Thank you to our Lower School Grandparents and Special Guests for joining us on campus this morning! After hearing from Head of School Dan Paradis, Principal Matt Doyle, and Lower School faculty members about how music enriches the Lower School experience and inspires joyful engagement, guests headed to classrooms to spend time with students, engage in interactive activities, and immerse themselves in life at Park.
Lower School Grandparents’ and Special Guests’ Visiting Day
Gifts to the Promise of Park can now support upgrades to the softball and baseball fields at Sugar Campus, the revitalization of the Challenge Course, and the creation of an endowed fund providing support for student travel.
Sugar Campus
Softball and baseball upgrades at Sugar Campus include improvements to the playing surfaces of both fields, along with bleacher improvements for the fans of each of team. Additions include new batting cages that will benefit both teams, a new baseball bullpen setup and backstop, and other enhancements. The baseball field scoreboard and dugouts are now sporting Park colors — with more to come ’neath the Brown and White!
Challenge
Park’s Challenge Course — a longtime signature program of our Middle and Upper Schools — is being renovated to expand accessibility school-wide for our Pre-K through Grade 12 students. Further, we are introducing new, innovative elements — including a three-pole climbing tower — and creating an additional community gathering area. The newly-renovated course will be managed by a course-certified teacher, and the program will renew the essential role of student leaders as a part of the Challenge experience at Park!
Student Travel
Student travel provides opportunities to engage with people beyond our campus, beyond our region, and beyond our country. The Park Jazz Collective’s experience in New Orleans; our immersive language trips — French, Spanish, and Chinese; the Civil Rights Trip; Model UN conferences; and co-curricular journeys yet-to-be-imagined all represent unforgettable possibilities for Park students.
Promise of Park Lower School Initiatives
The Promise of Park has already impacted the lives of our students and teachers, and, this spring, we are thrilled to share another giving initiative — this time in support of Park’s youngest students.
Gifts to the Promise of Park can now support a full renovation of the Lower School Pearlstone Wing — including the creation of a Lower School Multipurpose Room. We are combining three existing rooms adjacent to the fourth grade classrooms to create a new, large, flexible gathering space that will be able to accommodate multiple grade levels for events, assemblies, and more. This space is designed to optimize flexibility so that it can host various types of school and community events.
We are delighted to share that this new space will be dedicated in memory of Linda Halpert, a beloved Lower School faculty member.
Further, the hallway, as well as all of the fourth grade classrooms, will be fully reimagined and modernized; and all systems (HVAC, lighting, tech, etc.) in the Pearlstone Wing will be replaced.
Please see the renderings of the new spaces below.
Lower School Multipurpose Room:
Pearlstone Building Corridor:
Pre-K through Grade 12 Appalachian Challenge
Park will redesign and rebuild the first-of-its-kind Appalachian Challenge Course as an anchor to an expanded Pre-K through Grade 12 outdoor education program. We will welcome students of all ages – as well as potential partner organizations in and around Baltimore — to experience the benefits of outdoor education in Park’s unique environment.
