Principal Newsletter

OCTOBER 22

Good evening Franklin families,

If it hasn’t been said yet, happy fall! Whether we were ready or not, the tree and the weather have let us know its time. This feels like an opportune time to remind you all to send your students to school each day in weather-appropriate clothing. Rain is in the forecast for the forseeable future and it is miserable for our students to go out in the rain without appropriate clothing and then return to class soaking wet. Thank you for your support on this.

Onto this weeks announcements:

Halloween at Franklin Elementary

Halloween is right around the corner next weekend and we wanted to share how the holiday will be observed by our school for those who celebrate. Whilst Halloween celebrations are not considered to be an ‘essential activity’ in our district, schools are allowed to recognize the holiday in respectful and appropriate manners.

Next Friday (Oct. 29th), students will be allowed to wear school appropriate and culturally considerate costumes to school (no masks) if they choose to do so. Culturally considerate classroom celebrations and activities are also permissible at teacher discretion. If you are unsure of the cultural appropriateness of your students’ costume, please feel invited to connect with your students’ teacher or our school administrators (Mr. Buechler or Ms. Milford) for feedback.

Because Halloween isn’t an essential activity, district-approved volunteers are not allowed to be present in classrooms for any celebrations and all snacks/treats that are part of the celebration need to be individually wrapped and store bought (in addition to allergy aware).

We understand and embrace being a diverse and international community. With that in mind, we honor and acknowledge that Halloween isn’t recognized or celebrated by all within our community and as always we strive to be a resource and support for all students and families. Any student or family that voices a discomfort with Halloween will not be required to participate in any Halloween-specific activities or celebrations and will be provided an appropriate alternate activity by their classroom teacher.

Unfortunately, we will not be able to host the traditional costume parade this year as we are still following district guidance when working with unvaccinated students of avoiding large gatherings/assemblies of students and people when we can’t adhere to distancing guidelines.

Franklin Parent Equity Event:
The Franklin Parent Equity will be hosting our first Parent Listening Session on Tuesday, November 9th, from 5:00-6:00 pm. Please join us to share your family's perspective on how to build an inclusive and welcoming school environment where all students and their families feel seen, heard, and valued. You will have a chance to meet the parent team members of our Parent Equity team, hear about the work we are doing, and share your voice on creating inclusive school environments. Use this link to join on November 9th at 5:00 pm: Click here to join the meeting

Middle School Information Night

For parents of 5^th grade students, please view the attached flyer with details regarding LWSD Middle School Information Night. The applications for middle school choice schools will be available online November 1^st.

LWSD Panorama Survey

As you may already be aware, growing our students’ social-emotional learning (“SEL”) skills is an important goal for our school. As part of these activities, we survey students (grades 3-5; 3-12 district-wide) and ask them to reflect on their own mindsets and approaches to learning. The data we get back helps us continue to identify opportunities for growth and development with our students.

We partner with a leader in the SEL space, Panorama Education. Panorama develops tools to empower schools and districts to learn about students’ self-perceptions, better understand student experiences in their learning environment, and identify opportunities to enhance support of teachers and counselors as they implement SEL programs.

Panorama’s SEL survey is grouped into three categories:

Student competencies
Student supports and environment
Teacher skills and perspectives

These surveys will help shape the districts’ approach to supporting teachers’ work in service of the whole student.

The survey will take place between November 1^st - 15^th. If you have any questions about the survey administration, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

We hope you have a great weekend,

Keith Buechler

Principal, Benjamin Franklin Elementary

OCTOBER 29

Good evening Franklin families,

I hope you’ve all stayed dry over the past few days and were able to enjoy some of the sunshine that peaked out for a a bit this afternoon! It has been an active week of learning and play here at school, but our students and staff seem to have settled into a consistent groove. We know that there are still a number of unique and challenging variables facing us daily at home and in our classrooms, but the determined spirit of our students is unmatched!

The Franklin Parent Equity Team will be hosting our first parent listening session of the year on Tuesday, November 9th, from 5:00-6:00 pm. Please join us to share your family's perspective on how to build an inclusive and welcoming school environment where all students and their families feel seen, heard, and valued.

At Franklin Elementary, we believe that it is important to learn about cultures and traditions that are different than ours, while also celebrating who we are as individuals. For this month of November, we will be recognizing Native America/Alaskan Indian Heritage Month through a variety of whole school and classroom-based activities.

Our community partners at Allegro Pediatrics are hosting an informational webinar on Monday, November 1^st to discuss the vaccine for children 5-11. They have invited interested parents from our Franklin community to participate as interested. Please see the information below and click on the embedded link if you would like to sign-up to participate.

Allegro Webinar Our Chief Executive Officer, Brett Vandenberg, and Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Amy Carter, will be hosting a webinar to discuss the vaccine approval process currently underway, the vaccine itself, and any questions you may have about receiving the vaccine at Allegro Pediatrics. The webinar will take place on Monday, November 1st at 6:30pm. Please sign up here if you would like to attend. There is limited availability, but we will post a recording of this webinar on our website and social media after the event.

From Oct. 15 – Oct. 18, our blacktop was painted and restriped. This project included the return of previously existing playground features and the addition of two new mazes and a world map for our students to enjoy! If you haven’t checked it out yet, you should come and see it.

For the duration of Phase 2 (through next spring), the access road on the eastern side of the school will be closed.
The construction footprint for Phase 2 will incapsulate a large area of land on the backside of the existing campus. There will be orange security fencing erected to around the land within the construction progress through next spring. Additionally, a larger swath of land into the wooded area will be closed through the month of November, to be marked with temporary green fencing.
The most intensive work starting next week includes moving the current portables to a new location on campus and ‘site clearing activities, including the falling of some large tress that currently sit within the footprint of the new gym’.

A quick reminder to you all to be extra cautious when driving in the parking lot and on the street in front of the school before and after school. We have recently had a number of close calls with cars driving unsafely and are working with local agencies to help us enforce safety expectations, but we encourage you all to practice as much patience and goodwill as you can muster for the safety of our students. Please make sure to observe traffic laws on the street and to be extra mindful of walking students and families when in our parking lot.

Principal, Benjamin Franklin Elementary

NOVEMBER 5

Good evening Franklin families,

Happy November! In our month of thanks, I’m hopeful that you’re able to find and recognize all of the things we have in our lives to be thankful for. I also want to spend a moment to say Happy Diwali to all who were celebrating this week. Diwali is a beautiful celebration that I continue to appreciate more and more as I learn more about it.

I hope you all got to enjoy the sunshine today and that you have a wonderful weekend!

Franklin Parent Equity Community Listening Event

The Franklin Parent Equity team will be hosting our first Parent Listening Session on Tuesday, November 9th, from 5:00-6:00 pm. Please join us to share your family's perspective on how to support an inclusive and welcoming school environment where all students and their families feel seen, heard, and valued. You will have a chance to meet the parent team members of our Parent Equity team, hear about the work we are doing, and share your voice on creating inclusive school environments.

Use this link to join on November 9th at 5:00 pm: Click here to join the meeting

Panorama Survey

As you may already be aware, growing our students’ social-emotional (“SEL”) skills is an important goal for our school. As part of these activities, we survey students (grades 3-12) and ask them to reflect on their own mindsets and approaches to learning. The data we get back helps us continue to identify opportunities for growth and development with our students.

LWSD partners with a leader in the SEL space, Panorama Education. Panorama develops tools to empower schools and districts to learn about students’ self-perceptions, better understand student experiences in their learning environment, and identify opportunities to enhance support of teachers and counselors as they implement SEL programs.

Panorama’s SEL survey is grouped into three categories:

Student competencies
Student supports and environment
Teacher skills and perspectives

These surveys will help shape the districts’ approach to supporting teachers’ work in service of the whole student. The surveys will be facilitated in classrooms through November 15^th. If you have any questions about the survey administration, please don’t hesitate to contact our school counselor, Stacey O’Brien.

First page of the PDF file: SPX-116-RM121110110360_2

LINKS Lunch Buddy Program

The LINKS Lunch Buddy Program is an opportunity for approved mentors to volunteer for a student in need of some one-on-one time for lunch, games, crafts and conversation. The program is coordinated by our district and supported at our school by our counselor, Ms. O’Brien. If you are interested in being a Lunch Buddy, please read the attached flyer and/or reach out to Ms. O’Brien.

Kelso’s Choice

Kelso’s Choice is a curriculum that focuses on building interpersonal skills that we utilize in the LWSD and Franklin Elementary. Students in K-1 will utilize Kelso’s Choice when working through minor peer conflicts. They are empowered to solve small problems (annoying or frustrating). Students also learn that big problems (dangerous and scary) need to be shared with an adult immediately. For more information, please reference the attached document.

Highly Capable NNAT Testing

For students who scored above the threshold to qualify for additional assessments in the highly capable qualification process this year, NNAT testing will take place throughout the next 10 days at Franklin Elementary. I’m still working with our Franklin HC teacher and test facilitator Mary Stavig to finalize our testing dates and plans, as logistics continue to change on us.

With respect,

Keith Buechler

Principal, Benjamin Franklin Elementary

NOVEMBER 12

Good evening Franklin families,

Hope you all had a wonderful Veteran’s Day yesterday!

Here are this week’s updates:

Coats & Umbrellas: Thank you for sending your students with rainy recess gear. We are happy when students can stay warm and still play outside on drizzly days. We have a few students who forget their coats (either at home or left on the playground). Please ensure your student has their coat before leaving the house. If you are able, please add your student’s first and last name to their coat and umbrella.

Lunch for November 24: Traditional lunch will not be served on Wednesday 11/24. Our school will provide sack lunches for their students prior to leaving school if parents fill out the order form. The order form is found here: Elem sack lunch order form. Order forms must be completed by parents and submitted by 12:00 p.m. on Wednesday, November 17.

Veteran’s Day: Thank you to everyone who sent in photos of their veterans for our Veteran’s Day display (see attached photo of the display). In addition to the display, our school had a virtual assembly that featured a march and percussion performance by all students and a read aloud about Native American veterans, called “At the Mountain’s Base.”

Franklin Parent Equity Event: Thank you to everyone who attended our first listening session and provided parent perspective on equity at Franklin. If you weren’t able to attend and would like to connect with our parent equity team, you can reach out to them at Benfranklinparentequity@gmail.com. We will host an additional session in the coming months.

November is Native American Heritage Month: Reminder that the Eastside Native American Education Program ENAEP invites everyone to a night of storytelling with Fern Naomi Renville and Roger Fernandes on Monday November 15, 2021 6:30 pm. Contact Mary Wilber for zoom link at mwlber@lwsd.org. Mary Wilber (Native American Program Coordinator) will also be visiting a few music classes next week and co-teaching with Ms. Sandstrom.

December will be “Family Traditions” Month: At Franklin Elementary, we believe that it is important to learn about cultures and traditions that are different than ours, while also celebrating who we are as individuals. For this month of December, we will be recognizing diverse family traditions through a variety of whole school and classroom-based activities. Stay tuned to see what we’ll have in store for “Family Traditions” month.

Construction Update: Please continue to anticipate and expect the following construction impacts on our campus:

For the duration of Phase 2 (through next spring), the access road on the eastern side of the school will be closed.
The construction footprint for Phase 2 will incapsulate a large area of land on the backside of the existing campus. There will be orange security fencing erected to around the land within the construction progress through next spring. Additionally, a larger swath of land into the wooded area will be closed through the month of November, to be marked with temporary green fencing.
The most intensive work starting next week includes moving the current portables to a new location on campus and ‘site clearing activities, including the falling of some large tress that currently sit within the footprint of the new gym’.

Upcoming Dates:

November 18th: Hearing and Vision Screening
Friday, November 19^th: Picture Retake Day
November 24^th: Half Day of school
November 25th & 26^th: No School

We hope you all have a great weekend,

Savannah Milford

Associate Principal

NOVEMBER 19

Good evening Franklin families,

Welcome to another weekend! We had an eventful and fulfilling week here at Franklin Elementary. I hope as we move into the traditional holiday season that you and your families are in good spirits and good health. In addition to the buzz of our normal day-to-day learning here at school, it was a pleasure seeing some essential parent volunteers at school yesterday to support our Hearing & Vision Screening, in addition to our parents who joined our PTA General Membership Meeting last night (which was hosted indoors at the school for the first time since the 19.20 school year)!

