January 12, 2024

Weekly Information for January 12th

Share Post

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

This week’s topics: 
  • Newly Formed Parent Group
  • Youth Venture Update
  • Advocacy Week
  • COVID-19 Reminder
  • Yearbooks
  • Don’t Miss the Application Deadline (March 1st)!
Newly Formed Parent Group

Hello Parker Families! We want to share with you the exciting news of the creation of a new group for Parker families: The Parker Parent and Caregiver Community (PPCC). The goal of this informal group is to foster communication and explore ideas for future events related to teacher appreciation and parent/caregiver socializing. We hope to be a resource for new to Parker families as well as a space where parents/caregivers from different towns can get to know one another, both online and in person, to support one another as well as the teachers and school.


The PPCC will hold monthly meetings to discuss and plan different events for families and teachers. Our next meeting will be via Zoom on Monday, February 5th, at 11:00 am. We'd love to have you join us! Future meetings will happen at different times of day so if this time doesn't work there will be other opportunities. Attending a meeting doesn't mean a big commitment, just an interest in building community with Parker families. We’ll post a link closer to the date, but please feel free to contact any of us if you have questions. And keep an eye out for news of upcoming events!


Want to connect with other Parker families and caregivers now? Are you new to Parker and have questions, like what’s a COW or what is a gateway? If so, please consider joining the newly created Parker Parent and Caregiver Community Facebook group. Parents and caregivers across all divisions are welcome to join. Please note the group is not intended for student participation.


The Parker Parent/Caregiver Community FB group is private. To request group membership, please use the following link: https://www.facebook.com/share/puHLCESpQtXhRKhC/?mibextid=K35XfP. There are a few questions to answer for membership approval and all member requests will be cross referenced to verify current Parker attendance.


We look forward to connecting with you!

Youth Venture Update

The newest Youth Venture group, Shelter Helpers, recently launched their first venture (see photo above). The group consists of Stellan Ogilvie, Zephyr Schermerhorn, Cormac Hildreth, Jaxon Liles, and Gabby Briggs. They will hold a drive in the form of an advisory competition in the spring to collect donations for the Worcester Animal Rescue League. They were awarded more seed money than they requested to help launch their project. Congratulations to the group!


Advocacy Week

On Monday, February 12th from 6-6:30 p.m., the Massachusetts Charter Public School Association (MCPSA) will host a virtual kick-off rally via Zoom to usher in the start of its annual Charter Public School Advocacy Week! Advocacy Week is an opportunity for charter public school families from all across the state to come together to raise their voices to ensure every child in Massachusetts has access to the education and resources they need to succeed.


All Parker families are invited to join this event and represent our school! The event will feature charter public school alumni and families from across the state, and it promises to be an inspiring evening! Register now and tune in on February 12th to learn more about how you can get involved throughout the week.


COVID-19 Reminder

Reminder COVID-19 Symptomatic testing is no longer available at Parker. As with other illnesses, if your student has a fever, they must stay home until they are without fever for 24 hours without fever-reducing medication. If they are presenting with symptoms that make it difficult for them to be in school, please keep your student home. If your student is presenting with COVID-19 symptoms, please test them before sending them to school. Two boxes of free COVID-19 Rapid Antigen test kits labeled with the student’s name were distributed to each student to bring home this week. Lastly, we are requesting that staff, students, and families wear masks to protect others while they are ill at Parker. Please reach out to Nurse Lisa at lzick@theparkerschool.org with any questions.


Yearbooks

Click here to order your yearbook from Jostens. Prices will increase by $5 after January 31st. Make sure to scroll the page to find the correct version of the book you’d like to order. Yearbook ($55) is the hard cover book, while the soft cover ($35) and Division 1 ($15) books are listed lower on the page as Exclusive Offer. Division 1 books contain everything but sections for Division 2, Juniors, Seniors, and senior parent ad pages.


Seniors: Don’t forget to submit your baby photo and senior portrait by January 31st!

 

Don't Miss the Application Deadline (March 1st)!

Parker is currently accepting applications for students entering grades 7, 8 and 9. Siblings of current students planning to attend the Parker School for the 2024-2025 school year MUST complete an application and return it to Parker no later than March 1, 2024. Current students do not need to reapply. You are welcome to call our front office prior to March 1, 2024, to verify your application has been received. You may click here to sign up any of the remaining Information Sessions. The Lottery will be held on Thursday, March 7, at 4 PM. Please send interested friends to parker.school/enroll for more information.

