April Newsletter

Franklin Elementary School

Tim Larimore, Principal

tlarimore@dl.noacsc.org

Franklin Elementary School

310 E. Fourth St.

Delphos, Ohio 45833

www.noacsc.org/allen/dl/

Phone: 419-692-8766

Fax: 419-692-2766

Welcome to the 2008-2009 school year! We are off to a great start and are looking forward to a very exciting year. The purpose of this newsletter is to keep you informed about events happening at Franklin. It will be published every month. If you ever have any questions about anything you see published in the newsletter, contact me at school or e-mail me. My e-mail address is in the letterhead above. I will be happy to answer your questions.

Franklin Elementary earned the highest mark possible, “Excellent with Distinction”, from the State of Ohio on our building report card for the 2007-2008 school year! We met 10 out of 10 state indicators, had a performance index score of 101.6 and were above our value added progress goal for the last two years. Franklin was the only Delphos School building to receive this rating. This is an outstanding accomplishment; one that we are very proud of and we hope that you are too. We could not have done this without the hard work of our teaching staff with your children and the strong support that you have given to us. Your children attend one of the finest elementary schools in the state of Ohio. I can assure you that we are going to continue to work very hard to maintain this rating in the 2008-2009 school year. Copies of our building report card are available for your examination in our school office.

We will hold our annual fund-raiser sale from September 5 though September 15. This sale is the same as our Scott Card fund-raiser that we have done in the past. The Kleinhenn Company bought out the Scott Card Company last year. Mr. Dave Scott will still run this sale for us as he now works for the Kleinhenn Company. The profit from this sale goes into the Franklin Activity Fund. We use the monies to pay for things for the students and teachers throughout the school year. Some of the things that are paid for out of this fund include but are not limited to field trip expenses, student assemblies, student awards, quiz bowl team, Reading Counts incentives, kick balls for the playground, teacher classroom supplies, P.E. supplies, the Spelling Bee and the Christmas program to name a few. This fund-raiser is the only one that we will run at Franklin this year so we hope that you will continue to support it.

The dress code for Franklin Elementary is on pages 12 and 13 of the Franklin Elementary Handbook. The dress code policy for the Delphos City Schools is in the district Student Code of Conduct. A copy of our Franklin Handbook was sent home with every student the first day of school. A copy of the district Student Code of Conduct will be sent home with the oldest in the family when we receive them. Read both carefully. We take great pride in our students’ appearance. For their own self-esteem, we think it is important that every child comes to school each day well-groomed and dressed appropriately.

The Delphos City Schools is implementing a new point of sale system for breakfasts and lunches in all cafeterias this year. Franklin piloted this program, called MEALS PLUS, at the end of last year. The program allows you to prepay for your child(ren)’s school breakfasts and lunches. Attached is an introductory letter explaining how the program works. We think this is going to be a real plus for our Franklin students and we encourage all our parents to use it. We think it is going to cut down the number of times we have lost or forgotten lunch money. As a parent you can prepay money into your child(ren)’s account and not worry about lunch money again until the account runs low. Read the attached introductory letter. If you have any questions, contact Mrs. Brenda McKee, Food Service Director, at 419-695-1786, ext. 216.

Please note the date and time of your child(ren)’s grade-level parents’ meeting(s) in the calendar of events. The Kindergarten parents’ meeting was held on Monday, August 18^th. These meetings are for parents only; we ask that you leave your children at home that night. These meetings do not take the place of parent/teacher conferences which will be held on November 12 and 13. At this first meeting your child(ren)’s teacher(s) will sit down with you and talk about their classroom rules and expectations, homework and other important topics. You will then have the opportunity to ask questions and share with them anything you feel is important for them to know about your child(ren). This is an important time to begin to establish those lines of communication that are so important to have between home and school. We hope you take advantage of this wonderful opportunity. Each grade level will be sending home a reminder about their meeting. Look for it among the things your child brings home from school. If you have any questions, contact your child’s teacher.

We have six new faces on the Franklin staff this year. Mrs. Amber Pohlman, Mr. Brett Halsey and Mr. Jon Kroeger have joined our kindergarten team this year. They replace Mrs. Robin Wark, Mrs. Brenda Gallmeier and Mrs. Kristy Sehlhorst. Ms. Jill Fischer is teaching third grade replacing Miss Karen Hartman. Mrs. Becky McClure and Mrs. Jennifer McElroy have joined the fifth grade team replacing Mrs. Christina Grothaus and Mr. Chris Sommers. We welcome these six teachers to our Franklin staff.

