June 12, 2026

Weekly Information for June 12, 2026

Share Post

Dear Parker Students, Families and Staff,

It has been a joyful and celebratory week at Parker. 187 students successfully Gatewayed in every division and every domain. The students showcased their learning, reflected on their growth, and celebrated the demonstration of learning that defines Gateways – and as the Common Principle concludes, “the emphasis is on the students’ demonstration that they can do important things.” Congratulations to our students for doing important things at Parker, all year and this week.


We are heading towards the Big End next Thursday, June 18th. That is a long tradition of saying goodbye for the summer, signing yearbooks, and having a little fun as a community. Reminder that we have Noon dismissals on both Wednesday and Thursday next week. Junior retreat starts on Monday. Div 1 and Div 2 field trips are on Tuesday.


We are pleased to announce that Parker will be helping with the summer camp at the Boys and Girls Club of Leominster and Fitchburg. The camp runs for six weeks for students entering grades 1-8. Parker will be running a series of science exploration sessions. See the attached flyer below for details. We value our terrific partnership with the BGCFL.


We will send the final newsletter of the school year next Thursday. Thank you for helping to make Parker a very special place.



Brian

This week’s topics: 
  • Noon Dismissals
  • The BIG END
  • Yondr Recollection
  • Medication Pick-Ups
  • School Issued Laptops
  • Rotary Youth Leadership Award
  • CPR Certification Cards
  • Summer Blast at the Boys & Girls Club
  • Niños Más Necesitados
  • Loaves & Fishes Food Drive
  • Students NOT Returning
  • Contact Info Update
  • Lost & Found - FINAL CHECK
Noon Dismissals

Reminder that Reminder that next Wednesday, June 17 and Thursday, June 18, are noon dismissals. Please arrange to have your student picked up at noon, as there is no after-school coverage and the building closes.


The BIG END is THURSDAY, June 18th!

The BIG END is an event to mark the end of the school year at Parker School – a festive occasion with GATEWAY acknowledgments, the NEW ESSENTIAL QUESTION, YEARBOOKS, and food. If you forgot to order a YEARBOOK, a limited number will be available for purchase during the BIG END. Hard cover books are $60, soft cover books are $40, and Division 1 books are $20. Bring cash or a check made out to the Parker School.


Yondr Recollection

We will be recollecting all Yondr pouches to store for the summer and redistribute to students in the fall. Division 1 and 2 students will be asked to turn in their Yondr pouch to their advisor at the end of the day on Wednesday, June 17. Juniors handed in their yondr pouches today in advance of the junior retreat. For Yondr pouches which are lost or damaged, there will be a replacement fee (please see Parker Technology Fees). Thank you in advance for your assistance in helping your student remember to bring these items back to school in good condition.


Medication Pick-ups

Please make arrangements to pick up your student's inhaler, EpiPen, and any other medication from the Health Office by noon on June 18th. With permission, some medications can be sent home with the student. Please email lzick@theparkerschool.org if you would like your student to take their medication home in their backpack. Thank you!


School Issued Laptops

Most students will hold on to their devices (laptop, stylus, and power cord) over the summer and continue to use their assigned devices into subsequent years. Students who are not returning or unenrolling during the summer must return their devices to the Tech Office. Seventh graders will return their laptops and will get an email with more information in the days ahead. Students who are not able to take their devices over the summer (for instance, if you are moving and worried about it getting lost) may store their laptops with Gabby. Missing equipment can be purchased online: UniPay Technology Replacement Payment


Rotary Youth Leadership Award

Congratulations to John Marble and Amber Edmondson who are Parker's 2026 recipients of the Rotary Youth Leadership Award (RYLA). John and Amber will attend the RYLA conference at Fitchburg State University from June 26 - June 28. Students are nominated for RYLA based on leadership, community involvement, and the positive impact they have on their community. Included in this photo is Elsa Pierpont (at right, RYLA '25) who now volunteers as a RYLA Group Facilitator. We are very proud of these outstanding students!


CPR Certification Cards

In Wellness all students have completed the final unit of the year, CPR. In this unit students are learned important lifesaving skills through the American Heart Savers course. Students are now completing a practical CPR test on a mannequin. Upon completion of this test students have the option to purchase a certification card. This card costs $10. If you are interested in purchasing a card for your student, please use Unipay. Please use the miscellaneous payments tab and write in CRP as a note. Final day for CPR card purchase is Friday, June 15th Please reach out to your students Wellness teacher if you have any questions about this.