Parents of Athletes

Do you know how to find your way to Parker’s playing locations? We have a GREAT feature on our website with interactive Google maps - just enter your address to receive directions to any of our game and meet locations. Find this feature by clicking HERE.

Upcoming Dates of Note:
Mon - Jan 15 MLK, Jr. Day - No School
Thu-Fri Jan 18-19 Gateways
Mon - Jan 22 Faculty Planning - No Classes
Tue - Jan 23 Second Semester Begins
Tue-Wed Feb 6-7 10th Grade Biology MCAS
Looking for help with or concerning: Please contact:
a specific class or assignment the teacher of that class (see Parker email list)
technical support email: helpdesk@theparkerschool.org
your family's or student's health email: lzick@theparkerschool.org
mental health/emotional support needs email: skelly@theparkerschool.org
food insecurity/free and reduced school lunch needs email: mmckenna@theparkerschool.org

The Francis W. Parker Charter Essential School is committed to equal employment and educational opportunity for all members of the school community and prohibits discrimination on the basis of the basis of race, color, gender, pregnancy or pregnancy status, religion, gender identity, age, national origin, sexual orientation, homelessness, or disability, in the operation of the educational programs, activities, or employment policies.

Recent Posts

Weekly Information for October 10, 2025

By Cindy Johnson • October 10, 2025
Dear Parker Students, Families and Staff, I have been spending a lot of my time in Advisory lately—visiting sometimes with 2 or 3 advisories in a day. These visits are helping me to meet one of my goals for the fall which is to get to know all our students—yes, to learn almost 400 names (first names first—last names later…) but also to know our students as more than names and faces. During these visits, I have had the privilege of asking and answering questions about each other like “What is something you are proud of?,” drawing 10 second animals, sharing a meal, playing 4 on a couch, playing reverse charades, and sharing a rose, bud, and thorn for the week. Earlier this year, I talked about building a strong foundation at the start of the year. In that metaphor, the advisory program is a cornerstone of our foundation at Parker, with four important purposes that include academic advising, community service, community conversations, and group dynamics/recreation. It’s a student’s advisor who checks in with them weekly about their academic work and progress. It’s the advisor who coordinates and hosts the Personal Learning Plan (PLP) conferences twice a year. It’s the advisor who supports this small group of students in building community during morning and afternoon advisory each day. Advisory is at the heart of so much of what we do as a school to get to know our students well and foster community. When we have an important issue to discuss or want to learn about something together, we will turn to community conversations and our “Super Advisories,” cross-age constellations of multiple Advisory groups. Advisory is critical not only to how we personalize the experience of school for students but also to the work of fostering a tone of decency and trust in our community, two of our 10 Common Principles. In the last thirty years, more schools have developed and implemented advisory programs. I see this as a sign they are recognizing something we have always believed: that when students feel a sense of safety, belonging, and community, they engage more fully in their learning, and that when at least one adult knows a student well, they are more successful in school. I hope you will get your own glimpse into the special and important work our advisors do through the upcoming PLP conferences—and I hope you will build your own relationship with your student’s advisor so that we can partner in supporting our students as they learn. Wishing you a restful long weekend ahead! Bex

