Letter to the Editor

Chasan Endorses Colten and Ortiz for Planning Board

Chasan: "Send a message that Framingham values the jobs and tax revenue that businesses provide to our community. "

To properly fund our schools, public safety, etc., Framingham needs responsible growth and the tax revenue that comes with it.   Framingham’s current leadership talks a good game but the votes and policies of the town have driven long time businesses out of town and prevented new businesses from investing in our town.   Neighboring communities have departments and staff that welcome, attract, recruit, and work diligently to retain companies, while here companies leave town due to overburdening regulations.   There are 2 seats in the April 9th election, where we have an opportunity to elect new members to the Planning Board that will help to encourage businesses to invest in and remain in Framingham.   We all live here and want Framingham …

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Letter to the Editor

LETTER: 'We Love this Town and Care Deeply About Our Students'

Framingham High history and social studies teachers: "As the School Committee continues to delay the settlement of a fair contract, the morale of the teachers continues to dwindle."

The teachers of the Framingham Public Schools have been without a contract for over 190 days. As the School Committee continues to delay the settlement of a fair contract, the morale of the teachers continues to dwindle. However, we know that the parents and greater community have incredible respect for the work we do. As dedicated professionals, who work passionately to guide the learning of your children, we need your support in reaching a fair contract with the School Committee. We are committed to the academic and social success of our students. We work every day both inside and outside of the classroom to help students acquire the knowledge and skills necessary to achieve academic goals, gain meaningful employment, go on to a bright …

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Letter to the Editor

LETTER: 'Our Students Have Been The Only Real Victims'

McElwain: "Miskin, and to whatever degree they are involved, the FTA board, the MTA, and indeed any individual, who took part in authorizing, authoring or supporting this 'stress plan' has done a great disservice to our teachers and our community..."

This community’s response to the outing of Mr. Miskin’s message and survey, sent to more than 1,000 FTA members, was completely proportionate to the threats he poses. There is absolutely no misunderstanding, unless it’s his.  The fact that he has not retracted his letter and his survey has not been taken down, only modified, removing the request for School Committee member’s place of worship, and their children’s names and schools, continues to infuriate anyone with the sensibilities to recognize these kinds of tactics. (And in fact, the survey may have been modified only because a number of us reported it to Google yesterday, as a clear violation of their policy on hate, violence and illegal or offensive activities.)  Further, this has …

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Letter to the Editor

LETTER: Teachers Union President: 'For Any Misunderstanding ... I Apologize'

Framingham Teachers Association President: "We have made very little progress."

The recent communication that has become controversial has been blown out of proportion – our focus has been on making connections. For any misunderstanding about the intent, I apologize. We are teachers – we put kids first every single day in our classrooms and schools. We are not out to hurt anyone – and we are certainly not going to involve children. EVER. Period. We have been in lengthy negotiations for a contract and we are looking for ways to ensure the committee, as elected officials, is as invested in and feeling the same levels of urgency that our membership has felt. We asked about children, social groups and places of worships, not because we want to picket a church service or “stress” any particular child, but because our …

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Brad Evans

12:41 pm on Tuesday, March 12, 2013

@FramTeacher 2013 - you cant leave it to the Kindergerten process to fix the class size issues.. It only fixes it for that year - at a certain moment in time. Imagine if you will all Middle school classes at 25 students in all schools.. Now, it is October and 3 new families move in to Framingham, one with twin 12 year old boys (7th grade) and one with a 6th grader. As soon as you assign these …   more ›

Letter to the Editor

LETTER: Teachers 'Do Not Give Up Your Fight'

Zide: "I am a parent of former Framingham students and I am appalled at the way in which the teachers are being treated!"

I am a parent of former Framingham students and I am appalled at the way in which the teachers are being treated! I still live in Framingham and pay taxes here and still very much care about our schools. In fact, we have a real estate business in Framingham, so are directly impacted by this. When my son was in first grade at Brophy, 24 years ago, there were four first grade classes. We were constantly getting letters telling us that our children, as classes, were exhibiting immature behavior and several children were not meshing well together. What did they do? They made three second grades, larger classes! Brilliant, don't you think?!! For the rest of my son's elementary years, they had only three of each class. It was NOT to the benefit …

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Frambors Finds a New Home At E-Democracy.org

After founder Steve Orr’s unexpected death on Monday, we wanted to find a way to carry on the legacy of his community email list Frambors. When the Frambors server crashed this week, it was clear that we needed to figure out a plan quickly.

