March 20, 2025

Dear Park Spanish Immersion Elementary School Community:

We hope that you're having a great week! It was so much fun to welcome next year's kindergarten students and their families on Tuesday night! The energy was great, and we are thankful that families entrust us with their brilliant children.

Yesterday, our second through fifth graders participated in our Career Fair; thanks to the participants who volunteered their time. Ask your child(ren) about some of the careers they learned about! Our second graders went to the St. Louis Park Public Library today. We look forward to seeing first graders present their "Blue Whale Project" this evening. See below for more information.

As a reminder, spring break starts for students next Friday. On Thursday, we will have our third school party day of the year. See here for the schedule, please help us be good neighbors, do not block fire lanes, and plan accordingly for parking if you are able to participate.

Thank you to our community for supporting the PSI PTO silent auction; we are grateful.  Thanks for being members of our community and sharing your children with us.

In partnership,

Corey Maslowski, Principal

Megan Paulis de Rangel, Assistant Principal

In this section, we are featuring some of our amazing PSI Staff so the community can get to know every adult in the building as we work together to support each student at PSI!

This week we want to highlight a few PSI staff members. Sra. Hoffman and Sra. Contreras are two of our wonderful teachers here. Sra. Hoffman teaches second grade, and Sra. Contreras teaches third grade. We are so happy to have them here!

First Grade Architecture Showcase: TONIGHT

Our first graders have been hard at work in Talent Development, exploring the fascinating world of architecture! They have been inspired by the remarkable Norma Merrick Sklarek, a pioneering architect who opened doors for many female and minority architects. The students are excited to share their creations with you, showcasing their journey from blueprints to final products.

We invite you to our 1st Grade Architecture Showcase tonight, Thursday, March 20, from 5:00 to 5:45 PM at PSI, outside room 214.

We look forward to celebrating their creativity and hard work together!

Spring Photo Day: April 10

**Only students that pre-ordered Spring photos will be photographed on Picture Day. All orders must be placed by Thursday, April 10.**

CARTONERAS - if you have a sewing machine, we need your help!

We are gearing up for our Cartonera Project (in May/June).  In this culminating celebration, every student publishes a book!  We then host families to read and rave about the books.

We will need people to help sew the books.  It really only requires a sewing machine and the capacity to sew a straight(ish) line.  If you are willing and able to assist in this way, please us know (scheid.kara@slpschools.org or schuster.ashleigh@slpschools.org).

Park and Learn: Math in Motion with Tricia Zeigle

Our very own Tricia Zeigle was featured in the SLP Communicator! If you missed it, please see below.

Join us for this edition of Park and Learn as we step into Tricia Zeigle's classroom, where math comes to life at Park Spanish Immersion Elementary School! Through problem-solving and hands-on learning, Sra. Zeigle's passion for teaching is making a real impact on her students.

With the rigorous implementation of the Bridges math curriculum, an impressive 82% of her students met their math growth goals from fall to winter assessments this year! 

March February A-E Day Calendar

Sharing Culture

In this issue, we want to highlight one of the presenters from our career fair, Kitessa Turi. Kitessa is a language interpreter and translator for multiple African languages, including Oromo and Swahilli. Our second through fifth graders had the opportunity to visit the career fair to learn about a career in interpreting as well as and many other interesting careers! Click here to see more photos from the feria de carreras.

School District News

Central Clinic Closed During Spring Break



During spring break, Central Clinic will be closed. The date closed will include:

• Tuesday, April 1, 2025
• Thursday, April 3, 2025

Central Clinic will resume regular operations on April 8 from 1 - 4:30 p.m.

PTO News

Silent Auction Results!  

Huge thank you to the Silent auction Team on a successful auction! 

Shout out to Rebecca Jacobs, Laura Thorne, Andrea Manos, Meg Schauer, Kristi Alme, Heather De Guelle, Amanda Holle, Emily Barker, Steph Phan, Shelby Strauss for all their hard work.

Thanks to the generosity of our community, our silent auction was able to raise over $26,600! Thanks to everyone who donated items, hosted parties and bid on items! 

Movie Night (2025)

On April 10, bring the whole family and come join us for a free pizza dinner and showing of Inside Out 2. We’ll be watching Inside Out 2 in Spanish with English subtitles. The pizza dinner will be in the middle school cafeteria from 5:30-6:00 pm, and the movie will start in the middle school auditorium at 6:15 pm.

In Search of A Parent Amity Coordinator!

Interested in working with the Amity Program but can’t host? We are looking for a parent to be a coordinator for next year. Each year 4 parent volunteers help coordinate the program, helping the Amity Interns with finding host families to live with, making sure they have everything they need outside of school, coordinate them helping with afterschool activities such as the Carnival, Math Night, and more. It’s a great way to get to know these amazing Amity Interns and help out our school. Please let us know if you are interested or if you have any questions, we’d love to hear from you! PSIamity@gmail.com

Application to Host an Amity for the 2025-2026 School Year Now Open!  

Each year, PSI typically welcomes Amity Interns from Spanish speaking countries who assist our teachers in the K-5 classrooms. These interns are either pursuing or have recently completed a college degree with an education focus, and are between the ages of 20-30 years old. Amity interns live with PSI host families one semester allowing both an opportunity for greater language learning and cultural exchange. Please consider hosting an Amity Intern either fall or spring of next year. A unique and wonderful experience that can benefit your entire family. Plus, it's a great way to give back to the students, staff and entire community. Want more info? Contact us at psiamity@gmail.com, we are happy to answer any questions or meet up to talk about it.

Ready to sign up? Go to psiparents.ptboard.com, click Amity Interns to find the Host Family application. Fill yours out today! 

Not able to host, but interested in supporting the Amity program in another way? We also solicit volunteers to be a Cousin Family.



The Cousin Family is an extension of the host family and supports both the intern and their host family throughout the intern’s stay. This is most successfully achieved when the cousin family takes the initiative to reach out and communicate frequently with both parties. This effort allows families to build lasting connections with one another and brings a sense of community to the intern. The more involved the cousin family is with the intern the greater the opportunity is for language learning, cultural exchange and lasting relationships for all.



Go to psiparents.ptboard.com, click Amity Interns to find more information about the Cousin Family role along with the Cousin application. Fill yours out today!

Thanks for considering these amazing opportunities!

Your Amity Coordinator Team,

Steve Kalpin

Darlene Kuykendall

Kelly Marinello

Kevin Russell

Community News

PSI Kids Place Fundraiser: Gertens Garden Center

Park Spanish Immersion Elementary Kids Place is doing an online Gertens Fundraiser! This group will receive 30% of all plant sales and 15% of all plant card sales. Proceeds will go toward field trips. 

Orders must be completed by 10:00 PM on Thursday, April 3.

NO LATE ORDERS WILL BE ACCEPTED. 

Your order will be ready for pick up on May 13 in the evening at PSI (9400 Cedar Lake Road, St. Louis Park, MN).

If you have any questions, please contact your fundraiser chairs: Demario Mckinney, mckinney.demario@slpschools.org or Lisa Ralston, ralston.lisa@slpschools.org.

Thank you for your support! 

To access the site and place an order for your fundraiser group:

1. Go to www.gertensfundraising.com
2. Enter the Store ID code provided into the text field and click ‘Enter ID to Continue’.

Store ID code for Kids Place Park Spanish Immersion Elementary: 1082