I hope you all enjoyed a nice Thanksgiving with your families and loved ones this week.  As we enter the season of giving and being thankful, I’d like to say how extremely grateful I am to be a part of the Franklin community.  So many of you have stepped up to volunteer your time and energy into making our school a special place.  We’ve had a strong start to the school year with our children enjoying the following PTO sponsored activities:

• Back to School Popsicles
• Welcome Back BBQ
• Golf and Tennis Enrichment
• Mosaic Artist in Residence
• John Marshall Weatherman Assembly

 And that’s just the start!  The end of this month will see an Author’s Visit with Phil Bildner and the installation of the new gym mats.  We were sorry to have to cancel the Book Fair, but the committee chairs are working hard at rescheduling and will announce the new dates soon.  We’re looking forward to our festive Holiday Shop on Dec 7 & 8 where the students get an opportunity to purchase presents for family members.

 The musical will start auditions and rehearsals for Beauty & the Beast in December and we’re excited to see all our talented performers both on stage and crew.  The Playground Committee is working in conjunction with the BOE to finalize a design and we hope to share that with you in the coming months.  I’m also excited to announce that the Chess Club will be coming back this January, so watch for information in our weekly email blast.

 Also coming in January/February is a cultural arts assembly with the Storey Pirates, an author’s visit with Dan Gutman, the musical performances, and the start of our after school enrichment program.

 I’d like to personally invite you all to our next General PTO Meeting this Friday, December 1st at 8:30am.  We have a guest speaker from Overlook’s Medical Center discussing a topic we’re all concerned about: Concussions.  I hope to see many of you parents there!

 Warmest wishes to you and your families this Holiday season,

Christie Engel

PTO President