Nomination papers are now available for the May 7, 2018 Annual Town Election. 

List of available seats

Thursday, March 15th is the last day to obtain blank nomination papers from the Town Clerk's Office.

Monday, March 19th is the last day to submit completed nomination papers to the Town Clerk's Office.

below is what I received as an email alert for this meeting:



The following meeting has been updated:

Town(s): Templeton, MA;
Board: Templeton Elementary School Building Committee
Time: Tuesday February 20, 2018 6 PM EST
Location: Town Hall Central Office - NRSD

Agenda:
1. Call to order
2. Pledge of Allegiance
3. Approve minutes
4. Approve Invoices
5. OPM Update
6. New Business
7. Other



This is what is posted on the Town web site as of right now - 3:31 P.M. / 2/18/2018.
Remember, two selectmen serve on this committee. So, who is on first base and I don't know is pitching.

My home country of Templeton, yeah buddy!

Town:	Templeton, MA
Board:	Templeton Elementary School Building Committee
Time:	Tuesday February 20, 2018 6 PM EST
Location:	Town Hall 160 Patriots Rd., East Templeton, MA 01438 Central Office - NRSD
Agenda:	1. Call to order 2. Pledge of Allegiance 3. Approve minutes 4. Approve Invoices 5. OPM Update 6. New Business 7. Other

Perhaps to relieve the tension on conspiracy, opinions and the like, perhaps grab some weed, then get a piece of hemp paper and a pencil (for the techno generation, grab ya phone) and lets do some math;

the 1 percent meals tax that is only going to add a penny to a cup of coffee is going to raise about $40,000.00 per year. Templeton establishments selling food must be doing well. So for some home work (I do not want to put forth any conspiracy information nor would I wish to stir the pot, so to speak) homework: how much in sales is required to raise $40,000.00 at 1 percent tax?

Would it be $40,000.00 in sales, $400,000.00 in sales, $4,000,000.00 in sales? What would the magic sales figure in dollars be to raise $40,000.00?

Now let us see what if any comments morph into on this subject? How far off track can we go?

PS; Since I try to keep content relevant to Templeton, there will be no Sandy Hook nor any other area of Hoax or other theories here. Some may say this is infringement on free speech, but there are plenty of other avenues and places for that discussion or thought. As Emeril Lagasse  use to say "get your own show" Some how, we need to try to stay focused on local issues that effect Templeton and there are plenty of things to keep us busy.

Watching a recent meeting of the Templeton Planning Board, the subject of bringing things back to Town Meeting that have already failed once and whether Town Meeting should be respected or should a failed item be brought again. Should there be a time frame before a failed vote subject is brought back to Town Meeting? How many times is enough. What about citizens rights to bring things before Town Meeting? How about what information was used to arrive at the $40,000.00 figure of new tax revenue from meals tax? To me, that is more important and relevant than any proposed hoax on some event. Those hoax theories should also be kept separate from the local issues. I wish no more situations like little kids being used as pawns for politics.

Susan Varney

2/16/2018 1:16 PM

To  townadministrator,    Phillipston Selectmen's Office,    School Committee,    Town Clerk,    carol harris,    Bennett Jeff,    Thomas J. Specht  

• Quick reply all
• Reply
• Forward
• Delete
• Actions

Hello all,

Dr. Casavant has asked me to send out this Doodle Survey in order to find out which dates work best for the majority of the group to have multi-board joint meeting. Please click the link below and select all of the dates and times that would work best for you. We will choose the date that works best for the majority of the group. 

https://doodle.com/poll/t99y8rdhuu953ryu

Once the date has been chosen, an agenda will be finalized and posted. The location will be at 'Gansett, in a space to be determined. The proposed agenda items at this point are:

• FY19 Budget Discussion
• Election Dates - proposed changes
• Selection of Negotiations Representatives

Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions regarding this survey. Also, if there is someone that is not on this email that I have inadvertently missed, please let me know and I will add them.