After founder Steve Orr’s unexpected death on Monday, we wanted to find a way to carry on the legacy of his community email list Frambors. When the frambors server crashed this week then came back with limited functionality, it was clear that we needed to figure out a plan quickly. After considering a variety of options, we have decided to move the list to a non-profit host called E-democracy.org. Steven Clift, Executive Director and Founder of E-Democracy.org, met with Steve Orr and I several years ago to consult about Frambors and discussed ways of improving it, and Steven and Steve were in touch over the years and Steven has been a huge support as we make the transition, and has been helping us to make be as smooth and as painless as …

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Letter to the Editor

LETTER: Administration Foot-Dragging; Teachers 'Losing Faith'

Teachers Association: "We are also considering more drastic measures including a “work-to-rule” action. This means that many of us, who enthusiastically take part in extra-curricular activities in our community, will be sitting on the sidelines."

We, the 1,000 teachers and education professionals of the Framingham Teachers Association, recently began picketing outside of our schools. We have taken this step to call attention to our current contract struggle. We view these negotiations as an opportunity to work jointly to make improvements to our schools – including reducing class sizes – that will truly benefit our students. While we maintain hope that the superintendent and Framingham School Committee will join with us in this important endeavor, we are losing faith. While the administration wants the public to believe that class size reduction does not have an impact on student achievement, that premise is just plain false. The information that the administration has put on their…

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Letter to the Editor

LETTER: Hemenway PTO Calls for Teachers, School Committee To Increase Mediation Sessions

Hemenway PTO requests parents and residents to call for an increase in Framingham Teacher Association & School Committee negotiations to reach a successful conclusion.

The Hemenway PTO urges all Framingham residents to contact the Framingham School Committee and the Framingham Teacher’s Association for an immediate increase in frequency of mediation sessions regarding Framingham teacher contracts. Currently, the parties are scheduled to meet twice a month, if schedules allow. At this point in the negotiations, with tensions rising, meeting twice a month is unacceptable. We strongly urge both parties to come together on a more frequent basis until a successful resolution is achieved. Parents, property owners, taxpayers, indeed our entire community has a stake in this matter. Call upon the Framingham School Committee and the Framingham Teachers Association now for an increased commitment towards resolving …

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Letter to the Editor

LETTER: $600,000 in Administrative Positions Added, Teachers Contract Still Unsettled

Framingham Teachers Association responds to budget letter by Framingham Superintendent of Schools.

In a recent letter to parents, Framingham Superintendent of Schools made inaccurate statements about how teacher compensation occurs in the Framingham Public Schools and its impact on the school budget. We view our current contract negotiations as an opportunity to work jointly to make improvements to our schools – including reducing class sizes – that will benefit our students. In our negotiations, we have been discussing many items along with salaries. The Framingham Teachers Association finds it unfortunate that the Superintendent is focused almost solely with the financial aspects of education and not how to improve our school system. The FTA offers the following corrections: • Framingham teachers have faced dramatic increases in …

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Letter to the Editor

LETTER: Class Size Affects Your Kids

Framingham Teachers Association President: "The number of students in a class directly impacts the time that a teacher can provide individual attention and appropriate differentiation of instruction."

In a recent survey of middle school teachers in the Framingham Public School system, during the first trimester there were 45 classrooms that violated the school committee policy on maximum class size. I have good reason to believe that these violations are continuing into the second trimester. This policy, stating that a core content and world language classroom should have a maximum of 25 students, can be found in the online policy Manual located at http://framingham.k12.ma.us/sc.cfm in Section I, File IIB. The number of students in a class directly impacts the time that a teacher can provide individual attention and appropriate differentiation of instruction. While this bothers the staff in these classrooms, there is nothing they can do…

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