Tampa Catholic High School

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By Cindy Johnson 15 Mar, 2024
Dear Parker families, students and staff, It was great to see everyone in the building today for PLP conferences. It is an important moment of reflection for our students as they review their progress on their personal goals for the year. Among the topics of conversation today for some students was daily attendance and tardies. This has been an area of focus statewide, led by the Governor and Secretary of Education. It is obviously essential for students to show up on time and ready to learn every day. We appreciate that many absences are the result of documented health concerns. We take a hands-on and personal approach to attendance, informing and partnering with families across the year. Please talk to your advisors or Carter with specific concerns about your child’s attendance. Good luck to our Seniors and all students preparing to Gateway at the end of the year. Thanks to those who attended the Support our Seniors potluck this week. To all our students, work hard, reflect, revise and take a few risks. We look forward to a busy and exciting Spring ahead. Thank you to everyone who welcomed our visitors from Georgia this week, particularly the Parker families who hosted Georgian students in your home. It was fun to learn and share alongside our international guests. Congratulations to the Green team for a huge win at the buzzer in this week’s Student-Faculty Basketball game. The event was immensely fun including when Kafi, our referee, declared herself in charge and decreed Monday to be a school holiday (which it was already scheduled to be). Have a great (long) weekend! Brian
By Cindy Johnson 10 Mar, 2024
Dear Parker families, students and staff, We are looking forward to Spring and the longer days ahead, aided of course by the start of daylight savings this Sunday. We had a brief taste of Spring today. We are excited to welcome ten student visitors from the country of Georgia this week, one of two student exchanges that we are hosting this year. Thank you to the families who are hosting. We look forward to seeing all students and families at PLP conferences next Friday, March 15 th . This is an important opportunity to check in on PLP goals, successes, and challenges. We will also check in on attendance and tardies, emphasizing the importance of classroom time to student learning and growth. Thank you for joining us as always. Reminder that we have a March holiday on Monday, March 18. That is also the first day of Spring sports including Baseball, Softball, Track & Field, Ultimate Frisbee and Girls’ Co-op Lacrosse through Bromfield. All students are welcome to participate in one of these sports. Please contact Lisa Zick with registration questions and Ben Benoit with sports-related questions. Have a great weekend. Brian
By Cindy Johnson 03 Mar, 2024
Dear Parker families, students and staff, This week we welcomed everyone back from February break, celebrated Black History month and addressed another issue of antisemitism in our community. That sentence is jarring and hard to read. As articulated in the Ten Common Principles, at Parker, we “explicitly and self-consciously stress values of un-anxious expectation, of trust and of decency.” We “honor diversity and build on the strength of its communities, deliberately and explicitly challenging all forms of inequity.” We are a strong and vibrant community that supports one another and speaks up when our norms are violated. We stand in solidarity with students, families and staff who are targeted with hate speech and intimation. Thank you to all the students, families and staff who continue to serve as upstanders. One of the cards that we wore in honor of Black History Month quotes Toni Morrison, who challenges us to “make a difference about something other than yourselves.” We appreciate everyone in our community who positively influences those around us. Thank you for joining us on Friday, March 15th for PLP conferences. We host PLP conferences twice a year to create personalized goals and provide feedback and coaching. The Personal Learning Plan (PLP) is an essential tool and process by which we personalize learning for all students. It helps our students define their personal goals and the support that they need to achieve those goals. It also helps us know students well as individuals and build strong, collaborative relationships with students and their families. If you haven’t done so already, please schedule a 30-minute conference with your child’s advisor. If you have a conflict on that day, communicate directly with your child’s advisor to schedule another time. We are also looking forward to an important professional development opportunity for our staff on Wednesday, March 27. On that day, we will dismiss students at 12:00 noon to welcome colleagues from schools across New England for several Looking at Student Work sessions. It is an essential opportunity for feedback, calibration and connection in the service of ensuring authentic, standards-based assessment at Parker. Thank you for your flexibility with this disrupted yet important day. With respect and appreciation, Brian
By Cindy Johnson 17 Feb, 2024
