Hello, New Families!

My name is Celia Bartholomew and I am Paul Ecke Central’s PTA President. (Please see my intro letter under “PTA at PEC”.)

I’d like to take this opportunity to welcome you to our great little school. We have so many wonderful students, families and staff and our relaxed, creative and happy vibe makes our school a great place to belong.

Here are a few things I’d like to comment on that might make your arrival more comfortable….

PEC – MY EXPERIENCE 
Some new parents feel nervous about our school because they have heard or read. I always knew my children would go to public school and always trusted that it would provide for them. I feel so lucky to have this gem of a school right in my neighborhood. PEC staff is always working hard to meet the needs of our diverse student population and I respect them greatly for their teamwork, energy, and innovative ideas.  I have a daughter who graduated from PEC and is in middle school. I have never requested a teacher or questioned they way they were educating my child. Now, perhaps I am just a lucky parent who has a child who is easy… definitely could be. However, I would like to say that she is a fantastic, well rounded, smart, high achieving girl who I am so proud of. I have no doubt that she will do well in her life and I feel like PEC was a beautiful way for her to start her academic and social career. I have full confidence that my 3rd grader will follow in those footsteps. Our Paul Ecke Central parent population includes educators, attorneys, scientists, artists, business owners, etc; what an interesting, diverse crowd. If these incredible and educated people can trust in our small school, then you can too!

EXCITING THINGS ARE HAPPENING
It is natural for new parents to feel overwhelmed. It is definitely true that PEC has a TON of stuff going on. Some feel overwhelmed by the amount of activities and some feel resentful by the amount of fundraisers. (I have to admit that I felt that way, too, when I first started.) However, we do all we do for a reason, whether it be for fun or necessity or both. We make great efforts to clearly state all the exciting goings-on from the get go. We have a calendar on this web site, we have explanations of each of the activities, and finally we have PEConnect (which I will talk about in the next paragraph). I hope that with all this available to you, you can make informed decisions about event attendance, plan your donations accordingly, and get a good sense of what is coming up. As I said, it’s great to have a choice about so many delightful things in which to participate.

PEConnect
We would love to welcome you personally! Please help us do this by signing up as a new parent and for PEConnect. It is a group we created that will couple you with an returning family, so that you can have a contact here. This veteran family will contact you to welcome you into our PEC family. They will give you all their personal information so you can contact them during the year with any questions, etc. It’s a great way to help us make you feel welcome and to make sure your first year experience is a good one.

I hope this information is helpful to you. If you’re ever feeling out of the loop, we’d love to have you at a PTA meeting. Everyone is welcome at our PTA meetings and they are listed on the calendar and announced in the newsletters. (So much information, so little time! )

Please let me know if you have any comments or questions and feel free to contact me if I can help you with anything.

Thanks so much for joining our PEC family and we look forward to meeting you!

Sincerely,
Celia Bartholomew