Notes from the North Park Hive

Dear Families,

It's hard to believe that this is our final week with our preschool students. We are SO proud of their growth and progress this year. We will miss them, but we will be excited to welcome them back for another year of preschool or kindergarten in August!

Tomorrow is our school wide FIELD TRIP to Hayswood Park and Possibility Playground! We are so excited to take the students on this experience. Here are some important reminders:

• Students should be at school by 8:15 to attend the field trip. If students arrive later than 8:15, they likely will not be able to join us. After 8:45, no students will be accepted as we will be on our way. Our entire staff is going other than a few office personnel and the custodians. They will not be able to watch your children. Please do not bring students to school after 8:45 am.
• It will be cool tomorrow, but it will warm up as the day progresses. Consider dressing your child in layers or sending a light jacket your child could wear or tie around their waist.
• All students MUST have tennis shoes on to enjoy the different activities we have planned.
• We do not need chaperones for this trip as we have nearly 100 staff members attending. If you show up to the park, you will not be permitted to be with your child's class unless you have completed a background check. This is for everyone's safety - especially the safety of all the students. Parents showing up will need to sign their children out and enjoy the park on their own together. While we love our parents and families, we do not recommend this. Your students will be well cared for, watched closely and will have the most fun making memories with their classmates and teachers.
• If you want your child to have sunscreen, please apply it at home. We are not allowed to apply sunscreen to students at school. Thank you!

Thank you for supporting our staff for Staff Appreciation Week this week!! We appreciate the donations and time many of you donated to make it a special week! Please know that staff members LOVE handwritten notes or a quick message more than anything. I can promise you that our staff work so hard for your children and love them dearly. Of course teachers love gifts and special treats, but most importantly, we all want to know that our work matters from the people who matter most - our students and families! Thank you for encouraging them!

Have a great week!

Please call the NPES office at 270-351-4464 or email laurabeth.hayes@hardin.kyschools.us if I can help you with anything!

Sincerely,

Mrs. Hayes (principal)

There are still group pictures left for most classrooms that you can purchase if you missed out. These are $13. Please call the NPES office at 270-351-4464 or stop by between 7:10-3:00 any day. We'd love for these to find homes if possible!

We are thrilled to have teacher and parent representatives for 2026-2027!

Congratulations to Tatjana Lynn (parent representative), Hope Anderson and Kristi Hodge (teacher representatives) on their recent appointments to our 2026-2027 SBDM Council. This new council will assume responsibilities in July.

Help NPES receive money to help our students at no extra expense to you. You are already purchasing the items. Just scan your receipt and if there are any Box Top items NPES will receive $0.10 per qualifying item. Download the app and help us help your children!

In the month of March we earned $16.90 with your help. Let's see how much we can earn in April!

We LOVE seeing students reading at home with their families!!!! Read together at home and send in your leaves!

KINDERGARTEN STUDENTS WILL RECEIVE 10 TICKETS EACH FOR GRADUATION. Tickets will be sent home later this week.

6:00 Graduation -

Kidd, Phinazee, Pence, Hernandez

Hodge, McKnight, Zumhingst, Goodman

7:15 Graduation -

Anderson, Kersey, Smalls, Scott

Leiser, Gill, Hamilton, Mowry

Thank you for understanding that we will NOT budge on this number of tickets and we will not make exceptions. We want the experience to be special and memorable, and it is NOT pleasant if there are not enough seats. You will be able to stream for additional family members. This is more tickets than most graduation ceremonies and many school events for my own children have only allowed 2 family members. Thank you for understanding as we strive to make it a great night for our students and families!

Kindergarten graduation will be May 20th at North Hardin High School (gymnasium) in the evening. We will have TWO sessions: one for 1/2 of the classrooms and one following for the other 1/2 of kindergarten classrooms. There will be a ticket limit per family. This is required in order to control the crowd and allow for it to be a pleasant experience for everyone. As future Trojans, it is very special for our students to "graduate" at North Hardin. There are many reasons why we conduct this event inside instead of outside. This is our third year in keeping this tradition and we have the event very streamlined and organized. We will share more specific information closer to time. We are very firm on our guidelines regarding graduation and will stick to those guidelines for everyone's best interest - especially our students. We will live stream the graduation via HCEC-TV, just like the high school graduations. This is a HUGE event (over 3000 people attended last year), and we appreciate your support and cooperation so that it is a great night!

When we share about kindergarten graduation, we often receive many questions about a preschool graduation. Graduations are typically held when a student "leaves" a building (5th grade, 8th, grade and 12th grade). Since our kindergarten students leave our building to go to the feeder elementary schools, we only have a kindergarten graduation at North Park. We are excited that our preschoolers stay with us for kindergarten! Each preschool teacher has a celebration with students in the classroom. They will share more information with you closer to time.

We countdown the alphabet the last 26 days of school at NPES! This is a fun tradition that helps our students review letters and keeps the days fun and engaging for everyone! This is for PRESCHOOL AND KINDERGARTEN STUDENTS (preschool will participate until school ends for them).

****PLEASE NOTE THAT APRIL 22nd is "G is for Gold" for Pirate Day and April 27th is J is for Jockey for the North Park Derby.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_SZZSFPAxI

Use the links below to play some really fun FREE interactive activities to practice counting, letter identification and letter sounds!

https://boom.cards/fastplay/d8ai (Identifying Letter Sounds)

https://boom.cards/fastplay/fcws (Counting)

https://boom.cards/fastplay/bkcm (Matching Uppercase and Lowercase Letters)