Weekly Information for October 3, 2025

By Cindy Johnson • October 3, 2025
Dear Parker Students, Families and Staff, It was a busy and exciting week at Parker. We have certainly hit our stride a month into the new school year. Thank you to everyone who joined us for Community Connections Night at Parker. Our Seniors did a terrific job describing their Senior Projects and welcoming ideas, connections, opportunities and resources as they launch. We appreciate all the families and friends who joined us. You provide invaluable guidance to our students! If you were unable to join us but still want to share your suggestions, please review the students’ topic areas in the document linked below, and then you may contact the Senior Seminar teacher. Class of 2026 Senior Project Declarations of Interest On Wednesday, we spent a lovely day at Mirror Lake on Devens with our Division 1 students. We do this trip every two years, providing a unique opportunity for Div 1 Advisories to work and play together. The highlight is always the cardboard boat race. After careful planning and team construction, one member of each Advisory captains their boat on a short course. Thank you to all the Division 1 students and Peer Mentors who tried something new and learned about teamwork and engineering. Congratulations to our Boys Cross Country team for winning the Ocean State Cross Country Invitational for the first time in school history. Our Boys Varsity team finished first out of 55 of the best schools from the region. We also placed 5th in the Boys JV race, 2nd in the Boys Freshman race and had three medalists in the Girls Freshman race. Outstanding showing at a very competitive meet. Finally, this week we welcomed students from Sophianum, our sister school in the Netherlands. We are delighted to host this exchange program for the second time, hosting ten Dutch students at Parker in October and then sending ten Parker students to the Netherlands in April. We are very proud of all the students and families who stepped towards this opportunity, sharing their homes and culture with students from across the world. This is a fun and important exchange for all of us. We look forward to seeing you in two weeks, Friday, October 17th for PLP day. Have a great weekend. Brian

Weekly Information for September 26, 2025

By Cindy Johnson • September 27, 2025
Dear Parker Students, Families and Staff, I’ve been thinking a lot about the idea of community lately—what shapes and supports it and why it matters. I think at its core, a community is more than a mere group of people. There is a degree of shared investment in a common purpose or a common value that brings communities together—and there is a willingness and commitment to doing work aligned to our shared purpose or values collectively that both grows from and contributes to community. These traits ideally contribute to a feeling of connection or even belonging that are at the heart of true community. There are many places where I get to see the ways that the people who inhabit Parker every day are building and shaping community. Earlier this week, for example, I spent two blocks with the senior class as they came together as a group to share their Senior Project Declarations—short summaries of what they plan to study for the year, who they will work with, and what they will create. There was a theme song. Each student took a turn sharing their work. Everyone else in the group listened respectfully and celebrated the work others shared. These students already know each other. They have worked together for years—in and out of the classroom—and still, this shared experience gave them an opportunity to learn even more about each other and to share a moment that was at once common and highly individual. This highlights one of the aspects of community that might be easily overlooked: genuine community is not an exercise in sameness, even though it is about something shared. Real community grows from an investment in creating connection across differences, learning together, supporting each other in doing challenging things. Next Tuesday, September 30, we are hosting several events (see details below) including Community Connections Night—which will give any member of the Parker community a chance to come learn about this year’s Senior Class Projects and offer resources and ideas to support the seniors’ ongoing work. We hope you will join us if you can and invest some of your own time and energy in both getting to know and contributing to our rich and vibrant school community. Best wishes, Bex

Weekly Information for September 19, 2025

By Cindy Johnson • September 19, 2025
Dear Parker Students, Families and Staff, It was great to see everyone at Back-to-School night last evening. Thank you for joining us and experiencing Parker as your child does. It was a positive and affirming night for all of us. Parker was founded in 1995 by local parents who wanted to do school differently. They imagined a school where their child was challenged to use their mind well, where they would be known deeply by their teachers in a community with a culture of decency and trust. We are proud to have lived that mission, in partnership with Parker families. We look forward to seeing you at PLP conferences on Friday, October 17th. Your child’s advisor will send details and an opportunity to sign up for a 30-minute session soon. Fall PLP conferences are an essential opportunity for the student to create their own learning goals for the year, with support from their family and advisor. These goals are often aligned to the Parker Habits of Learning including inquiry, organization, collaboration, reflection and perseverance. Students prepare their plans and prep for the meeting in Advisory across the next month. It is a productive and iterative process with meaningful results for our students. Thank you for your help. We appreciate the leadership of the Parker Parent and Caregiver Community (PPCC), founded two years ago to foster an involved and inclusive community. All families are welcome to join the Facebook group at Parker Parent and Caregiver Community | Facebook . Thank you to the PPCC for everything that they do to build and sustain our community, including the warm welcome you extended to new students and families across the spring and summer. We are all better for it. Please join us for a coffee with Bex on Wednesday, October 1st at 8:30 AM in Room 40. As our new Principal, Bex welcomes your perspective and feedback. Join us to say hi. Thank you for your partnership! Brian

