FPS 2023-24 #04 | 10/05/23
Franklin Public Schools Bi-Weekly Newsletter
2023-24 #04 | October 5, 2023
Capturing Engagement Feedback
Happy October! The leaves are changing, the weather is cooling as we go into this weekend, and we have entered our second month of the school year. I am hopeful you and your family have settled into the new school year routine and have had the opportunity to meet the educator(s) working with your child this school year. Those beginning of the year connections are so vital to a successful partnership for the school year.
It has been a great month to showcase some ways we are living our three tenets: better place to learn, better place to work and part of a better community.
As mentioned in your school’s Monday Weekly Bulletin, this week your child(ren) (K-12) will participate in a Student Engagement Survey. This survey is written by the district and takes less than 10 minutes to complete. We ask students to respond to questions in areas related to environment, learning, relationships, and a general feeling of belonging. As we continually strive to be a Better Place To Learn, this information guides our School Improvement Teams at each school to goal set around the survey data. At a district level, it allows us to review where we can celebrate our engagement with students and set goals for systemic areas of improvement.
This week we are also gathering feedback from our staff through an internal Employee Engagement Survey. This data helps drive our Coherence Plan tactics as we find areas to celebrate and opportunities to grow in how we strive to be a Better Place To Work.
Below, you’ll see a great story from last week that showcases being Part of a Better Community. We are so thankful for our partnership with Southbrook Church who, with short notice, opened their doors to all of our learners and staff from Pleasant View Elementary School. We were faced with the challenge to relocate the school after a water issue and found this as an opportunity to have the students take a ‘spontaneous field trip” to Southbrook and continue their learning.
One other way we are working to better our community involvement is through our Key Communicators sessions. We started this last year and held (3) sessions for around 40-50 key individuals in the community to help share the work being done through our district’s Coherence Plan. Those sessions will be picking up again beginning this month and involve community leader feedback as we build our next three year Coherence Plan and discuss our long-range facility planning. For more on our long-range facility planning, please see the new Franklin Forward Updates section below for more details on this ongoing discussion around our facilities.
Have a great weekend,
Annalee Bennin
FPS District Administrator
The 2023-24 District Calendar can be found in PDF format here and linked into our district calendars on our website here. All of our calendars are able to be subscribed to! Follow the steps at the top of the District Calendar webpage for how to subscribe.
Long-Range Facility Planning
As we shared in our last District Newsletter, Franklin Forward encompasses our Long-Range Facility Planning for the future. Through Franklin Forward, we look to bring together the best we can for our students and community in terms of infrastructure, safety & security, and our educational learning environments.
This week’s update:
Part 2 of master facilities planning was presented and encompassed debriefing on recent Board Member tours of FPS facilities, closer looks at CD, RW, and FHS in regards to facility needs and enrollment impact, a discussion of guiding principles for this work and a gantt chart timeline for this overall process.
We are developing a page for our website that will house all updates and information around this process. We will share that in an upcoming District Newsletter.
These are some upcoming planned sessions as part of Franklin Forward:
- Wed, Oct 11 - Board Meeting Presentation on Debt Service Addition (ECC @ 6pm)
Wed, Oct 25 - Board Meeting Presentation on Elementary School Visioning (ECC @ 6pm)
Wed, Nov 8 - Board Meeting Presentation on High School Visioning (ECC @ 6pm)
Thankful for Community Partners
We have a great story to share around one of our tenets of what it means to be part of a better community. Last Wednesday, we discovered we had water emerging in our lower hallways at Pleasant View Elementary School. One would assume rain was causing this, as did our team at first, but instead we learned quickly our system was backing up.
While diagnosing the problem and exploring fix options, water had to be shut off to the school, which necessitated us having to move 410 learners and almost all of our staff out of the building mid-day. Fortunately, we reached out to our community partners at Southbrook Church and Pastor Jonathan Misirian simply replied with, “yeah, whatever you need. We will meet you at the front doors.” During this time, we coordinated with GO Riteway to provide buses for Pleasant View and we began commuting with families about their children being transported to Southbrook, including that dismissal would take place there either by normal bus routes or parent pick-up.
This impromptu ‘field trip’ could not have gone any better. It went so well in fact that our PV learners are now demanding that we add lotion in the PV bathrooms like Southbrook, add the scent of Southbrook at PV, and many requested to return to Southbrook the next day. :) Pictures below depict some of this journey…
THANK YOU'S GO OUT TO...
Our PV staff for their ability to pivot at a moment's notice and to continue learning and programming for students at the new site. Some really creative learning opportunities came about on the fly!
The PV front office staff for staying at PV to field phone calls and communications from families.
GO Riteway for supplying us with buses and drivers to safely move students and for altering pick-up plans at the end of the day while ensuring other routes would not be significantly delayed.
Southbrook Church for hosting us and helping to supply us with whatever we needed.
Our Buildings & Grounds crews for working on, assessing, and helping to solve this problem.
Our ECC District Office staff that headed to Southbrook to help set up and organize classes and run dismissal.
Our Community Ed & Rec Department for pivoting their after school Kids Club programming to work at Southbrook so students could be cared for.
Chad Kafka, District Communications Specialist, for giving our families regular updates including sharing photos of the students at Southbrook so families could see they were safe AND a dismissal pickup map for traffic flow so everything could run smoothly at the end of the day.
U.S. News & World Report Ranks Franklin High School Among Best High Schools
Washington, D.C. – August 29, 2023 – Franklin High School has been ranked #1,137 in the nation among the 2023-2024 Best High Schools by U.S. News & World Report. The rankings evaluate more than 17,600 schools at the national, state and local level.
FHS also ranked #26 in Wisconsin and #19 in the Milwaukee, WI Metro Area High Schools as shown here.
