A crowd gathered Friday, May 25, outside the Smart Start Rowan office Friday as part of a rally to voice their concern about what a merger could mean to the level of funding provided to each program.  "They are looking at making some really significant cuts to early childhood and for our programs that serve young children and their families it is going to drastically hurt them," Norma Honeycutt, executive director of Partners in Learning, said.  Honeycutt brought the community together Friday to create a "flash mob" video to send to Raleigh.  Read more at the

Salisbury Post. 

Ashley Mauney, assistant teacher at Partners In Learning, holds Jacob Riley Usher, one of her students. Jacob, 3, has Down Syndrome. On Tuesday, he will have heart surgery at Brenner Children's Hospital in Winston-Salem. Photo by Hugh Fisher - Read more at the Salisbury Post. Jacob is home and recovering nicely.  Praise God! 

  Deborah's 10K is only weeks away.  Help us raise funds to support breast cancer!  Click below to donate on line or you can mail a check to PIL.

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Spicer Family - "I earned to step back and analyze the trigger that caused the challenging behavior.  By eliminating or diminishing the trigger, we have been able to reduce the amount of misbehaviors."

CHILDREN BEHAVING BADLY:  WHAT'S A PARENT TO DO?  This six week parent CSEFEL training was recently presented for the first time at Partners In Learning.  Parents attending the workshops quickly established a mutual camaraderie as they realized that they shared similar challenges with child-rearing.   Through lectures, role-playing and take-home activities, parents practiced techniques and strategies to build more positive relationships with their children.  Virginia Gil, mother of three children under the age of six, thanked Partners In Learning for facilitating the course.  "I learned that offering my children two acceptable choices when making a request virtually eliminated the resistance I had experienced in the past."

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Much focus is put on child advocacy during the month of April. We have Child Prevention Month and the Week of the Young Child. Many activities surround these causes in various communities. Often times professionals get so caught up in the cause that they forget what is truly most important, the actual children. 

This is one of those times for self-reflection to determine and question, "Am I doing what is best for children and families?" If the answer is NO or I'm not sure, then do what only you can do and make some changes. Changes can be anything from something simple to something complex. Perhaps what you chose to do is implement a new strategy at home or in class or educate yourself on a specific topic. Recently, we had two teachers that took a few hours out of their day to educate themselves on the early learning standards, Foundations. For those of you who work in the early care and education classroom this training can be taken on-line and a certificate is awarded afterward.   

Members of the Circle K volunteered at Partners In Learning Child Development Center Saturday March 19, 2011. They were an extended college edition of the Kiwanis Club.  Through this organization, they were visiting the local Kiwanis camp here in Salisbury as part of their ongoing required community service program and leadership conference.  Throughout Saturday morning, they had to go into the community and complete assigned service projects and then return to the camp to help refurbish the Kiwanis camp.  We had 10      

"Keagan, one of the volunteers, reminisced on his preschool memories his favorite center was blocks, and that is why he was looking into being an architect."

volunteers that represented over 8 colleges. Just to name a few: Duke, NC State, UNC- Chapel Hill, UNC-Greensboro, East Carolina, Western Carolina, Belmont Abby, UNC- Wilmington, Appalachian, etc.  Some of their majors include: medical, education, and pre-law.

The service project included raking leaves and mulch, picking up trash, leveling planter boxes, shoveling fresh planting soil into the planter boxes so that the children could start growing fresh produce and flowers in their natural outdoor learning environment. Steve and Elia Gegorek, our More at Four teacher's parents, spearheaded the project. They made this day a success through their hard work and dedication.

Early Intervention News

What is CDSA? The Children's Developmental Services Agency is the lead agency for the NC Infant-Toddler Program.  We serve children birth to three who are suspected of having developmental problems.  Evaluation of developmental milestones is provided at no cost to all targeted children.  All eligible children and families receive individualized service plans (IFSP) and are assigned an Early Intervention Service Coordinator who will support and assist them through their journeys.  We work collaboratively with numerous community agencies serving children with special needs.  Anyone can make a referral and no action is taken without permission of the primary caregiver.  To make a referral call: 704-786-9181 or 1-800-230-6891 and ask for Karen or David.   

Donna T Thomas, Med., Program Supervisor

Children's Developmental Services Agency

Salisbury Office

417 N Main St. Ste E

704 639 7995

Do you have a child ages 3-5 and have concerns about his/her development or ability to communicate?

Rowan Salisbury Schools Pre-K Outreach Team

offers free educational, hearing, vision, speech, and motor screenings to determine if local preschool aged children are in need of educational assistance due to a disability.

A passed screening will indicate your child's strengths and the screening team may recommend educational tasks you can work on with your child at home to help prepare them for Kindergarten. A failed screening may indicate that a team of educational experts should review information about your child to determine if further evaluations are needed.

Screening appointments are available every Monday, please call Peggy Hoffman, Child Find Coordinator at 704-216-7353 to schedule a screening for your child today! 

Elizabeth Baker, M.Ed.

EC Pre-K Coordinator

Rowan Salisbury Schools

704-216-7377

Mary has worked as a support staff member for the past 11 years.

 The teacher I have chosen for "Teacher of the Month" is Mary Short. Mary wears many hats here at Partners In Learning. She works in the classrooms, at the front desk, and even in the kitchen whenever she is needed. I know that I can always depend on her. She is a caring and wonderful person. Without her, a lot of us would not know what to do.  

Thank you Mary!  Dianne

Partners In Wellness

Friday, March 25th was our staff development afternoon, all staff were served a healthy lunch, took a 15 minute power walk, and participated in 4 sessions on intentional teaching.  All staff were weighted, pulse rates were taken and they had blood pressure and sugar levels checked.  

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Staff Anniversaries:                                                  Staff Birthdays: 

Deborah Howell       April 25     6 years                        Kelly Kirk  5th                        

Alyssa Williams       April 30      2 years                       Alyssa Williams  8th

                                                                                          April Kluttz  24th