls online THIS WEEK...and after that they will be promptly posted. - Mark Maley
Third - Congratulations to former FranklinNOW (now solo flying with BULLSEYE) blogger Fred Keller with his effort to get Franklin elected officials to sign a pledge to keep tax increases to under 3%. He has taken some criticism from other bloggers as to the impossibility of this pledge. Yet he is getting members of the Franklin Common Council to sit down and discuss how they might be able to back a tax cutting pledge.
Despite the half empty glass, views of some FranklinNOW bloggers, this positive action by Fred shows that there are Franklin Taxpayers who are willing to go one step further than just talking about how things should be. As Steve Taylor - unconfirmed (but soon to be confirmed) 4th District aldermanic candidate said at the candidates forum "Almost all the people I talked with have said we need to lower property taxes".
Well Fred is trying to make sure everyone got the message.
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By Bryan Maersch
Friday, Apr 4 2008, 07:00 AM
As I brought up in an earlier blog about the Franklin High School honor roll not being published. I have followed up on this with the editor of FranklinNOW and keep getting promises that it will be coming. It seems that they are waiting on some software to make it easier to publish our local school's honor rolls.
The original due date was mid-March which has come and gone, as we are finishing up with the 3rd quarter of this school year.
Several folks from the private schools in Franklin along with Tanya Ruder the Communications Specialist of the Franklin Public schools have told me they are ready to work with FranklinNOW editors to get this information published on the NOW website.
My question is. Will we be asking this same question next year?
If so, FranklinNOW, don't encourage the schools to send their honor roll lists, just remove it from your website
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By Bryan Maersch
Monday, Feb 25 2008, 05:03 PM
If you look at the FranklinNOW website on the right hand side you will see:
 FranklinNOW.com joins parents and teachers in saluting the outstanding students who are listed on the honor rolls of our local schools. Go to honor rolls
If you follow this link you will see a FranklinNOW web page with:
Franklin Honor Rolls
FranklinNOW.com joins parents and teacher in congratulating honor local students who have made the honor roll.
To see which students made the honor roll in the most recent grading period, click on the link below. If don't see your school listed here, it's because that school has not yet sent us a recent honor roll.
We encourage all Franklin private and public schools to email their honor rolls to mailto:honors@mycommunitynow.com
Click on one of the links below to see the latest honor roll from your school.
If you notice Franklin High School is not listed on this page.
Nor was second semester of 2007 at the end of the 2007 - 2007 School Year.
From what I understand, the responsibility of getting this information to the press is that of the guidance staff at Franklin High School and they have only sent it to the Franklin Citizen publication as stated below on the FHS web site.
If you go to the FPS - Franklin High School website you will find:
Honor Roll
Franklin High School submits the Honor Roll each quarter to the community newspaper, the Franklin Citizen, for publication.
Confused - I certainly am, as all the Franklin High School sporting events, school plays and other FPS activities seem to be in the FranklinNOW on line publication. There is no web site for the Franklin Citizen and I am not even sure I could tell you how to subscribe.
Here is a sample of a few articles currently featured on FranklinNOW:
NOW photographer Peter Zuzga captured the action during the state swimming meet in Madison. Check out his best shots in his Division 1 slide show and his Division 2 slide show.
NOW Photographer Peter Zuzga was at the opening day of the state wrestling tournament, and you can see his best photos in his slide show.
What is wrong with this picture, why doesn't Franklin High guidance staff or the Franklin Public School district make it a point to make sure we say it in print that we are proud of our Honor Students not only at the High School level but at the Middle School grades also.
How much work would it take to send this information to both the Franklin Citizen and the FranklinNOW publications?
Does it matter or am I just Wagging the Dog?
UPDATE - Monday March 3, 2008
I have been contacted by two sources, one Beth Mantoan an Administrative Assistant at St. Martin of Tours Grade School and Tanya Ruder the Communications Specialist for FPS. Both have relayed to me the difficulty they have had in submitting Honor Rolls to the FranklinNOW since Marquette University stopped the sponsorship of Honor Rolls.
The honors@mycommunitynow.com. listed on the CommunityNOW website seems to be an unmonitored e-mail address.
Tanya Ruder has taken over the task of getting the Honor Rolls published for FPS and has contacted the reporting staff at FranklinNOW directly.
Thanks to the both of you setting things straight with a commitment to the students’ academic excellence.
UPDATE - Monday March 4, 2008
I have been contacted by Mark Mally the editor of CommunityNOW websites. He informs me:
Franklin honor rolls will start appearing on FranklinNOW.com by mid-March. We had to make some changes in the way we process honor rolls and that resulted in a delay in getting them online. The editors of FranklinNOW.com will be in contact with Franklin school officials to make sure that honor rolls get posted online as soon as they are available. Because of space constraints, honor rolls are no longer published in the newspaper.
Mark Maley
NOW Online Editor
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Community Newspapers
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By Bryan Maersch
Thursday, Feb 21 2008, 04:00 PM
Janet Evans has been an exemplary blogger in the reporting of Franklin School Board activities.
