INSIDE THIS ISSUE
Congrats to PCPI 2021 Awards Recipients! | Upcoming Grant Opportunities | Save the Date for Portland | Welcome, New Members!
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Cooperatively Speaking
The Latest News From PCPI
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October 26, 2021 Vol. 51, No.6 |
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Congratulations to
2021 Award Recipients
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For the second year in a row, our plans to celebrate the outstanding leaders in cooperative education in person were disrupted. But our creative and enthusiastic awards committee members were determined to do something special to thank these important people. They put their thoughtful heads together and launched a virtual awards ceremony hosted by Awards Committee Chair Carole Cordle. You can check out the collection of videos on YouTube .
Congratulations to the recipients of the 2021 PCPI awards, and thanks to each and every one of you for being champions of cooperative education!
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Certificate of Appreciation |
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First Meridian Congregational Church
Indianapolis, Indiana
Like all cooperatives, Meridian Hills Cooperative faced struggles with the pandemic. The struggle they did not have was finding a space for their four classes. Their landlord, First Meridian Congregational Church, allowed them to continue safely with their preschool and kindergarten programming in their shared building. The two have shared the same space for sixty years and it’s with this wonderful relationship of kindness and respect that MHCNS&K was able to continue operating as a preschool in 2020 and 2021.
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Jen Healey and Pam Holran
Annandale, Virginia
Pam Holran and Jen Healey took Sleepy Hollow's mixed-age, open-centre program and converted it into a fully-enrolled outdoor school with 64 students split into pods. Undaunted, they reworked every aspect of the award winning program to incorporate CDC and licensing restrictions in this new outdoor setting. School hours, ages, curricular goals and content stayed the same. Because of their initiative, mostly over the summer, the school inaugurated their program at the beginning of September, 2020. In all weather and in the throes of a global pandemic, the Sleepy Hollow family met in rotating classrooms to learn and collaborate in a safe space.
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Phoebe Fillmore
Lake Oswego, Oregon
Phoebe Fillmore has been part of a parent cooperative preschool from the age of three! Ever since those early days, she has been an advocate for play-based learning. She sought out Oswego Playschool for her three younger children, and held many positions including President, Vice President for Maintenance and Newsletter editor.
In 2012, Phoebe took on the role of teacher, developing the Parents and Tots program, which filled a need in the community. She then taught the two-day class from 2016 to 2020. This past year, she has proven again how flexible and invaluable she is through Emergency Child Care. Phoebe has brought a lasting impact to Oswego Playschool. She will be greatly missed when she moves away this summer. Everyone who worked with hier will remember fondly her kind heart and dedication, and will carry on the traditions she helped create.
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Abi Yordy
Indianapolis, Indiana
Abi Yordy started at Meridian Hills in October 2020 and hit the ground running. She has enriched the lives of Meridian Hills Kindergarten students and their parents with her love of learning and teaching. While honoring the school’s traditions, she developed many new projects. With her knack for child-led learning, Abi’s inspired teaching style enables her to take one object, lesson or story and frame it to be used in several different activities for a day or even a week.
Throughout the year, Abi has shown unending patience, a positive attitude, creativity, flexibility and kindness. Meridian Hills Kindergarten cannot thank her enough!
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Sarah Cook
Indianapolis, Indiana
Sarah Cook is a model preschool teacher. Her experience as a co-op parent helped to develop her kind and compassionate teaching style. She creates a magical environment for the youngest learners, with an emphasis on the outdoor and nature.
Sarah is patient and respectful with the children, and exudes a calm and comforting aura. When she interacts with them, she encourages their curiosity in order to give them new experiences which will help them grow. Her particular skill lies in paying close attention to what interests her students.
Children and parents are soothed by Sarah’s gentle ways of handling conflict and by her refreshing methods of encouraging children to discover the world around them.
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Devon Schlicher
Sudbury, Massachusetts
Devon Schlicher jumped into her first term as board President at the start of the pandemic. She led the school through its most challenging time with grace, diplomacy and a cooperative spirit. This past school year brought to light every possible crack in the school program.
Devon was right there at the frontlines as the voice for the parents and the preschool, and tackling impossible tasks such as financial devastation, staffing turmoil and difficult board dynamics. She spoke with endless parents individually, led turbulent board meetings and came up with creative solutions to problems never before encountered.
Devon was the true champion of Sudbury Co-Op, and it is because of her leadership and contributions that the school will come out of this year better, stronger and more united than before.
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Brian Chappell and Kate Harrington
Takoma Park, Maryland
Brian Chappell stepped into his role as co-President with the goal of galvanizing the membership towards growth. During his first year these efforts were instrumental in structural reorganization. He led efforts in working towards acknowledgement of the community’s diversity, equality and inclusion vision. This foundation-building made all the difference when the school was forced to close due to the Covid-19 pandemic. As board members resigned, we are forever grateful that Brian chose to stay. He put in countless hours to save our school. He listened, he acted, he encouraged and he trusted. In the end, his involvement resulted in the school's ability to open their doors again.
