The purpose of the MPCS ParentEd. P.E.P. Talks series is to provide helpful information to parents as they navigate different stages of their children’s lives. Three unique sessions were developed and presented for each school division, from lower school through high school. The final part of this blog series focuses on the middle school years and its associated challenges and opportunities. 

Writing and/or speaking about diversity is never easy. In some ways, I feel as though I will never satisfy everyone who reads or hears what I have to say. However, to remain silent about such issues, especially as the head of school at a good-sized Christian independent school would be wrong. It would be cowardly. Now, I know I do not have all the answers. I may not even have a lot of the answers, but I am always seeking them. Likewise, I am hopeful that you will come to this blog desiring to learn, to understand others’ perspectives, and to better exemplify the kindness of God here on earth.

 

The purpose of the MPCS ParentEd. P.E.P. Talks series is to provide helpful information to parents as they navigate different stages of their children’s lives. Three unique sessions were developed and presented for each school division, from lower school through high school. The second part of this blog series focuses on the lower/elementary school years and its associated challenges and opportunities. 

"For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."

Jeremiah 29:11 (NIV)

Hope. A four-letter word that changes everything.

Hope in our future. Hope that God will bring beauty from our past. Hope in God’s protection. Hope in relationships. Hope in our circumstances. Hope in God’s will for our lives, our children’s lives, our grandchildren’s lives.

Under the umbrella of its ParentEd. program, Mount Paran Christian School created a new parent education series this academic year entitled P.E.P. Talks - Parents Engaging Purposefully. These P.E.P. Talks were intentionally designed to strengthen the school's partnership with the home, in alignment with the school's mission:

“Providing academic excellence in a Christ-centered environment, Mount Paran Christian School unites with home and church to prepare servant-leaders to honor God, love others, and walk in Truth.”

The purpose of the P.E.P. Talks series was to provide helpful information to parents as they navigate different stages of their children’s lives. Three unique sessions were developed and presented for each school division, from lower school through high school. This first part of this blog series focuses on managing the challenges of the high school years. 

Strategic planning is a process that independent schools, non-profit organizations, and for-profit businesses and industries typically undertake on a regular basis to ensure they are meeting their mission, acting upon their core values, and appropriately setting goals around those strategic initiatives. As such, over the course of the 2019-2020 school year, MPCS is engaging in the strategic-planning process. This process is meant to be comprehensive and allow every stakeholder (students, alumni, parents, grandparents, board, faculty, and staff) to provide input into the direction of the school over the next five years. By engaging our people, our goal is to inspire and unite our community through the process, allowing us all to be a part of something bigger, so that our students may flourish.

 

Over the past sixteen months, the Mount Paran Christian School Board of Trustees and Executive Council have spent extensive time discussing the mission of the school, the culture of our community, and the direction we are going in the future. As we head into the winter and spring quarters of this school year, we will engage the entire community in the strategic planning process (my next blog post will explore this process).  However, before we get there, we knew we would need to first examine the school’s mission as it was written years ago and determine the core values that will help us consider and make decisions about every area of the school for the coming years.