I would also like to shout our PTA (especially Astrid Staneff & Aimee Kong) for organizing a staff appreciation breakfast on Wednesday; it was much needed and appreciated. Ms. Milford filled in admirably with last week’s letter, but I’d also like to celebrate our Parent Equity Team (Lotus Chow, Lydia Fazilat, Sarah Franklin, Amrita Mahapatra & Stephanie McFarlane) for our fantastic parent listening session event they planned and facilitated last week. We are so grateful for our Franklin community!

Holiday Travel Recommendations

With school breaks coming up, we know that many people are planning to travel during the holiday season. LWSD recommends that all staff and families look at the CDC guidelines for traveling questions.

Guidelines for domestic travel can be found here: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/travelers/travel-during-covid19.html
Guidelines for international travel can be found here: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/travelers/international-travel-during-covid19.html

If you have any additional questions related to COVID, please contact Savannah Milford at smilford@lwsd.org. If you would like to fill out a pre-arranged absence form for students who are absent, please contact Ann Coon at acoon@lwsd.org.

Winter Wishes!

It's our 3rd annual Franklin Winter Wishes event! It is always remarkable to see our Franklin community come together to support one another by showing kindness.

How can you help?

Fill out the blue permission form that went home with your child today (Friday November 19^th). Please check your child’s folder/backpack.
Students return their permission form to pick a gift tag at school by Friday, December 3^rd.
Parents help purchase the requested gift on the tag.
Return the requested gift with the gift tag to school, unwrapped by Friday, December 10^th
Please consider volunteering to create an exciting and festive event for all to enjoy! If you are able to volunteer to help with the facilitation of all of the necessary components of this events, please sign up to help here: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C0F4CAFAB2BA1FAC34-winter

Thank you for your support!

Parent Access to Fall SBA Results

LWSD is working on getting fall SBA scores into Skyward Family Access. This should be complete by the Thanksgiving break. Prior to the upload, the district will provide a parent communication on how to access the results. As a reminder, this fall students took the test equivalent to last year’s grade level and results will be indicative of mastery towards last year’s end-of-year standards.

From the Franklin PTA

Thanks to all the students who donated candy for the buyback after Halloween. We collected 141 pounds of candy, which we traded in at Neal Smiles Orthodontists. We'll received a check for $141 from them in return which we can spend on our school and the donated candy was sent to troops overseas. Way to go, Eagles!

Construction Update (From our Construction Partners)

Please see below and the attached pictures for an update on the construction progress at Franklin Elementary:

The contractor has completed stabilizing the construction entrance with rock to help keep the school parking lot and streets clean
Grading for the new portable locations is underway. The portables are scheduled to move the week of 11/22
The work for underground stormwater utilities began this week

Have a great weekend,

Keith Buechler

Principal, Benjamin Franklin Elementary

NOVEMBER 24

Good afternoon Franklin families,

For those of you who recognize and participate in the holiday, I wish you Happy Thanksgiving! Regardless of anything else, I hope that you all are able to enjoy the small break this week to find joy, spend time with family and to tend to yourself as people. The support you all provide your students to allow them to come to school each day and be willing, prepared learners is so crucially important to student growth, but we all know it can be exhausting at times. Please accept our thanks for being such a supportive and warm community and know that we are very thankful for you all!

Kim Knuth has been hired an additional ML (multi-language) teacher for Franklin Elementary. Kim’s hire will allow us to adequately serve our large population of diverse linguistic learners at Franklin.

Mrs. Knuth will collaborate with Mrs. Jansen on providing small group instruction and classroom supports.

A quick note to acknowledge what many of you already know; Franklin is hiring para-educators and instructional assistants (IA). While we have a great team that is hard working, we are in need of more support.

Principal, Benjamin Franklin Elementary

DECEMBER 3

Happy December Franklin families!

I hope that as we dove back into the action this week that you all had a great and productive week. The consensus around here is that the week flew by and that things were very busy this week! I’d like to start by wishing all families observing the holiday a Happy Hanukkah; I hope you have enjoyed our celebration of your joyous holiday throughout this week.

A reminder to you all as the weather is supposed to be shifting back to more typically, cooler temperatures soon to make sure that you are sending your students to school in weather-appropriate clothing each day. Our students spend 40-45 minutes per day outside for recesses on a typical day, in addition to still having PE outdoors regularly right now. Dressing weather-appropriate is very important.

Lastly, I want to specifically thank and express gratitude to you all for your supports of our students and school. Whether it be the Franklin Ninja Warrior Fundraiser, donations to charitable causes that benefit our students and community, or our Winter Wishes event, we are continuously blown away by the generosity and spirt of service that exists within our student and family community; thank you so much for everything you all do and contribute! Routinely I receive positive feedback from district, service provider, and other visitors to our school about what a positive climate we have and what a welcoming community we are surrounded by; I could not agree more!

Onto this weeks updates:

Are You Ready for Inclement Weather?

When emergency conditions such as snow and ice or windstorms result in school schedule changes, the district will notify families directly through the School Messenger automated phone system. You can learn how to know when school is delayed or cancelled on the School Closures and Late Starts page of the district website. Families with students who ride the bus should have received a postcard with information about their bad weather bus route.

Here are additional ways to find out about school schedule changes:

Pop-up alert on www.lwsd.org and school webpages.
Flashalert.net – this website allows you to sign up for text messages as well.
Local TV/radio stations – they get a feed from Flashalert.net of all school schedule change decisions

WORK IN YOUR OWN COMMUNITY!

We have immediate openings for all substitute teachers and classified substitute positions in LWSD!

Apply at LWSD Frontline Teacher Substitutes to become a Substitute Classroom Teacher.

Apply at LWSD Frontline Classified Substitutes to become a Substitute Instructional Assistant, Paraeducator, or Office Professional.

Notes:
- For 2021-22, Emergency substitute certification does not REQUIRE a bachelor’s degree
- Emergency substitute certification is valid for two years, only in the requesting district
- Daily substitutes currently are paid $191 per day, $216 on Fridays.

Hourly rates:
- Substitute Teacher: Starting at $27.28/hour
- Substitute Paraeducator: $19.51/hour
- Substitute Instructional Assistant: $16.86 per hour
- Substitute Office Professional: $22.44/hour

Any questions? Contact us at:

Substitute Coordinator tayer@lwsd.org

Director of HR, Data and Operations syuhan@lwsd.org

Franklin Website

If you haven’t visited our Franklin Elementary website in a while, we encourage you to do so. We have prioritized a recommitment to making our website a valuable resource to our community and are pleased with the progress being made. (A huge shout out to paraeducator extraordinaire Ms. Priya Santhana-Vannan for taking on this added task!)

Some of the most recent updates include:

Check out Franklin kids in action (new) -click THIRD GRADE
- https://franklin.lwsd.org/about-us/franklin-kids-in-action
Safety Net page
- https://franklin.lwsd.org/academics/safety-net
The specialists uploaded their info to their pages
- https://franklin.lwsd.org/academics/musi
- https://franklin.lwsd.org/academics/library
Winter Wishes
- https://www.lwsd.org/programs-and-services/communications/news/news-details/~board/students-and-schools/post/lwsd-season-of-giving-2021

We hope you all have a wonderful weekend,

Keith Buechler

Principal, Benjamin Franklin Elementary School

DECEMBER 10

Good evening Franklin families!

I hope you’ve all had a wonderful week and that you are finding ways to enjoy our long, dark afternoons and evenings. It has been so fun to see the joy and excitement with our students as students anticipate and share about their family traditions and holidays, as well as the building excitement for our upcoming winter break.

I would like to extend a huge thank you again to our community for embracing our Winter Wishes campaign! So many families in our community will benefit from the generosity of you and your students. It has been inspiring to witness the embodiment of the altruistic heart of our Franklin students and families come together in service to others.

This weeks items:

Community Thank You

In appreciation of our Franklin Parent Community for the support you provide our students and staff, but also for you incredibly generous support of our Franklin Warrior Run and Winter Wishes campaigns, we would like to invite you to join us on Friday, December 17^th on our playground during student arrival (8:55-9:15 a.m.) for hot cocoa, candy canes and cookies. We will have multiple tables set up to share and distribute to our adult community (not our students) as our staff’s way of saying thank you for all of your support! See the attached flyer for additional information!

Fall Smarter Balanced Assessment Scores Available through Skyward/Family Access

Students in 4^th-9^th and 11^th grades recently took the Smarter Balanced Assessment (SBA) in English language arts and math. Students in 6^th, 9^th and 12^th grade took the Washington State Comprehensive Assessment of Science (WCAS). The primary purpose of these tests was a brief check-in on how students are doing compared to some of the state standards.

This test was different from prior years’ tests in three ways. It was given in the fall instead of last spring, there were fewer questions overall and this test did not assess as many areas as previous tests. For these reasons, we recommend that these fall results not be compared to other year’s test results.

The Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) has completed the scoring for these tests and they are now available to school districts. We have uploaded the achievement level and scale score to Skyward/Family Access. Families will receive a more complete graphical report from OSPI in February. Scores for sub-sections of the assessment (such as reading, writing, and math problem solving) are not available for the fall assessment due to the shortened length of the test.

State tests provide a snapshot of how your child performed during testing and are not indicators of classroom performance. Classroom performance should be the primary measure of your child’s skills and knowledge. If you have a concern about your child’s testing performance, please talk with his/her teacher.

To access the test scores:

Login to Family Access.
Select “Test Scores” on the left menu.
Select “Show Scores” for the assessment.

Skyward Family Access support is available on the LWSD website.

Regular spring state testing will resume in March-June 2022.

REMINDER from the PTA

Please help your students decorate and complete the prompt in their Winter Thank You card sent home on Friday, Dec 3rd. These cards are not meant for specific people, but rather for the staff and teachers as a whole. We want to recognize and honor all the staff members who make it possible for our kids to attend such a great school! Please return the cards to the box in the front office or in class by December 13th. Thank you! ~ Ben Franklin PTA

6^th Grade Parent Information Night

Parents of 5^th grade students; please read the message below from Mr. Joe Gorder, Principal at Rose Hill Middle School.

Dear Future Rose Hill Middle School Royal Families,

Registration and course selection for 5^th grade students who will be joining Rose Hill Middle School next year will be taking place January 3^rd through January 14^th. Rose Hill counselors will be visiting 5^th grade classrooms at each of our feeder schools during the week of January 3^rd. We will then be hosting the Incoming 6^th Grade Parent Information Night at the school from 6:30-8:30 pm on Tuesday, January 11^th.

The program will begin with a welcome and introduction by school administration in the Gym and then we will break into smaller groups and go through four rotations.

Meet with the school counselors who will speak about registration, ways students can get involved, and WEB
Self-guided school tour which includes meeting electives teachers in their learning spaces
Meet with 6^th grade teachers who will talk about what the 6^th grade year is like and the different ways we support students in the transition to middle school
Meet with our Leadership Teacher/Activities Coordinator and our Athletic Director to speak about sports and activities

This event is for parents/guardians only.

The course selection forms that students will be receiving when the counselors visit their building will be collected by their 5^th grade teachers by January 14^th.

Our staff is looking forward to meeting you, sharing our school with you, and welcoming you to our community.

Kind Regards,

Joe Gorder, Principal

Rose Hill Middle School

LINKS Lunch Buddies

Please see the attached flyer and consider signing up to be one of our LINKS Lunch Buddies. We are always looking for more volunteers to help be positive adult influences and connections for our students. Please email our counselor Stacey O’Brien with any questions: staobrien@lwsd.org.

Lunch Service Reminders

Hot lunch (including milk or juice) are free for all students
Milk/juice only is $.50
Extra entrees cost $1.50

If you want to put money on your lunch account, please click on the link below:

MySchoolBucks

You can also send in money with your student with their name and the dollar amount. They will give this to their teacher or bring it to lunch with them.

