Hello Franklin Families,

Thank you to all who attended our volunteer trainings – we love your enthusiasm, talents, and commitment to making Franklin soar in a multitude of ways! We can’t wait to see you assisting in our classrooms and at our various Franklin community events. We need and appreciate you!

It was so great to see many of you at our first ‘Coffee with the Principal’ this Wednesday! I am really enjoying getting to know this wonderful community in so many different settings and being able to discuss what is important to you and answer any questions you have about your children’s educational journey at Franklin. I am continually grateful for your care of every student and of our school as a whole - it takes a village.

Please consider putting your name in to be on our School Site Council this year, where we meet monthly to discuss and set important goals for Franklin (email our parent co-chair Wai Mei Lee at waimelee@yahoo.com by Sept. 15).

This year, we are launching an amazing new literacy program in our Kindergarten – 2nd grade classrooms; UFLI Foundations is a research and evidence-based reading program created by the team at the University of Florida Literacy Institute. UFLI introduces foundational reading skills in a clear, step-by-step way, helping children build confidence and fluency as they grow into strong readers. Our K-2 teachers will be using the UFLI Foundations program for reading and spelling instruction. Students will be learning new concepts (sounds and letter patterns) to build their skills in reading and spelling words. I encourage you to read more about UFLI in this Education Week article: Researchers Created a Phonics Program With ‘Dramatic’ Results. How It Works

I am looking forward to seeing you all tonight at our Back-to-School Picnic from 5:00 – 7:00 pm on our big yard! 
Fondly,
Natalie Rollhaus Burton