All grades will have their pictures taken on Friday, September 26^th. Notices about this event will be coming home with your student early in September. If you wish to purchase a picture package, fill out the information on the pay envelope when it comes home, place the exact amount for the pictures in the envelope, and return it to school with your child the day of pictures (September 26). Your child will give his/her envelope directly to the photographer before having his/her picture taken. If you write a check for pictures make it payable to Lifetouch not Franklin Elementary. Please put the exact amount in the pay envelope as we do not have money in the office to make change for students bringing in the wrong amount. All students will have their pictures taken for their class’s composite picture even if they do not want to purchase a picture package. If you misplace your pay envelope, we will have extras in the school office.

Attention Van Wert County residents only. You may be eligible for payment of your school book fees. The Van Wert County Department of Job and Family Services have sent us School Fee Applications for the 2008-2009 school year. If you are a resident of Van Wert County, meet the income guidelines and other PRC eligibility criteria; you may be eligible to have your school fees paid. To apply you must be the residential parent or primary caretaker. We have applications in our office. If you think you might qualify; stop in and pick up an application. The income guidelines are below:

I am happy to say that the structural problem in the east wing of our school building has been repaired and students can once again be housed in classrooms in that part of the building. Lee Construction of Delphos worked all summer to get the job done. We really appreciate their efforts! We did not want to have start this school year with children over in the Lutheran Church liked we had to do at the end of the school year last spring. There are still some minor things to complete and we hope to have those done in the very near future. But there is nothing undone that will prevent us from holding classes in that wing. Our building has been inspected and is structurally sound again but I assure you that we will perform regular building checks to try and prevent anything like what happened last spring from happening again.

Last year all teachers in the Delphos City School System were trained on and began using a web-based grade book program called Progress Book. One of the neat features of this program is that you as a parent can go online at any time and view your child’s grades. This feature will be available to students in grades 1-5. We are going to roll it out for you at interim report time this month. You will get a letter that contains your child’s unique username and password and instructions on how to access Progress Book from your PC at home. We like this feature. We see it as another tool that will allow us at school to communicate with you concerning your child’s academic progress.

Attached to this newsletter is some information from the Brain Injury Association of Ohio concerning pedestrian safety. We have a lot of children at Franklin who either walk or ride bikes to school. We are concerned for their safety both to and from school. We do student assemblies every year where we teach pedestrian safety to our children. Please read the attached information and discuss it with your child(ren). Your child(ren)’s safety is a primary concern of ours.

Attached to this newsletter are a copy of our school dismissal and pickup procedure and a map of our playground. Please read the dismissal and pickup procedures over carefully. Study the map. For the safety of our children we ask that you do not park in areas that are designated as no parking. If someone other than you picks up your child(ren) after school please share these procedures and map with them.

Afternoon recess is not over until 2:30 p.m. We ask that you do not arrive until after that time as the gates will not be opened until after the children are back in the building. Arriving too early creates a traffic jam on Pierce Street and even back onto Fifth Street which creates an unsafe traffic situation for vehicles trying to get around Franklin School at that time of day. We do not want to create unsafe traffic situations by blocking the view of intersections as this might cause an accident. For those who would rather not park on the playground you can park in the church parking lot on Pierce Street and walk over to the school to pick up your child(ren). All student walkers and bike riders will exit the playground by the gate on Fourth Street. No students will be allowed to exit the playground through the gates on Pierce Street without an adult to supervise them.

I know the traffic is quite congested around Franklin at dismissal time but if we all watch out for each other we can keep it safe and no one will get hurt. Thank you for your cooperation. If you have any questions or concerns, contact me at school.

Below is a pledge of success that was sent to me by Mrs. Ryan, our art teacher, this summer. She read it in a magazine. I think there is a lot of good stuff in it so much so that I have had every teacher post it somewhere in their classroom. On the first day of school I gave every third grade through fifth grade student their own personal copy too. I told them to put it in their student agendas and take it out and read it every morning before they started their school work for the day. I would also like to share it with you. I hope you find the message in it as powerful as I did.