March 27, 2020
Updates For Our Families From The District Administrator
Dear Franklin Families,
I hope you had as good of a Spring Break as your family could under the circumstances. We thank you for engaging with us during the first three days of virtual/distance learning before Spring Break. We learned a lot from those three days that is helping to inform our decisions as we continue to offer learning opportunities for our students through this school closure.
Below are some updates we want to keep all families informed about. Included in this newsletter is information on school closures, our plan for continuing to provide food, updates to our attendance procedures, changes to our elementary learning plans and other updates we’ve been collecting this week. Thank you for taking the time to read all the important information that is coming your way.
Dr. Judy Mueller
District Administrator
SCHOOL CLOSURES UPDATE
As has been shared in the media, Governor Evers passed a "Safer at Home" Emergency Order (Long Version | FAQ) earlier this week asking families to stay at home to slow and avoid the spread of Coronavirus. In this order, those businesses or organizations deemed as “Essential Services” are able to continue operating or offering services. Schools are allowed to continue offering virtual or distance learning to offset the time being missed. The “Safer at Home” order is currently effective until at least Friday, April 24th. This means that all school districts throughout the state, including Franklin Public Schools, will remain closed through at least that date.
FOOD REQUESTS & PICKUP FOR MARCH 30-APRIL 3
Franklin Public Schools is continuing to offer lunches to children ages 2-18 in the Franklin community who are experiencing hardship and need a meal. We have made some updates to how distribution is going to look starting next week including:
- WHERE: Meals will be distributed at Franklin High School in front of the Saber Center in the same location prior to Spring Break. Please see the map below for proper traffic flow
- WHEN: Meals will be distributed on Mondays (Mon & Tues meals), Wednesdays (Wed meal only) & Thursdays (Thurs & Fri meals).
- NEW TIME: Meals will be distributed between 11:30am and 1pm. We are starting at 11:30 to offer our Food Service staff more preparation time.
- WHO: Children do not need to be present in the car for picking up meals.
- NEW PICKUP PROCESS: We are asking families to pull up to the pickup station, tell the Food Service staff how many meals you need, and then please come up to the table to pick up your meals. As families pick up meals from the table, Food Service staff will step back to maintain proper social distancing. This will help to protect our families and Food Service staff and cut down on the close interactions.
Our Food Service staff is following USDA guidelines for meals, which may include receiving starchy vegetables and legumes. Food Service staff may mix in some heat and serve items as part of the meal; this all depends on the inventory we have available.
FOOD REQUEST FORM FOR NEXT WEEK
The new sign up form covers next week's food distribution on Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays for March 30-April 3 only. We will communicate about the following week at the end of next week.
If you are requesting food for more than one child, you will be prompted at form submission to add additional children.
Please complete this sign up form as soon as possible, but by Sunday night 3/29 at 10pm at the latest, so we can properly plan for food distribution. The form will remain open through the week if a family needs to file a food request at a later date.
You will need your student’s powerschool number to complete the form. This number can be found by logging into your PowerSchool Parent Access account. Once logged into PowerSchool, it is the 6-digit number at the top center portion of the screen. It will begin with a 5.
Please note this form can only be filled out once for this one week cycle. If you have already filled it out and need to make a change, please directly contact Monica Houtler (414-423-4656), our Food Service Director, with any questions.
ATTENDANCE PROCEDURE UPDATES
The Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction indicated this week that local school districts may decide how best to monitor student participation in school provided learning activities. To best support our students and families, we will be making the following changes to our attendance procedures beginning Monday, March 30th.
- Elementary Attendance Form 4K, 5K And Up Through 5th Grade Will Continue: For the time being, we are continuing to ask elementary parents to complete the daily attendance form in order to verify student participation in the day’s learning activities. Please complete the form by 10pm each night. If you forget to complete the form and learning activities did occur, the next day’s form will have the ability to log the previous day’s attendance. Teachers will continue to reach out to families who may need assistance. We will continue to monitor this process, and will update in the future as needed.
No More High School/Middle School Attendance Form: We will no longer be using the attendance/participation form at the middle and high school level. Instead, student participation will be monitored through student work completion and engagement with provided learning activities. Teachers will continue to reach out directly to parents and students if they see a student is not participating in assigned learning activities to see how we can assist.
4K, 5K AND UP THROUGH 5th GRADE DAILY EMAILS CHANGING
Based on some feedback and reflection about how we are communicating learning opportunities to elementary families, we are changing our process slightly for 4K, 5K and up through 5th Grade students. Starting Monday, March 30, we have asked all 4K-5th Grade Teachers to link up their resource document on one “Elementary Learning Plan” document for the building. An example of what this document will look like for 4K through 5th Grade families only is pictured below.
This Elementary Learning Plan will be emailed out to families daily. The Attendance Form and Tech Help Form are also parked on this one document so everything is in one place. We are doing this in an effort to consolidate resources and to cut down on the number of emails parents are receiving. Therefore, teachers are not expected to email you daily by 8am as they were before Spring Break. Instead, we ask that you go to the Elementary Learning Plan and click on your teacher(s) name(s) to see the plans they have in place for you. This document will continue to be emailed to you by 8am each weekday morning.
Please note that case managers of students with IEPs or 504s will continue to be in regular communication with families about their child’s individualized learning plans.
GRADES 5-12 TECH HELP FORM & SUPPORT
DISTRICT NURSE UPDATES
We all need to do our part to stop the spread of COVID-19. Governor Tony Evers issued “Safer At Home” orders (FAQ also available) earlier this week that will remain in place for the entire state of Wisconsin until at least April 24th. These orders require that all Wisconsinites:
Stay home as much as possible
Leave home only to perform essential work functions, meet health and safety needs, obtain necessary supplies, or go for walks
Maintain social distancing of 6 feet between people
Taking these orders to heart will not only keep you, your immediate families, and your communities safer, but will help the safety of our first responders and health care workers across the state at a time when they need as much support as possible. Please click the images below to see some messages from our first responders and the Franklin Health Department.
CITY VOLUNTEERS NEEDED
The Mayor of Franklin has reached out on behalf of the city asking for some help. The City is in need of poll workers for the election because many of the current poll workers are choosing to stay home.
Help is not only needed on election day (Tuesday, April 7th), but also now due to the absentee requests.
- The City will work with your schedule and take whatever time you can provide.
- The pay is $10/hr.
- High school students 16 or 17 years of age, and/or enrolled in grades 9 to 12 in a public or private school, and/or have at least a 3.0 grade point average or equivalent, with the approval of the parent and principal, can also work.
The Mayor would like to reassure you that they have protocols in place for all necessary health safeguards.
If you live in Milwaukee County and are interested, please contact Sandi Wesolowski (swesolowski@franklinwi.gov) or Shirley Roberts (sroberts@franklinwi.gov) or their local community clerk.
CITY TO CHARGE SCHOOL DISTRICT IMPACT FEES
On Monday, April 6, 2020 the City of Franklin Common Council will decide whether or not to charge the Franklin Public Schools Impact Fees. If the City continues to charge Impact Fees, the School District would have to pay the City $90,063.42 for the construction of the new Forest Park Middle School. This is money that would be better spent educating the students of the Franklin Public Schools. Please contact your Council representative by Thursday, April 2nd if you believe that the School District should be exempt from Impact Fees.
This link shows the FPS School Board Resolution.
To find which Aldermatic District you belong to, you can click here to view a map.
When contacting your Alderperson, please request that your email be made part of the public record for the meeting.
Franklin Public Schools
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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
Facebook: facebook.com/franklinpublicschools
Twitter: @fpsdistrictwi