Country Gazette
FRANKLIN Not so long ago, Ndoumbe Ndoye would never have imagined herself getting up in front of a crowd to talk about issues of social justice and racism, and to share her own personal encounters.
Now she can t imagine NOT talking about these things ever since she steeled herself to get up in front of a crowd on the Franklin town common last year as people rallied following the death of George Floyd.
There, she gave an emotional speech that brought tears to her own and others eyes. And since then she has been actively working to promote racial understanding and justice.
Wicked Local
FRANKLIN When school officials took up the question more than a year ago about whether the time has come to retire the Davis Thayer School, they knew they were taking on a question charged with emotion.
In the end, they could not ignore the writing on the chalk board when faced with the facts: Shrinking enrollment, stretched budgets, and the challenges of meeting modern educational standards in an aging, expensive-to-maintain building that in just three years will turn 100.
With a modicum of discussion, and an air of resignation, the School Committee on Tuesday voted 5-2 to shutter the town s oldest school building after this school year and re-assign its students to the Helen Keller Elementary School two miles away on Lincoln Street. The one hang-up for the two members who voted against the decision was the timing of the closing.