School Board

GRANT RECIPIENT – Schools Superintendent John Ravally said the grant money will be used to develop ready made lesson plans. (File photo). District teachers will be able to spend more time teaching and less time planning curricula with the help of a $200,000 state grant. Franklin was one of 18 school districts across the state sharing in nearly $2 million …

BUDGET EXPLAINER – Board of Education Business Administrator Stephen Fried explains the tax implications of the Board’s FY 2025 budget, approved at the April 25 meeting. The Board of Education on April 25 approved its $194.1 million FY 2025 general fund budget, which carries a small school portion tax increase. The newly minted budget is roughly $7 million more than …

SUPPORTING THE PROGRAM – Deputy Mayor Ed Potosnak said he now supported the Council contributing $300,000 to a construction trades program for Franklin High School students. With an enrollment-based “guardrail” in place, the Township Council on April 9 voted to partner with the Board of Education to offer some Franklin High School students training in the construction trades. The Council …

TALKING NUMBERS – Schools Superintendent John Ravally reviews the preliminary 2024-25 school district budget at the March 20 Board of Education meeting. A steep cut in state aid and a multi-million dollar increase in charter school tuition presented stiff challenges, but school district officials said the proposed 2024-25 budget should only result in a minor increase in the school portion …

EXPLAINING THE PLAN – Township Manager Robert Vornlocker brought a proposal to the Council that turned out to be controversial. A nearly hour-long, sometimes heated discussion on partnering with the Board of Education to provide a construction trades training program ended March 12 with the Township Council agreeing to discuss the issue in April. At issue was a proposal for …

School district officials are looking into ways to compensate for the approximately 2 percent cut in state aid for Fiscal Year 2025. The district will receive $21,119,162 in state K-12 aid, a reduction of $386,982 from last year’s figure. A district spokeswoman said the amount cut represents about 6 percent of the equalization aid given to Franklin by the state. …

HEALTH CLINIC COMING – Township Manager Robert Vornlocker said the proposed Zufall health clinic on the campus of Franklin Middle School – Hamilton Street campus will eventually be expanded to all residents. A partnership between the Township and Board of Education that will result in a health clinic on a school campus came one step closer to fruition at the …

WARRIOR MENTOR – Marco Collazo, a mentor with Operation Great Expectation, talks about the program at the February 22 Board of Education meeting. A high school mentoring program with claims of reducing the number of “behavior infractions” in schools was given a pat on the back by the Board of Education at its February 22 meeting. The program – operation …

EXPLAINING THE PLAN – Schools Superintendent John Ravally explains the plan to use the former Middlebush School as a pre-school center to offer universal, free, pre-school to District children. The Board of Education on February 22 took the first step in reclaiming the former Middlebush School building as a school. The Board agreed to give district administrators the authority to …

NEW BOARD PRESIDENT – Ardaman Singh reacts after she was voted in as school board president at the Board’s January 4 reorganization meeting. Board of Education members Ardaman Singh and Sami Shaban were chosen by their colleagues as Board president and vice-president, respectively, at the January 4 reorganization meeting. Also at the meeting, Board newcomers Erica Inocencio and Jimmie Parker …