Niche gives top honors to the BFCCPS both as an elementary school  (#1 out of the 39 charter elementary schools in the Bay State) and as a middle school (#1 out of the 44 charter middle schools in MA).  See Niche’s full review of the BFCCPS here.

New location now open

The BFCCPS recently moved to a new new 69,000 sq ft school building on 35 acres located at 500 Financial Park in Franklin, Massachusetts.

Here’s a video on the beautiful new location for the BFCCPS:

Learn more about the Benjamin Franklin Classical Charter Public School in Franklin, MA here.

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Registration for the the Institute’s Lifelong Community Learning classes is open to residents of Franklin, MA and non-residents alike – all are welcome.  It’s a great way to get involved, meet new people and have fun!  Follow the hotlink for online registration or you can register by phone at (508) 613-1480 from 1 PM to 7 PM Mondays through Thursdays.

Offerings for a broad range of interests and ages

The Institute’s Lifelong Community Learning program features many fun educational and fitness classes for both children and adults.

There are especially robust offerings for children this spring; twenty classes are on tap!

The spring program for kids include courses on babysitting and lifeguard certification, foreign languages, cooking, engineering/STEM, art and fitness/yoga.

Adult offerings this spring feature a slew of classes in quite a number of topics.

You’ll find classes in the following categories: Art and Leisure, Business and Professional Development, Child Care and Parenting, Dance, Exercise and Wellness, Food and Wine, Language, Photography and Social Media, and Sports.

Entire spring 2019 program

Download the full Lifelong Community Learning spring 2019 program here or by following the hotlink in the image below:

Lifelong Learning Institute an asset to Franklin, Massachusetts

On its website, the Lifelong Learning Institute explains that its mission is to offer all area residents the benefits of the educational and social enrichment resources available from the Franklin Public School system:

“The Lifelong Learning Institute is the community education branch of the Franklin Public Schools in Franklin, MA. Lifelong Learning provides educational experiences for Franklin residents (and those from surrounding towns) from pre-school through retirement and beyond. This all-encompassing mission is accomplished through the efforts of dedicated employees of the Franklin Public Schools, and is supplemented with the talents of a number of our “friends in education” who partner and collaborate with us. The Lifelong Learning Institute is a fully functioning part of the Franklin Public Schools and has been in existence since the fall of 1998.”

The Institute maintains a total of six categories of programs for the public.  In addition to the classes and activities sponsored by the Institute’s Lifelong Community Learning program described in this post, the Institute also provides a vital service in its Solutions Extended Day program.  The Solutions program gives parents and guardians of young children safe and affordable before-school and after-school childcare services – a godsend for busy working families. 

Other programs under the Institute’s aegis are its Music Academy, Summer Program, Online Learning, and High School Experience.

So please consider taking advantage of one of the classes offered by the Institute’s Lifelong Community Learning program and check what else the Lifelong Learning Institute can do for you!

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In this post, you’ll see how the major public school rating sites grade the John F. Kennedy Memorial Elementary School in Franklin, Massachusetts.

School rating sites applaud Kennedy Elementary

School rating sites say Kennedy is doing a great job educating its students!

Use the hotlinks embedded in the images below to look at the evaluations of the Kennedy Elementary School published by four of the most popular rating sites.

Kennedy gets an “A” on both SchoolGrades.org and Niche.com.  The school rates the top “Five Stars” on SchoolDigger.com.  Only GreatSchools.org awards Kennedy with less than top honors (an “8 out of 10” on that site). GreatSchools appears to place a handicap on schools located in higher-income communities,  lowering the rating assigned to the school by that site. 

The Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) recently commended the Kennedy Elementary School for academic excellence, so it’s a solid choice for for parents!

Follow the hotlinks to learn more about the Kennedy Elementary School and the other fine public schools in Franklin, MA.

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In producing the rankings, Boston Magazine says it looked at many factors, including SAT and MCAS scores, Advanced Placement participation rates, class size, and student-to-teacher ratios.   (Schools on or within the I-495 loop were included in the findings.  Excluded from the rankings were charter schools and specialized schools.)  You can see the full Massachusetts public high school rankings posted by Boston Magazine in the hotlink at left.