Have a great weekend everyone,

Keith Buechler

Principal, Benjamin Franklin Elementary School

DECEMBER 17

Hello Franklin Families,

As December is coming to a close and winter break is upon us, we wanted to take this moment to thank you for a wonderful start to the school year and wish you a happy and restful winter break. January is one of our favorite times of year, as we miss the students over winter break and we are delighted to see them after the new year.

Special dates to be aware of in January:

MLK, Jr. virtual assembly, Jan. 14.
No school on Monday, January 17 for MLK, Jr. Holiday.
No Name Calling Week, Jan. 18-21.
Conferences are held January 25-28; please be on the look out for communication from your teacher.

Special Thanks for Winter Wishes: Thank you to everyone who was able to support our Winter Wishes program this year. As a community, we fulfilled 285 gift requests! Your kindness and generosity, as well as caring for our whole community, makes Franklin a wonderful school.

January’s PBIS Focus will be Re-teaching Expectations: PBIS stands for Positive Behavior Intervention Supports. This fundamental framework focuses on best practices for teaching students expected behavior and providing support for students when they need it. After a long break from school, it is important to re-teach expectations around the school. On January 6 & 7, students will participate in PBIS Stations, where they will visit different locations around the school and receive mini-lessons on school expectations. Examples of stations include: Cafeteria, Mask Wearing, How to Ask a Friend to Play, and more. Students will visit a total of 10 stations over the course of two days. If you have questions about PBIS, please reach out to Savannah Milford at smilford@lwsd.org.

January’s Equity Topic will be “Kindness”: Thank you to everyone who filled out the parent survey for Family Traditions in December; we found it very helpful and loved the book suggestions! For the month of January, we are focusing on the theme of “Kindness.” Our goal is to increase kindness towards all students, and specifically towards LGBTQ+ students. The way we will focus on “Kindness” is by participating in GLSEN’s “No Name Calling Week” and by having a Martin Luther King, Jr. Assembly. We will also be reading a variety of read books related to positive language and honoring student identity. We will launch this work on January 10; please stay tuned for more information regarding “No Name Calling Week.” If you have questions about Equity, please reach out to Savannah Milford at smilford@lwsd.org.

COVID Reminders Over Winter Break: As time off from schools allow for us all to take much needed time with our families, we would like to remind you about protocols related to positive case reporting. If you or someone in your household tests positive for COVID-19, please email Savannah Milford right away at smilford@lwsd.org. Emails will be checked during winter break and you will receive a response as quickly as possible. Please put in the subject line, “POSITIVE CASE FOR COVID.” In your email, include your phone number, student name, and teacher name, as well as the date that you were tested. We will follow up with you via phone call or email right away. Thank you for your help and prompt communications as we work to keep each other safe.

Travel Reminder: The holidays are coming up for our LWSD community, and that will likely mean more travel for our staff and families. LWSD follows the guidelines related to travel from the CDC. These are not requirements, but we do ask that families refer to the guidance before and after their travel. The current guidelines from the CDC suggest that if the traveler is vaccinated, then they should follow all the protocols laid out by the state they are in and if flying, then follow the protocols laid out by the FAA. However, if the traveler is unvaccinated, it is recommended that the traveler test before they travel, follow all protocols during travel and then quarantine and test for 3-5 days before going back to work, school, etc. These are recommendations and guidance from the CDC and not a requirement, but the school district recommends that our families follow this guidance. The link to the CDC guidance is just below.

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/travelers/travel-during-covid19.html

It is quite a bit different for international travel. That guidance is here:

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/travelers/after-travel-precautions.html.

All the best,

Savannah Milford

smilford@lwsd.org

Associate Principal

Ben Franklin Elementary

JANUARY 7

Good evening and happy Friday Franklin families!

I hope that our first newsletter of the new year finds you all in a place of peace and comfort. With so many disruptive and anxious influences in the world around us right now, it is easy to live in fear but we are choosing to proceed with hope in our school! With a focus on the things we DO control, an altruistic staff willing to support one another and the motivation to nurture and educate hundreds of small, smiling faces walking in the door each day we continue to move forward. We will keep doing everything within our powers to abide by our two core purposes as a school: educating our children and promoting the well-being of our students.

We know that things are hard and we are doing everything we can to mitigate the impact of those challenges. We also know that things could get increasingly challenging over the next month as positive case numbers are expected to keep increasing for a few more weeks. Particularly challenging will be staff and student absences as positive cases are identified and close contact-tracing occurs both in our school and in our homes. My encouragement to you all is to focus on all of the good in your lives, to be the thoughtful and supportive community members and partners that we know you to be, and to keep each other safe.

Extra COVID Test Availability

Late this afternoon, I received this information from our district regarding an additional COVID Test Center being staffed by district volunteers tomorrow:

Redmond HS - https://curative.com/sites/32873

We will be hosting student conferences in the LWSD the week of January 24th-January 28^th. Jan. 25, 27 & 28 are half days to allow for conferences to occur those afternoons.

Please see the message below from Rose Hill Middle School Principal, Mr. Joe Gorder:

Due to the increases in COVID cases and the omicron variant, the Rose Hill MS Incoming 6^th Grade Parent Information Night will no longer be an in-person event. Instead, the event will be held via Microsoft Teams as a Live Event. We will still begin at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, January 11^th but the program will be shorter and should be finished by 7:30 p.m. You will hear from school administrators, counselors, and a 6^th grade teacher. There will also be a Q&A in the chat at the conclusion so you have the opportunity to ask questions that weren’t answered during the presentation.

In addition to having staff and parent equity teams at Franklin Elementary, some of our staff also participate as members on the larger district equity team. Please see the opportunity to participate as a parent representative included below:

Do you have ideas you would like to share about increasing equitable practices and improving student experiences and outcomes in the district? Have you not have had the opportunity to have your voice heard before on these topics? Are you willing to engage in conversations about race, gender, sexual orientation, different abilities, etc.? Are you willing both to speak up and to listen? Do you represent the diversity of our district including diverse racial backgrounds, language expertise, Special Education and ELL services, diverse socio-economic backgrounds, LGBTQIA+, etc.?

Specialist Newsletter

Please check out the latest newsletter from our specialist team of Mrs. Clawson (Library), Mrs. Rulon (PE) & Mrs. Sandstrom (Music): Specialist Newsletter. Feel encouraged to reach out to any of them if you have questions.

Principal, Benjamin Franklin Elementary

JANUARY 14

Good afternoon Franklin families,

Thank you for your ongoing support! We appreciate the words of encouragement and understanding that we have heard from you, but most importantly, we appreciate that you continue to entrust us with educating our students and doing what we can to keep them safe.

As a reminder to you all, Monday January 17^th is a school holiday in recognition of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. We hope you use this extended weekend to enjoy some time with your families and find some calm.

This week’s updates:

Levy Update: Three measures on the February 8 ballot to support excellence for every student

Local levies help bridge the funding gap between what the state provides our schools and what we actually need to support students. Local levies pay for staff at each school, technology for students and classrooms, help us maintain our schools and add classroom space. Lake Washington School District is asking for three local levies on the February 8 ballot. Each measure will help support excellence for every student. Two measures renew current levies that are set to expire later this year. Propositions 1 and 2 will continue funding for school staff, programs, and opportunities for our students, like performing arts, extracurriculars and athletics. Proposition 3, our Building Excellence Construction Levy, will help us meet our current and future growth by adding classroom space across our fast-growing district. You can learn more about Propositions 1-3 here https://www.lwsd.org/education-levies

Kindergarten Registration for 22-23 School Year

It will soon be time to begin Kindergarten registration for the 2022-23 school year. The initial registration period for children who will be five years old on or before August 31, 2022 will begin on February 24, 2022. Registration for all K-12 LWSD students is online. All necessary documents can be accessed on the LWSD website and completed documents can be uploaded securely. Parents who are unable to upload documents may send them by U.S. mail or drop them off at their neighborhood school. Important: While K-12 student registration will continue throughout the school year and summer, parents are highly encouraged to register students as soon as possible. Registering early helps LWSD to ensure that class sizes are balanced and adequate staff are hired in time for the new school year.

Accessing Specialist Lessons During Quarantines

Please see the attached document from our Franklin specialist team for instructions on how students and families can access specialist lessons from home while quarantining.

We hope you have a great weekend,

Keith Buechler

Principal, Benjamin Franklin Elementary

JANUARY 21

Good evening and happy Friday Franklin families,

I hope you have had a great week and that you are looking forward to a few days of dry weather, as I know we are! Thank you for your continued understanding and patience as we continue to navigate frequently updated and fluid guidance in our response to our ongoing COVID pandemic. We know this has caused hardship on some of or families and students, and this isn’t lost on us. If you are in need of celebration, let it be this; we had zero positive cases reported to us today (saving you an extra email from me this evening)!

A reminder that next week is conferences week at Franklin Elementary! Students will be dismissed half day at 12:20 p.m. on Tuesday (1/25), Thursday (1/27) & Friday (1/28). All conferences in LWSD will be held remotely this winter via Teams or phone call with families. If you haven’t signed up for a conference, please make sure to contact your student’s teacher.

This year the LWSD adopted a new math curriculum, Illustrative Mathematics (IM). In response to our request for IM to have information and resources available for families, LearnZillion (the curriculum company) created a curriculum portal for families. This site has detailed information about IM, including its overall design and structure, along with grade-level materials that help families support their students at home. This site is their initial design and will be updated and improved with time; parents and teachers can use the feedback button on the site to give suggestions or ask questions.

Here is an update on phase 2 of the ongoing construction project on campus, the addition of a new gym!

Over winter break, the contractor completed their work to stub water and sewer utilities out of the existing building to make the future connections to the new gym
The three classroom portables were moved between Monday and Wednesday of this week
This week surveyors conducted a final survey of the new gym building corners
The next scheduled activity is re-routing a main water line which currently crosses the footprint of the new gym. Once this is complete the new foundations will begin.

Local levies help bridge the funding gap between what the state provides our schools and what we actually need to support students. Local levies pay for staff at each school, technology for students and classrooms, help us maintain our schools and add classroom space.

Lake Washington School District is asking for three local levies on the February 8 ballot. Each measure will help support excellence for every student. Two measures renew current levies that are set to expire later this year. Propositions 1 and 2 will continue funding for school staff, programs, and opportunities for our students, like performing arts, extracurriculars and athletics. Proposition 3, our Building Excellence Construction Levy, will help us meet our current and future growth by adding classroom space across our fast-growing district. You can learn more about Propositions 1-3 here https://www.lwsd.org/education-levies

Principal, Benjamin Franklin Elementary

JANUARY 28

Good evening Franklin families,

I hope this letter finds you healthy and well as we wrap up another week. Conference week is also a bit chaotic with the diversion from the routine, but it is so valuable for our families to hear about and support our students’ progress by connecting with teachers. I hope you all took advantage of the opportunity and found it purposeful. And what a week to have your kiddos home during the day with the sunshine that blessed us throughout the week – I trust you all made the best of it!

For the month of February, we are focusing on Black History Month. We will be recognizing and celebrating Black joy, as well as recognizing Black Lives Matter at School: Week of Action. The “Week of Action” is a national focus week in which students learn about Black Lives Matter and will take place February 7-11. We will have a whole school virtual assembly to launch Black History Month and to get started with the week of action. We will also be reading a variety of read aloud books the feature Black characters and focus on Black joy. We will launch Black History Month on February 7.

Monday, Feb 7: Launch: Whole School Virtual Assembly about Black History Month
Tuesday, Feb 8: Classroom activity: Teacher-selected option from a menu of resources.
Wednesday, Feb. 9: Whole School Virtual Read Aloud by Ms. Sandstrom
Thursday, Feb. 10: Classroom activity: Teacher-selected option from a menu of resources.
Friday, Feb. 11: Spirit Day: Wear your Black Lives Matter t-shirt or a black t-shirt.

