Free English classes for parents at Park Middle School Tuesday & Thursday 6:00-7:30 Includes free childcare for children 0 – 12 years Begins Tuesday, June 5th Call 402.475.3774 – Ask for Sandra. Habla Español.

It is Teacher Appreciation Week! Thank your wonderful teachers for all they do and have done to mold the lives of our students. I will never forget the teachers who impacted my education. Thank you teachers!

Awards Night is Monday, April 30 @ 6:30 p.m. in the Park gym. We will be recognizing nearly 400 students for outstanding academic performance. Go Panthers!

Thank you Allstate for the helping hands in beautifying our courtyards!

Park families, I’m excited to announce that Ms. Charlotte Everts will be the next Park Middle School principal starting in the fall. Ms. Everts is currently the associate principal at Goodrich Middle School here in Lincoln, and prior to her role as associate principal she was instructional coordinator at Goodrich and a teacher at Lefler Middle School. She earned her Bachelor's degree from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and her Master's degree from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. We will have an opportunity for students and families to visit with Ms. Everts more this spring and we will send you more information about those opportunities soon. I know she will enjoy the wonderful students and families at Park as much as I have. Ryan Zabawa Principal Park Middle School

McTeacher's Night is Wednesday, March 7 from 4:00-8:00 p.m. at McDonald's on West O Street. Join us.

Park Families, Many of you have seen the disturbing news regarding the high school shooting in Parkland, Florida. Our thoughts go out to the students and their families, school staff and the community of Parkland. Since this terrible situation is attracting significant news coverage, I want to provide you with information on the ongoing efforts at Lincoln Public Schools to keep students safe. In addition, I want to share some suggestions that may be helpful in talking with your student about this traumatic event. Student safety continues to be our school district’s top priority and we have many procedures and systems in place. Many of the systems have been in place for decades, however, we also continue to review and improve them each year. Our system of safety measures includes but is not limited to: Practicing regular drills to prepare for a wide range of emergencies, including active shooters. Adding security cameras at all our high schools. Developing a solid Threat Assessment/Management Program at LPS. For more information: http://home.lps.org/threat/ Establishing Standard Response Protocol (plain language protocol for emergency situations). For more information: http://iloveuguys.org/srp.html Ensuring crisis response plans at each school. Partnering with local law enforcement and safety experts. Some of these practices are required by federal and state laws, many are school level practices based on school-specific research - and some are best practices developed through lessons learned from events like the one in Florida. We work closely with the LPS security team and the Lincoln Police Department to continuously evaluate our safety protocols and to practice with our staff and students in the event of an emergency. Our most important partnerships, however, are with our students and families. Parents play an important role in communicating and reinforcing school safety procedures with their children. Parents can also reinforce with their children that if they see something that doesn't look right or hear something that doesn't sound right, please tell a trusted adult at school or home. We also understand that your student may have feelings about this event. Please remember that there is no single way to express fear or confusion - many different reactions are possible and normal. It is unique to each individual in each circumstance. Adults, through their calm and reassuring behavior, can help young people keep challenging experiences in perspective. We suggest you listen to your students, and deal honestly and directly with their questions. For advice to talk with and help children and youth after a traumatic event, go to this link: https://www.lps.org/parents/documents/tips-for-talking-about-traumatic-events.pdf We work together at Lincoln Public Schools to provide the safest and most productive learning environment possible in all our buildings. Everyone at LPS is working hard to ensure student safety and provide support for students. Please feel free to contact us with comments or concerns. Ryan Zabawa Principal Park Middle School

Parent/Teacher Conferences Thursday, Feb. 8 from 3:30-6:30 pm.

Happy Cold Day! Wednesday will be a Y day.

Attention 8th Graders: High School Info Nights: East - Wednesday, Jan 10, 6:30 pm Southwest - Thursday, Jan 11, 6:30 pm Southeast - Tuesday, Jan 16, 7:00 pm North Star - Thursday, Jan 18, 6:30 pm Northeast - Monday, Jan 22, 6:30 pm Lincoln High - Tuesday, Jan 23, 6:30 pm

Digital Citizenship Event The next presentation in the Community Awareness Series will be Thursday, November 16th, 6:30 p.m. at Southeast High School in the commons area. Ryan Sothan is the Outreach Coordinator within the Nebraska Attorney General's Office. Within his role, he has statewide responsibility for developing and implementing community-based initiatives for educating Nebraskan's in the area of Internet Safety. For students and parents alike, with today's technology is more often what we don't know that has the greatest potential to do us harm. Ryan's presentation with raise awareness of youth online safety, including social media use, dangerous apps parents should be on the lookout for, cyber bullying and resources and tools that can guide adults in monitoring youth online behaviors. This Series of presentations is free of charge and open to anyone who is interested. Please mark your calendars and plan to join us!