Summer Blast at Boys & Girls Club

Registration is open for the 2026 Summer Blast program at the Boys and Girls Club of Fitchburg and Leominster. See flyer for more information: Summer Blast Flyer ENGLISH.png


Niños Más Necesitados

There will be a box in the lobby to collect donations for Niños Más Necesitados until Thursday June 18th. We’re asking for backpacks (used are welcome), pencils, and other school supplies for children in Guatemala without access to school supplies. See or email Alec with questions.


Loaves & Fishes Food Drive

Alec’s, Aliza’s, and Jo’s advisories community service project is kicking off a food drive to support Loaves & Fishes in providing summer lunches for local students! We are collecting non-perishable breakfast and lunch items, and we invite your student to participate by bringing in donations. Collection bins will be located in the school lobby through June 13. Thank you for helping us support our community and ensure all students have access to nutritious meals this summer!


Students NOT Returning to Parker in the Fall (other than Seniors)

If your students are not planning to return to Parker in the fall, we request you kindly do the following:

We wish you and your family all the best as you continue your academic journey. As always, please reach out if there are any questions!


Contact Info Update

Do we have your CURRENT email address, cell phone number, home phone number, and mailing address? If you have changed any of your contact information, please send an update to Monique (mbeganski@theparkerschool.org). We appreciate your time!


Lost & Found - FINAL Check!

You are welcome to check the LOST & FOUND at any time during these final weeks of school to see if there are any items belonging to you or your loved ones! ALL unclaimed items will be donated after the school year ends.


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-Wed - Jun 15-17 Junior Retreat
Tue - Jun 16 Divisional Trip Day
Wed - Jun 17 Noon dismissal
Thu - Jun 18 Big End - Last Day of School
Thu - Jun 18 Noon Dismissal
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 race, color, sex, pregnancy, 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 30th, 2026

By Xalli Gordon-Chavez • November 2, 2026
Parker Weekly Family Email for Friday, October 30, 2026 Dear Parker students, families and staff, What a community does together, when and why we gather, and how a group notes and celebrates accomplishments not only reflects what we value but also shapes who we are. It probably goes without saying that as a school, we focus significantly on the learning our students do and the aspects of the program that support intellectual growth. We showcase and celebrate the academic work and learning of our students in many ways—and I would argue that it is just as important that we celebrate and recognize the athletic and artistic accomplishments of our community and that we make regular efforts to build relationships and have fun together. Recently we held the annual 4 square tournament, anticipated yearly by students and faculty alike. This tradition always garners players and fans from throughout the community from Div 1 to the faculty. This past Wednesday featured another fun tradition: the Division 1 Advisory Halloween Party. This event is possible because every advisory takes some ownership for the event. Each group, with the support of their Peer Mentors, hosted a “booth” and students took turns facilitating and playing a series of games. People had fun together guessing the amount of candy in a jar, bowling, spinning wheels of fortune, and racing to unwrap objects from a ball of saran wrap. Events like these demonstrate the value of weaving joy and fun into the serious work and learning we do together in this community. As the fall sports seasons close out or move into post-season, we also have several additional athletic accomplishments to share: the boys’ varsity soccer team celebrated their seniors this week after a final game where all 3 senior members of the team scored goals. Congratulations to the team and seniors San Marshall, Will Schneider, and Connor Wentrup! Our girls’ varsity soccer team has qualified for the state tournament for the 7 th year in a row. Congratulations to the team and their seniors: Keira Collins, Gracie Condon, Fiona Connelly, Elsie Mitchell, Ellen Moriarty, Bontu Piazza, and Delaney Rezac! Turning our eye toward the cross country teams, who ended the regular season undefeated with the middle school boys’ and girls’ teams winning their respective championships, both JV cross-country teams finishing first, and both varsity teams finishing as runners up. Congratulations to all our runners and especially to seniors Elsa Pierpont, Heidi Lewis, Cy Lance, Danny Garrison, Nathan Davis, and Liam Mullen. Looking ahead, we invite and encourage you to join in supporting and celebrating the passions and hard work of our community members in the weeks ahead. Next week, our theater crew will be putting on their production of Puffs. See below for more details and please join the audience for one of the performances. Additionally, the cross-country middle school state finals are November 7 and high school state championships are November 21. Please consider being a spectator and supporter at either or both events. Wishing you all a sunny and safe weekend. Best, Bex