Franklin High ranks with other excellent schools in region

In placing forty-seventh in the survey, Franklin High was ranked on par with or better than such excellent public high schools serving Mansfield, Walpole, Natick and the regional high school serving Norfolk, Wrentham and Plainville (King Philip Regional).  Yet, as noted in a post published here a few years ago, Franklin, MA has a much lower property tax burden than most other I-495 communities with such excellent schools.

So prospective home buyers should give a lot of consideration to the Town of Franklin, Massachusetts!

Exploring Franklin High

Follow the hotlink in the image above or at right to learn more about Franklin High School in Franklin, MA.  You’ll see exclusive videos of the interior of this beautiful school, including science labs, the school library, high-tech classrooms and the impressive lecture hall.  You’ll also find links to the High School’s website and the Department of Education’s profile for the school.

Franklin, MA is a great place to call home!  Contact Warren Reynolds with any questions you have about living in the Town of Franklin, Massachusetts!

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The above chart shows how students at each elementary school in Franklin performed on the 2018 MCAS math and ELA tests, compared to the average of all students in Massachusetts. As shown in the chart, substantially larger percentages of students in each public elementary school in Franklin either exceeded or met expectations in both the math and ELA tests than the average of all students in the state.

(Four performance categories were used to rate performance: 1. Exceeding Expectations; 2. Meeting Expectations; 3. Partially Meeting Expectations; and 4. Not Meeting Expectations. Of all public school elementary students in Massachusetts who took the 2018 math MCAS test, only 47% either exceeded or met expectations.  In the ELA test , the state average for exceeding or meeting expectations was a slightly better 51%.)

Franklin’s Kennedy Elementary School a standout

Students at the John F. Kennedy Elementary School at 551 Pond St in Franklin, Massachusetts did especially well on the 2018 MCAS test.  In both the math and ELA tests, 84% of Kennedy Elementary students either exceeded or met expectations.

As detailed in an article published by The Boston Globe, Kennedy’s results were so good that the DOE recognized Kennedy Elementary as one of only 52 public schools statewide with such outstanding MCAS performance.  In earning this honor, Kennedy Elementary joins public schools located in such affluent communities as Lexington, Medfield, Newton and Sherborn.

Seemingly puzzling ‘need assistance’ status for Jefferson Elementary

The release of the 2018 MCAS results unfortunately also contained some concerning news for the Franklin community regarding the Jefferson Elementary School at 628 Washington Street.  Despite its students performing well above the state average on the 2018 MCAS  tests, Jefferson Elementary was placed by the DOE on a newly created list of schools deemed in need of “targeted assistance.”

This new category includes 14% of all public schools in the state (230 public schools in total). These schools, while not classified as “under performing” or “chronically under performing,” were deemed by the DOE to be in need of extra support to aide students to do better in test scores or in other criteria.

Below are Jefferson Elementary’s 2018 MCAS performance results:

67% of Jefferson Elementary students either exceeded or met expectations in the 2018 MCAS math test.  In the 2018 ELA test, 66% of Jefferson Elementary students either exceeded or met expectations.  While not on par with the excellent results posted by Franklin’s Kennedy Elementary, Jefferson’s  results are in line with the above average performances of all other elementary schools in town.  So why was Jefferson singled out as needing targeted assistance?

Low test participation, not low test scores

The answer seems to lie in the four words at the end of the phrase “in need of targeted assistance to help their students do better in test scores or in other criteria.”

In deciding which schools need targeted assistance, the DOE appears to look  “low sub-group performance,” “low graduation rate” and (most importantly for Jefferson Elementary) “low (test) participation rate.”

Composite excerpt from Globe chart

As shown above in an excerpt from a chart published by The Boston Globe, Jefferson Elementary is shown as being included in the “targeted assistance” category solely due to its low participation rate in the 2018 MCAS tests. And based on information on the DOE website, it appears that anything less than a 95% participation rate qualifies as “low.” So it looks like a sub-95% participation rate in the 2018 MCAS tests is why the DOE included Jefferson Elementary on the targeted assistance list of Massachusetts public schools.

One would think that so long a Jefferson Elementary can get its participation rate on the 2019 MCAS tests above the 95% threshold, the school will be removed from the targeted assistance list next year.

NexGen MCAS scores should improve with time

2018 marked the first use of the newly revised “NextGen” MCAS testing standards.  This updated version of the MCAS tests yielded lower math scores this year at many schools across the state.   It is expected that test scores in future years will rise once educators become more familiar with the new tests.

