Park Spanish Immersion Parent Teacher Organization

The 2024 PSI Science & Imagination Fair will be held on Monday, January 8th, 2024 from 6:00-7:30pm at the Middle School Field House. The new venue is a big change from previous years, and being at the Middle School Field House should give us a lot more room for the event!

The goal of the Science and Imagination Fair is to encourage all families to participate and nurture our children’s love of science and imagination! Keep in mind that projects do not have to be a traditional “science project”. Past projects have included catapults, observations of neighborhood birds, and sculptures, to name a few. Winter break is a great time for your child to begin working on their project. Each child will have half of a standard folding table to display their project projects on. The goal of the fair is to encourage all families to participate and nurture our children’s love of science and imagination!

Registration is open! Please fill it out at this link!

Hello PSI Community! We hope you all had a great summer, it’s hard to believe that school will officially start next week!

Mark your calendars for our 2nd annual PSI PTO Kick-off Party at Oak Hill. It will be on Tuesday, September 26th from 5-7pm. The event was a huge success last year, with great turnout and we’ll have even more food trucks and more fun this year! The entire school is invited, it’s a great way to meet other families and this year’s new amity interns. The kick-off is also the best way to hear about all of the PTO volunteer opportunities available for the year and sign up for those that interest you.

The PTO was busy over the summer and you might notice at drop-off that we were able to purchase and install four new picnic tables in the grassy area outside the kiss-and-ride doors. Our teachers have already used them while enjoying a PTO-sponsored lunch for their first prep day back at school this week. Check out the picture!

Finally, we’d be remiss if we didn’t mention how tremendously successful our fundraising efforts were last year. Thanks to the entire Park Spanish community, we blew our fundraising goals out of the water. At the beginning of the 2022-23 school year, we set a goal to raise $54,000 and your extraordinary generosity resulted in us raising over $70,000! As you well know, costs everywhere are increasing, and this fundraising puts us on firm financial footing. Our amity program has seen the largest inflation in costs, but we are well-funded to sponsor 8 interns this year. You’ll see them in the school and at events all year long! We plan to offer a full slate of PTO-sponsored events this coming year as well, so thank you again for all your generosity.

Keep an eye on psiparents.com, La Prensa, and the ‘PSI Parents’ Facebook page for PTO updates throughout the year. We’re looking forward to making this a great year with you!

PSI Teachers enjoying the PTO sponsored lunch on the new picnic tables.

Let’s say a big “thank you” to the staff at Park Spanish Immersion Elementary School by participating in Staff Appreciation Week!  Staff Appreciation Week will be held on May 1-5. The theme of this week will be “Self Care”. We plan on showering the staff with special treats, meals, and self-care items throughout the whole week.

Donations for food items are requested here in this Sign Up Genius link: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/5080b4babaf28a57-staff#/

Please make note of the date and time your donation is needed. There are 75 staff members in the building to treat each day. If you are unable to donate a food item but would still like to contribute, please contribute to the PTO fund using this link: PSI PTO PayPal. Please note “Staff Appreciation Week” in the comments.

Thanks everyone for thinking of our wonderful PSI staff!

For any questions, please reach out to one of the parent organizers:

Katie (katienewton_2@hotmail.com)

Melissa (melhoag@yahoo.com)

Molly (mollycarpenter76@gmail.com)

Sally (sjhagen3@gmail.com)

The 2022-23 edition of the PSI Yearbook is on sale now!

Order online at https://ybpay.lifetouch.com/ (yearbook ID code is 3271923). Cost is $15/book.

Order deadline is March 31, with yearbooks delivered towards the end of the school year. Order now so you don’t forget!

We’d like to take a moment to send a HUGE THANK YOU to our wonderful Spring Host Families! Thanks to all of you for opening your homes and hearts to this great group of people and for being positive ambassadors for the Amity Intern program. Muchas gracias!!

• Betsy & Josh Howe – María Carazo, España
• Emily & Joel Barker – Franklin Díaz, El Salvador
• Jen & Rich Benson – Daniel Ferrero, España
• Lisa & Jesse Valley – Pilar Hinojosa – España
• Angie & Chris Johnson – Chris Martínez, Colombia
• Laurie Swabey & Andrew Keith – Adrián Simonetti, España
• Jodi & Eric Lindskog – Joaquin Vilas, España
• Stacey & Chad Stewart – Lisbeth Villalobos, El Salvador

Is your family interested in hosting next year? Please contact us at psiamity@gmail.com!

Come together with other PSI families to dig into identity and racial equity topics in a family-friendly environment.

We’ll meet in the middle school cafeteria for a free pizza dinner at 5pm and then move into the middle school auditorium to watch Zootopia at 5:45.  After the movie we’ll discuss questions together about themes presented in the movie.

