Pam Hale is the Principal at Norwood Park Elementary and she shared with us about the students at Norwood Park are doing. Many of these students come from low income families or families who are close to the poverty line. Some of these students live in trailer parks, or whose parents might use drugs, may have experience trauma in their lives, and been abused by family members. It becomes a challenge each day to teach these students, but they are striving.
Norwood Park Elementary, built in 1921 to serve the small community of Havelock. Norwood Park is one of the smallest Title 1 schools in Lincoln Public Schools. It is tucked in the northeast corner of Lincoln, Nebraska, where it has served the local community for over 100 years! Our Norwood Park staff is committed to providing an innovative and excellent education to the 250+ Preschool through 5th grade students we serve. We strongly believe that partnering with families and community members is vital to our students’ educational success and embrace opportunities to build these relationships. We encourage both family members and community groups to get involved in our school community.
Through our Professional Learning Community work, staff review student progress on a regular basis and respond to student needs through individual student planning and support using research-based instructional strategies and programming. Always mindful of our students’ academic growth we also monitor and support both social and emotional needs of our students as well. We have a strong social skills curriculum, a mental health counselor, social worker, and school psychologist who guide staff in addressing students’ emotional well-being. On a daily basis we strive to create and provide the best possible educational climate for our students so that they continue to thrive and grow as individuals. Our team works tirelessly to identify student strengths and needs using data, and then match our academic, social emotional and community resources to support them. In 2012 Norwood Park Elementary was a National Blue Ribbon School.
One of the things Pam mentioned is that the staff want the students to get up and move, talk about things and also learn to listen. During COVID it was impossible to go to the playground to be with your best friends and play, share with your friends, talk to others, or even eat with your friends. Some of these skills of talking and listening was lost during COVID, so now the teachers need to rebuild those skills back up and it has taken the last two years to get this done. Progress has been made. Norwood Park has a new reading program and in this program they are learning things about the Civil War, and other events from years ago besides things of today.
They have a second step which is problem solving and this has gotten the teachers and students to work together. There is an after school program at the Northeast Family Center which has been a partner for the last 10 years with Norwood Park Elementary. One of those is organized sports. Norwood Park Elementary has programs that include music, PE, art, computers and library. Each year the staff come together to work on an action plan which is carried out throughout the school year.