Dear Parker families, students and staff, I hope that you and your family have a terrific February break. We look forward to the Division 2 Exhibition, March PLPs, the start of Spring sports and more when we get back. Please see the approved 2024-2025 school calendar linked below. The Board of Trustees approved the calendar last evening. Thank you to everyone who participated in the Charter Public School Advocacy Week. We appreciate your participation in the virtual kick-off rally and for sending emails to your legislators to advocate for our schools and our students. Our voices – and our powerful stories of student success in charter public schools – have certainly been heard. Thank you, as always, for your partnership. Have a great break. Brian
By Cindy Johnson 11 Feb, 2024
Dear Parker families, students and staff, I hope that you had a great week and you are looking forward to February break. We spent time in Extended Advisory this week reviewing midyear Progress Reports with all our students. Please take time at home to do the same. We asked our students to reflect on areas of strengths and next steps in each of their classes. This is an essential moment for reflection and growth for our students. Thank you to everyone who helps to spread the word about Parker this time every year. The application deadline for next year’s lottery is three weeks from today, March 1, 2024. We have two information sessions remaining on February 15th and February 27th. Please encourage your friends to attend. ( Enrollment at Francis W. Parker Charter Essential School (theparkerschool.org) Thank you to all the families who help to make transportation a little easier with carpools and the new MART shuttle. With your help, we have started running MART shuttles to and from Leominster and Bolton every day. If you are interested in learning more, please contact Keary Connors at 978-665-2274. Please join us on Monday night for the start of Advocacy Week led by the Massachusetts Charter Public School Association. We celebrate the impact of charter public schools and advocate for equitable funding, particularly for facilities. Thank you to everyone who registered to attend the virtual kick-off rally on Monday, February 12 th from 6:00 - 6:30 p.m. If you would like to attend but have not yet registered, please register using this link . Brian
By Cindy Johnson 04 Feb, 2024
Dear Parker families, students and staff, Congratulations to our Seniors for crossing an important milestone this week on your Senior Project. Great job! All seniors presented their Project Plans, detailing their essential question and background research for their projects. They are now transitioning into the experiential and product creation components. I want to highlight two exceptional projects that I saw up close. Thank you to Kennedy Gustafson and Gretchen Langhoff for their permission to be recognized in this way. Kennedy is studying the history and creative art of portraiture. She enrolled in a ten-week class at the Museum of Fine Arts, traveling to Boston once a week to immerse herself in the creative arts. She is practicing with different subjects and media and learning from professional portrait artists. Kennedy will share her many pieces in the Spring, the first public viewing of her art. Thank you for sharing your art and talents with all of us. Gretchen is also focusing on art from a very different perspective. She is intrigued by the process of conserving and restoring art, bringing the artist’s vision back to life in damaged works. Gretchen has been interning at the Carmichael Art Conservation working with the materials and experts who restore art professionally. She will showcase two of her restored paintings this Spring, detailing the steps that she undertook and before/after images of the works. It is a fascinating and thoughtful study of artistic expression. We invite students, families, and alums to join us for Senior Exhibition night on April 10th when students share their projects and gather feedback in the style of a Science Fair. We also invite you to serve on panels for their Senior Exhibitions on May 2-7, 2024 . Thank you for your support. Good luck to all our Seniors. Keep up the great work! Brian
By Cindy Johnson 28 Jan, 2024
Dear Parker families, students and staff, Every year we reach out to the Parker community for your help and advocacy on Beacon Hill. It is important to recognize the value of charter public schools to students across the state. We are pushing for more funding, student diversity, alternative pathways to recruit staff of color and more. Please join us for Advocacy Week (February 12 – 16, 2024) hosted by the Massachusetts Charter Public School Association (MCPSA) . Advocacy Week is designed to bring together charter public school families, educators, and supporters from across the state to celebrate the impact of our schools, and through the power of our stories and our voices, to continue the work to ensure that every child in Massachusetts has access to the education and resources they need to succeed. Advocacy Week will include multiple ways to get involved and to ensure our state legislators understand the importance of schools like Parker. We will kick off the week with a livestream Zoom event on Monday, February 12th from 6-6:30 PM . Charter public school families from all across the state will be tuning in, and I hope you will all join me to proudly represent our Parker community. Register for the event here . Even if you are unable to attend the virtual kick-off rally, there will be other ways to participate, such as sending emails to your legislators. During Advocacy Week , we will share more information about easy and impactful ways to get involved. No matter how you choose to join us, your action will make a big difference in ensuring your children, and all children in our state, have the resources they need to be successful. Thank you, as always, for your partnership and support of Parker. Brian
