FEF Community Spelling Bee Tuesday, May 31

The annual FEF Community Spelling Bee will be held on Tuesday, May 31 at 7 pm at the Falmouth High School Theater. The bee is informal and fun for all; in its first 6 years it has raised an unbee-lievable $55,000 to benefit the kids of our town.


BEE a Sponsor! Underwrite a teacher or community volunteer team or speller. Cost per team is $300, or $100 per speller. If a lesser amount is better for you, we happily accept donations of all sizes.

BEE a Speller! Teams of 3 with a $300 entry fee per team. Find two friends or colleagues, think up a fun costume (or not, if you prefer) and name and come give it a try on the 31st. You and your teammates will participate in a round with five or six other teams.



BEE a Spectator! Come watch the Bee and try out your spelling skills from the audience. Enter a raffle for your favorite team or try for the audience participation team. Bee Spontaneous! Pizza and snacks will be served and admission is free.

To get involved, please contact Kathy Coster at kbcmaine@gmail.com or 781-3723.

IMPORTANT NEW QUESTION ON THE JUNE BALLOT!

IMPORTANT NEW QUESTION ON THE JUNE BALLOT!




In early March, our Director of Finance and Operations, Dan O’Shea, was made aware of federal stimulus money awards to be given out this spring for Maine public buildings, specifically to support wood-energy boiler conversions and the Maine forest products economy. Well, needless to say, we have been able to realize the cost and environmental benefits of the wood chip boiler heating the high school and new elementary school and jumped on the application, which had to be submitted by March 24th.



A new wood chip boiler would replace the two oil boilers at the Falmouth Middle School which are 1950s vintage. This conversion would ultimately lead to a switch from oil to wood as the primary heating fuel in all of our schools. If we were awarded the grant, the district would receive up to $500,000. The total cost of the project is expected to be $1.5 - $1.95 million for a new wood chip storage building and boiler, requiring a local funding differential of approximately $1-1.4 million. We anticipate dedicating $300,000 of capital funds to the project. Assuming a 15-year lease purchase for the balance of approximately $1.1 million (allowed since this is an energy efficiency upgrade), we would estimate a yearly payment of approximately $76,000. However, the cost SAVINGS would be approximately $100,000 annually based on current consumption and the price differential between oil and wood, thus covering the cost of any borrowing.



So, Question 3 on the ballot will be asking voters to approve the expenditure of funds for a new wood chip boiler, should the grant be awarded to Falmouth. If the grant is not awarded, the project scope and timing will need to be re-evaluated. Both the School Board and Town Council have unanimously voted to favorably recommend this project to the citizens of Falmouth.

Help shape the future of Falmouth Maine

Falmouth… in 10 Years?


What Do You Think?

We want your thoughts and opinions about where and how our town can grow and change over the next ten years.

As requested by the Town Council, the Long Range Planning Advisory Committee (LPAC+) is in the process of updating Falmouth’s Comprehensive Plan, which is reviewed every ten years. This plan, which was last updated in 2000, is the basic foundation for Falmouth town planning, and outlines our vision and priorities. It shapes our physical, social, and economic development into the future.

We invite you to take part in this process now.

A survey is available at www.town.falmouth.me.us/survey2011  to share your opinions. Paper copies, with return envelope, are available at the Town Hall, Falmouth Memorial Library, and the customer service desks at Hannaford (West Falmouth Crossing) and Shaw’s (Route 1).

The survey takes about 20-25 minutes to complete. All responses will be confidential. If you have any questions or experience difficulties accessing the survey, you may contact either Market Decisions Research Director Dr. Brian Robertson at 1-800-293-1538 ext. 102, brianr@marketdecisions.com; or, Falmouth’s Long-Range Planning Director Theo Holtwijk at 699-5340, tholtwijk@town.falmouth.me.us.

For your opinions to be included in the results, it’s important that you complete and return your survey by Monday June 13, 2011. The results will be tabulated and publicly reported.
Thank you in advance for taking your time to share your thoughts.