Weekly Information for October 26th, 2026

By Xalli Gordon-Chavez • October 26, 2026
Parker Weekly Family Email for Friday, October 23, 2026 Dear Parker students, families and staff, We want to recognize and celebrate three students who received Letters of Commendation from the National Merit Scholarship Program this week. We are very proud of Arlo Taylor, Chrys Olsen, and Andrew Roberdeau who were in the top 2% of all high school students who took the PSAT last year. We celebrated their accomplishment with a lovely breakfast with their family and friends. Thank you to those who joined us. It felt like a Gateway celebration, with everyone sharing reflections and words of support for Arlo, Chrys, and Andrew. It is a moment of pride for all of us. It was also an opportunity to reflect on Parker, a school committed to intellectual rigor, depth over coverage, and personalization. By challenging our students to use their minds well and engage deeply in real problems, Parker students develop live-long skills. They learn how to learn, not merely what to learn, and develop the habits of learning that set them up for an ever-changing world. We measure these skills through authentic assessments and public exhibitions, not standardized tests. That doesn’t take away from the success of our students on tests like the PSAT. It shows that we can do both – use our mind well and excel at external measures at the same time. One of our goals is to further measure student outcomes directly related to the Parker experience. For example, we are looking at revision data to better understand the rate and efficacy at which students revise their assessments. As you know, our teachers provide extensive feedback on student work with the hope and expectation that students revise. How often do students revise their work and what is the impact when they do? We are committed to telling that story as well. Thank you to everyone who contributes to the proven success of our students.  Brian

Weekly Information for October 16th, 2026

By Xalli Gordon-Chavez • October 20, 2026
Parker Weekly Family Email for Friday, October 16th, 2026 Dear Parker students, families and staff, There’s a “slow hobby” movement that seems to have reached a saturation point in my online media algorithms. Some examples of slow hobbies are knitting, gardening, and reading, but there are many others. At this point, I feel like I see references to this topic or the benefits of slow hobbies relatively routinely, and it got me thinking differently about the upsides of taking time and slowing down, something that is actually quite counter cultural in our fast moving, technology-oriented world. One thing I have learned through all this recent exposure to slow hobbies and their benefits is that there are actually two kinds of dopamine, a key reward chemical in our brains that relates to not only motivation but also aspects of our physical health such as sleep regulation or immune system functioning. There is fast dopamine and there is slow dopamine—and these slow hobbies release slow dopamine, which results in longer lasting, positive effects. To get these longer lasting results though, we have to be willing to put in some time and effort. We have to stick with something and sustain it. As students and advisors wrap up their work documenting Personal Learning Plan (PLP) goals and strategies after last week’s conferences, it occurred to me that this goal setting work is an exercise in slow dopamine release. Students take time to identify real things they want to work on throughout the year, and they develop clear plans and strategies. These goals have the potential to help shape a student’s focus and attention on not just what they are doing in school but how they are developing as a person and learner through that process. At the end of the year, being able to achieve a long-term goal like those our students have just spent time setting in their PLPs also helps release slow dopamine. Along with that, we hope focusing on and achieving these big goals will also help students discover some personal reward in their learning experiences and the accomplishments that can only happen over time. Best wishes for a restful weekend.  Bex

