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Franklin Elementary School
 
School information
* Franklin Homepage
* Message from the Principal
* Latest News
* Franklin Staff
* Curriculum
* Login to e-Books
* PTO
Health Services
Student Excuse Form
Educational Trip Permission Form
Lunch Menu
 
 

Welcome to
Benjamin Franklin
Elementary School

5400 Florida Avenue
Bethel Park, PA 15102
Phone: (412) 854-8741
Fax: (412) 833-5016
District Voice Mail: (412) 833-5005

School Hours:

9:20 AM to 3:40 PM

AM Kindergarten: 9:20 AM to 12:05 PM

PM Kindergarten: 12:55 PM to 3:40 PM

 
* School Contact

Dr. Shirley Dickinson, Principal

* About Our School
 

Benjamin Franklin Elementary School is one of five elementary schools, two middle schools, and one high school in the Bethel Park School District. There are currently 480 students enrolled at Ben Franklin and the school has a staff of over 50 adults led by Principal Shirley Dickinson, Ed.D.

At Ben Franklin, we are proud of the safe and enjoyable environment that we provide for our students. Staff and parents work together through the PTO to provide classroom resources, arrange educational assemblies, and plan many special events throughout the year. There is always something new and exciting happening at our school!

 
* Latest News
•  Open House Scheduled for Thursday, September 4 -- Please mark your calendars and plan to attend Franklin's Open House on Thursday, September 4, beginning at 7 PM.  Because parking is limited at the school, a shuttle bus will be operating from the Purkey Parking Lot on Church Road beginning at 6:30 PM.  See you at Open House!
 
•  District to use ALERTNOW Notification Service as an additional communication tool between the school district and parents--Keeping parents informed is a top priority of the Bethel Park School District, and we will be using the ALERTNOW Notification Service to send telephone and/or email messages to parents and/or employees to notify them of things such as school delays or cancellations due to inclement weather.  With ALERTNOW, you won't have to watch television to wait for Bethel Park's status to scroll onto the screen.  Parents will be notified by phone when the district makes the decision to close or delay.  ALERTNOW can also be used to remind parents of upcoming events at school.  But most importantly, in an emergency, ALERTNOW has the capability to launch 12,000 phone calls a minute, so parents don't have to rely on Phone Chains to get emergency information.  In an emergency, ALERTNOW has the capability to call up to three phone numbers per student.  ALERTNOW also has the capability to send out email messages to one email address per student, but we will not test the email system until the fall.   Your child will be bringing a form home for parents to complete with your updated contact information.  It is important that you complete the forms and return them to school as soon as possible so we have the most up-to-date contact information for you.   Please click here to learn more about ALERTNOW.  We hope you will agree that ALERTNOW is another way the district can keep parents up to date.
 
Franklin Earns Keystone Achievement Award! For the third consecutive year, Benjamin Franklin Elementary School has been awarded the Keystone Achievement Award by the Pennsylvania Department of Education for making Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) on the PSSA Exams for two consecutive years.  This year's award is for PSSA Scores in 2005-2006 and 2006-2007.  Congratulations to our third and fourth graders and their teachers for their outstanding work on these tests and keep up the good work!  To see the district's PSSA scores for 2006-2007, please click here.
 
Visitor Sign-In Procedures Revised for ALL Bethel Park Schools. The following sign-in procedures have been adopted for ALL visitors to Bethel Park schools. We appreciate your cooperation as we continue to provide a safe environment for our students and staff.
  1. ALL visitors to Bethel Park schools will report directly to the main office upon entry into the building.
  2. Visitors will log-in their name, date, time and reason for visit on a standardized log-in sheet in each school office.
  3. The building secretary will verify the information is complete and will obtain photo identification from the visitor, which will be held in the office for the duration of the visitor’s time in the building.
  4. Visitors will be issued visitor’s tag that must be worn visibly during the time of the visit.
  5. At the conclusion of the visit, the visitor will return the visitor’s tag to the office, log out and their photo identification will be returned to the visitor.
 

On days when a two hour delay is called, the district will operate a Modified Kindergarten Schedule as follows:

  • Morning Kindergarten will attend from 11:20 AM to 1 PM
  • Afternoon Kindergarten will attend from 2 to 3:40 PM

Modified Kindergarten equalizes both sessions to 1 hour, 40 minutes of instruction.  Please take note of this change to the schedule.  Please click here for more information.

 
The Bethel Park School District has purchased subscriptions to the Online Edition of your child's textbooks for Science in Grades 1-4, and for Social Studies in Grade 4. The Harcourt Brace e-books feature the student edition pages, plus a variety of dynamic and engaging resources to enhance students' learning experiences. We are excited about the extensions of learning that can take place without taking books home from school. The e-books provide interactive graphics, animations, along with audio, vocabulary words, and printable pages to support learning.
 
All Bethel Park elementary students have been given a log-in and password to allow access to these two textbooks from home (or any computer) via the website. We encourage parents to log-in with their children to experience the learning opportunities these e-books provide.
The directions are simple:
  1. Go to www.eharcourtschool.com
  2. Enter your log-in (you can find your log-in name on the Welcome letter that was sent home)
  3. Type your password
  4. Select your on-screen textbook by pointing and clicking on it.
Read more about the latest Benjamin Franklin Elementary School news here...
 
* Upcoming Events
  • Friday, August 29 -- Fall Fundraiser Begins
  • Monday, September 1 -- Labor Day--NO SCHOOL
  • Thursday, September 4 -- Open House at 7 PM (Shuttle Busses will transport parents from the Purkey Parking Lot on Church Road beginning at 6:30 PM.)
  • Tuesday, September 9 -- PTO Meeting at 7 PM
  • Friday, September 12 -- Fall Fundraiser Due
  • Saturday, September 13 -- Bethel Park Community Day from 10 AM to 5 PM at Bethel Park High School
  • Monday, September 22 -- Picture Day
  • Tuesday, September 23 -- Market Day Pick Up