January 26, 2025

Weekly Information for January 24, 2025

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Dear Parker students, families and staff,


Congratulations to all the students who Gatewayed the past two days. It has been a joyful and celebratory week at Parker. We are proud of the hard work, perseverance and accomplishment of our students! Second semester begins on Tuesday, January 28th. Reminder that Monday is professional development day for Parker staff, so no school for students. Best of luck to the many students with new classes starting on Tuesday. That includes all Division 3 students, those who recently Gatewayed and a few new 7th graders joining Parker.


As you may know, we celebrate our 30th Anniversary this year. Parker opened the doors in 1995 on the idea that we could put students at the center of all learning, challenge students to use their minds well, prioritize depth over coverage, demonstrate mastery and support one another with a tone of decency and trust. Thirty years of student success proves that the idea works. To celebrate, we are hosting a 30th Anniversary Gala and fundraiser on Saturday, April 5th at the Bull Run in Shirley. Please join us as we honor three decades of excellence and look forward to a bright future together! For more information and to buy tickets, please visit www.parker.school/gala.


Finally, the Massachusetts Charter Public Schools Association (MCPSA) hosts Advocacy Week starting Monday, February 3rd at 6:00 PM on Zoom. Join us! Every year the MCPSA brings families, teachers, leaders and trustees together to speak with one voice in support of charter public schools on Beacon Hill. The experiences of families and students are particularly meaningful. This work has led to significant increases in facility aid, educator diversity, charter expansion and more. We are proud to support the effort and celebrate the tremendously positive impact of charter schools like Parker. To sign up, please visit MA Charter Public School Advocacy Week Kick Off Rally — Massachusetts Charter Public School Association.



Brian

This week’s topics: 
  • Monday Faculty Planning
  • Yearbooks – Prices Increase Soon
  • Join the Dance Team!
  • Try the Bus, Fare Free!
  • Substitute Nurses Needed
  • Valentines Appreciation
  • Join Parker Concert Band this Spring!

Monday Faculty Planning

Monday is a faculty planning day, and students should not come to school as there are no classes. Our second semester will begin on Tuesday.


Yearbooks

One week left until prices increase. Order your 2024-2025 yearbook by January 31st for $5 off regular prices. Hard cover and soft cover books all have the same content while the Division 1 books contain the same whole school and Division 1 sections but not the sections for Division 2, Juniors, Seniors, and senior parent ad pages. Currently, hard cover books are $55, soft cover books are $35, and Division 1 books are $15.


Join the Dance Team!

Join Parker’s new dance team! All experience and grade levels are welcome! The season will run through June and the team will develop routines to perform at various school functions. Practices are on Wednesdays from 2:00-4:00 and Saturdays from 9-12. (Saturday practices start on 2/8.) The cost to participate is $100 for the season (need-based assistance is available). Students must register and provide proof of physical prior to the first practice.

Please click here to register: https://forms.office.com/r/w9iNsHZbNs. Contact Laurel with questions at lronan@theparkerschool.org.


Try the Bus, Fare Free!

MART (Montachusett Regional Transit Authority) buses and shuttles are fare free until at least June 2025. MART buses are open to all members of the public and a safe, reliable, greener form of transportation in the Northern Central Massachusetts region. The majority of our bus routes are in Leominster, Fitchburg, and Gardner, with many shuttles reaching other towns. Please click this link to learn more about riding the bus.


Substitute Nurses Needed

We are looking for substitute nurses to help in the Health Office and to go on occasional field trips with the students. If you are an LPN or RN, please email Nurse Lisa at lzick@theparkerschool.org if you are interested.


Faculty and Staff Valentine Appreciation Book Love Event Organized by PPCC

The Parker Parent and Caregiver Community (PPCC) invites you to show our Parker staff a little love by helping gift a book or gift card to every staff member. If you would like to participate, you will randomly be assigned a staff member and given information on their book preferences. You would then purchase a book or gift card as a gift from the Parker community for that staff member and drop it off or have it mailed to Parker. Gifts should be delivered before the February break begins on the 14th. If you're ready to sign up or have questions, please complete the form at this link before January 31st: https://forms.gle/t4FekkQ8tvYUUGSp6. Thank you for helping to celebrate and appreciate Parker’s stellar staff!


Parker Concert Band is accepting new members for the Spring Semester!

Parker’s Concert Band is rehearsing for our next concert. We had a rousing performance at Café Holiday last month, and we plan TWO more concerts this coming semester. Even though the second semester hasn’t started, new students can join us now to get a head-start on our next program. The band rehearses after school on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 3:30 to 4:30 PM. The Activity Fee for each semester is $100 and need-based assistance is available. Need an instrument? Parker has many instruments available for loan at no charge - just ask us! If you have learned the basics of any band instrument, please join us this spring! No auditions are necessary: you just need to have learned the basics of playing your instrument. Students who are interested should Teams chat, email, or visit Jim Desmond (Room 13) or Marena Cole (Room 43

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 27 Faculty Planning (No Classes)
Tue - Jan 28 Second Semester Begins
Tue-Wed; Feb 4-5 10th Grade Biology MCAS
Wed - Feb 12 Café Wednesday
Thu - Feb 13 Board of Trustees
Fri - Feb 14 Noon Dismissal
Mon-Fri; Feb 17-21 Winter Break

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

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
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
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
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.
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
By Cindy Johnson August 30, 2025
Dear Parker Students, Families and Staff, Welcome Back! We are delighted to be back to school, to welcome almost 100 new students and families, and to begin another school year together. Thank you to our Peer Leaders, PPCC and everyone on staff who helped to welcome new students and families to Parker. Everyone at Parker experienced changes this year, as we walked through the renovated walkway, welcomed our new Principal, Bex Wilucz, and adjusted to new schedules and routines. We are so proud of all our students for embracing these changes, for doing your best work and for being supportive of your classmates. Parker is an extraordinary place because of you! Thank you and congratulations for a terrific first week. We are all looking forward to another great year at Parker. Enjoy the long weekend. Brian