Franklin CUSD 1

Online Registration will be open June 1-5, 2020 Due to the current situation, All Franklin CUSD students will be required to register for the 2020-2021 school year online via your Teacher Ease account. This is for all students entering PK-12th grade. Students who will be 3 years old by Sept. 1st, 2020 may enroll for PK and students who will be 5 years old by Sept. 1st, 2020 may enter Kindergarten. All students new to the district will be allowed to enter in some basic information. Once approved by the office, you will then be able to complete the rest of the registration process. Click here for more information on registration: https://www.franklinhigh.com/o/franklin-cusd-1/page/student-registration--118

The end is here- parents and students you survived two months of distant learning, congratulations! We will have the collection bins out front of the school again on May 26,27,28,& 29 from 8-7pm. This is for all students. You can drop off any homework packets, white boards, books or other items in those bins. All devices will need to be handed off at the door. Please put your materials in an envelope or baggie. We appreciate you putting your name and the teachers name on the outside. Thank you again for working alongside us! We hope everyone has a safe summer!

Due to the Coronavirus, we have cancelled the recognition banquet for our students graduating from 8th grade. We realize this is a disappointment, but we must follow social distancing guidelines. With that being said, we would still like to highlight the achievements and hard work of our 8th graders. We ask that each parent send in a picture of their student. Those pictures can be sent to Mr. Waggener at jwaggener@franklinhigh.com we will be putting together a student highlight program on our Facebook page and on the district website.

• LAST DAY OF INSTRUCTION FOR STUDENTS GRADES PRE-K THRU 11 IS MAY 22ND. • A SCHEDULE FOR STUDENTS TO RETURN CHROMEBOOKS, TEXTBOOKS, WORK PACKETS AND TO CLEAN OUT LOCKERS WILL BE PLACED ON FACEBOOK AND THE DISTRICT WEBSITE TODAY. LINK TO SCHEDULE: https://5il.co/g3c0 • ALL BANQUETS SCHEDULED FOR THE END OF THE YEAR HAVE BEEN CANCELLED DUE TO COVID19 RESTRICTIONS. • 8TH GRADE STUDENTS WILL BE RECOGNIZED ONLINE. PARENTS, PLEASE HAVE YOUR STUDENTS CHECK THEIR SCHOOL E-MAIL ACCOUNTS FOR FURTHER INSTRUCTION.

Look at this!!! We have our top three American Heart Association winners all from one family! Garrett, Eli and Aiden collected $1,953!!! This organization is very dear to them, their great grandma suffers from heart disease and they wanted to do their part to help those in need. Way to go boys!!! As a whole, our district raised $3,005.41 - that is awesome! Thank you to everyone who supported our students and our PE program led by Ms. Rees. Unfortunately we do not have our student prizes to hand out yet, it looks like they will not be sending them to us until the fall. Once they are received we will get them out to our students. Thank you all again!!

We are so fortunate to have such an awesome group of teachers and staff that work with our students everyday! Thank you Franklin CUSD 1 for your talents and dedication!!

Thanks to Illinois Electric Cooperative for providing a remote learning hotspot for our students in the Nortonville area! This hotspot is located across the road from the Nortonville church. You can park in either parking lot and should be able to get signal. We ask that you follow all social distancing guidelines when using this system. After you connect, you will need to accept the terms and conditions before accessing they system.

Change in Drop- off Plan for Packets and Books. In response to concerns over social distancing, we will be changing the plan to have drop boxes inside the school main doors. Instead, we will have 2-drop boxes sitting outside on the main walkway into the Jr-Sr High building. The boxes will be on the edge of the driveway. One will be marked "packets" and will be marked "books". Please stay in your cars, drive up to the drop boxes and make your "drops". This will ensure a safer way to collect the necessary items. Drop-off will be the same days, Monday April 27th and April 28th from 8am to 7pm. Hopefully this will address any concerns. We want everyone to stay safe and healthy.

Franklin families: We are having a packet drop off time scheduled for families in all grade levels who have completed student work that needs to be returned. On Monday, April 27th and Tuesday, April 28th the main entrance doors at the high school will be open from 8am till 7pm for families to drop off student work, library books or any other items that need to be returned to school. Please return student work in a large envelope or Ziploc baggie with your child’s name on it. We have boxes in the foyer area set up for each grade level, you can then place the packet into the correct box and we will get the work to your child’s teacher. THANK YOU for taking the time to get this work back to school, we appreciate all that you are doing at home!

