“I have really enjoyed PPS's training and what I have learned I can apply to my job. It helps me understand how to work effectively with parents. ”
-PPS PEP Graduate
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In Chapter Work

PPS of Pitt County Provides Special Workshop to Prepare Kindergarten Parents for School

The conversation usually begins with something like, “I can’t believe the time has come!” or, “How did my baby grow up so fast?” These parents have questions about kindergarten, such as how to register their child, when and how to know which school their child should attend, and, how to navigate the school choice option in Pitt County (where some schools have an Open Enrollment policy). Thankfully, as those calls and emails begin to roll in, PPS of Pitt County is able to provide parents a comforting answer: “Attend Kindergarten 101, and you’ll learn everything you need to know!” Kindergarten…
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In Chapter Work

Working for Education Funding and Equity

All Parents for Public Schools chapters share a mission of supporting quality public education for everyone. The context of the Hawai‘i chapter is different in a few ways. Hawai’i is the only state with one school district, the only one that does not fund public schools with property taxes, and Hawai‘i has the highest private school enrollment in the country. Hawai‘i also ranks 45th in per student funding and has the lowest teacher pay (adjusting for the cost of living) and highest teacher turnover. This school year, over 1,000 classrooms are without a qualified teacher. Native Hawaiian students are more…
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In Chapter Work, Public School Proud

Pitt County Economic Sector Reps Unite to Show Students Their County’s Career Options

Great things happen when communities unite their resources! Pitt County Schools, the Greenville-Pitt County Chamber of Commerce, and the Pitt County Development Commission joined forces to sponsor Grow Local, a weeklong opportunity held March 18-22 for local businesses to highlight the careers available to the county's middle and high school students. Kathy Herring, board member of the Pitt County PPS, served on the planning team, providing input as organizers designed an event they hoped would engage 1,000 students with businesses across the county. They were thrilled that almost 3,000 students participated, taking advantage of the opportunity to learn about a…
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Joann Mickens
In Public School Proud

Congrats, Former PPS San Francisco Executive!

Courtesy NYC Department of Education. Hydra Mendoza, a founding member and former executive director of the San Francisco Parents for Public Schools Chapter, is now deputy chancellor for Community Empowerment, Partnerships and Communications at the New York Department of Education! We at PPS couldn’t be happier for her! She is featured in the Asian Journal. Check out her continuing story of helping empower parents and communities to positively influence children’s education!
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Joann Mickens
In Public School Proud

MS House Education Committee says No to Voucher Expansion

The members of the Mississippi Legislature’s House Education Committee, headed by Chairman Richard Bennett, should stand and take a bow. We applaud each of you for allowing Senate Bill 2675 to die quietly, without it even being considered by the committee deadline on March 5. Great Job!!! We at Parents for Public Schools couldn’t be more delighted! Senate Bill 2675, introduced by Sen. Gray Tollison, amounted to a voucher program, and would have expanded the Education Scholarship Account (ESA) program dollars for public school students with disabilities to include footing the bill for private school student education. Sen. Tollison’s bill…
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Joann Mickens
In Public School Proud

Public School Supporters Like Becky Goff

Parents have the absolute right to choose the education institution they believe is best for their children; they do not have the right to pilfer public tax funds to pay for that choice. Thank you, Ms. Goff, for your unequivocal support of public education in your letter to the editor, “A head’s up for public schools in Tennessee”.  Thank you for not flying the banner of “school choice,” under which we see the continual erosion of funding for our public schools. We at Parents for Public Schools (PPS) are also unequivocal in our support for public education and in our…
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In Chapter Work

Community Conversations: Equity Major Theme

business team meeting
We compile those comments into a written report that is also presented orally to our Board of Education.  We include recommendations for what should continue and any changes the community might like to see. As we tell participants at the conversations, we like to imagine that PPS-PC is a vehicle that holds the voices of the community and drives them to key decision makers in our community. This year, 262 individuals participated in 21 conversations. Participants included a diverse range: Kiwanis and Rotary clubs, Girl Scout leaders, PTA participants, parenting groups organized by local nonprofits, and members of nonprofit boards,…
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Nita Rudy
In Nita's notes

Thanksgiving & Public Education

As the Thanksgiving holiday approaches, I remember fondly all the costumes, turkey drawings, Pilgrim hats and headdresses I made while in elementary school.  There was such excitement that a special day was coming where we honored our history and got two days off from school.  My love of history was planted deeply as we studied those early colonists and the Native Americans who helped them survive. While that original Thanksgiving wasn’t repeated for many years, one aspect of our early New England settlers that did survive was the respect for education.  Only fifteen years after the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock, the first public school was founded in Boston (Boston Latin).  All New England towns…
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Guest
In Guest Blog

“Super Public Schools ” for All Kids: We Know How to Do This

Today's blog entry has been written by Jeanne Jehl, the president of the Parents for Public Schools Board of Directors.   Jehl has been an assistant to the superintendent in the San Diego City Schools.  She directed a study of school-linked services at the U.S. Department of Education, and promoted federal-state partnerships to strengthen families with the White House Domestic Policy Council. As an independent consultant, she has worked with the Coalition for Community Schools, the Collaborative Communications Group, and the Annie E. Casey Foundation. Jeanne and her husband, Joseph, live in Annapolis, Maryland. The recent buzz over “XQ: The…
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Nita Rudy
In Nita's notes

High quality education remains PPS’s commitment

As we launch our new Parents for Public Schools website, I am reminded that our PPS mission of advancing the role of families and communities in securing a high quality education for every child is more important than ever.  Public schools are a unique part of our democracy.  When the first settlers in New England founded their communities they were required to build a church, a public meeting place and a school.  Public schools emerged as a way to support a democratic society.  We can debate whether the quality or inclusiveness of our schools were fair but we know that…
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