I am a teacher at Park Elementary School in Baltimore, Maryland. We are a county of nearly 85,000 students and we have 570 students in our school, PreK through 5th grade. We are a Title I school in a community of generational poverty. Our in-school teams work tirelessly to support student achievement and attendance. As a result of our students' and teacher's hard work, Park has achieved the designation of a 4-Star ESSA school. In our continuing efforts to improve academically, we are focusing on improving attendance. IF students are in school, we CAN teach them! We strive to provide unique, and otherwise impossible, experiences for our students to reinforce positive and consistent in-school attendance. Park Elementary School students are offered four yearly incentives for earning an excellent quarterly attendance and behavior report. Our final incentive is scheduled for the end of this school year and we are looking for donors to help fund the trip.

We are scheduled to take our amazing Park students to Medieval Times. We have taken students before and received more positive feedback and interest than for any other incentive. Working for this incentive IMPROVED attendance! Now that student and parent populations understand the reward, they work hard to earn it. WHEN students are in school, we WILL teach them! We need to fund the ticket costs for 185 students ($7,091.05) and the 5 buses ($2,375.00) that are required (taken from 2023, grades 3-5). We anticipate an increase in students attending and buses required for this year's event. We are asking for generosity and support as we work to provide our students with this amazing experience.

This is my 29th year at this school. I have come to appreciate the wonderful people in this community and the cultural and life-experience needs of our kids. Park Elementary is the oasis in the neighborhood and providing these experiences has proven valuable in getting students to school regularly. Please help us toward our goal of providing this wonderful experience for our students.