Weekly Information for October 9th, 2026

By Xalli Gordon-Chavez • October 9, 2026
Parker Weekly Family Email for Friday, October 9th, 2026 Dear Parker Students, Families and Staff, Thank you for joining us for today’s PLP meetings. We appreciate the hard work that students and advisors put into the day, creating goals and strategies for the year ahead. Many of our students were both nervous and excited to lead their PLP meetings. Congratulations on this important milestone. Why do Parker students write Personal Learning Plans and why do we dedicate one day in October and another in March to review PLPs with families? PLPs are an essential component of our personalized education, in direct partnership with families. PLPs provide a structured opportunity for students to develop the Habits of Learning – skills such as perseverance, organization and reflection. PLPs help students develop agency in their own learning, authoring their own goals and strategies that they personally embrace. Our mission is “to move the child to the center of the education process and to interrelate the several subjects of the curriculum in such a way as to enhance their meaning for the child” (Charter, October 1994). Thank you for helping us to do just that. We want to commend all the students and teachers who attended Nature’s Classroom this week. It was a tremendous opportunity for students to step outside their comfort zone and learn in a different setting. We are proud of you for embracing this opportunity. As Kalista and Matt wrote to Division 1 families upon their return, “we were really impressed by the resilience, good humor, and positive middle school energy our students demonstrated here.” Welcome home. Finally, thanks to teachers Anna, Alec, and Gale and students Lana, Lindsay, and Freddie for representing Parker at the CLEE Fall Meeting this week. They shared their work with educators from around the country, presenting our hands-on and reflective approach to learning. We appreciate the many ways that our students and teachers help to disseminate our work. We were recently rated by DESE as “exemplary” at dissemination, a responsibility of charter schools to serve as laboratories and share our learning with others. We are always proud to share our work and learn from others. Have a great weekend. Brian

Weekly Information for October 2nd, 2026

By Xalli Gordon-Chavez • October 5, 2026
Dear Parker Students, Families and Staff, Dear members of the Parker community, The start of something new often feels quite busy to me. Part of that is, I think, the very real number of logistics that need to be managed and the time it takes to get into a routine, and part of it is the emotion that comes with settling in—sometimes excitement, sometimes nervousness, sometimes other feelings—as we get used to how this new thing works and it moves toward familiar. This September has held true to that idea as we all settled into the new school year together and it has felt busy. This past Tuesday, we hosted three different events—Parker 101 for our new families, an event focused on explaining the way assessment and feedback works at Parker as well as how PLP conferences work; Support our Seniors Night, where families share a potluck dinner and hear about the important components of the Senior Project, Senior year, and the path to graduation; and Community Connections Night, where our Seniors share information about and gather resources from community members to support their year-long, individually-designed Senior Projects. In Parker 101, several of our students shared work from their Division 1 gateway portfolios and explained the assignment, what skills they worked to demonstrate, how the revision process works and what they learned by engaging in the work they did. They also talked about the Habits of Learning and how reflecting on their work and learning helped them to learn about themselves and grow. Some of our student presenters’ parents and guardians joined us as well to reflect on their own experiences as they have supported their students through learning at Parker, including helping new families understand how PLP conferences work and the important role families play in that process. As we closed out our Parker 101 session, families were invited to cross the hall and see what their students will be doing when they are seniors—designing a year-long, independent project that includes research, experiential learning, collaboration, developing a product, and presenting their work. I can’t think of a better way to explain what learning at Parker looks like than to let our students speak for themselves and show their real work. It was a gift to hear students reflecting on their learning in Div 1 and to see how all of the Skill Areas and Habits of Learning come together to help students work through their Senior Projects. We always hope that the pieces will come together in the end as we get things started, and this week reminded me not only that the pieces do come together quite nicely, but also of the many different ways they can do so here. That, I believe, is one of the strengths that help us as a school to support students as individual learners and that allows us to balance the Common Principles of goals applying to all students and personalization. Wishing you all the best as we move into October.  Bex

Weekly Information for September 25, 2026

By Monique Benganski • September 25, 2026
Dear Parker Students, Families and Staff, We are committed to ensuring that Parker is a safe and supportive environment for all students. Not only does this align with our common principles of democracy and equity and establishing a tone of decency and trust, we believe it is critical to support student learning and growth. We believe that Parker should honor diversity, demonstrate inclusive practices, and explicitly challenge all forms of inequity. We believe that families are key collaborators and vital members of our school community. Today, we reaffirm these values in support of immigrant students and families, many of whom feel unsafe in the current climate. On August 5, 2026, Governor Healey signed the PROTECT Act, a law that prohibits civil law enforcement, including federal immigration enforcement, on school grounds without a Judicial Warrant or Judicial Order. This law applies during school hours, student drop off and pick up windows, before and after-school programming and school-sponsored events, on and off campus. If you would like to read the full policy, please see the Parker Community Handbook… COMMUNITY HANDBOOK All children have the right to attend public schools regardless of their national origin or immigration status. We are committed to ensuring that students and families may come to school without fear and will comply with all applicable state laws to ensure protection. We continue to maintain open and timely communication with our students and families. We work together to support and live our core values. Please reach out with questions or concerns. Respectfully, Brian