Kate Harrington joined the school and immediately took on the role of Secretary. She takes record-keeping and adhering to the school’s by-laws and member rules and regulations very seriously. The intention of these, after all, is to provide a safety net during difficult times. This commitment and dedication saved the school. She stepped into the role of co-President during a time of crisis. Her attention to detail helped us craft a plan for reopening safely. She was able to guide the board and membership with resolve and expertise. All this required not just her skill, but countless hours of work during the summer. She always responded, she always sought solutions, she always supported the members and staff.
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Susie Stone Outstanding Educator Award |
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Andrea Fowler
Canby, Oregon
Children taught by “Teacher Andy” at Canby Community Preschool fall in love with learning without realizing it. The community benefits greatly from Andy’s devotion to inclusion and unique ability to make every moment teachable. Under her leadership, the preschool has thrived.
Parents know Andy as the “child whisperer” and can’t help but model her way of interacting with children while assisting in her classroom. Andy has been part of CCP since serving on the first parent board in 1995. She’s retiring in 2021 after 16 years of teaching children aged 3 to 5.
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Susie Stone Outstanding Educator Award and
Robin Garthright Bunster Award for Excellence in Teaching
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Linda Foley
Indianapolis, Indiana
Linda Foley has dedicated her life to cooperative preschool. No one is as committed to the philosophy of learning through play as Linda. Every activity that she prepares at Meridian Hills Cooperative Nursery School and Kindergarten is thoughtfully created for specific student needs, and usually for the weather. Children can be seen outdoors doing everything they can do inside, but allowing nature to be their classroom. Not only does Linda curate lessons that are developmentally appropriate for children, but she clarifies for parents what the children are learning while they “just play”.
When new teachers join the school, Linda mentors them with a patient ear and a guiding hand. She co-leads the Indiana Council of Preschool Cooperatives Teacher Study Group, helping to keep teachers connected, and plans and conducts educational gatherings for all ICPC teachers.
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Linda has always placed a strong emphasis on families being connected to the school — and she ensures this by becoming acquainted with each family every year. She builds relationships that are strong and run deep. Linda has parents identify where they live on a map in her classroom: not only does the map show the breadth of the community, it shows parents who is nearby when they need a helping hand.
Simply put, Linda is a treasure for Meridian Hills and everyone there is fortunate that she chooses to spend her time with them. All are all better for it.
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Start Planning Your Trip to Portland! |
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Plans for the PCPI Annual Meeting and the 60+1+1 Anniversary Celebration are underway. Details will be shared soon.
SAVE THE DATES!
April 28 - May 1
Travel grants will be available to help you get to Portland. The annual meeting is a great chance to get to know and share ideas with parents, teachers, and directors of cooperative schools from all across the US and Canada. School tours, an awards ceremony, and a celebration of the belated 60th anniversary of PCPI will all be a part of the gathering. We'll also spend time planning the future direction of the organization.
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Grant Application Period is Open |
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Cooperative preschools in the US and Canada are eligible to apply for PCPI grants to support parent education and community building. Member councils are also eligible for a grants to fund a council cooperative project.
Applications for all grants are due by midnight December 15th, 2021. Grant award decisions will be made by January 15, 2022. Be sure to send in your applications before the deadline!
Here's a summary of upcoming grant opportunities:
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PCPI Member Schools and Councils
Total grant up to $1,000
Provides financial support for increasing parent involvement via a school or project. Emergency Grants are also available this year.
_______
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US Schools and
Councils
Total grant up to $500
Helps fund a parent education project for US based member schools and councils.
________
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Canadian Schools and Councils
Total grant up to $500
Helps fund a parent education project or other activity for Canadian based schools and councils.
________
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Welcome to PCPI! We look forward to getting to know you better. |
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A PCPI Members Google Group has been created to give us another avenue to share ideas and information. This has replaced the Yahoo Group which is no longer active.
Joining is easy!
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Click the button below to send an email to PCPINews@preschools.coop.
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Use the subject line: Add to Google Group.
- Include your first and last name, your school and/or council name, and the email address you'd like to have added. (If there are multiple people in your school who should be added to the group, you are welcome to include all of their information in one email.)
Group members will receive a daily digest of messages exchanged. Message threads will be grouped by topic for easy searching later. Spread the word!
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Hello My Cooperative Friends,
Now that we've survived almost twenty months since the pandemic started to impact our daily lives, I find myself changed in ways I did not expect. Perhaps you are feeling it, too.
From day to day, my routine has largely returned to what it was, with a little less socializing and a little more TV watching. But I'm struggling with finding the focus to take on big tasks, which I guess is because I steel feel uncertain about what could happen tomorrow. This newsletter falls into that "big task" category.
My apologies for the gap in news. So much is going on in all of our schools that is worthy of sharing!
Cooperatively yours,
Dianne Rose, M.Ed.
Editor, Cooperatively Speaking
PCPInews@preschools.coop
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