Lake Washington School District has a significant increase in positive cases of COVID-19 since we returned from Winter Break. Our staff members have been working around the clock, every day of the week to handle these cases and to try and provide the most up-to-date information possible to keep our families aware of the case rates at our schools. COVID cases are dramatically increasing across the county and schools are experiencing a similar rate of cases as is reflected in the King County Public Health dashboard, which can be accessed at: Daily COVID-19 outbreak summary dashboard - King County.

The combination of increased cases and staffing shortages has stressed our ability to provide timely notice and as a result, we have prioritized contact tracing and notification and have shifted to provide a daily notice when there are one or more cases at a school. Students who are considered close contacts will be notified by their school.

We have also seen a significant increase in absences. Some students are absent due to isolating after having tested positive for COVID, some are quarantining from being identified as an unvaccinated close contact, some are staying home with cold symptoms and others are absent for other reasons.

We update our dashboard on a weekly basis consistent with the data that is reported to King County Public Health each week. Given the volume of cases, staffing shortages, and the intent to prioritize identifying close contacts we are unable to reliable update it more frequently.

LWSD is committed to the health and safety of all our students and staff, and that remains especially true during another incredibly challenging time in this pandemic. We appreciate your patience and understanding as we work through this, your support means everything to us.

Washington State Department of Health Guidance Change

The Washington State Department of Health has adopted two changes that impact the conditions and the duration of isolation and quarantine protocols for adults working for school districts.

Isolation

As a reminder, isolation refers to when people are sick with COVID-19 and need to stay home to prevent infecting others.

Previously, people who had tested positive for COVID- 19 had been required to isolate for 10 days. This new guidance asks people to isolate for 5 days after symptom onset or since positive test results if no symptoms are present. If after 5 days a person has no symptoms present or symptoms are resolving AND that person has not had a fever within the past 24 hours (without having to use fever-reducing medication), then that person may return to school. Students and staff who return to work after 5 days should continue monitoring for symptoms and wearing a well-fitting mask around others through day 10 (days 6-10).

For students who are currently isolating, if you believe that they may be eligible to return under this protocol, please contact your school.

Quarantine We are adopting the Department of Health’s new guidelines for quarantine. Quarantine refers to when people are asked to stay home because they have been in close contact with someone who was infected with COVID-19, these people may or may not contract COVID-19 or develop symptoms but are asked to stay home to limit the potential for spread of the disease.

Students and staff who come into close contact with someone with COVID-19 should quarantine for at least 5 days (day 0 through day 5) after their last close contact (for household exposures this would be the last day the person with COVID-19 is considered infectious) with a person who has COVID-19 if they are in one of the following groups:

Ages 18 or older and completed the primary series of recommended vaccine but have not received a recommended booster shot when eligible.
Those under 18 who are not vaccinated or have not completed a primary vaccine series.

Students and staff must wait to receive a negative test result from a test taken no sooner than day 5 post-exposure and provide the negative test documentation to the school before returning. For families of students that are currently quarantining, if you believe that you may be eligible to return under this protocol, please contact your child’s school.

Are ages 18 or older and have received all recommended vaccine doses, including boosters and additional primary shots for some immunocompromised people.
Are ages 5-17 years and completed the primary series of COVID-19 vaccines.
Had confirmed COVID-19 within the last 90 days.

Have you voted yet?

Lake Washington School District has three measures on the February 8 ballot to support excellence for every student.

Did you know that the state school tax for education is decreasing? The King County Assessor confirmed that the state schools tax rate for property owners in King County is being reduced by approximately 25-27 cents per 1,000 of assessed valuation. The state school funds go to the state and is used for education funding for all districts across Washington state. Our local LWSD tax rate collects funding that stays in our school district.

Principal, Benjamin Franklin Elementary

FEBRUARY 4

Good evening Franklin families,

I hope that this week was productive and enjoyable for you all. It was a very fast moving week for us at school as we have managed to navigate the Omicron wave and return back to a near-sense of normalcy. Classrooms are full again for the most part and the bulk of our staff has been here as well, providing great opportunity and consistency for the work and progress we are striving for with our student learners.

This week’s updates:

February School Levies

Please remember to vote by February 8^th!

Local levies help bridge the funding gap between what the state provides our schools and what we actually need to support students. Local levies pay for staff at each school, technology for students and classrooms, help us maintain our schools and add classroom space.

Lake Washington School District is asking for three local levies on the February 8 ballot. Each measure will help support excellence for every student. Two measures renew current levies that are set to expire later this year. Propositions 1 and 2 will continue funding for school staff, programs, and opportunities for our students, like performing arts, extracurriculars and athletics. Proposition 3, our Building Excellence Construction Levy, will help us meet our current and future growth by adding classroom space across our fast-growing district. You can learn more about Propositions 1-3 here https://www.lwsd.org/education-levies

February’s Equity Topic will be “Black History Month”

For the month of February, we are focusing on Black History Month. We will be recognizing and celebrating Black joy, as well as recognizing Black Lives Matter at School: Week of Action. The “Week of Action” is a national focus week in which students learn about Black Lives Matter and will take place February 7-11. We will have a whole school virtual assembly to launch Black History Month and to get started with the week of action. We will also be reading a variety of read aloud books the feature Black characters and focus on Black joy. We will launch Black History Month on February 7.

Black Lives Matter at School Week of Action will take place, Feb. 7-11. Classrooms will engage in a variety of activities each day:

Monday, Feb 7: Launch: Whole School Virtual Assembly about Black History Month
Tuesday, Feb 8: Classroom activity: Teacher-selected option from a menu of resources.
Wednesday, Feb. 9: Whole School Virtual Read Aloud by Ms. Sandstrom
Thursday, Feb. 10: Classroom activity: Teacher-selected option from a menu of resources.
Friday, Feb. 11: Spirit Day: Wear your Black Lives Matter t-shirt or a black t-shirt.

If you have questions about our equity work, please reach out to our Associate Principal Savannah Milford at smilford@lwsd.org.

We hope you have a wonderful weekend,

Keith Buechler

Principal, Franklin Elementary School

FEBRUARY 11

Good afternoon Franklin families,

What a beautiful day it ended up being! You can feel everybody’s spirits get lifted a bit when we are blessed with beautiful weather. It was a fantastic week here at school as we celebrated Ms. O’Brien during National School Counselor Appreciation Week and participated in Black Lives Matter at School Week of Learning. We are so proud of our students and staff for continuing to amaze us with their compassion and brilliance within out small (but mighty) Franklin family!

This week’s updates:

Mid-Winter Break Next Week/Presidents Day

As a reminder, there is no school next Thursday (Feb. 17) or next Friday (Feb. 18) as we all enjoy Mid-Winter Break. There is also no school on Monday (Feb. 21) in recognition of Presidents Day.

School Levies Update

We would like to extend our sincere thanks to all of our community member who voted to approve the three school levies that were up to vote this week. As of last count, it appears as though all three levies will pass! The passage of these levies is vital to the ongoing education success of our students and schools and this week’s results will have a positive, lasting impact on our students and schools for years to come. Not a day goes by that I’m not grateful to be leading a school in such a supportive community; thank you!

100 Day

Yesterday our kindergarten classes celebrated 100 Day (the 100^th day of school this year). Ms. Cobain, Mrs. Jacobson & Ms. Leifer had a wonderful time throughout the day learning and celebrating. See this link on our website for some pictures! https://franklin.lwsd.org/about-us/franklin-kids-in-action

2022-2023 LWSD Preschool Enrollment Information

The tuition-based Lake Washington Preschool Program is now accepting enrollment Interest Statements for the 2022-23 school year. New families interested in securing a seat for their child to enroll at one of the Lake Washington School District (LWSD) Preschool Sites in the 2022-2023 school year, need to complete the Preschool Interest Statement found at https://www.lwsd.org/programs-and-services/preschool.

Currently enrolled/returning preschool students, preschool students on an IEP or students enrolled in our Head Start program do not need to fill out the interest statement.

Interest Statements received before March 2, 2022 will be entered into a lottery for a seat in the LWSD Preschool program. Lottery will be held the week of March 7, 2022 and families will be notified by March 18, 2022. Any students who do not receive a seat via the lottery will be placed on a waitlist for that preschool location/session.

Families on the waitlist at specific preschool locations will be called and offered seats as they become available.â€¯

After April 11, 2022 registration/enrollments will be handled at the LWSD Early Learning Center at the Old Redmond Schoolhouse to fill any seats remaining after the lottery.

Please direct any questions to Nichole Townsend, preschool registrar at ntownsend@lwsd.org. Visit the Lake Washington Preschool Program website for more information and to submit a Preschool Interest Statement.

We hope you have a great weekend!

Keith Buechler

Principal, Benjamin Franklin Elementary

FEBRUARY 25

Good evening Franklin families,

What a rich and rewarding, action-packed week we had the past four days. We are very grateful that COVID has settled down a bit for us again and that we have been able to re-center our focus some more of the traditional aspects of our work. With that said, we know that there are parts of the world and members of our school community who are facing great adversity this week with the events happening in the Ukraine. If you or your students need any additional support or care during this time, please connect with Ms. Milford, Ms. O’Brien or I so that we may provide care and support. I will include a message from our district below on this matter as well.

Registration for students who will be new to our district and for incoming kindergarten students this fall began yesterday! If you know of a student who will be moving or returning into our Franklin neighborhood next year or have a student who will be beginning kindergarten, please go online and register! The sooner we know how many students to expect, the better we can plan for next year when it comes to staff, supplies, classroom spaces, students supports and many other things. As a reminder, all registration is now done online in the LWSD. You may contact our registrar, Ann Coon, with questions and you can register your students here: https://www.lwsd.org/students-families/registration

As many of you are aware, our governor last week announced significant recommendations for updating existing COVID safety plans. Our district continues to work with the our local and regional health departments to determine our district plans and policies. Once our local health departments and districts have made recommendations on how to address masking and distancing mandates amongst other things, we will communicate those to you. The current hope is to have more to share over the next few weeks. Within the announcement last week the governor mentioned a goal date of March 21^st, but we are still uncertain if our district will receive guidance in a timely enough fashion to have an updated plan at that time. We will make sure to communicate any and all updates, as well as impacts, as soon as we know them.

The tuition-based Lake Washington Preschool Program is now accepting enrollment Interest Statements for the 2022-23 school year. New families interested in securing a seat for their child to enroll at one of the Lake Washington School District (LWSD) Preschool Sites in the 2022-2023 school year, need to complete the Preschool Interest Statement found at https://www.lwsd.org/programs-and-services/preschool.

Please direct any questions to Nichole Townsend, preschool registrar at ntownsend@lwsd.org.

Just before winter break our Head Custodian, David Meza, resigned to move into a new line of work. Since that time our evening custodian Sophon Kim has been covering the day shift and we have been receiving support in the evening whenever custodial subs are available. We are pleased to welcome a new Head Custodian next week; please see the announcement from our Custodial Services department below:

Custodial Services is excited to formally announce that Huot “Pete” Oueng has been hired to fill Franklin’s vacant head Custodian position. Pete is bringing with him over 20 years of district Custodial experience from various schools, most recently from Rose Hill Elementary as their evening Custodian. We believe Pete’s extensive cleaning experience, flexibility and positivity, and customer service make him a great fit for the Franklin head position. Pete’s first day will be this coming Tuesday, March 1^st.

Considering recent events in Ukraine, we want to remind our students, staff and families that we understand that issues outside of our classrooms have an impact on our daily experiences in schools. We have families with both Ukrainian and Russian heritage in our community who may be experiencing strong emotions about what is happening. Our schools are diligently working to ensure students feel a sense of safety and belonging when they arrive on campus. We acknowledge with any world conflict our service members’ families are highly impacted. We acknowledge the hardship your family may be experiencing in navigating this conflict. World events like these offer educators and communities like ours the chance to show our humanity. As an LWSD community, we will stay diligent around how to support our schools, students and staff around the unfolding events in Ukraine. The coming days and weeks will impact all of us in ways we may not have experienced before. We will work hard with schools to address the concerns, thoughts and feelings your students may be experiencing. As of right now, we recommend that students reach out to a trusted adult at their school to express their thoughts and feelings so we can provide them with appropriate support.

