October 3, 2019
An academic bilingual community fostering global citizenship
Dear Park Spanish Immersion Elementary School Community,

We have had a great week of student learning. Collectively, our staff members and students are learning how to use spaces and furniture. Our new furniture allows for flexibility, collaboration, and creativity. Punch list items continue to be taken care of, and the facility is feeling more like "home." They are making progress on the playground, despite the rain again this week. Click HERE to see a picture from the playground area yesterday. I am grateful to everyone for their patience as we make our school the best place for our learners.

We are looking forward to conferencing with our families as we celebrate students' strengths, collectively create goals, and talk about how to make it the best year for our students to grow academically, emotionally, and socially. If I can ever be of support, please do not hesitate reaching out. Due to Kids Place being in session during conferences, our doors will be locked as normal. Please enter the building through door 1.

Have a great week, and keep reading!

Sincerely,

Corey Maslowski
Proud Principal
School News
2019-2020: Hope Speaks Project
Parents and families of all races, and their children in grades 3-5, are invited to explore HONEST, OPEN, PERSONAL AND ENGAGED (HOPE) conversations about race and racism. Click HERE to learn more.
School Connections Corner
At PSI, we are working on positive school culture and teaching our students to be upstanders and to be inclusive of others. This week, students in grades 1-5 are participating in  Mix It Up Lunches , where they are encouraged to sit by someone in their class that they don't usually sit with and get to know them better. We have table tents with questions to help students with conversation. We hope some new friendships and connections will develop! Please reinforce being inclusive with your child at home!  

Upcoming activities include  Kindness in Chalk , catching an upstander, and morning greetings in other languages, representing our diverse cultures and backgrounds. These activities will culminate with  Upstander Day   on Wednesday, October 23rd, when students are encouraged to wear Orange.  

Please contact Jennifer Gregor, School Social Worker, ( gregor.jennifer@slpschools.org ) or Anne Moore, School Counselor, ( moore.anne@slpschools.org ) with any questions!  
Kiss & Ride (Parent drop-off and pick-up)
Click HERE to visit our homepage to view/download a map of the Kiss & Ride (student drop-off and pick-up), as well as a procedural video.
PTO News
From PTO... Kindness in Chalk
Kindness In Chalk will be making its debut at the new PSI building! We would LOVE some chalk artists to help create beautiful messages about kindness to surprise the kids! Dad's, mom's, grandparents, staff, amities, neighbors, etc. Bring your village to help! We will be creating the kindness in chalk on Sunday, October 6th from 4-6 pm at PSI for the kids to see on Monday, October 7th. Click HERE to sign up to help!   
From PTO... Dine out for Schools
Parkway Pizza (on Minnetonka Blvd and Dakota Ave S.) will donate 5% of sales to PSI on the FIRST WEDNESDAY of each month. It's a great opportunity to grab an easy dinner and support PSI!  
From PTO... Get to Know our Amity Interns!
The eight PSI Amity Interns are settling into their class assignments this week. The PSI Amity Interns join us from Spanish speaking countries and assist our teachers in the K-5 classrooms. These interns are either pursuing or have recently completed a college degree with an education focus. They are invaluable additions to our PSI classrooms and are funded by the PSI Parent Teacher Organization through the Fall Leer-a-ton and the Spring Carnival fundraising events.

Last but not least, read about our final two Amity interns: María Herrero and Elena Hernández Heras HERE.  
From PTO... Kick Off Leer-a-Tón With an Epic Scavenger Hunt 

Please join us for the Leer-A-Ton kickoff Scavenger Hunt event on Friday, October 11 from 6:00-7:30PM at PSI school. Kids can do the scavenger hunt around the school to claim a treat at the end. They can also participate in a student book swap. Bring a book to swap with a fellow PSI reader!! Fun for the whole family! Please consider volunteering at the event as well by clicking HERE .
From PTO... Lunchroom Help Needed

The PSI Lunchroom needs you!! Please consider volunteering in the PSI lunchroom. Whether you’ve done it weekly or this will be your first time, we would love to have you there! Click HERE to see details and to see available time slots. Thank you so much!!
From PTO... Support our teachers, staff and admins

Show the teachers, staff and admins at PSI how much we appreciate ALL their hard work by bringing in monthly treats! Please sign up HERE !
School District #283 News
Bus Transportation Update... from SLP Transportation
We have had a challenging start to the year for some of our school bus routes, and we want to provide you with some information about the causes and what has been done to correct the issues.

This year the district has taken a new approach to transportation.  Our goal is that these changes will create greater efficiency and flexibility in the future, but they have impacted our families in ways that we are working to correct. Our new approach involves our same district partners, Park Adam Transportation as our regular transportation vendor, MTI as our special education transportation vendor, and K12 Transportation as our transportation management company. We are transitioning to new communication methods and new ways to use our routing software. Later this year, we will roll out new technology to give parents access to real-time transportation information that we hope you will find to be useful. As always, student safety is our primary concern and all of our partners prioritize the safety of your children above all other things.

In addition to these changes this fall, the routing for PSI was complicated by several factors, some of which could become clear only once buses were running in real time. 
  1. New school location - PSI's new location is not as central as its previous location, so the timing of routes had to be re-established. In some cases, the routing software did not accurately forecast route timing. 
  2. Dedicated PSI bus routes - PSI students are no longer routed along with high school students, so our school's student body is now routed on 13 dedicated buses rather than 24 high school/PSI buses. For this reason, the combinations of bus stops and student ridership patterns had to be re-created and then efficiently integrated within the entire district transportation system. In some cases, our routing software created routes that had higher ridership than expected which created timing issues.
As drivers become familiar with new routes, timing issues often correct themselves. As we identify those routes that will not self-correct, we are making adjustments and sending new bus route information via email from  Transportation@slpschools.org . This modifications will continue as we work to balance our new PSI routes. If you have questions, you can connect with the transportation department at 612-437-4719 or at  transportation@slpschools.org





Dr. Corey Maslowski, Principal
Follow me on Twitter @PSIPrincipal

Park Spanish Immersion Elementary School
9400 Cedar Lake Road
St. Louis Park, MN 55426 
 
School Hours: 8:25 a.m. - 2:55 p.m.
School Office Hours: 7:45 am - 4:00 pm

PSI Main Office: 952-928-6555
24Hr-Attendance: 952-928-6570
Health Office: 952-928-6554
PSI Fax: 952-928-6556
School Nutrition: 952-928-6567
St. Louis Park Public Schools Transportation Department (Bus) 612-437-4719
St. Louis
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