As of 9/20/07 – The Parent e-Bulletin & PCEP Parents’ information is posted on TangentLife Website: www.tangentlife.com/ Shortcut Tip: Parents can find most of the news that used to be in the old Parent Bulletin under the section called SCHOOLS.  But some of the articles may be posted under SPORTS , MUSIC or LIVE THEATRE .  Click on Schools or Sports and all current articles will be listed. All articles will start out with name of school, ie. PCEP or PCCS. Any Plymouth, Canton or Northville school, public or private, can submit information to Tangent Life.   Send information to debra@TangentLife.com Take a few minutes and look around the website.
		P-CEP Parents established January 1997
		p-cep website salem – canton – plymouth – starkweather center parents - students - staff – community
Contact Last Updated Sept 20, 2007 Copyright © 1997 ~ 2007 All Rights Reserved D. Madonna, www.storytellerdesign.com/		Parents are an important asset to the positive environment of all our schools Plymouth-Canton Educational Park is an integral part of our community. In an effort to facilitate parent and community involvement through our presence and support. The Parent Involvement Committee was created in order to: Encourage a sense of cooperation and understanding between students, staff, and parents. Develop areas in need of parental assistance and/or involvement. Improve communications with families. Help parents navigate through high school.
LINKS	Never lend your car to anyone to whom you have given birth. Erma Bombeck
Tangent Life Imagine – All Children … A District-Wide Parent Involvement Committee Arts & Culture Link WSDP Radio Station	Parenting Information Parenting with Love and Logic Classes QuixWorks Therapeutic Massage – for children of special needs & the elderly, as well as their families & caretakers Is Parental Involvement in their Children's Education Important? Sprains, Breaks and Concussions Teens & Smart Money Advertising in Schools Junk Food, Kids & Obesity		Zits Cartoon Strip BACKPACKS: How heavy is too heavy? N E W S F L A S H: Teens Need More Sleep Time for Fun Music & Art for All Does it Matter if Teens Smoke? Community Drug Alert Bulletin
Attention Parents
	April 17, 2007 A Note to Parents: The Parent Group was started in the fall of 1996. The note in the box below is an updated version of a letter that we posted on the Parent Website. As you read through the note, you’ll realize why current events prompted me to re-post it today. When my oldest son started high school, one of the hot issues was whether kids should have cell phones. My son and I argued about it constantly. I thought they were horrible, unnecessary items. My son claimed they were essential and a lifeline to his friends As my children have gotten older, I’ve waited for those times when they realize that my husband and I did know a few things. My sons have acknowledged, from time to time that, as parents, we’re okay. More importantly, I have to acknowledge that my kids knew more than I thought they did. Like most people, I’ve been watching and listening to the news, until I just need to turn it off for a while. But then, I need to turn the news back on. Like most parents, I’m forced to think about the unimportant arguments I’ve had with my kids, and wish I could focus on the important things more often. Yesterday, I thought back about the disagreements I had with my oldest son about his cell phone and wish I had bought one for him earlier. I can’t even imagine sending any of my kids out the door any more with out a cell phone. I’m sure there were many parents of Virginia Tech students who were so grateful that their child had a phone yesterday. My oldest son was right about those phones. And to one of my other sons, who called me yesterday , just to check in -- because he knew what I was thinking about -- I want to thank him. I am the last member, of the original parent group, still at the Park. I’ll be graduating, along with my youngest son, in a few weeks. I urge all parents at PCEP and at other schools, to continue to band together … for more than fundraisers. In times like these, parents need to be part of a larger group. We have to be able to connect to our children, other parents, teachers, not just in preschool and grade school, but also middle school, high school, college and beyond. Can parent involvement reduce violence in schools? What can? When I heard about the shootings at Virginia Tech, my first thoughts were of my own children, no where near Virginia, all in Michigan, but I still wanted to know they were okay. Second thoughts and prayers go out to all parents and their children … at Virginia Tech … and other schools … everywhere. Deb Madonna