Principal, Benjamin Franklin Elementary

MARCH 4

Good afternoon, Franklin families,

Welcome to March! It is such a welcomed change to have some extra light in the mornings and the afternoons again. Hopefully you and your students are living the benefits of the extra time and opportunities each day.

LEAP Day 3/11 – No School

A quick reminder to you all that next Friday, March 11, is a scheduled full-day LEAP day in LWSD and there is no school.

Parent Engagement Opportunity

Our Associate Principal, Ms. Savannah Milford, and I are excited to share that we will be hosting a virtual parent engagement event next Wednesday, 3/9, at 6:00 p.m. via Microsoft Teams.

The purpose of the event is to provide updates on how things are progressing here at school, give updates on construction and evolving COVID policies in advance of updated guidance due to come out March 12^th, and what the end of the year could look like amongst other topics. We will also leave time for an open Q&A to address whatever wonderings our families may have.

To participate in this event next week, please use this link: Click here to join the meeting

Classified Staff Appreciation Week

March 7^th – March 11^th is National Classified Staff Appreciation Week! We encourage you and your students to join us next week in celebrating our IAs, paraeducators, custodians, kitchen staff, office staff & bus drivers next week. These staff members are invaluable to the support and success of our students and we are deeply appreciative of everything they do!

March’s Equity Topic will be “Women's History Month and Gender Equality Month”

For the month of March, we are focusing on both women's history and gender equality. We will be recognizing and celebrating the historical accomplishments of women, as well as considering gender equality for the future. We will have a whole school virtual assembly to launch Women's History Month and Gender Equality Month, as well as a whole school read aloud and spirit day. The read aloud is called "I Can Be Anything," with the Spirit Day being "I Can Be Anything: Career Day." Throughout the month, teachers will engage in a variety of classroom activities to support this month's theme. We will launch this work on Monday, March 7. Our Spirit Day will be Friday March 18. We will send home a parent connection worksheet to help your students with the spirit day. If you have questions regarding equity work at our school, please contact Savannah Milford at smilford@lwsd.org

Franklin Stem Symposium

Please see the note below from our 4^th grade teacher, Mrs. Jacobs, who has organized a school-wide STEM Symposium week for Franklin that is set to occur later this month. Thanks to Mrs. Jacobs for her work on this and for her advocacy for science!

The Week of March 28th-April 1st is going to be Franklin's STEM Symposium Week! Due to Covid regulations, we will be doing the STEM Symposium at school over the course of a week rather than a school wide evening event. The goal of STEM Symposium Week is to get students excited and learning about STEM. During class, students will listen to read alouds about STEM topics, participate in a STEM build, and have the chance to complete and present a STEM project if they choose! Making a STEM project to present during STEM Symposium Week is optional, but encouraged! If students would like to do a project, they have a chance to either make a science project, engineering project or coding project. If your student would like to make a project, please read the STEM Symposium Information Packet for all information. All STEM projects must be completed by Wednesday March 30th, 2022.

If you have any questions after reading the STEM Symposium Information Packet, please reach out to Ms. Jacobs (kjacobs@lwsd.org)

STEM Symposium Community Involvement

As a part of the STEM Symposium Week, we are looking for volunteers who work in or spend time in STEM fields to share what they do in STEM at the STEM Symposium. Volunteers will be asked to share their STEM experience with a video on Flipgrid, and students will have a chance to watch them in class and at home during STEM Symposium week. If you are interested in this opportunity, please read more about it here: STEM Symposium Community Involvement Video Directions

Please email Katie Jacobs at kjacobs@lwsd.org if you have any questions!

Sincerely,

Ms. Jacobs

We wish you all a great weekend!

With respect,

Keith Buechler

Principal, Benjamin Franklin Elementary

MARCH 18

Good afternoon, Franklin families,

I hope you and your families enjoyed the extended weekend last week and that you’ve all had a great week. Our staff had a wonderful and enriching day of learning last Friday while students were out, focused on Universal Design for Learning, Illustrative mathematics reflection and learning, Amplify science enrichment and a ‘Belonging’ equity conference hosted by our district. Our LEAP Wednesdays and rare full-day Fridays are such great times for our staff to learn, collaborate, and reflect on how we can continuously grow our supports for our students, as well as our skills.

A few updates to share with you all this week as we inch ever so closer to spring break:

Franklin Elementary Virtual Literacy Night

We are thrilled to announce that we are hosting our first (hopefully annual) Virtual Literacy Night next Thursday, March 24^th, in celebration of our love for reading! We have worked for two years to plan this event (originally scheduled right at the outset of the pandemic) in collaboration with our PTA and are excited to share some of our favorite books with you and your students. Please see the note below from Mrs. Clawson.

When: March 24-31 (You get to choose a time that works for your family)

Why: To celebrate reading and literacy

Information: March 24^th will be the launch of our Virtual Literacy Night. Next week, students will bring home a bag of unplugged activities courtesy of our wonderful PTA and have access to online read aloud stories by staff. Watch for an email next week from Mr. Buechler that has more information and links to these videos. We can’t wait to hear all of the ways your family has reading and literacy fun!

Additionally, we will be hosting a spirit day next Thursday (3/24), encouraging students to dress as their favorite literary or book characters in celebration of our event!

Elementary Student Return Verification Forms for 2022-2023 School Year

At this time each school year, we ask for our elementary families with students in grades K-4, to complete an “Elementary Student Return Verification” form. This is a quick online form that lets us know whether or not your student will return to our school next fall. By completing this form, you are helping us with our enrollment projections for the coming year. Having accurate enrollment projections allows us to hire the necessary staff to support our students in the next school year. If you don’t complete this form, you may receive a phone call to verify your student’s attendance for the 2022-23 school year. You do not need to complete this form if your student is currently in 5^th grade.

Please complete your form online by Monday, March 21 at 4:00 pm by clicking the link below:

https://www.lwsd.org/schools/elementary/elementary-student-return-verification

We appreciate your assistance with providing this important information. If you have any questions about the form, please let me know.

Spring State Testing Starts Soon for our Students

Each spring, all Washington public school students in grades 3-8 and 10 are assessed in English Language Arts (ELA) and math using Smarter Balanced Assessments (SBA). Students in grades 5, 8 and 11 are also assessed in science using the Washington Comprehensive Assessment of Science (WCAS). Results from these assessments provide meaningful feedback and data that teachers and other educators can use to help students succeed. The results provide data to help evaluate school-level and district-wide instructional strategies, initiatives and other programs

Franklin students in grades 3^rd – 5^th will be testing from May 9 – May 20^th. Learn more about the state assessments on the district website. More details will be forthcoming as we get closer to testing later in the spring.

School Meals Application

From our Nutritional Services department:

Even though meals are free this year, we strongly encourage all parents/guardians who might be eligible for benefits to submit an application. Completing an application takes less than 10 minutes, and parents only need to complete one application per family.

Filling out the School Meal Application may help provide:

· Healthy & Nutritious Meals

· Additional Funding for School Programs

· Fee Waivers for ASB Cards

· Fee Waivers for Athletic Participation & Extracurricular Activities

· Health and Wellness Services

· Fee Waivers for College Applications & Admissions tests

· College Scholarships

School Counselors can help connect you with benefits that you may be eligible for if you qualify for free and reduced meals.

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For more information, please visit our website: www.lwsd.org/pathway-forward/grab-go-student-meals.

I hope you all have a great weekend,

Keith Buechler

Principal, Benjamin Franklin Elementary

MARCH 25

Good afternoon Franklin families,

As all of the markings of spring have sprung this week, I hope that all is well with you and your families. Things are going great here at Franklin! After all of the holidays, short weeks and shorter days of winter, the longer days and consistent days/weeks makes March such a productive month here at school! As a reminder, the LWSD will be on Spring Break from April 4^th – April 8^th and there is no school that week.

If you live in Lake Washington School District (LWSD) and your child will be five years old on or before August 31, 2022, it is time to register your child for Kindergarten! Registration for all K-12 LWSD students is online. All necessary documents can be accessed on the LWSD website and completed documents can be uploaded securely. Parents who are unable to upload documents may send them by U.S. mail or drop them off at their neighborhood school.

Please see the attached flyer advertising STEM Symposium Week next week and see below for participation opportunities for families:

Do you work in a STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) related field, or have you worked in STEM in the past? If you have any extra time this weekend, both your students and I would love for you to share your experience in a STEM profession on Flipgrid. Your videos do not need to be anything fancy! You can just talk about your job without creating a presentation or PowerPoint. They can be related to anything you have ever done in STEM. Regardless of what you create, your students will be very excited to watch your video with the class next week! If you are interested, follow these directions to complete your video: STEM Symposium Community Involvement Video Directions

Our 5th grade yearbook team is hard at work on the 2021-22 yearbook. Get your copy today at https://ybpay.lifetouch.com/Order/SelectJob (Yearbook ID Code: 2069722) Orders close April 1st. Please contact the school counselor if you would like a yearbook but require assistance with the cost. You may also see the attached flyer for more information.

KHC Update! Complete Finn’s Mission TODAY!

Dear Families,Our Kids Heart Challenge Road Trip is ending soon, and I am so proud of our students for being active and kind! So far, our school has raised $7,239 in lifesaving donations and helped to save 145 lives! WOW!!! Great job! Thank you for helping our school and the American Heart Association save lives!

Just visit http://www2.heart.org/goto/franklin or download the free App for Apple or Android to sign up and get started. Click Here for your Virtual Envelope to meet the KHC Explorers, and to see what cool thank you gifts you can earn!

Principal, Benjamin Franklin Elementary

APRIL 1

Hello Franklin Families,

We hope that this first day of April finds you and your family doing well. Please see this week’s announcements below.

Franklin’s Green Team is launching April Earth Month Challenge

This month, in honor of Earth Day, we are doing our part as Franklin Eagles to care for our Earth. We invite you to join us in a 30-day challenge, with one challenge each day to reduce, reuse, and recycle. Attached is the 30-day challenge.

SAVE THE DATE FOR Franklin Elementary Virtual Talent show on Wednesday, May 25th, 2022, at 9:30 am

Our school's talent show aims to help kids build their confidence through dancing, singing, playing musical instruments, magic show, gymnastics, hula hooping, comedy, martial arts or “think outside stage” 2 minutes cooking, bike stunt (with helmet) whatever creative skills they would like to share!

Permission slip, flyer coming soon after Spring break! Questions? Please email Priya Santhana Vannan at psanthanavannan@lwsd.org

Spring State Testing Starts Soon for our Students

Each spring, all Washington public school students in grades 3-8 and 10 are assessed in English Language Arts (ELA) and math using Smarter Balanced Assessments (SBA). Students in grades 5, 8 and 11 are also assessed in science using the Washington Comprehensive Assessment of Science (WCAS). Results from these assessments provide meaningful feedback and data that teachers and other educators can use to help students succeed. The results provide data to help evaluate school-level and district-wide instructional strategies, initiatives and other programs. Our students will be testing from May 9^th – May 20^th. Learn more about the state assessments on the district website.

April's Equity Topic: April’s equity focus is Arab American Heritage Month. In April, the Arab American Foundation celebrates the achievements of nearly 4 million Arab Americans. National Arab American Heritage Month was launched in 2017 and was formally recognized by the United States president in 2021. Every April, the Arab American Foundation holds an event in Washington DC to celebrate Arab-Americans. This event honors Arab heritage and culture highlighting the arts, music, dance, and cuisine. Speaking of cuisine! Our parent volunteer Amrita Srivastava has helped us assemble a group of recipes from Arab-American families. Links are below! If your family tries one out, please send pictures to your child's teacher! We would love to share with our students. We will also have several in-class activities celebrating Arab Americans, as well as our whole school assembly, virtual read aloud, and school-wide art project.

