Wolves Newsletter

Hat, gloves, snow pants, and jackets are available. Please contact the school office if your child needs any of these items. We also have a limited supply of boots in limited sizes.

If you have a child in middle school or high school, we have some coats in larger sizes and want to support Park Brook Families. Please call or stop by the school office if your middle school or high school child needs a winter coat.

Monday, October 27, 2025

Dear Park Brook Families,

The Minnesota Department of Education defines good attendance as a student is in school at least 90% of the school days. At Park Brook last year, 29% of students, or about 87 students, missed more than 17 days of school; missing 17 or more days places a student in attendance less than 90% of instructional days.

There are a few students who have medical reasons for the number of absences which is completely understandable.

I have also had a few students participate in outstanding opportunities, which I fully support and encourage, such as traditional wild rice harvesting which is part of their Ojibwe background. I had a student who participated in an Indigenous People's Day Celebration, as another example. I state this as these students are still in school over 90% of the school days; they miss when ill or for an educational or cultural purpose. We have students who have missed school for a family trip, and they are still not missing 17 days of school per year.

I am greatly concerned about students who are simply missing from school and who are continually late to school as they miss the same subject over and over.

While Park Brook has posted some of the strongest academic growth in the district, there is only one school that had a lower attendance rate than Park Brook in the school district.

I have yet to meet a parent that does not want their child to make strong academic growth, however, I don't think some parents are making the connection between their child's attendance and their academic growth.

When a student is late to school, they miss learning. Students should be ready to enter the school at 8:40 a.m.

• Students enter building at 8:40 a.m.
• Between 8:40 and 8:50 am: table tubs in younger grades for fine motor skills and so on, classes begin going to breakfast, students preparing for day, ...
• At 8:50 a.m., instruction begins. (At 8:50 am students are ready to learn.)
• 9:15 am: 2nd grade reading block begins; 3rd grade math intervention; 4th grade phy ed/music; and 5th grade math block begins.

The above are just a few examples. I want your child to have their full education!

A bit of research:

• One study revealed for the group of students who were chronically absent in kindergarten and 1st grade (more than 18 times each years), only 17% of this group of students were proficient in reading in 3rd grade.
• Another study indicated that students chronically absent (this study used 19+ days absent) in kindergarten performed significantly lower academically in 1st grade.
• Another study revealed that students chronically absent in kindergarten had significantly lower academic skills in 5th grade. (This is my own observation, students who are chronically absent in kindergarten are generally chronically absent every year of elementary school.)

(If you have questions about the data, I will forward additional information to you.)

Kids get sick, families go on trips, and so on. Not one bit of research discusses attendance as being in school 100% of school days.

If you have questions about your child's attendance, please reach out to me. I am more than willing to discuss supports you may need.

Sincerely,

Mr. Scott W. Taylor

Principal

Mission Bay High School - San Diego, CA

Northern Arizona University, B.S. - Flagstaff, AZ

St. Cloud State University, M.S. - St. Cloud, MN

St. Mary's University, Administration Program - Minneapolis, MN

Pajama Day is Friday, October 31 at Park Brook Elementary. Students are welcome to wear school appropriate pajamas to school.

Many students will participate in Halloween Activities outside of school, but during the school day it is Pajama Day.

Face paint, hair coloring, Halloween Face masks, and so on are not permitted during the school day.

Please do not send candy with your child to school. Families who want to participate in trick-or-treating that evening are welcome to do so after school.

Just as many students and staff participate in Halloween, Mr. Taylor will welcome trick-or-treaters to his house as well.

The Park Brook Double Dutch Team is sponsored by the American Heart Association.

Students who join the team must attend practices on both Tuesdays and Thursdays, 3:20 - 4:15 p.m. Registration forms will be sent home soon.

The team will travel in February and March to other schools in the Twin Cities to kick-off fundraising events in other schools, and encourage students to live a heart-healthy lifestyle.

Students do not need to know how to jump rope or Double Dutch to join the team, they will learn.

In order to travel, students must maintain positive behaviors at school.