Sincerely,
Falmouth Long Range Planning Advisory Committee

Complete this Survey by June 13, 2011! http://town.falmouth.me.us/2011survey



Questions? contact:

Theo H.B.M. Holtwijk
Director of Long-Range Planning

Town of Falmouth
271 Falmouth Road
Falmouth, Maine 04105
207-781-5253, ext. 5340
fax 207-781-8677
www.town.falmouth.me.us

FAREWELL FESTIVAL: SAYING GOODBYE TO OUR GRAND OLD SCHOOLS

FAREWELL FESTIVAL: SAYING GOODBYE TO OUR GRAND OLD SCHOOLS:


A Grand Old Festival is being planned by the Falmouth Elementary PTO to celebrate these two schools and the many citizens of Falmouth who have walked their halls and learned in their classrooms.

The event will kick off with a community picnic on the evening of Friday, June 3 with entertainment and other family-fun activities. The entire community is invited to bring their picnic baskets and lawn chairs to this old-fashioned evening get-together. On Saturday, June 4, festivities will begin with a “Spirit of Falmouth” Parade leading from Village Park up Lunt Road to the schools. The festival itself will begin at the schools at 10:00 am and will include old-fashioned carnival games, family-fun activities, musical entertainment, live demonstrations, food vendors and more. At 11:00 a.m., a commemoration ceremony will take place, which will include the dedication of a time capsule to mark this historic occasion. In addition, school tours will be available for those who want to reminisce about their days in these buildings.



Decorate a Chair! We're inviting students, teachers, businesses and civic groups to claim a student chair and turn it into art in honor of the decades-long history and traditions of these educational institutions. Completed art pieces will be displayed throughout Falmouth at participating businesses from May 18-June 1. On June 4, chairs will be available for purchase through a silent auction during the Festival activities. Proceeds from the auction will offset the costs of the Festival and benefit the Falmouth Elementary PTO.

A lot more information and ways to register for events can be found at the Festival website, www.tinyurl.com/farewellfestival

FALMOUTH RANKED #1 IN THE COUNTRY!

FALMOUTH RANKED #1 IN THE COUNTRY!


“THE BEST SCHOOLS FOR YOUR REAL ESTATE BUCK”

The following are excerpts from the article published on Forbes.com Magazine, naming Falmouth, Maine, as the best city to “live and learn:”

“Falmouth, Maine, is a picturesque waterfront town 110 miles north of Boston with moderate housing costs (median price $351,550), per-student public-school spending just a touch above the state average, and an enviable position at the top of the Forbes/GreatSchools list of Best Schools for Your Real Estate Buck.

“Not much stands out to explain why the 2,100 student school district does so well. The seventh-graders all have laptops, but so does every other middle-schooler in Maine, thanks to a 2002 program that has distributed Apple MacBooks throughout the state. Teacher salaries are generous by Maine standards, at around $51,000 for a 10-year veteran, but low compared with $75,000 to $100,000 a teacher can earn in New York. At $10,000 a year, per-pupil spending is slightly above average for Maine but well below the $14,000 or so big cities like Chicago and New York spend.

“Here’s one clue to the superior performance of schools in this 10,669-resident town, which was founded in 1658: Teacher turnover is extremely low. In the 13 years Barbara Powers has been [in the district] school superintendent, exactly two teachers have left for jobs at other schools.

“People aren’t using us as a launch pad to somewhere else,” said Powers.

“Falmouth scored the highest on our second annual look at the places in America where your housing dollar will go the furthest in getting your children a great education. Done in partnership with GreatSchools, we analyzed 17,589 towns and cities in the 49 states that administer standardized, statewide tests (Nebraska doesn’t have one test). GreatSchools also used results from the most recent National Assessment for Educational Progress data, a federal program that tests randomly selected students in fourth, eighth, and 12th grades to provide state-level assessments of learning and educational progress. By combining the two datasets, GreatSchools could calibrate the results of individual cities in a single state with national standards to come up with an absolute score for each city. It then graded them on a curve with the highest-ranking city, Falmouth, representing 100. GreatSchools assesses more than 200,000 public schools, including charter schools.”

Everyone should take pride in this recognition, from the community members who support the schools, to the parents, many of whom are deeply involved in volunteering in the schools, to a world class group of students who come to school ready and willing to learn. But the highest praise goes to the leaders of our district, headed by Barbara Powers, and the incredibly talented and dedicated professional staff. They all deserve our profound gratitude for the fabulous job they do with our children.