by gentrys | Jan 16, 2019 | Announcements, Archive
FSSD Five-Year Strategic Plan (2019 – 2024) REACH 2024: The five-year strategic plan, approved by the Board of Eduction in January 2019, has been developed over a period of 9 months. The goals and strategies take into consideration the previous plan, feedback from the AdvancED accreditation review team in 2018, input from the FSSD Leadership Team, the School Board, community members, faculty, staff, parents and students. This plan has a five-year outlook but will be reviewed and modified annually by the Board of...
by gentrys | Jan 15, 2019 | Announcements, Archive
The Board of Education approved the 2019-2020 School Calendar at its January 14, 2019, meeting. 2019 – 2020 School Calendar In developing the school calendar, the district takes the following into consideration: Input from School-Level Representatives: A large committee with representation from many stakeholder groups across the district provides general guidance to the Associate Director of Schools for Teaching and Learning, who coordinates the calendar work. The committee includes teachers, school administrator, paraprofessionals, representatives from the FSSD Education Association and PTO, as well as Central Office administrators and staff, who help to formulate a draft calendar, knowing there are some non-negotiable state requirements. The committee members focus all work through the calendar design process on two guiding concerns: What is best for teaching and learning and what is best for students and families. Once a working draft is created, the committee members gather to review it, offer feedback and/or make modifications. From this feedback, a final draft is formulated. The Director of Schools is engaged in this process throughout the various stages and ultimately recommends a final calendar to the School Board. Correlation to the Williamson County calendar: Because we have many families with children in both the FSSD and Williamson County Schools, the district tries to correlate its calendar, as much as possible, to the Williamson County Schools calendar. Uninterrupted Instruction: One of the primary considerations in developing the calendar is to purposefully create uninterrupted instructional periods between major holidays. ...
by gentrys | Jan 9, 2019 | Announcements, Archive
Parents of 4th-7th grade students who are interested in learning more about the Franklin Special School District Honors Program are invited to join us for an Honors Program Parent Information meeting on Thursday evening, January 31, at Freedom Intermediate School. The event will be split into two presentations. A question and answer session will follow each presentation. The first presentation is for families of current 4th grade students and will begin at 6:00 pm. The second presentation begins at 7:00 and is for parents of current 5th, 6th, and 7th graders. We encourage all families interested in the Honors program to attend the meeting. Information and presentations will be available on www.fssd.org under Announcements on February 4 for those unable to attend the...
by jlbworks | Oct 8, 2018 | Announcements, Archive
If you have visited our schools in the past few weeks, you may have noticed a new video phone in the entry area close to the office door. This equipment is part of our school’s safety plan and will require a new school entry procedure for visitors. As a pilot for this procedure, Liberty Elementary is in its second year using the video phones. The video phone system enables all exterior school doors to remain locked during the school day, which provides an extra layer of protection and is a national standard in school safety. Signage will be clear and visible when the video phone system becomes operational on Tuesday, October 23. Office staff will be sure to remind you to sign in and show your valid government-issued photo ID if you plan to leave the office area for another area of the school as we currently do. The new procedure will only take a few more seconds to enter your child’s school, but it is a critical part of our campus safety plan. To see how simple the new procedure will be, please watch this short video: https://youtu.be/60qnjwh5b0s We are excited that our district is able to provide this system in all FSSD schools and office buildings using a state safety grant and at no cost to our schools and we appreciate your cooperation and patience as we begin to implement this plan. Thank you for your support and for being a positive part of your child’s school safety...
by gentrys | Sep 11, 2018 | Announcements, Archive, District Event
On September 4, several Franklin Special School District teachers and administrators were able to participate in a roundtable discussion, along with other educators from across the region, with Governor Bill Haslam and state Education Commissioner Candice McQueen about the difficulties of the 2018 administration of TNReady testing. The Governor plans to take the feedback from the six events held across the state, as well as from an online form available to anyone who wants to provide input, and formulate a report by the end of September. The input will guide the discussion on TNReady assessment timelines, vendor selection, and the meaningful communication of the value of assessment results. The listening tour panels consisted only of educators; however, the state welcomes input from all teachers, staff, parents, and community members. If you would like to provide your input through the online engagement process, please go to www.tn.gov/governor/contact-us/listening-tour-feedback.html Hosted at Freedom Middle School, Governor Haslam and Commissioner McQueen listened as teachers, principals and testing administrators shared their experiences and frustrations regarding last year’s testing process. Feedback from around the region included concerns over lack of computers for testing, online testing failures and delayed test results. “Governor Haslam and Dr. McQueen were very receptive to each person’s input,” said FSSD Student Performance Supervisor Dr. Kay Boan, who was an invited member of the panel. The discussion was led by Wayne Miller, former executive director of Tennessee Organization of School Superintendents (TOSS), who is serving as a consultant to the state on this project. Boan said the preponderance of concerns was for online delivery, particularly in schools without 1:1 technology, and for high school...
by gentrys | Aug 16, 2018 | Announcements, Archive, District Event
The release of TNReady results August 16 demonstrates Franklin Special School District’s continued commitment to maintaining high levels of achievement and growth. “We are very proud of the district’s results,” said Director of Schools Dr. David Snowden. “The FSSD continues to be one of the top performing school districts in the state. We are proud of the work of our teachers and students that places us again in the top 10 districts in all grade bands (3-5 and 6-8) and all tested subjects.” The FSSD is one of only five school districts state-wide to hold this distinction. Snowden said the district is pleased with increased proficiency and growth in ELA/Literacy as this has been a focus for improvement in recent years. The district brought its ELA/Literacy growth score up from a 1 to a 5 this year. Another highlight the district is celebrating is the increase in growth in Science (from a 3 in 2017 to a 5 in 2018). The FSSD’s overall composite, which includes ELA/Literacy, Math, Science and Social Studies, also improved from a 3 in 2017 to a 5 in 2018. Other district achievements include: Percent of proficient students in grades 3-8 increased in ELA/Literacy. Of particular note was the growth of 5th-graders with 14% more students proficient in 2018 and 3rd grade with 9% more students proficient in 2018. Percent of proficient students in grades 3-8 fell slightly in Math. Fifth-graders again showed strong performance with 5% more students scoring at the proficient level in 2018. Percent of proficient students in grades 3-8 increased in Science. Fifth-graders continued to shine with 6% more students proficient in 2018....
