STRATEGIC VISION
GOAL 1
QUAKERISM
What’s under the hood of the
PARENT COMMUNITY? BY REBECCA LUZI
A common thread weaves through every event, initiative and program supported by Penn Charter’s Parent Community: helping to make the Penn Charter experience engaging and meaningful for parents and families. And while the role of the Parent Community has remained true for more than 60 years, the ways in which it engages parents has evolved. In 2017, co-chairs Alyson Schwartz and Jennifer Fiss conducted an informal focus group of parents from all divisions, including those who attended Parent Community events and others who did
personal, informal means of communicating, such as phone calls from other parents. The consensus was that parents and families are overstressed with events and obligations. “We had to make adjustments,” Schwartz said. “We wanted to create opportunities where things are already happening at PC and parents are on campus anyway. And we needed opportunities to bring the whole group together and not just one grade.”
Parent Community co-chairs Alyson Schwartz and Joy Chaffin
not. They wanted to know: Which events work? Which do not? What makes you want to attend an event? Among the themes that emerged, parents wanted school-wide or division-wide parent gatherings, more opportunities for service projects, and more
And so they retooled the annual parent socials, making them no-fuss parent pop-ins. The goal, Schwartz said, “was to eliminate as many obstacles as possible and make it easy to show up.” The pop-ins are no longer potluck—instead, the Parent Community provides the food, and parents just bring a beverage. Middle School pop-ins are scheduled at the same time as dances so that parents can “pop in” after dropping off their children. Lower School pop-ins include continued on page 16
14
•
SPRING 2019
