Parma City Schools announces another summer of free movie nights at Byers Field

PARMA, Ohio — Initially created as a way to unite communities during a pandemic, Parma City Schools recently announced plans to host its second-annual free Thursday night summer movies at Byers Field.

“It always goes back to that mindset of ours that we want to be an asset to the community regardless of whether or not you have children in the schools,” Parma City Schools Superintendent Charles Smialek said. “We want you to see value from your public school system.

“It went very well last year where we had 500 to 750 people in attendance. Folks really spoke very positively about their experiences. They seemed to be very grateful for the opportunity and looked forward to coming back again, so that’s creating the impetus for this year.”

When it came to selecting this year’s films, the district turned to social media asking parents to fill out a survey. The results are in: The summer flicks include “Encanto” (July 7),  “Beauty and the Beast” (July 14), “Back to the Future” (July 21) and “Sing 2″ (July 28).

All films start at 8:30 p.m. with families encouraged to bring lawn chairs, blankets and snacks to watch the featured film on the Byers Field scoreboard. There will also be food trucks present at each screening at the popular Day Drive venue.

“We’re very fortunate to have Byers Field and to be able to invest money into a state-of-the-art screen as our scoreboard that’s pretty high resolution when we’re showing the movies,” Smialek said.

“We’re grateful to be able to provide this opportunity for families. They really went out of their way to thank us. It was nice to see multiple generations. We saw a lot of grandparents coming with their grandchildren.”

The fun event, which finds each film costing roughly $350, is sponsored by the Parma City School District, Seven Hills Parks and Recreation Department, Parma Parks and Recreation Department and the Parma Heights Parks and Recreation Department.

When looking back to 2021, the only issue was stormy weather, which caused the district to cancel one film screening.

As for whether the movie program could grow in the future, Smialek said. “We’re always open to trying to grow. This year, we’re going to look at July again and then potentially in coming years we can expand.”

Read more news from the Parma Sun Post here.