Weekly Information for September 12, 2025

By Cindy Johnson • September 13, 2025
Dear Parker Students, Families and Staff, I love the start of a new school year—not just because the empty building comes back to life with the presence of the students, faculty, and families and not just because it is a chance for a new beginning—though I do appreciate those things. What I enjoy most about the start of the school year is the way it sets the important foundation for everything that comes next. The thing about foundations is that they are not particularly glamorous, they are rarely the star of the show. Not many of us notice the foundations of buildings we enter or live in—unless there are problems with them. A good, solid foundation does its job without calling attention to itself, and the foundational ideas and beliefs at the core of what we do and believe at Parker is what I am noticing and appreciating in the foundation building I see happening every day. Here at Parker, the Common Principles are the ideas that matter most to our foundation and the most important work in our classrooms, hallways, clubs, and teams is teaching, practicing, and holding ourselves accountable to the ways we live those out in the day to day work. What does that look like? It looks like extra time in advisory and divisional gatherings in these first few weeks, fostering relationship building with new teachers and new classmates. It looks like learning about the advisory routines for Academic Advising and Academic Block. It looks like reviewing and learning about divisional norms and expectations. When I think about how this translates to classrooms, I am struck by the foundation building in the classes that book-end a student’s academic experience at Parker—7th Seminar which introduces key concepts like the Habits of Learning* , self-advocacy, and the process of revision, and Senior Seminar which challenges students to apply all their Habits and Skills to a year-long independent project they design. Some of what we work really intentionally to build with our students across their years with us is the willingness to try hard things, the perseverance to keep going, and the ability to reflect and revise based on feedback. We intentionally revisit these foundations every year. We intentionally ask our students to apply them to new and more challenging tasks as they progress from division to division. We intentionally shift more and more of the work involved in these tasks to students so that they each build their own solid foundation. Like all good foundations, these might not feel like the most exciting or glamorous work we do. Certainly, big demonstrations of learning like Gateways and Senior Exhibitions get more fanfare—but what I want to celebrate and call to your attention is how every little thing we do now enables those “bigger” things later. So, as we wrap up our first five-day week of the school year, I invite you all to notice and appreciate the foundations you might see being built for the year ahead. Happy Friday and happy weekend! Bex *The eight habits of learning at Parker are Inquiry, Expression, Critical Thinking, Collaboration, Organization, Attentiveness, Involvement and Reflection.

Weekly Information for September 5, 2025

By Cindy Johnson • September 7, 2025
Dear Parker Students, Families and Staff, It is with great pride that I reflect on the first two weeks of our new school year. We all started new routines, embraced our new classes, and made new friends. Congratulations on a terrific launch! Parker was founded on the belief we could do school differently, challenging students to use their minds well in a culture of decency and trust. It starts with knowing our students well, as learners and human beings. We believe that all students can succeed and thrive – and we provide the personalized support and encouragement that students need. Our students and staff work incredibly hard to meet these high standards. As our founders Ted and Nancy Sizer wrote in The Students Are Watching, “What we need to consider and then to create is the kind of environment [that convinces young people that they] are in a place which believes in them – and from which they can, therefore, learn well and deeply.” Through the 10 Common Principles and their leadership as co-principals, Ted and Nancy set the standards for academic rigor, student engagement and community that define Parker today. We are proud of all the ways that our students embrace and live these values every day at Parker. For example, our student Ambassadors and Peer Leaders came in over the summer to welcome and support new students and families. Their kindness and positive energy created a welcoming environment for our newest students. Many of these same students are serving as Peer Mentors to Division 1 advisories. They serve as role models, leading different games and facilitating discussions about school culture. They also run the Halloween party, Mirror Lake trip, Film Festival, and Field Day for Division 1. Our Teaching Assistants (TAs) provide similar support within our academic classes. TAs in 7th Seminar, Spanish, Wellness, and MST provide wisdom, small group facilitation, and one-on-one support. They help set the tone for the class, model appropriate participation and collaboration skills, and make connections with individual students. For example, this week in 7th Seminar, our TAs helped students learn some of the technology that we use to communicate while reflecting on the importance of connecting with their teachers. Finally, our Division 3 students served as leaders and role models during the first Super Advisory yesterday, leading their cross-divisional groups in activities to help build community and connection. They modeled taking risks and the importance of building community. Thank you to everyone who makes Parker a special place to learn and grow up. Together, we are off to a great start!  Brian