Mark your calendars for the El Carnaval de PSI on Saturday, May 13, 12:00-2:30PM. More details to come!

It’s time for the

Park Spanish Immersion PTO Silent Auction

All proceeds support the PSI Amity Program and other PTO sponsored events.

We a have an incredible line of items available this year.  Bidding opens at 12pm CST on Saturday March 11th and ends at 10pm on Friday March 17th

Student Activities:

• Ride to school in a fire truck
• Ride to school in a police car
• Twin Cities Tennis Camp
• Movie and Game party with teachers
• Crafts and Sports Parties with Amities

Tickets:

• Minnesota Twins
• Vikings and Gophers Football
• Hyland Hills
• Chanhassen Dinner Theater
• Orange Theory
• ValleyFair
• Minnesota Children’s Theater

Family Activities:

• Kickball Parties
• Donuts at a Playground
• Adult Wine Tasting
• Hotel Ivy Getaway
• Ladies Dodgeball and Pizza

Gift Cards

• Murray’s Steakhouse
• La Bodega
• Honey & Rye
• JJ’s Clubhouse
• Parkway Pizza

Thanks to our generous school community, we have raised $32,000 this year!

The majority came from the $24,000 we raised during Leer-a-tón. This surpassed our $20,000 goal. Learn more about our budget here.

Our next big fundraiser, the online silent auction, kicks off on March 11th.

Let’s see if we can surpass our goal again, which is $15,000. Up for auction are: restaurant gift cards, sports tickets, passes to attractions in the area and events unique to PSI for kids, families and adults.

Details to come!

For more information on how you can help, please click these links:

• How I can get involved
• Events

For more information contact psivolunteers@gmail.com

The 2022-23 edition of the PSI Yearbook is on sale now! Order online at https://ybpay.lifetouch.com/ (yearbook ID code is 3271923).

Cost is $15/book.

Order deadline is March 31, with yearbooks delivered towards the end of the school year.

Do it now before you forget!

Fifth Grade parents, your child’s baby/toddler photo will be featured in this year’s yearbook as we get ready to send these babies off to Middle School. Please send one of the following:

1. High resolution jpeg image sent to psiyearbook@gmail.com; Please put your child’s name and classroom teacher in the subject line.

2. Hard copy photo labeled on the back with your child’s name and classroom teacher. Send an envelope to school marked “Yearbook”; Turn into the office or have your child give it to their teacher. Photos will be returned to you before the end of the school year.

All submissions due by March 1, 2023.

Please come check the racks of Lost & Found for your child’s missing items. Volunteers will be going through all items at the end of February. They’ll collect, wash and donate usable unclaimed items to STEP around March 1.

Remember to LABEL all our child’s items (i.e. water bottle, boots, sweatshirts, shoes, jackets, etc.) so we can return them to you.

Our apologies for the site outage that started the morning of January 18th and ran through the morning of January 19th.  Our service provider had an unexpected outage that took them some time to fix.

The 2022-23 edition of the PSI Yearbook is on sale now! Order online at https://ybpay.lifetouch.com/ (yearbook ID code is 3271923).

Cost is $15/book.

Order deadline is March 31, with yearbooks delivered towards the end of the school year. Do it now before you forget!

Due to severe winter weather, we are announcing a two-hour delayed start for Wednesday, January 11, 2023. All school bus pick-up times will be two hours later than normally scheduled. There will be no Early Learning morning Pre-School. Please know that KidsPlace will be available at all school sites for students enrolled in morning child care beginning at 7 a.m., as normal. All day KidsPlace Pre-School will also open at 7 am.

School Start Times (two-hour delay) – Wednesday, Jan, 11

•Aquila, Susan Lindgren, Peter Hobart, Park Spanish Immersion: Start at 9:45 a.m.
•High School: Start at 10:25 a.m.
•Middle School: Start at 11:05 a.m.
•No Early Learning morning Pre-School; All day KidsPlace Pre-School will open at 7 am.

Track your Student’s Bus:
Families can download the Traversa 360 App to view real-time mapping for school bus arrival for pick-up and afternoon drop-off. We understand there have been some issues with the application. We are working to have these issues resolved.

Stay tuned to slpschools.org for the latest information. Thank you for your understanding and flexibility with this information. Please stay safe.

Our Lost & Found is overflowing. Please take a moment to look through and claim items that belong to your child(ren). You’ll find the Lost & Found in the hallway between the media center and the gym (by door #2). Any remaining items will be donated at the end of January.

And as a reminder, please be sure to label everything so that items left behind can find their way home again!

Due to severe winter weather, St. Louis Park Public Schools will have staggered early release times to allow more time for afternoon transportation on Tuesday, Jan 3, 2023.