By Cindy Johnson 21 Jan, 2024
Dear Parker families, students and staff, Congratulations to the 52 students from every division and domain who gatewayed over the past two days. The students did an outstanding job, showcasing their learning, answering questions and welcoming feedback from the audience. Thanks to the peers, teachers and families who supported the students along the way and attended their gateway. It was a terrific celebration of their growth and success. Next week will be an exciting week of transition for many students. All the students who gatewayed will start in their new division next week. Students in Division 3 begin new classes on Tuesday. We also have six new students in grades 7 and 9 joining Parker next week. They will join Parker 101 and 7th Seminar and jump right into advisory and classes. We are thrilled to welcome these new students to Parker. So many of our students will either be new to Parker, new to the division or starting a new schedule next week. That’s a lot of change, which can be both exciting and stressful. As always, the Parker community will help students through the transition. Ask for help, say hi to someone new, invite students to eat with you at lunch. We are all better for it.  Have a great long weekend. Monday is a professional development day for teachers as we prepare for the start of second semester. See you all on Tuesday. Brian
By Cindy Johnson 12 Jan, 2024
Dear Parker families, students and staff, We are looking forward to Midyear Gateways next Thursday and Friday, January 18-19, 2024. This is an exciting time for our students to share their learning and celebrate a very significant accomplishment. There are 52 students scheduled to gateway across every domain and division. Good luck to all our students! As we explain on our website… Students demonstrate mastery of curricular standards in each Division through "Gateway Exhibitions" in which they present and defend their academic portfolios. They carefully examine past assignments and consider their performance on past assessments, review teacher comments, and rate themselves as to whether they meet the expectations for their division. They select a number of pieces that show progress over their time in the division to put in their portfolio, which serves as the permanent record of their learning. Students present their Gateway Portfolio in a Public Exhibition, before a small audience made up of their advisor, teachers, their parents, other students, and members of the community. The students answer questions about their work and talk about what matters most in their learning, their progress, their struggles, and their goals in the next division. Students' ability to reflect on their work and respond to audience questions is an important element of their demonstrating readiness for promotion.  The Gateway Exhibition is a moment of celebration. Parents often bring food or flowers to make the occasion personal and special. Upon the successful completion of this exhibition, students gateway into the next division. Brian
By Cindy Johnson 05 Jan, 2024
Dear Parker families, students and staff, I hope that you had a great first week of the new year. Welcome back. We are all getting ready for the first meaningful snowstorm of the year. With the snow coming Saturday night and Sunday, we do not think it will impact school on Monday. We anticipate opening on time on Monday. Thank you to the Devens DPW and our custodial team of John, Greg and James for keeping the driveways and walkways clear around Parker. We appreciate their hard work this Sunday and every time it snows. I wanted to provide a little context on how decisions on cancelations and delays are made. We try to assess the conditions around Devens as well as our neighboring communities. We communicate with DPW and area superintendents in the evening and early morning. If school is cancelled or delayed, Parker uses an automated phone calling service, the school’s website and voicemail, and local media outlets to inform families. We try to communicate by 6:00 am. On delayed openings, school starts at 10:30 am and all the classes are shortened. There may be some cases where a storm impacts some communities more than others. Because Parker students come from over forty cities and towns throughout Central Massachusetts, it’s important for families to exercise independent critical judgement, based on observed local conditions, when deciding whether to travel to campus during inclement weather. Have a great weekend. Brian
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