Franklin Families, We hope this letter finds everyone well. First, we want to start by saying, “ THANK YOU”! THANK YOU for your support, understanding, communication and for the hard work you are doing with your children. This is difficult for everyone involved and creates untold stress. Please know that we will all work tirelessly for you. This is a paradigm shift in public education. As we reflect on the last such impact on schools, we realize it was polio. Those of you my age remember that first vaccine. The first dose was administered in 1960, in a sugar cube. The next two doses were by injection. In the days prior to that vaccine, all people could be infected by the disease. Polio took 500,000 lives per year. I mention this because COVID-19 is today’s equivalent of the polio disease. In our last letter, it was stated that we believed that school would not reconvene this school year. This was confirmed yesterday in the Governor’s Press Conference. In this presentation he closed all Illinois schools through the end of the calendar year. The end of the Franklin calendar year is June 3, 2020. Does that mean the end to social distancing? No, I doubt that this will be the magic date. Here are the facts: we will be impacted by the conditions in Chicago. Currently, Chicago has 19,391 confirmed cases. That is up 45 % from last week. That is bad, but last week it was up 68% from the week before. So, while it is increasing, it appears as if the acceleration of confirmed cases is slowing. Chicago has 760 deaths as of this morning. That rate is up 68%. The week before, the increase in death rate was 58%. While the increase in confirmed cases is slowing, the death rate is growing. In short, we will not be released from social distancing until both of these rates are declining daily. At this point that would be six weeks. Where does this put students, teachers and parents? This is a crucial time for everyone. We are being hit from every direction: the virus, social distancing, school closure, remote learning, stay at home, high stress, and frustration. That list is endless. A principal I work with said it best, “It is like trying to get a drink of water from a fire hose”! While it made me laugh, I knew he was right. The work that is accomplished in this outage will determine where we are able to start in the fall. We have to track student work to be able to determine a starting point. Those that do not do school work during this time period will be decidedly behind and will be playing catch up for years. The intent in this message is to be positive in everything we do. The last paragraph, we do not like, but we have to be open and honest. We are in this together, to the end, and will do whatever it takes or is needed to help. Please help us in these efforts to get work completed. This is a huge challenge, but the reality is, that we have the opportunity to change the face of education. In our hands, right now, is the future of education and the chance to take this to new heights. We are all developing new skills, ideas, thought processes and abilities. The question becomes, “How do we accelerate this learning experience, learn from it and grow”? Some places are regressing, we don’t want to be that place . We want to be the leaders with the new face of education. We have the students, parents and staff to be able to take this new educational experience to exceptional heights. As a staff we are working on this direction, social emotional needs, types of learning and re-entry. We look forward to this journey with you. Please do not hesitate to contact us with your needs. Most sincerely, Mrs. Willman, Mr. Waggener, and Mr. Simonson Link to letter: https://5il.co/fa4v

Jostens Graduation Supply Delivery

We have a great Social Worker, Ms. Ashley Weber. She has put together this list of resources for anyone who may need them.

**PARADE CANCELED** The school district was was just contacted by the Morgan County Health Dept. and they have shut down the staff parade that we had planned for tomorrow. They said in review of Governor Pritzker’s Shelter in Place order that our parade would contradict the message that our public health officials are giving us. As a district we want to comply with this order and since our parade is not considered essential travel we will in fact stay home as to set a good example by following the guidance given by the health officials. Please know our staff was so excited to see all of you, but this is bigger than our personal desires. We want you to be safe and the best thing we can do is stay home. We want everyone in our Franklin community to stay safe and healthy. This too shall pass- we miss you all so much!! Keep up with all your e-learning- we are all learning so many things during this time! #FRANKLINSTRONG 👊

Family Friday! We have had lots of time to be together- share with us some of the fun things you are doing at home! Also, don’t forget to check out the FFA Virtual Ag Day event today -just go to their Facebook page to see all they have to show us! (“Franklin Flashes FFA” page)

Thoughtful Thursday- reading a good book? Tell us about it!

In accordance with the Governor’s announcement yesterday, Franklin School District will now be closed until April 30, 2020.

Wild Animal Wednesday!!! What wild animals are at your house?!

Team Tuesday! Show us your team spirit!

We have added several announcements to our school closure section on the district website. Please take a couple minutes to look over these documents. School Closure page: https://www.franklinhigh.com/article/211268?org=franklin-cusd-1 Remote Learning Plan: https://5il.co/eeq2 Parent Update: https://5il.co/eeo9

Parents, We are going to put out two announcements tonight, with this being the first announcement. On Friday, March 20th, the Governor extended the school closures in Illinois until April 8, 2020. So, the Franklin School District and all other Districts in Illinois are closed until April 8, 2020. Remote Learning Days will continue for all Franklin students. At the same time that the Governor made the above announcement, Chicago Schools were told that they were going to be out until April 20th. Yesterday, President Trump extended social distancing until April 30th. It is our belief that the Governor will extend the school closures until April 20th and beyond. The next two weeks are expected to have higher numbers of positive test results. Yesterday’s positive test results increased by 1,100 from the day before so, the virus is increasing as expected. If the next two weeks are as large of increases as expected, then you can anticipate that those they have come in contact with will cause another six weeks of closures. Schools could easily be closed until the last week of May. So, it is highly likely that we will be out for the remainder of the school year. This will be a decision that only the Governor can make. However, this potential reality needs to be in everyone’s mind. We do not see the school closures as being short lived. Unfortunately, Franklin CUSD 1 and all other schools in Illinois will be closed for the foreseeable future.