Cardio Drumming involves drum sticks, buckets and stability balls. This is a high-energy, fun-filled activity to increase movement and fitness, while having tremendous fun!

Registration forms will be sent home soon!

• Mondays, November 10 - December 8, 3:20 - 4:15 p.m. ; Grades 3 - 5,
• Tuesdays, November 11 - December 9, 3:20 - 4:15 p.m.; Grades K - 2

There is no school for students on Tuesday, November 4. Some schools will be used as polling locations. Staff will participate in professional development on this day.

Coats, hats and gloves are available for Park Brook Students. Park Brook does not have an endless supply of winter wear, so students/parents/families are responsible for ensuring students bring winter wear with them every day. From November through March students will need their winter clothing.

Students go outside for recess every day unless the weather is colder than -5 degrees (negative five degrees).

A note from a doctor is required if a student needs to stay in more than one day for a medical reason. If your child is too ill to participate in recess, they should stay home and fully recuperate before returning to school.

Please call the office or stop in if you have a middle school or high school student who needs a coat. We have larger sizes and would like to get these to Park Brook Families.

It is for the safety of your child that we request that drivers pull to the curb for children to enter and exit a vehicle. When a driver stops in the middle of the parking lot, lets a kid out, there could easily be a deadly accident. If you are stopped in the middle, cars can and do pass on the right side of your car, placing your child at great risk.

Pull your car to the curb, even if you have to circle the lot, before your child enters or exits the car.

If you are the driver of a car stopped in the middle of the parking lot, and an accident occurs with you letting a child out of your car, you are at fault, fully or at least partially, for the accident.

I urge you to not take a chance with your child's life.

I realize you may be in a hurry when dropping your child off at school. It doesn't matter if you are in a hurry, drivers need to keep kids safe.

• Elementary age children need 9 - 11 hours of sleep every night.
• If you have to wake them in the morning, or an alarm clock is needed to wake them, have them go to bed earlier. (Friday and/or Saturday nights they can stay up a bit later, not too late otherwise Monday morning is tough.)
• Keep all cell phones, iPads, televisions, and so on out of rooms where kids sleep. (All research shows that these should not be in rooms where kids sleep.) Simply put, kids are understandably tempted when these are in their room.
• After school, make sure kids get outside play time, preferably 60 minutes of play time. (This is not video games, but rather running, climbing, throwing, and so on.)
• If kids get in bed at 8:00 pm, eleven hours later is 7:00 am. Have kids get up early enough so that they can get ready, perhaps eat breakfast at home, perhaps watch cartoons, have a book read to them, or whatever your family enjoys so that they are not rushed in the morning.

The Resilinator is an outdoor obstacle course held in Hyland Park in Bloomington. This event is sponsored by the YMCA of the North.

Park Brook Elementary is a school with a Focus on Fitness to increase academic growth and positive behaviors.

The above graph is for all 5th graders in the State of California. For the group of students who were able to achieve proficiency in one area of the fitness testing, 29% were proficient in reading and 36% were proficient in math. For the group of students who were proficient in all six (6) tests on the fitness testing, 55% were proficient in reading, and 71% were proficient in math.

The same results have been found to be true in a number of research documents.

Increasing movement and fitness levels increases academic growth, positive behaviors, and mental health well-being.

Hoodie Day was Wednesday, October 22. This was a day when students and staff could wear hoodies, which they can do every day, but also wear their hoods up in class and the hallways.

It is nice to greet students by name, greet them by name when they walk past, greet them by name in the lunchroom when you are standing walking through, and with hoods up it is difficult to greet them by name.

Throughout the year there are spirit days, such as hat day earlier this year, and pajama day later this week.

Julie Hang, pictured on right at the Twin Cities 5K, has been selected to be the student representative with Students Connecting Through International Service. Students in fifth-grade had the opportunity to write essays and then staff read and ranked the essays to determine which student would be selected to be the representative this year. (Mr. Taylor did not read the essays until after the student was selected.)

For more information, click on the button below.

• W - We will respect ourselves and others.
• O - Own our actions.
• L - Listen and Learn.
• F - Follow Directions.