Recipes:

Moroccan Couscous- https://www.wellplated.com/moroccan-couscous/ Hummus- https://www.themediterraneandish.com/how-to-make-hummus/

Tabouleh- https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1012585-lebanese-tabbouleh

Babousa (for sweet)- https://amiraspantry.com/basbousa/

PBIS Rotations After Spring Break: After each major school break, we spend time reviewing expectations with students through our PBIS Rotations. PBIS stands for Positive Behavior Intervention Supports. The rotations involved student groups visiting several stations around the building and reviewing expectations at those stations. Students will visit a Cafeteria Station to review the expectations for lunch time, a Playground Station to review expectations for recess, and more. These will take place on April 14 for Kinder, 1^st grade, and 2^nd grade; and on April 15 for 3^rd, 4^th, and 5^th grades.

Best,

Savannah Milford

Associate Principal

Franklin Elementary

APRIL 15

Good afternoon Franklin families,

I hope that you all enjoyed spring break and our first week back as much as I did! It was so nice to have extra time with my wife and daughters while on break, but it has been great returning to my 400+ ‘other’ kids this week as well! These last couple of months in the spring go so quickly I’m definitely encouraging others (and myself) to focus on finishing strong with focus, while enjoying the ride along the way.

Thank you to all students, staff and families who participated in the Kids Heart Challenge fundraiser through the American Heart Association last month. Franklin Elementary raised $13,412.53!! This is a remarkable contribution; a huge thank you to Mrs. Rulon for planning and facilitating this fundraiser at our school.

Please see the construction update below (and attached images) from our LWSD project manager:

Following the concrete workers return to work, the concrete footings and foundations of the new gym were poured on March 29^th. At this time, the contractor is working on the under-slab utility installations for plumbing and electrical and the concrete floor slab is scheduled to be poured on April 18^th. This will be the final major concrete pour and precedes the next major activity of steel delivery and assembly.

Help Us Spread the Word – Kindergarten Registration Is Happening Now For 2022-23! If you live in Lake Washington School District (LWSD) and your child will be five years old on or before August 31, 2022, it is time to register your child for Kindergarten! Registration for all K-12 LWSD students is online. All necessary documents can be accessed on the LWSD website and completed documents can be uploaded securely. Parents who are unable to upload documents may send them by U.S. mail or drop them off at their neighborhood school.

Please see the messages, opportunities and dates shared below from our great partners in the Franklin Elementary PTA:

ASAP: Order your copy of the Franklin Yearbook (https://ybpay.lifetouch.com/Order/SelectJob CODE: 2069722)

April 11-15: Virtual Book Fair, benefiting the Franklin library (https://www.thirdplacebooks.com/book-fair/ben-franklin?coupon=BFEBF)

April 18: After school enrichment begins (https://www.mybenfranklinpta.org/Enrichment.html)

April 19 to May 26: Running Club during lunch recess, Tuesdays and Thursdays

April 23: Garden Club working party

April 29: Dance Night @Franklin 6-8pm

May 1: Kinder/1st grade playdate @Franklin 3:30-5pm

May 2-6: Staff Appreciation Week (more info to come)

May 8: 2nd/3rd grade playdate @Franklin 3:30-5pm

May 12: Welcome Hour for Franklin parents (and poster session!) (more info to come)

May 15: 4th/5th grade playdate @Franklin 3:30-5pm

May 25: Virtual Talent Show (more info to come)

Grade level playdates: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10c0f4cafab2ba1fac34-parentskids
Running club: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C0F4CAFAB2BA1FAC34-running
Dance Night: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10c0f4cafab2ba1fac34-disco
Garden Club set-up: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10c0f4cafab2ba1fac34-benfranklin
Garden Club helpers: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10c0f4cafab2ba1fac34-garden
Popcorn Fridays: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10c0f4cafab2ba1fac34-popcorn

Stay up to date; join us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mybenfranklinpta

Learn more about the PTA here: https://www.mybenfranklinpta.org/

Don’t miss out on the Franklin Elementary Book Fair (benefitting our Franklin library). You have through the rest of the day TODAY to purchase books. See the attached flyer for more information!

In 1988, the Washington State Legislature mandated that a program of prevention education be presented to students yearly, beginning with the fifth grade. For our HIV/AIDS prevention education, the Lake Washington School District adopted the KNOW curriculum developed by OSPI for grades 5-8 and the FLASH curriculum created by the King County Department of Health for grades 4-12. Lake Washington School District also adopted sexual health lessons from the FLASH curriculum for students in 4th grade through high school. These curricula were adopted with the involvement of educators, parents, and community members. They provide a science-based understanding of the AIDS virus and how it is transmitted. Lessons will be taught by teachers at our schools.

The FLASH & KNOW (5^th grade) curriculum will be taught starting on May 15.

For more information, please feel encouraged to visit our district webpage: https://www.lwsd.org/programs-and-services/curriculum-instruction/sexual-health-curriculum

May 31 will be a full school day. Lake Washington School District has finalized plans to make up for the one day missed due to the January 3, 2022 snow day. May 31 was built-in as a snow make up day, meaning that if we had snow days this school year, we would make them up by changing this day from a non-student day to a regular school day.

Tuesday, May 31: change from a non-school day to a full day for students

Principal, Benjamin Franklin Elementary School

APRIL 22

Good afternoon Franklin families,

I hope that you all had a productive and positive week. Spring always proves to be a busy season in schools and this year is proving to be no different, but especially in comparison to the past two springs when we were so impactfully limited with options and opportunities. However, it must be said, that there is such a thing as ‘good’ busy and that I hope you all enjoy a familiarly-busy spring as much as I do!

This week’s updates:

Class Picture Day

Just a reminder that Tuesday April 26^th is class picture day! Have your students looking their best and make sure your student is at school.

TALENT SHOW

Our school's talent show aims to help kids build their confidence through dancing, singing, playing musical instruments, magic show, gymnastics, hula hooping, comedy, martial arts or 2 minutes cooking, bike stunt or any creative skills they would like to share!

Talent Show Flyer and Permission form attached.

Questions? Email psanthanavannan@lwsd.org

Recess Zones for April

We are trialing "choice zones" at recess for the rest of April. For COVID, we had grade levels separated out into zones, and there were no mixing of grades. In a typical year, students have free range on the playground and can play with a variety of students from both grade levels. Our school team has been tracking incidents on the playground and we are unsure if separating the students by grade causes more conflicts or less conflicts. We'll be using the next few weeks to collect data on this and then will decide if we keep "choice zones" or go back to grade level-assigned zones. We'll update our parent community on the results of this trial.

End-of-Year Dates

As you can probably imagine, we have already been working diligently to plan and start preparations for some of our end-of-year events. A few dates to put on your calendars (with more information coming soon on many of these):

April 29: Dance Night (PTA Event) 6-8 p.m. (information attached and below)
May 2-6: Teacher Appreciation Week
May 9 – May 20: SBA Testing
May 25: Virtual Talent Show
May 27: Full Day Teacher LEAP Day (No School)
May 31: IS a school day (snow make-up day)
June 8: Field Day
June 15: Full Day Wednesday (Not a LEAP Wednesday)
June 15: Kindergarten EOY Celebration
June 16: 5^th Grade Celebration, 1:45 p.m. tentatively (open to household members only; no extended family for health and space considerations)
June 17: Last Day of School

Spring State Testing Starts Soon for our 3^rd – 5^th Students

Each spring, all Washington public school students in grades 3-8 and 10 are assessed in English Language Arts (ELA) and math using Smarter Balanced Assessments (SBA). Students in grades 5, 8 and 11 are also assessed in science using the Washington Comprehensive Assessment of Science (WCAS). Results from these assessments provide meaningful feedback and data that teachers and other educators can use to help students succeed. The results provide data to help evaluate school-level and district-wide instructional strategies, initiatives and other programs.

Our students will be testing on May 9^th.

Learn more about the state assessments on the district website: https://www.lwsd.org/programs-and-services/curriculum-instruction/testing-and-grades/state-assessments

From the PTA

*** Dance Night: NEXT FRIDAY April 29, Franklin Commons, 6-8pm

Masks for students and parents required
Students must be accompanied by a parent. No drop-offs.
Students will be learning some dances next week in Music class.
Prizes for best Disco costumes and best dance moves!
Glow sticks and snacks will be for sale; please bring change.
Windows and doors to the Commons will be open during the event to facilitate air flow, and there will be a designated outdoor place for eating/drinking. No food and drink inside. Dress accordingly!
Please keep our students safe and do not attend if anyone in your family is feeling unwell.

*** Staff Appreciation Week is coming up, May 2-6.

Our teachers and staff make a WORLD of DIFFERENCE with everything they do! Join us in celebrating our wonderful staff with a week of travel-themed events and activities!!

Monday 2 May: In-Flight Snacks (snacks for teachers in the First Class Staff Lounge)

EVERYONE: Let’s get comfortable and wear our jammies or lounge wear

Tuesday 3 May: We are so FORTUNE-ATE to have you! (tea and fortune cookies for staff)

STUDENTS: Bring your favorite staff member a note of THANKS!

Wednesday 4 May: We are all AMIGOS! (Taco lunch in the staff lounge)

EVERYONE: Give the staff a High Five or an Elbow Bump or a THANK YOU/GRACIAS when you see them!

Thursday 5 May: Let’s head to the Tropics! (Tropical yogurt treat for staff)

EVERYONE: Dress like you're headed to the beach!

Friday 6 May: We have the Best Teachers and Staff in the World! (Small gifts for staff)

STUDENTS: Give/make/draw a “souvenir” for your favorite teachers/staff members! EVERYONE: IT’S BEN FRANKLIN SPIRIT WEAR DAY!

To donate food items for Staff Appreciation Week or volunteer to help, or if you have any questions, please contact Astrid at schoolsupport@mybenfranklinpta.org

*** JOIN THE PTA!

It's time to start thinking about our next school year and an important part of Ben Franklin is our PTA. Ben Franklin's PTA supports critical academic needs, is an active voice on decisions that impact your child's health, safety and quality of education, and builds a stronger, more inclusive school community. Covid has made it more difficult to build our community - joining the PTA and volunteering with the Ben Franklin staff and students can bridge that gap! There is no wrong or right way to be involved - whether it's time or your donation, we can strengthen these relationships to support your child's potential.

We invite you to join the PTA because we can do more together than apart. Increasing our membership, even by one, helps ensure our children's educational experiences are well-rounded, rewarding, and better sets them up for success. Additionally, we are recruiting for VP positions and Chair positions (co-positions are an option as well). Please Join the PTA and please check out our open positions! Contact nomcom@mybenfranklinpta.org with any questions - we'd love to hear from you!

Open Board Positions

Chair Positions

Have a great weekend,

Keith Buechler Principal, Benjamin Franklin Elementary

APRIL 29

Good afternoon, Franklin families!

I’m sending this message a bit earlier today, as some of the information related to our dance (tonight!) is included below in the PTA portion of this Newsletter.

This week we experienced our first couple of days back with lunch tables and PE in the gym(!) – and what an event it was. Student excitement and joy was palpable to say the least; a direct quote from a first-grade friend to me: “THIS IS SO COOL!” (And yes, she said it with all caps). Days like these remind us that we need to be more like our kids sometimes and find joy in the little things while doing big things.

This week I would like to take a moment to shed light on some significant information with you all, as we are already well in the works of not only finishing strong this year but planning for next year (and beyond). This past winter our LWSD Special Services department announced district-wide plans for becoming a more inclusive school district for all learners. The over-simplified, pragmatic interpretation of this is that we are building models to serve all students as inclusively as appropriate in general education settings across the district as the evidence is clear that this is best for all students, which serves our core mission. Another primary goal of moving to a more inclusive district model with special services is to allow all students to receive appropriate services in their home/neighborhood schools. For Franklin unfortunately, it also means that we will serve many less students in a learning center program over the years to come.

