This morning I noticed that the sun is finally coming up a little earlier, which always makes my summer-loving heart happy! February is the heart of winter in many parts of the country, but around here we start to see signs of Spring this time of year: daffodils raise their bright heads, the redbuds start to bloom, and flocks of robins set up shop in our backyards.

February is also Black History Month, and I love seeing the incredible learning opportunities that our educators provide to students specifically relating to the achievements and impact of African-Americans on the history and culture of our communities and our country. I've seen door-decorating campaigns, special assemblies and programs celebrating the contributions of Black artists, intentional selection of read-aloud books by Black writers, and much more.

PEP is joining in this year with a social media campaign encouraging parents and classroom teachers to share their favorite books to read with children celebrating Black History Month. I encourage you to follow @PEPGreenville on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter to join in and learn more!

As an organization, we are proud of our ongoing focus on supporting programming that fosters a sense of belonging for all students, but especially for those from communities whose stories we haven't always heard. Those stories deserve to be shared all the time, not just one month a year, and we are proud to play a small part in making sure they are.

With love and gratitude for your support of public schools and the students they serve,

#Teach GCS Night is Coming!

We are excited to announce that sales for our 2024 #TeachGCS Night on Thursday, April 11 are open! We are so proud to partner once again with Greenville County Schools, the Greenville Drive, and Herff-Jones The Waters Group to sponsor this fun, family-friendly evening where we celebrate educators and public education. Events include a pre-game picnic for first-year teachers and their mentors, on-field festivities featuring the GCS Teachers of the Year and other special guests. To learn more, purchase tickets, or claim your free GCS educator ticket, please visit the Greenville Drive's website.

Microgrants in Action

6th grade students in Mindy Martin's science classes at Rudolph Gordon School, a K-8 school in Simpsonville, have been learning about different kinds of rocks using materials provided through a PEP Microgrant. They modeled the rock cycle using candy, and created sedimentary rocks with glue and plaster. It is always amazing to see how creatively our educators can use a small amount of funding to drive big learning for students of all ages.

Thanks to our partners at AFL and Bosch for their recent investment in PEP Elevate Teachers programs like these.

Teacher Fellows Cohort 3: Learning About the SC Legislature

Members of PEP's Teacher Fellows program, a six-month professional development experience that helps educators understand the K-12 policy landscape and how to be better advocates, are focusing their learning this month on state-level advocacy. This included a conversation with Patrick Kelly, a high school Government teacher and Director of Government Affairs for the Palmetto State Teachers Association, and a lively roundtable with four member of the Greenville County Legislative Delegation. Special thanks to Mr. Kelly along with Representative Neal Collins, Representative Chandra Dillard, Senator Ross Turner, and Representative David Vaughan for sharing their time and perspectives with our Fellows.

Lifting Up Student Voices

We want to celebrate our friends at Simple Civics: Greenville County and Greater Good Greenville for inviting three incredible student leaders from Greenville County Schools to share their perspectives on school pride, leadership, and community impact in a recent podcast episode.

We encourage you to take a listen to this wonderful conversation and be inspired by the voices of young people who care deeply about their community and the future.

Policy & Advocacy Update: What's Happening in Columbia

This week the South Carolina State Board of Education approved and sent to the General Assembly for ratification a new regulation that makes uniform across the state the process by which classroom and library materials may be challenged. The original draft regulation was amended in response to concerns raised by educators as well as administrators and school boards, including limiting the number of challenges per month to five and requiring that anyone issuing a challenge be a parent or legal guardian of a child enrolled in the district, among other changes. If approved by the legislature, the new regulation will replace any local procedures that school boards--including the Greenville County Schools Board of Trustees--has put in place to handle book challenges or other concerns about materials.

To learn more about PEP's work to #EmpowerAdvocates and sign up for our advocacy newsletter, visit our online Advocacy Action Center.

Explore the data that informs our work at InformEdsc.org!

InformEdSC is our award-winning, interactive data center - a powerful, nonpartisan research tool that aggregates information from a range of sources to help you better understand the numbers behind the issues. Together we can advance the success of students in Greenville County Schools and in public schools throughout the state.

Building Parent Leadership & Family Engagement

This month, in partnership with Pleasant Valley Connection, Upstate Circle of Friends, Goodwill Industries, and Communities in Schools, PEP kicked off our Parent Leadership Program (PLP) pilot. Designed to engage a cohort of parents over several weeks of shared learning, the PLP curriculum empowers parents and caregivers to become engaged and effective advocates to support their students' educational journey. We are grateful to Hollingsworth Funds and the ScanSource Charitable Foundation for their investment in this new initiative. To learn more, please reach out to PEP's Community Advocacy & Government Affairs Coordinator, Dr. Yolanda Crittendon-Jones, at [email protected].

This month we provided more than 1,200 books for programming at Sterling School, Alexander Elementary, and Hughes Middle.

If you have a need for books for an upcoming event, please contact Qena Jennings, Senior Director of Educational Initiatives, to learn more about our Make Summer Count initiative and our book request process and eligibility. 

Let's Talk PEP on March 6th

Join us at our McAlister Square office to enjoy a cup of coffee, connect with parents and professionals from both the education and business sectors, and explore how PEP's influence on public education in Greenville thrives on collaboration and innovation.

Our first Cup of Collaboration event will be on Wednesday, March 6th, from 9-10:30 AM. For more details and to RSVP, contact Wakesha Fogle, Director of Development.

Mark Your Calendars for April 21

An Extracurricular Evening, PEP's annual celebration of donors and champions, will be Sunday, April 21 from 5-7PM at the beautiful Avenue event space in downtown Greenville, featuring delicious catering from Table 301 and entertainment by students from the Fine Arts Center.

A priority invitation for two complimentary tickets will be sent to anyone who donates $300 or more to support our work each year; a donation of $500 or more will also allow you to sponsor a Teacher Ticket to the event.

If you have questions or would like to make a donation, please visit our website or contact Wakesha Fogle, Director of Development.

Special thanks to South State Bank for its sponsorship of An Extracurricular Evening this year!

Support PEP's Mission

Please consider investing in PEP's work in our schools and communities. Our programming is 100% funded by gifts from the local business community and corporate partners, foundations, and generous individuals who understand the value of strong public schools.

We cannot do our work without our partners...the power of PEP is right there in our name!

We hope you will make a gift today.

Funds help us:

• Offer free professional development to educators and grants for classroom needs and schoolwide retention efforts
• Provide research and data to inform smart and strategic policy and advocacy
• Invest in critical educational priorities like early literacy by helping build home libraries for students in Title 1 schools