“We are incredibly proud of the work our students, staff, and families have done to make FHS a great place to learn,” shares Mike Vuolo, FHS Principal. “We will continue to work to get better and ensure that all of our students have exceptional educational experiences, achieve their personal success, and leave Franklin High School and Franklin Public Schools college, career, and life ready.”
The methodology for this recognition focuses on six indicators of school quality: college readiness; breadth of curriculum; scores on state proficiency tests; performance in reading, math, and science; underserved student performance; and graduation rates.
“Having access to a strong high school program is paramount for students as they face an ever-changing world,” says Liana Loewus, managing editor of education at U.S. News. “Making data on our high schools available helps parents ensure their child is in the educational environment that best sets them up to thrive.”
Congratulations to Franklin High School on receiving this honor!
Girls Varsity Tennis Heading To State!
The FHS Varsity Girls Tennis Team is heading to state! The team took first place at sectionals and are heading to team state! Our 1 and 2 singles and 1 doubles also qualified for individual state. Follow their instagram account here for the latest happenings. Good luck!
Junior Zaira Shaker Receives Outstanding Advocate Award
Recently, the Wisconsin Department of Health Services named junior Zaira Shaker as one of the leaders of the next generation by honoring her with the “Outstanding Youth Advocate for Substance Use Prevention Award.” This press release from the WI Department of Health Services mentions Zaira’s accomplishments and the other grants and awards that were recognized as part of the state’s focus on the epidemic of substance abuse. Specifically, this award recognizes Zaira’s efforts and work with Volition Franklin, including the education of her high school peers through resource tables during lunch hours and announcements during substance use awareness weeks.
“I hope that my actions can make a difference in our community,” Zaira shared. “No matter how small.”
Pictured with Zaira are FPS School Nurse Lori O’Neil, FHS Social Worker Anna Mulshine, FHS Associate Principal Jordan Hein and FPS District Administrator Annalee Bennin.
Friday Night Football 10/6 @ Kenosha Indian Trail Details
If you plan on attending the varsity Football game this Friday night at Kenosha Indian Trail, please be aware of these details:
- The varsity game starts at 5:30 pm and not 7 pm as usual, so get there on time!
- It is best to buy your ticket(s) online here before 1 pm on Friday.
- There will be a limited number of tickets available at the gate (cash only).
- Any students who make cash ticket purchases at the gate will only be admitted to the event if accompanied by an adult.
- The game will not be streamed online
The Fall Rec Program Guide is now online at the Rec website!
Buy Tickets For the EDUCATE IN STYLE FASHION SHOW!
We are excited to feature our Franklin High School students in a unique style show to raise money for scholarships, athletics, and activities in Franklin Public Schools. Join us for an evening of fun, fashion, food, and auctions at Franklin High School on Saturday, November 18th. We will begin the evening in the Saber Center Lobby with light appetizers, beverages, music, pop-up shops and our silent auction. We will then move into the FHS Commons area at 7pm to watch almost 30 school sports, clubs and activities model both casual and formal wear (prom sneak peek!)
Thank you to the following businesses for sponsoring this great event!
- Platinum Level: GAIA Micro Spa and Educators Credit Union
- Silver Level: James Bild-State Farm Insurance
- Bronze Level: PNC Bank, Landmark Credit Union, Girard's Service Center and Meijer
To find out more about this event and purchase tickets, please check our website.
Legally Blonde Jr Auditions (Ages 12-18)
Forte Youth Productions is holding auditions for their next youth musical production, Legally Blonde Jr! Harvard's beloved blonde takes the stage by glittery pink storm in this fun and upbeat adaptation of the hit film and award-winning Broadway musical!
Auditions: Mon, Oct 9th & Tues, Oct 10th, 4:30 - 8:30 pm (please sign up for one 15 min time slot)
Audition location: FHS Saber Center
Ages: 12-18
Callbacks: Saturday, October 14th, 12 pm - 4 pm
Rehearsals: November 7th - January 25th (no rehearsals during holiday breaks)
Performances: January 26th - 28th at the FHS Saber Center
More info at https://www.fortetheatrecompany.org/legally-blonde-jr
This production does not conflict with the FHS spring musical.
If you aren't available for auditions, but would still like to be considered, please contact us at randall@fortetheatrecompany.org
Saber Spookfest is Back on Sat 10/28!
The FHS class of 2027 is hosting SpookFest, a Halloween themed event for kids, on Saturday, October 28th from 1-3pm in the main commons of FHS. We'll be offering Halloween games, crafts, indoor Trick or Treating, a costume contest, fall snacks, and more! We hope to see you there!
GO Riteway Is Hiring
GO Riteway, our bus transportation provider, is continuing to accept applications for drivers. Please go to their web page at www.goriteway.com and go to the employment tab to look for opportunities. You can also contact them directly at franklin@goriteway.com
Make a difference, one day at a time.
Consider becoming a substitute in our school district! Teachers On Call—our partner for substitute talent—offers steady work or flexible schedule options. This is an opportunity to do work you can feel good about within our own community. To apply now, visit teachersoncall.com/talent/apply-now
Contact our Teachers On Call Recruiter, Megan Gibson, with any questions at megan.gibson@teachersoncall.com or (800) 713.4439 ext. 18777.
(Note: Any imagery containing students, staff, events, or FPS logos shared by FPS are the property of Franklin Public Schools and are solely for district use. Reproduction or reuse of these images without written permission is not allowed.)
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Email: communications@franklin.k12.wi.us
Website: http://www.franklin.k12.wi.us
Location: 8255 West Forest Hill Avenue, Franklin, WI, USA
Phone: 414-529-8220
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