Details are still being planned, but Franklin is one of 10 schools in the district that is part of the initial cohort of schools participating in the new inclusion model next year (planned to go district-wide the following year). Currently, the students who are served in our learning center program feed to Franklin from five of our neighboring LWSD elementary schools (in addition to students whose home school IS Franklin). All families of students served by our learning center programs (non-Franklin ‘home’ school families) were given a choice for next year of staying at Franklin for one more year or to return to their neighborhood schools (with adequate staffing and supports being established for them there) with the understanding that in the 23-24 school year it is planned that all students will be required to attend neighborhood schools. All students who live within the Franklin boundaries will continue attending, being loved and taught here at Franklin.

My hope is that more information comes out soon from our district to inform families of the plan and our process, but in the meantime, I wanted to make you aware of the work being done here and within the district to support this adjustment. I take pride in the fact that this won’t actually represent significant change at Franklin next year because we are already a highly inclusive school. More details to come!

Eagle Buddy Club is Back!

As we reach the end of April and Autism Acceptance Month, we are reintroducing a peer buddy club here at Franklin. We are looking for 3rd, 4^th and 5^th grade leaders who can be peer models and advocates as we learn about disability and inclusion. Applications are due May 13^th (attached if your student is interested). If you have questions, please connect with our advisor for this project, Mrs. Flemming (aflemming@lwsd.org).

May is Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month

For the month of May, we are honoring on the histories and contributions of the Asian American communities, as well as the Pacific Islander communities. We will have a whole school virtual assembly (led by Ms. Laizans!) to launch AAPI Month on Monday, May 2. The whole school read aloud will take place on May 9 and will be a reading of the book "Wishes," read by our very own Ms. A. Throughout the month, teachers will engage in a variety of classroom activities to support this month's theme. We also focusing on celebrating student names. We will send home a parent connection worksheet to help your students with a whole school name activity on May 6. If you have questions regarding equity work at our school, please contact Savannah Milford at smilford@lwsd.org.

Skyward Downtime

Due to server maintenance, our vendor is requiring a Skyward downtime from Friday, April 29 at 6 p.m. through Saturday, April 30 at 9 p.m. The following will not be available during this time: Family Access, Employee Access, RDS (Payroll), Educator Access Plus, TrueTime, Web Student, Web Finance, and Student Access.

From the PTA

*** Dance Night: TONIGHT April 29, Franklin Commons, 6-8pm

Masks for students and parents required

Students must be accompanied by a parent. No drop-offs.

Students will be learning some dances next week in Music class.

Prizes for best Disco costumes and best dance moves!

Glow sticks and snacks will be for sale; please bring change.

Windows and doors to the Commons will be open during the event to facilitate air flow, and there will be a designated outdoor place for eating/drinking. No food and drink inside. Dress accordingly!

Please keep our students safe and do not attend if anyone in your family is feeling unwell.

** Parking for Dance Night: Thanks to the generosity of the Central Park Tennis Club, overflow parking will be available across 60th St from the school. Please follow the signs to access the parking lot and drive carefully as families will be crossing the street.

** Staff Appreciation Week is Next week - May 2-6

Our teachers and staff make a WORLD of DIFFERENCE with everything they do! Join us in celebrating our wonderful staff with a week of travel-themed events and activities!!

Monday, 2 May: In-Flight Snacks (snacks for teachers in the First Class Staff Lounge)

EVERYONE: Let’s get comfortable and wear our jammies or lounge wear

Tuesday, 3 May: We are so FORTUNE-ATE to have you! (tea and fortune cookies for staff)

STUDENTS: Bring your favorite staff member a note of THANKS!

Wednesday, 4 May: We are all AMIGOS! (Taco lunch in the staff lounge)

EVERYONE: Give the staff a High Five or an Elbow Bump or a THANK YOU/GRACIAS when you see them!

Thursday, 5 May: Let’s head to the Tropics! (Tropical yogurt treat for staff)

EVERYONE: Dress like you're headed to the beach!

Friday, 6 May: We have the Best Teachers and Staff in the World! (Small gifts for staff)

STUDENTS: Give/make/draw a “souvenir” for your favorite teachers/staff members!

EVERYONE: IT’S BEN FRANKLIN SPIRIT WEAR DAY!

To donate food items for Staff Appreciation Week or volunteer to help, or if you have any questions, please contact Astrid at schoolsupport@mybenfranklinpta.org

** PTA-hosted playdate for Kindergarten and 1st grade students, Ben Franklin playground. Sunday 1 May, 3:30-5pm. This is a great opportunity to meet other parents and get your kids ready for September by meeting other kids from same or above grade.

Please note: the school building will be closed and there will be no access to bathrooms.

*** JOIN THE PTA!

It's time to start thinking about our next school year and an important part of Ben Franklin is our PTA. Ben Franklin's PTA supports critical academic needs, is an active voice on decisions that impact your child's health, safety and quality of education, and builds a stronger, more inclusive school community. COVID has made it more difficult to build our community - joining the PTA and volunteering with the Ben Franklin staff and students can bridge that gap! There is no wrong or right way to be involved - whether it's time or your donation, we can strengthen these relationships to support your child's potential.

We invite you to join the PTA because we can do more together than apart. Increasing our membership, even by one, helps ensure our children's educational experiences are well-rounded, rewarding, and better sets them up for success. Additionally, we are recruiting for VP positions and Chair positions (co-positions are an option as well). Contact nomcom@mybenfranklinpta.org with any questions - we'd love to hear from you!

I hope you all have a wonderful & productive weekend. Take care and be well,

Keith Buechler

Principal, Benjamin Franklin Elementary

MAY 6

Good afternoon Franklin families,

I will keep the newsletter brief this week, knowing that Ms. Milford already sent out a batch of important information on a variety of things earlier today.

Thank you so very sincerely to our Franklin students, families & community for making our teachers and staff feel so loved and special during Teacher Appreciation Week! Your kind words and gestures went a long ways and were extremely appreciated. It truly is our honor to serve such a supportive community. And an extra special thank you to our Franklin PTA for your week of themes, goodies and appreciation events for our staff; it was a wonderful week!

Please see the notes below regarding progress on our new gym from our construction partners:

Major steel assembly is complete and detailing and welding is underway.
Roof metal decking is in progress (corrugated metal roof decking can be seen below, laying in on top of steel roof structure)
Next, the contractor will begin the layout of interior walls within the gym and adjacent spaces
Heating, electrical and plumbing rough in installation will be the next activities, as well as the framing of exterior walls

Save the Date! PTA Carnival June 11^th

The PTA is excited to announce our first Ben Franklin CARNIVAL. Games, Inflatables, animals and more! It’s going to be an exciting day. The Carnival is going to be Saturday June 11th from 12-3pm. Wristband sales for admission are now available! Teachers will be sending home more information about the carnival today with students. Learn more about the event using the below links and see the attached flyer!

Direct link for wristband sales click HERE

In fall of 2021, students in 4^th-9^th and 11^th grades took the Smarter Balanced Assessment (SBA) in English language arts and math. Students in 6^th, 9^th and 12^th grade took the Washington State Comprehensive Assessment of Science (WCAS). The primary purpose of these tests was a brief check-in on how students are doing compared to some of the state standards.

Scores from these tests were posted to Family Access in December under “Test Scores.” OSPI has now provided electronic score reports in PDF format to the district for the students that took the fall test. These score reports do not provide any new student score data; however, they do provide some graphical and textual explanations of the data. These score reports are now in Family Access.

Login to Family Access.
Select “Portfolio” on the left menu.
Select “Show Scores” for the assessment.

Skyward Family Access support is available on the LWSD website.

Principal, Benjamin Franklin Elementary

MAY 13

Good evening Franklin families,

Welcome to another weekend! Hopefully this Friday the 13^th didn’t throw anything unexpected your way and you were able to enjoy a day of pleasant weather.

This week we finished up our first week of SBA testing with our 3^rd – 5^th grade students. Our students have worked very hard thus far and are making us proud! As a reminder, we will continue with the math portion of the test next Tuesday and Thursday (with make-up tests for absent students on any day we can).

This weeks updates:

Last Call for the Talent Show!

Our school's talent show aims to help kids build their confidence through dancing, singing, playing musical instruments, magic show, gymnastics, hula hooping, comedy, martial arts or 2 minutes cooking, bike stunt or any creative skills they would like to share!

Talent show flyer and permission form attached.

Questions? Email psanthanavannan@lwsd.org

Reminder From Our Lunch Team

Earlier in the year we sent out information about lunches but it is probably a good time for a reminder.

A full lunch, including a milk and juice is free (funded by the federal government for the remainder of the year)
A milk only is $.50.
An extra entrée is $1.50
Please discuss with your student if they are allowed to get something extra at school.
I’ve listed below ways to put money on your student’s lunch account

Free and reduced lunch online application: MySchoolApps - Home Page There will be hard copies available in the office for our families without internet access.

To add money to a student’s account: MySchoolBucks There is a $2.49 charge fee. Instructions for using MySchoolBucks: Online Payment Instructions - Lake Washington School District (lwsd.org)

You can also send in a check or cash with your student’s full name, teacher and amount.

School Meals for the 2022-23 School Year

Since the beginning of the pandemic, the USDA has funded free meals to all students, The USDA free meal waiver is set to expire on June 30, 2022. As a result, the district will start charging fees again for lunch and breakfast starting in the 2022-23 school year. The district will continue to provide student meals free of charge at all school sites through June 30, 2022.

Free and Reduced Meal Applications

Even though meals are free through June 30 of this school year, we strongly encourage all families who might be eligible for benefits to submit an application now. Filling out an application now may qualify families to receive seamless meal benefits through October 15 to start the new school year. Completing an application online through Myschoolapps takes less than 10 minutes, and parents only need to complete one application per family.

For more information you can also visit our website: www.lwsd.org/pathway-forward/grab-go-student-meals.

Additional Benefits for Free and Reduced

Students that are eligible for Free and Reduced meals are also eligible to receive fee waivers for athletics, extracurricular activities, and ASB cards. In order for the district to waive these fees, you must provide consent to share your Free and Reduced eligibility status for this purpose. You can provide consent on the Free and Reduced application. If you are already qualified for free and reduced meals or you are directly certified through the State, you can provide your consent to share eligibility information in Family Access by following these instructions|instrucciones. For more information about fee waivers, please visit our website: How to Waive Extra-Curricular Fees - Lake Washington School District (lwsd.org)

School Counselors can also help connect you with benefits that you may be eligible for if you qualify for free and reduced meals.

June 15^th IS a Regular, Early-Release LEAP Day

Please see the message below from our LWSD communications department:

It has come to our attention that there is confusion surrounding the schedule for Wednesday, June 15. As is always the case, there are many different versions of the same calendar that exist on the internet due to revisions we need to make to calendars. The current version on our LWSD website shows this is still a Wednesday, 1.5-hour early release day, which is accurate.

You can find the most up-to-date calendars on the district website by clicking on the Calendar link in the top right corner.

Have a great weekend,

Keith Buechler

Principal, Benjamin Franklin Elementary

MAY 20

Good evening Franklin families,

I take no pleasure in being the no fun police, but as much as we all love your four-legged friends I have to send a couple of reminders each year that district policy does not allow dogs on campus before, during or after school as it is both an allergy and safety risk. Please be mindful of this at arrival and dismissal particularly. And if you ever bring your dog to campus on nights or weekends (which is also technically not allowed), please be mindful of cleaning their messes. It is always unfortunate when our students fall or slip on the field into uncleaned animal messes.
Unfortunately we are experiencing pretty frequent bus cancellations right now and we are aware this puts an extra burden on families. This has occasionally led to well-intentioned neighbors and friends taking students home with them at pick up time without consent of the parents. For the safety of our students, please remember that you are not allowed to take any students home other than your own unless we have received permission from that student’s family in advance. Please also remind your students not to go home with friends and neighbors, as they are more than happy to comply with familiar faces.

Thank you in advance for working with us on these items.