As I can not attend all the Board meetings, Janet will be a "Guest Blogger" on the WAG THE DOG when she has a report. With that being said, here is Janet's report on last nights meeting (February 20, 2008):
School Board Meeting – State of the District
by Janet Evans
I attended the School Board meeting tonight and after the artists were recognized in front of a full house, it was asked if there were any citizen comments.
I took the opportunity to make two comments. I didn’t intend for them to be made in front of the large group, but so be it.
I addressed the Board regarding my Open Records Request and the fact that I discovered that personal emails had been used rather than District email in some of the correspondence.
I pointed out that Debbie Larson never used District email. I said that as a citizen, I expect the District email to be used.
I also addressed the Board regarding a blog I had done back in November regarding childhood obesity.
At that time several people had commented about the fact that our lunch program had some issues, such as Dominos pizza, soda machines, flavored/sugared milks, too much bread and cheese, etc.
I also mentioned the snack problem in the classrooms and the fact that comments had requested that the Wellness committee needed to be looked at again.
I then offered a copy of the blog and the comments to the Board.
An important item on the agenda was the fact that the District will be refinancing some old debt in March.
The debt was at a 5% interest rate, and will now be at a new rate of 3.24%. This refinancing is going to produce a net savings reduction in the tax levy next year of $766,213 for the District.
It has taken 15 years to accomplish this and Jim Milzner was highly praised.
The only other main item was the Superintendent’s report, which was called a “State of the District” report by Dr. Patz:
Exemplary School Districts
Students always come first (plan)
Listen perceptions differ
Monitor programs and practices for effectiveness and value
Operate based on research not opinion or emotion
Commit to intensive staff development
Dr. Patz said our district doesn’t need to be fixed, but we should look to do things better.
Exemplary
Operate with controlled urgency
Communicate effectively (internal and external)
View test scores as only “1” indicator of effectiveness and success
Have a high personal accountability
Have a culture of excellence
Celebrate successes!
Dr. Patz said we have more successes in our District than failures.
”Our” Schools
Many reasons to be proud of our district:
We offer rigorous programs
We achieve at high levels
Our expectations are high
We have very committed staff in all areas
Dr. Patz said we should be scaled up in our programs
Expectations
We can improve in all areas of operation (not a negative)
We have to know where improvement is needed (Data)
We must continually monitor the effectiveness and value of programs and practices (longitudial data tracking)
Student Achievement
Perform above the state average
Adequate yearly progress (AYP) is met in all subject areas
Programs meet needs of all learners (alternative school consideration)
Reading, math and science need attention
District Priorities
Student achievement: Evaluate consistency and effectiveness through data
Professional Development – putting the best in front of children is a commitment
Land acquisition – A strategic investment
Addressing Funding Issues – This is an entire community issue
Budget
We must first acknowledge that we are a fiscally responsible district!
Programs/practices: What does the community expect…it’s exemplary schools!
We must take a visionary approach to budgeting , i.e. What does the future require from our schools?
Looking Ahead
The #1 priority must be individual student growth and achievement
Future planning (land acquisition, district needs)
Everything we do contributes to the level of trust and support we receive from our community.
Lastly, it was announced the Board will be looking at/working on their Goals twice a month, beginning in April.
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By Bryan Maersch
Monday, Feb 18 2008, 05:15 PM
This is fresh start, on a new blog, with a new name, that WILL NOT contain the nastiness that has been seen on FranklinNOW in the past.
I do want to start out with an apology to Greg Kowalski of FranklinNOW, as I know he feels I have offended him in the past with references to his family or person in my past blogs under a different blog name.
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This does not mean future blogs may not be critical of opinions stated in Greg Kowalski’s, Kevin Fischer's or any other blogs on the CommunityNOW. However I do not intend on posting any hurtful nicknames to those with opposing views.
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I have learned how to credit other writers when using their writings to stress a point that I wish to communicate to readers. Some have called it plagiarism; I call it a beginner bloggers error. I will not make that mistake again.
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I still believe in and will blog about, the improvements the School Board needs to make to regain the trust of the Franklin Residents. In what I write, I hope to encourage fiscally conservative individuals to run for School Board to replace the current members that do not fit these criteria.
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I still believe the current City Council is one of the best we have had in a long time. They are not perfect, but have done much more than past administrations and the current School Board in trying to keep our taxes in line, despite the issues we face as a growing city.
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I still believe that Franklin has a chance to continue with its development without being dictated to by developers. But given that developments are money making propositions, Franklin can not throw up too many roadblocks that will send the developers to other communities instead of ours.
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I still believe that what is now the so called Civic Center does not have to be our Civic Center just because we have our City Hall and Police Center in that location. If we have gotten ourselves into a predicament that we can not legally get ourselves out of, a plan B location should be considered.
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I still believe that Franklin is a basically good place to live in but has a long way to go. That we can not waste our time with those who are trying to make us something we are not, “The North Shore” because we are better.
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I still believe there are those that do not live here in Franklin and wish to meddle in our city’s issues. We need to ignore them because they are insignificant and don’t belong here. I will not tolerate their nasty comments. Hence a delay in posting your comments.
So I still believe there is room for my opinion on FranklinNOW.
Thanks
Bryan Maersch
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