Manchester Park Elementary highlights Spanish‑immersion and student service programs

Jenny Steele, principal of Manchester Park Elementary, introduced a school spotlight to the board, describing the school as the district’s largest elementary with roughly 615 students and noting the campus includes a Spanish immersion dual‑language program.

Teachers, students and parent leaders described the school’s student council and community service club. Student council representatives said they plan monthly spirit activities, coordinate school‑wide fundraisers and have helped raise and donate more than $10,000 for the Olathe Mayor’s Fund over three years. Community service members said the school’s food drives recently collected more than 7,000 food items and about $22,500, with current collections earmarked for the Kansas City Dream Center. Students described projects such as making “plarn” mats for people experiencing homelessness and participating in a long‑running Lehi Bag Project that has sponsored nearly 1,000 children and donated over 10,000 gifts across two decades.

PTO president Stephanie Burns described the PTO’s fundraising and a new positive‑behavior reward called “Tempe trinkets,” which teachers and the school mascot use to reinforce school pillars of kindness, responsibility, safety and engagement. Parent Jamie Wolfolk spoke about benefits of the Spanish immersion program, noting testing data presented to the board showed math performance in immersion closely matched non‑immersion peers.

Board members thanked staff, students and volunteers for the presentation and asked a few clarifying questions about enrollment and program outcomes. School leaders said Manchester Park maintains high family engagement and that the school’s programming emphasizes civic engagement and dual‑language learning.