Thank you,

--

Susan Varney

Executive Assistant to the Superintendent

Narragansett Regional School District

(978) 939-5661

svarney@nrsd.org

from the updated Open Meeting law effective October 6, 2017



(4) Requirements Specific to Regional School Districts.
(a) The secretary of the regional school district committee shall be considered to be its clerk. The clerk of the regional school district committee shall file notice with the municipal clerk of each city and town within such district and each such municipal clerk shall post the notice in the manner prescribed for local public bodies in that city or town.

(b) As an alternative method of notice, a regional school district committee may post a meeting notice on, by majority vote, adopt the regional school district's website. as its official notice posting method. A copy of each meeting notice shall be filed and kept by the secretary of the regional school district committee or the secretary's designee in accordance with the applicable records retention schedules. The regional school district committee shall file and post notice of the website address, as well as directions on how to locate notices on the website, in each city and town within the region or district in the manner prescribed for local public bodies in that city or town.

If you go to Templeton Town website, you will find a link to the NRHS website.

Go to Town website  look to left for box titled Town resources - click on useful links and you will stumble upon a ink that will direct you to the Narraganset district website, where you should find the meeting postings you are looking for.

Then again, you might not find them and if they have not been posted properly, the district will be notified.

The district reorganization advisory committee is an open public meeting. Required to be posted, it is how ever a district rather than a Town committee so do not look for it on the Town website. There should also be minutes of the meetings. You can tape, record etc., those meetings. While you do have a right to attend any open pubic meeting, you do not have a right to speak or ask questions. That is at the discretion of the chairman, per the Massachusetts Open Meeting law.

Remembering that the selectmen already do not routinely take questions at workshops and they recently discussed limiting questions and public input at their regular selectmen meetings, stating that residents could reach out off line and residents can have their say at Town Meeting seems to be indicating the current selectmen want less input and questions from residents, meaning just where and when are residents/taxpayers suppose to be able to have their say?

As for finding the posting, all members have have been emailed informing them when, where, etc the meeting will take place.

I posted "the what if" item (s) concerning the placing of the students - assignment of students resulting in more than 10% of the pupils of the whole school being from out of town requires approval of the school committee by a 7/8ths vote, per the regional school agreement.

Per the same agreement, pupils shall be assigned by the superintendent of schools, who shall take into account but not be bound by any recommendations of the school committee, consistent with the educational reform act of 1993. So the superintendent could assign all Phillipston students to Templeton elementary school, but if that results in more than 10 % of students being from out of Town (excluding school choice) the school committee could vote in favor of that, hence al Phillipston students could end up in the new school. Since the subject of a regional elementary school was brought up several times at a meeting, I thought it was worth mentioning, as I feel people should be aware of what could happen per the school agreement that many have probably never seen never mind read. That is not a conspiracy, that is a possibility.

There is also a proposed committee to discuss moving the Town's election and I have received an email from the school district informing me of such. Templeton Advisory Committee received an email (2) from Templeton T/A concerning this committee requesting who the representative will be from Advisory. If you are to pan for things, you should be aware of all the possibilities, whether you think they are realistic or not, they should be considered or at least be aware of.

The regional school district agreement involving Templeton and Phillipston was supposedly last updated in 2004. It is quite possible that this change or update is not even on file with the state.

Within this agreement, East Templeton school is listed, when in fact, it does not exist any longer (in the capacity of a school) Baldwinville Elementary will soon follow. The agreement also contains language stating each lease term shall be for a period of twenty years and additional terms shall not exceed twenty years.

The agreement states it was first executed in 1955, as amended through 1975.

One interesting item is if at anytime, there are students more than 10% of the pupils of the whole school being from out of town, then the reassignment will require a 7/8ths vote of the school committee to vote in favor, school choice students shall be exempt from this.

I have to wonder what would happen, if per this current agreement, the school committee voted all in favor of reassigning all of Phillipston students to the new elementary school, if that would hold up legally? Of course, we could just stay focused on the hemp debate.