A reminder for you about your opportunity to provide student placement input for next year…

The input you provide with this feedback form will be considered when making student class placement decisions, but please recognize it provides no guarantees. Also please note that by school policy, WE DO NOT ACCEPT SPECIFIC TEACHER REQUESTS AND THAT ANY SUCH REQUESTS WILL BE DISREGARDED. This opportunity is for you to tell us about your student(s). PLEASE NOTE: You should complete a separate form for EACH of your current Franklin students who will be with us again next year. NOTE: We will send a separate form for incoming kindergarten students at the beginning of June. All responses must be submitted by 4 p.m. on Tuesday May 31 to be considered in the placement process. Input submitted after this date and/or by other communication channels (phone calls, emails) may not be considered; please use this form to submit your feedback.

Are you getting excited yet for Carnival?! As a reminder, our PTA is planning an amazing carnival June 11 from 12-3 p.m. (flyer attached)

Please read the information below regarding the recent changes that have been to our district COVID-19 communication guidelines/policies:

Families receiving “place-based” notifications when students are in the same classroom or shared space as positive case
Positive case counts are now being updated daily on the LWSD Health & Safety Dashboard
Weekly testing no longer available to students, testing reserved for students who were sent exposure notification letter

Based on the guidance from the Department of Health (DOH), and to efficiently keep our families updated with COVID-19 information, we are making some changes related to COVID communications. When the new guidance was provided to Lake Washington School District (LWSD) back in March, the district chose to use the place-based notification option for students when they are possibly exposed to a positive COVID case on campus. This means that instead of tracking down anyone who was within a certain amount of feet within a duration of time, we now notify families of any student who was in the same classroom or shared space as a COVID positive student or staff member. We realize that this has created an increase in messages from the school for some of our families, but it is the most efficient notification system with the resources we have in the district. This is the method we will be using for the duration of the school year, so we thank you for your patience and understanding as we work through this new process up until the last day of school.

Additionally, DOH guidance gave districts the option to keep families informed of case counts by hosting, and updating, a Health & Safety Dashboard on the district website. From now on, we will not be sending emails with the number of positive cases on our campus, rather, you can track the number of positive cases in our school building on the LWSD Health & Safety Dashboard. To ensure accuracy, to the best of our ability, we will now be updating the dashboard Monday-Friday from now on instead of once a week on Mondays. Additionally, we will be adding a link on the dashboard webpage that opens a spreadsheet of historical data spanning back to late October. This spreadsheet will have the option to look at building by building case counts in one-week intervals dating back to October 24. We are currently working on developing this spreadsheet and it will be uploaded to the Health & Safety Dashboard as early as this week.

Lastly, due to limited resources, the option for students to test every week has been removed. Please only use the on-site testing if you received an Exposure Notification Letter from school. Each school has limited slots available for testing and we want to ensure those who have received a notification will be able test that week. If it is your first time requesting a test, ensure you have completed the consent form before signing up for testing. You will only need to do the consent form one time for the year. Please remember to keep students home if they are showing symptoms.

Thank you for your patience as we work through this ever-evolving situation, we appreciate your assistance and understanding with all of this.

Principal, Benjamin Franklin Elementary

MAY 27

Good afternoon Franklin families,

This year the LWSD is collecting parent information with school-specific surveys through Panorama.

We are so excited to be having Field Day at our school after needing to take a few years off! Field Day is scheduled for Wednesday, June 8^th. We have a lot of need and a variety of ways for parents to support Field Day to help make the day fun and successful for all kids at Franklin. Please open the Sign Up Genius below and we look forward to seeing you for this awesome, whole school event!

For the month of June, our overarching theme is "pride in myself and my family." We will have a whole school virtual assembly (led by Ms. Capon!) to launch Pride Month on Wednesday, June 1. The whole school read aloud will take place on Friday June 3, and will be a reading of the books "Love is Love" and "Love Makes a Family", both read by our very own Ms. Jacobson. We will also have a spirit day on Friday June 10; students are encouraged to wear rainbow or pride gear. Throughout the month, teachers will engage in a variety of classroom activities to support this month's theme. We are also focusing on celebrating student's families. We will send home a parent connection worksheet to help your students with a family activity. If you have questions regarding equity work at our school, please contact Savannah Milford at smilford@lwsd.org

Franklin Elementary is a stronger and more vibrant community because of our LGBTQIA+ students and families. The Franklin Parent Equity Team is proud to support the lessons and school assembly created to help students celebrate Pride Month and to explore the theme of “Pride in Myself and My Family.” The sad truth is that 86% of LGBTQ students report dealing with harassment in school (2019 National School Climate Survey), which has a disastrous impact on student mental health, social outcomes, and academic performance. June’s focus on LGBTQ+ equity issues gives the entire Franklin community an opportunity to learn together so that we can support every student and expand our LGBTQ+ support system.

The Parent Equity Team appreciates being part of our learning community. If you have questions about the themes and topics for June and would like to discuss them or if you would like resources for home discussion with your students, please feel free to reach out to the Parent Equity Team (benfranklinparentequity@gmail.com).

The Annual Pancake Breakfast is back on this year and is scheduled for June 3 from 8-9 a.m.! It is organized by the Franklin PTA and is open to all Franklin families. Franklin dads – we ask that you consider volunteering to make pancakes for this event!

Principal, Benjamin Franklin Elementary

JUNE 3

Good afternoon Franklin families,

This year the LWSD is collecting parent information with school-specific surveys through Panorama.

We are so excited to be having Field Day at our school after needing to take a few years off! Field Day is scheduled for Wednesday, June 8^th. We have a lot of need and a variety of ways for parents to support Field Day to help make the day fun and successful for all kids at Franklin. Please open the Sign Up Genius below and we look forward to seeing you for this awesome, whole school event!

Don’t forget that the Franklin Carnival is coming up on Saturday, June 11^th. We hope to see many students and families on hand for this exciting event. You will also see a few Franklin staff members running booths or attending with their own families. There will be many exciting games, inflatables, animals, a reptile show with the Reptile Man, food vendors and more expected to be on hand!

As a reminder, during the past couple of years our school district moved away from the standardized practice of mailing paper report cards home. Instead, the method for families to review report cards is by accessing the report cards in Family Access. Report cards will be electronically posted to Family Access on June 17^th by our district Data Services department.

Principal, Benjamin Franklin Elementary

JUNE 10

Good evening Franklin families,

An inevitability each year for schools as we approach the end of another year are staffing changes. We take great pride in our staff and the Franklin Family culture that we live, but we are always excited for our colleagues who make life and professional decisions to pursue new interests.

Mrs. Marissa Hoffman (counselor) & Ms. Katie Mobley (LC teacher) have resigned their positions. Mrs. Hoffman was on maternity leave for the majority of the past year and has decided to stay home with her baby while Ms. Mobley is moving out of state. We wish them both nothing but the best.
Ms. Shahr Arfaeizadeh (2nd), Mrs. Emily Morgan (2nd) and Mrs. Abbey Douglass (4th) have all decided to take a leave of absence next year. We look forward to their return to Franklin for the 23-24 school year.
Mrs. Andrea Rulon (PE) has decided to take a leave of absence for the 1^st semester next year. She will return to Franklin near the end of January 2023.

On the same topic, we are thrilled to announce that Mrs. Stacey O’Brien has been hired as our Franklin counselor moving forward! Mrs. O’Brien joined us late in the fall this past year and we are very pleased that she will be staying with us.

Another update from the folks with the American Heart Association. They reached out to us this week to let us know that Franklin was in the Top 25 schools for money collected for the Kid’s Heart Challenge this year in Western Washington! They stopped by and presented Mrs. Rulon with a certificate for the accomplishment. Thank you again to all students and families who supported that great event.

4th and 5th graders once again have the fun and exciting in -person opportunity to learn to play an instrument in Elementary Band and String Orchestra next year! Classes will meet one to two days per week at Rose Hill Middle School. All instruments are taught at the beginning level so no experience is needed. You can sign up for the class on this webpage Elementary Band and Orchestra - Lake Washington School District (lwsd.org) Aren’t sure which instrument you want to play?

The music teachers will be doing demonstrations at the start of next year, so for now just select “unsure”. If you are returning from this year, you can sign up here too and select that you have “prior experience” when you fill out the form. Watch for more information when school starts next year. Sign ups will be open through September. We are looking forward to having you in Band and Orchestra!

Tom Baugh-String Orchestra. Rose Hill Middle School

Please see the linked information shared by our librarian, Mrs. Clawson, regarding a Summer Reading Program through King County Library Systems: Summer Reading Fun

Each August, families are asked to verify their student’s information (i.e., emergency contact information) in Skyward Family Access through the Student Information Verification process. The process is also used to determine if families are returning or withdrawing. The student information verification process will be open from August 1 to August 15. Communication with directions for families will be sent out at end of July.

Student first name and last name
Student birthdate
Lake Washington school student is currently attending
Name of school (public, private or home) student will be attending in fall

Score Release

Scores for the spring SBA ELA and Math state assessments (3^rd – 5^th grade) will be posted to Family Access’s Test Score section during the week of June 20. The full page family reports will be available to us by early fall and we will post those to Family Access Portfolio when we get them. WCAS (science) scores won’t be available until late summer/early fall.

Principal, Franklin Elementary

New Panel

Hello and goodbye for this year Franklin families!

It is always bittersweet to sit and compose the last newsletter for the year. There is so much I would like to say, so much I would like to celebrate, and so many people I’d like to thank. Suffice to say this year was challenging and there were many chances for our students, our staff and our families to get overwhelmed and succumb to it all. But we all persevered and we all need to pause, reflect and relax so that we can properly acknowledge all it took to get to today.

Congratulations to Franklin 1^st Grade Teacher Heidi Jones who was awarded an Outstanding Educator Award by the Kirkland Rotary at an awards dinner earlier this week! It was my pleasure to introduce Heidi to the assembled group and share how much we appreciate and benefit from the work Mrs. Jones does. Thank you Mrs. Jones!

Please join me in welcoming our two newest teachers, Ian Dooley (4^th Grade) and Erica Weaver (5^th Grade). Both Ian and Erica taught 3^rd grade at Twain Elementary this past year and we are thrilled to have them join our Franklin family. See the attached document for their self-introductions.

As a reminder, during the past couple of years our school district moved away from the standardized practice of mailing paper report cards home. Instead, the method for families to review report cards is by accessing the report cards in Family Access. Report cards will be electronically posted to Family Access today by our district Data Services department.

Our new gym is on track to be completed by the end of August and ready for next year! Here are a few updates from our construction team on how the work is progressing:

This week:

- Exterior brick install is complete
- Started prepping for the storefront install
- Passed cover inspections. This allows BNB to start covering up what’s inside the walls by installing drywall or any other specified material.

Upcoming work:

- Overhead mechanical, electrical, and plumbing rough in
- Drywall install

School Supply Lists for 22-23 School Year

Attached to this message is a school supply list for the 22-23 school year. You will also be able to find this list on the Franklin website all summer! As we’ve done for the past two years, we will be working to provide as many supplies as possible at the school level and we have greatly reduced the supply lists. A huge thanks to our Franklin PTA for generously supporting this effort!

Meal Pricing for 2022-23 School Year: Since the beginning of the pandemic, the USDA has funded free meals to all students. The USDA free meal waiver is set to expire on June 30, 2022. As a result, the district will start charging fees again for lunch and breakfast starting in the 2022-23 school year. Please see attached flyer for pricing information to include in any newsletters and communication to your families. Pre Pay for meals: MySchoolBucks.com (MSB) continues to be Lake Washington School District’s online meal account system. MSB provides families with an easy way to pre pay for student meals and allows immediate access to information about meal purchases. Please see attached flyer to include in your newsletters which details how families can create an account. Free and Reduced Meal Benefits: Applications for the 2022-23 school year will be available to complete online (preferred method) through Myschoolapps , or by manually filling out an application found on the district website: Application. Both can be completed after July 1, 2022. If families currently have an application on file for the 2021-22 school year, you will receive seamless meal benefits through October 17, 2022, at which time you will need to have a new application on file. The application takes less than 10 minutes to complete, and parents only need to provide one application per family or household. Please see attached flyer to include with your parent communication.

Principal, Benjamin Franklin Elementary

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