Academy Focuses on Topics That Help Parents Support Student Success

A press conference to launch the new Montgomery County Public Schools Parent Academy. will take place at Silver Spring International Middle School at 6:00 p.m. on Wednesday, October 17, 2007.

Nineteen community partner organizations that have assisted in the development and presentation of many of the Academy workshops will be recognized by Board of Education President Nancy Navarro and Superintendent Jerry D. Weast. Representatives of partner organizations and workshop participants will attend.

The Parent Academy, a project of the MCPS Department of Communications, has been developed to respond to parents’ requests for information and strategies to assist them in becoming more involved in their children’s education and helping their children succeed.

More than 30 workshops at locations throughout Montgomery County are being offered free of charge during October and November. More than 200 parents already have participated since the Academy began earlier this month. Among the more popular workshop topics so far have been the Maryland School Assessments, bullying prevention, how to help with homework, and the power of positive discipline.

Additional workshops will be added beginning in January 2008. Interpreters are available for workshop participants, and child care also is available.

Community partners include: Conflict Resolution Center of Montgomery County; Gilchrist Center for Cultural Diversity; Identity, Inc.; Impact Silver Spring; Interages; Montgomery County Bar Association; Montgomery County Bar Foundation; Montgomery County Collaboration Council; Montgomery County Council of PTAs; Montgomery County Federation of Families for Children’s Mental Health; Montgomery County State’s Attorney’s Office; Montgomery County Teachers Federal Credit Union; Montgomery Housing Partnership, Inc.; Montgomery County NAACP Parents’ Council; Navy Federal Credit Union; Potomac Ridge Behavioral Health System; Stepping Stones Shelter; and The Dwelling Place.