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According to a Single Environmental Impact Report issued in 2017 by the engineering firm Epsilon Associates, Inc.,  both the intersections of Washington and Grove Streets and Washington and King Streets will receive traffic lights and other upgrades in order to better accommodate the traffic generated by the two new uses. 

Impressive new school campus

The BFCCPS campus will include an over 70,000 square foot school building, nearly 200 parking spaces, as well as recess areas and play fields.  

A two story U-shaped building will house classrooms, an auditorium,  a gymnasium ,a cafeteria and administrative space.  A central courtyard will be surrounded by the “U”.

Construction is slated to be completed by June 2019.  The new school campus will be operational for the 2019-2020 school year.

The new facility will have a maximum enrollment capacity of nine hundred students from kindergarten though the eighth grade.  This is twice the current number of students at BFCCPS. The nine hundred student enrollment target will take time to be realized.  It may be as long as ten years for the BFCCPS to reach that full nine hundred mark.  For the 2019-2020 school year, the school plans to accept approximately three hundred additional students for kindergarten through grade five. This will increase enrollment from the current four hundred fifty to approximately seven hundred fifty students.

Learn more the BFCCPS and its new campus

Boston-based architecture and design firm, Arrowstreet, is the architect for the new BFCCPS school.  The Arrowstreet website shows a number of renderings of the school building:

It looks to be a beautiful school!

You can obtain additional information about the BFCCPS at its website:

Land swap made the new school possible

Through its not-for-profit corporation, the Benjamin Franklin Educational Foundation, Inc, the BFCCPS had ownership of land at the Financial Park since 2000.  Plans for the new campus at that site were stymied because the parcel was legally landlocked – it lacked a right of access to any street or roadway.  The problem was eventually resolved by a land swap between the Foundation and the owner of other land at the Financial Park.

That creative solution is what has enabled the construction of both the new school campus and the new warehouse and office complex.  That’s a true win-win-win: for the two property owners and for the Franklin community as well!

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The formal dedication ceremonies were held September 21 after the school had an open house for the public the day before.

Construction took a remarkably short 2 years because the complex was built under the cost-and-time-saving Massachusetts Model School Program.

$100M+ High School is state of the art

Total costs for Franklin’s beautiful new High School exceeded $100 million.

The High School is gorgeous!  Its three levels contain over 82,000 square feet of academic space. There is a 17,000+square foot gymnasium, 800 seat auditorium, state of the art media center, fully equipped science labs and loads of cutting edge technology.

Videos of Franklin High

This beautiful and technologically advanced high school is a wonderful investment in the public schools of Franklin, MA!

Learn more about Franklin, Massachusetts

Franklin, Mass is a great place to call home!  It has many desirable neighborhoods and condo communities.  For great schools, wonderful shopping, superb recreational resources and a welcoming, small town ambiance, the Town of Franklin, MA is a surprisingly affordable choice for MA home buyers.  Contact Warren for expert, caring help buying your home in Franklin!

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Video of Media Center at Franklin High

Not a lot of books

There are some stacks in the Media Center with print materials. But given the intensive use of high tech throughout the school, the focus in the Media Center is on technology and computer-based education.  Just like the Genius Bars in Apple Stores, the Media Center has a tech support station (manned by students) to help students get the most out of all the technology at their disposal at the school.  And as often found in college media centers, a café where students can buy refreshments as they work.

The days of students going to the school library to use print materials in physical stacks are long gone!

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Video of gymnasium at the Franklin High School in Franklin, Mass

The interior of the 17,700 square foot gymnasium huge!  The gym is designed to make the greatest use of space possible and allow a broad range of uses.

The structure houses two regulation sized basketball courts which can be subdivided into up to five small spaces for practice and informal activities. Bleachers retract into the walls when not is use.

The 6,000-square-foot indoor walking track on the second level of the gym is a nice extra feature!

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With seating for 80, the hall accommodates traditional lectures and also employs NEC Display interactive white board technology.

The NEC Display software syncs with the Chromebooks provided by the school to every student, allowing teachers and students to share and collaborate on content in real time and on the Cloud.  The technology integrated into this large, beautiful space (as it is throughout the High School) helps assure that the Large Group Seminar will play an important role in shaping students’ educational success at Franklin High.

The Large Group Seminar at the Franklin High School in Franklin, MA feels very much like a high end university lecture hall.  What a great asset for Franklin High!

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