We are pleased to present our 2021-22 PTO Executive Board nominees: President – Casey Cohen Vice President – Elizabeth Somerlot Communications Vice President – Jessica Shin Assistant Communications – Nicole Perry Treasurer – Kristin Pustylnik Assistant Treasurer – Erika Ascher Volunteer Coordinator – Sarah Fitzsimmons Thank you to our Nominating Committee members Casey Cohen, Sarah Fitzsimmons, Jessica Shin and Erin Pesant for their time in recruiting such a great team of parent volunteers to lead the PTO next year!

Countdown to Franklin Fair 2021! Thursday, April 22 – Tickets Sales Close at 10pm Friday, April 23 8:45pm – Comedy Show (parents only) 10:00pm – 50/50 Winner Announced 11:00pm – Children’s Raffle Entries Close Saturday, April 24 3:00pm – Birthday Cube Game 4:00pm – Bingo Game 5:00pm – Children’s Raffle Winners Announced Click here to purchase tickets!

TICKETS ON SALE NOW!! We are one month away, and TICKETS ARE LIVE! All tickets can be purchased a la carte or you can purchase a package that works best for your family. CLICK HERE TO REGISTER AND PURCHASE TICKETS NOW NEW FOR 2021 “PARENTS’ NIGHT IN” COMEDY SHOW The Franklin Fair team is thrilled to kick off this year’s event with an unforgettable adults-only comedy show on Friday, April 23rd at 8:45pm! Pull up a chair and enjoy a virtual performance from a lineup of award-winning comedians from Treuer Laughs! Tickets can be purchased here. FRANKLIN FAIR KIDS VIEWING PARTY BAG  The Franklin Fair team is excited to offer for purchase a Franklin-branded drawstring backpack which includes a Franklin cup as well as a few special surprises! This is perfect to keep the kids busy while enjoying the virtual live events on Saturday, April 24th! FRANKLIN FAIR CLASSICS 50/50 RAFFLE Grandparents, friends, and family near and far can still help support our school by purchasing 50/50 tickets! Make sure you grab these fast – only 400 tickets will be sold! Remember, Franklin will directly benefit from 50% of the proceeds! 50/50 Raffle winner will be drawn on April 23rd during the “Parents’ Night […]

Congratulations to our 4th and 5th Grade Performing Arts workshop students on their amazing virtual performances this week! Franklin partnered with Wharton Institute for the Performing Arts to offer two virtual workshops in which participants conceptualized, wrote, rehearsed and performed original theater pieces in just 7 weeks! “The Merge” and “Forest Fighters” were incredibly creative and entertaining! We are so happy to continue the performing arts tradition at Franklin!

On Friday, March 19th Scott Magoon met all of the Franklin students during his virtual visit sponsored by the PTO. He talked about his books and being an author and illustrator. Everyone drew with him, Scott on a Tablet and students on paper. Sharks were swimming around all the papers! Does your child want more? On Saturday, March 20th he’ll be doing a free reading/drawing workshop by way of the Society of Illustrators. It is free BUT you need to register. Here’s the link: https://societyillustrators.org/event/satstories-scottmagoon/ Scott also has some great read alouds on his website: https://scottmagoon.com/ If your child ordered one of Scott’s books, it will be delivered to the classroom on Monday.

We are excited to announce that the PTO is funding a virtual visit with children’s author/illustrator and Schneider Family Book Award winner Scott Magoon on Friday, March 19th. Presentations will be held for all grades. Students have the opportunity to order Scott’s books with personalized bookplates. Click here for more information. Order forms are due to your child’s classroom teacher by Friday, February 19th. 

The Franklin Fair, the school’s largest fundraiser, will be held on April 24th and will be virtual this year!  We need you to make this a successful event. Please keep a look out for volunteer opportunities. Come join a fun committee and help us reimagine the amazing Franklin Fair! To kick off the fair, we are happy to continue the popular Children’s Raffle tradition which will be an interactive event for the kids. Check out the exciting basket options. The kids will have a blast creating them with you and friends. CLICK here for SignUp Genius Link Looking forward to the ever-amazing Silent Auction… details to come. The Chairs are hard at work already but, we would love to hear from you if you have items or contacts. Any questions please contact:Elizabeth Somerlot elizabeth.kohut@gmail.com Leah Enthoven enthovenleah@gmail.com

Please join us via Zoom on FRIDAY, January 22nd at 9:30am (note date change) for our next General PTO meeting!  Our agenda includes: A presentation by Mrs. Tierney regarding the Franklin response/results from the District parent survey 4th & 5th grade performing arts workshop information Franklin family scavenger hunt Updates on our teacher mini grant program, book fair, virtual assemblies, upcoming author/illustrator visit and…. the introduction of our 2021 Franklin Fair team! A Zoom link will be emailed to all Franklin families, and posted to our franklinparents.com website the morning of the 22nd, just prior to the meeting. 

Dear Franklin Community, I hope this note finds you well. As 2020 comes to a close, I wanted to share some PTO updates. First, I would like to thank you for your kindness and ongoing support. When I volunteered to take this role in the Fall of 2019, this wasn’t exactly the experience I pictured as the PTO President!  Like you, I was looking forward to community building events like a Back-To-School BBQ, Field Day, new family get togethers, and Halloween parties. I was excited for a new Franklin musical and our traditional holiday events. But we all know this has been a very interesting (bizarre? challenging? taxing?) year on many levels, and I am just so appreciative of the kind words and overall support from our Franklin community. From making staff appreciation signs to donating to PTO endeavors – you have not only shown generosity, but your kindness has left me speechless.    This has been anything but a “rinse and repeat” year, and I can’t thank the Exec Board enough for all of their brainstorming, flexibility, dedication, and creativity. Another huge thank you goes to our committee chairs, class parents, and entire parent community for being so flexible […]

Lasts Thursday the PTO was thrilled to bring music producer, Brett Daniels, to our students via Google Meets for an interactive assembly about music technology and music production. Programs like cultural arts assemblies wouldn’t be possible without your donations. To view a short video of the assembly, please visit our Instagram @franklinelementaryschoolpto.

Franklin’s Virtual Book Fair is now live and will be open until next Sunday, November 15th.   The link to the Virtual Book Fair is https://efairs.follettbookfairs.com/guest/home?classCode=M2RG3.  Please note that Chrome appears to be the best browser for the website. For more details regarding ordering and donating books, please click here. We are thrilled to continue this wonderful Franklin tradition and to support the joy of reading! Franklin will receive a percentage of the proceeds from the Virtual Book Fair as credit toward additional book purchases for the Library and classroom collections. If you have any questions, please contact Laura Heil, our Book Fair Chair, at lpheil@aol.com.  Thank you for your support of Franklin and its readers!

The Franklin Chess team is looking for new players! All matches will be played virtually this year.  Please click here for more details and contact our parent coordinator, Stephanie Lehrhoff, with any questions. 

Ms. Stochaj’s Virtual Bedtime Stories begin Wednesday, October 28th at 7:30pm! Join Ms. Stochaj for a book or two before you head to bed. This week’s theme is Spooky Stories. You may be in your pajamas and stuffed animals are always welcome! The Meet link is: meet.google.com/bkz-ihpc-uox. 

This is the final call for spirit wear! Store closes at 9pm TOMORROW – Monday, October 26th. All items will be picked up from Franklin – date TBD. Click here to order.