	September 7, 2003 The Parent Group maintains a list of the names, phone numbers, and emails of parents who are interested in volunteered at P-CEP and receiving information about activities at the high schools. In the past, the staff contacted the parent group when they need help with a job, and the parent group would call parent volunteers. Now we often share a list of volunteers with the staff. It's been a great help, but the downside has been that the parent group didn't have any way of knowing if all volunteers had been contacted. We apologize if you have volunteered for a task and not been contacted. Please feel free to contact the parent group again. We appreciate all those who have signed up for specific tasks and will do our best to contact you. When the Parent Group was formed, about 10% of the parents who volunteered had email. Today most parents have email and use it. Now, we use the weekly email bulletin to request volunteer help. We also post the weekly bulletin on the website at: It has become more efficient to use the bulletin than the lists of parents who have specifically signed up for a job. No one wants to be on the phone making phone calls anymore. For the rest of this year we will continue to use the lists of volunteers, as well as the weekly bulletin. By next year, we will only use the bulletin to contact parents about volunteer opportunities and activities at P-CEP. If you know of anyone who signed up for the bulletin and aren't receiving it, please have them send a note to this email. There may have been a problem sending their email because of a mistake made when the data was entered The Parent Involvement Group started in January 1997. Parents, (Mara Patterson, Marnie Holdefer, Sally Welch, Mary Novrocki, Vicki Garrett, Carol Carpinelli, and Debbie Madonna), met with Salem principal, Jerry Ostoin, and Canton principal, Pat Patton, to discuss ways in which parents could be more involved and welcomed at the high schools. The purpose of the group was to help parents "navigate" through high school; to encourage a sense of cooperation and understanding between students, staff, and parents; develop areas in need of parental assistance and/or involvement; and to improve communications with families. (In 1999, Linda Schneck, Linda Bedard, Jane Fry, and Karin Keim joined the parent group.) The acceptance of parents to a parent group was spurred by their involvement and resultant success of the Hepatitis-B program. "Research has shown that parents can increase children's academic success through involvement with schools and communities. Parental involvement improves student morale, attitudes, and academic achievement across all subject areas. … by getting involved, parents reduce children's risk of academic failure and dropping out before graduation. Children's behavior and social adjustment improve when parents' are proactive with schools and neighborhoods to cultivate an environment that promotes learning." http://www.cppp.org/kidscount/education/parental_involvement.html The first official act of the Parent Involvement Committee was to host a Staff Appreciation Breakfast. We had enough parents to serve hot food, fruit, and bagels to the entire staff at P-CEP. When the date was set in the winter of 1999, no one knew how much the staff would need that breakfast. The first staff appreciation breakfast took place the morning after Columbine. Parental involvement in grade school is being a reading mom, field trip chaperone, fundraiser, etc. By the time kids become teenagers, our relationship with our growing children changes. Parental involvement looks different, but is still very important. Parents of teenagers don't want to be involved in their children's lives because they're afraid to let their kids grow up or because they can't make good decisions without us. It's pretty clear that the kids at P-CEP are very responsible. Walk around the school on any given day and kids are doing what they are supposed to do. Parents want to be a part of their children's lives: when they're little and when it seems like they're all grown up and don't need us anymore. And even though kids don't always admit it, they like having their parents involved in their lives -- just not always in the same room, but in their lives, nonetheless. Dr Spock said to parents, "Trust yourself. You know more than you think you do." Dr. Brazelton says, "Parents in our culture are eager to be told what to do, telling parents what to do is destructive, supporting them in what they want to do is constructive." We think they’re right.
The greatest gift . . . is the realization that life does not consist either of wallowing in the past or of peering anxiously at the future; and it is appalling to contemplate the great number of often painful steps by which one arrives at a truth so old, so obvious, and so frequently expressed. It is good for one to appreciate that life is now. Whatever it offers, little or much, life is now—this day—this hour. Charles Macomb Flandrau