[00:00:07] Speaker A: Greetings and welcome back to another week of podcast at just say something. I'm very excited this week to have with us one of our good friends, Katherine Schumacher from Public education Partners, also known as Pep. And so, good morning.
[00:00:27] Speaker B: Good morning. Thank you for having me. It's such a pleasure to chat with you and be here this morning.
[00:00:31] Speaker A: Well, I'm looking forward to it. I know we've been trying to schedule this for a while now, and so it's finally happened.
[00:00:37] Speaker B: Yep. Yep. Well, you know, the end of the school year is a little bit of a busy time for us as an organization. And I had a student graduating from high school, so it was a busy time for me personally, but glad it finally worked out.
[00:00:47] Speaker A: It was double busy then.
[00:00:48] Speaker B: So much busy.
[00:00:51] Speaker A: Well, now it's time to plan for next year.
[00:00:53] Speaker B: Exactly. It never ends.
[00:00:54] Speaker A: So tell us a little bit about Pep.
[00:00:59] Speaker B: So, public education Partners was founded in the mid eighties by the same, basically the same business leaders that, you know, looked at downtown Greenville and said, greenville can be more and Greenville can be better. And at the time, they really felt that a way to improve the outcomes from our public school system was for the private sector to really build the connectivity with our schools. So, you know, we say that, that we are an innovation lab for Greenville county schools and also just a champion for public education in general. And our mission is to lead the community to act collectively to strengthen, support, and advance public education and student achievement in Greenville county schools. And so that is sort of what we are focused on 24/7 all year long.
[00:01:41] Speaker A: Wow, that's a lot.
[00:01:42] Speaker B: It is a lot. It is a lot.
We work on our current strategic plan. We're in the process of doing a new one. But the. The one that we've been working on the last couple of years focuses on elevating teachers, empowering advocates, and engaging communities. So, really a holistic approach to putting supports in place so that kids and families get what they need to take advantage of the great opportunities in Greenville county schools, and also that Greenville county schools has somebody kind of in their corner helping them move things forward.
[00:02:12] Speaker A: Okay, great. So you mentioned elevate teachers. How do you do that?
[00:02:16] Speaker B: Well, we know the research tells us that having a high quality teacher in the classroom is the. The number one factor, really, in student success. That's the number one school based factor in student success. So we support efforts to improve recruitment, retention, and morale of the teachers here in Greenville. So that includes everything from grant programs, both for classroom grants, but also school wide grants that principals can apply for to work on sort of school culture and morale and initiatives to sort of create that kind of family feeling that is so important to success in a school. We also do professional development initiatives. We also just have do some fun things for teachers. One of the things that people might see a lot of is we do teach GCS night at the Greenville Drive game in April. And so it's a night when teachers in Greenville county schools can get a free ticket to the game. They get a meal voucher, all of the, you know, the national anthem, the first pitch, all of that is teachers. And then we do a special picnic before the game for first year teachers. So first year teachers is a real area of focus for us because we know that that's such a critical time in the teacher in that journey. How do you support new teachers? How do you give them what they need in terms of mentoring to get them through those first several years? Because the research shows, generally speaking, if you can get them through those first couple of years, you've got them for a while. I mean, it ebbs and flows. But that mentoring piece is really important.
[00:03:43] Speaker A: And so what are the, I guess, the most important parts of mentoring that brand new teacher to make sure that they have what they need?
[00:03:53] Speaker B: Right. Right. Well, that's a great question. And I think, you know, from our perspective, that relationship between the mentor and, you know, every first year teacher in Greenville county schools has a mentor that kind of walks with them along that journey. It's a, you know, it is a, it's a process in those first few years to figure out how do you take what you learned in the classroom and what you learned through your student teaching. All students who go through, obviously, an educational preparedness program have that student teaching experience, but it's very different when it's your own classroom and it might be in a completely different kind of school environment. And so you have to be prepared and flexible to respond to the needs of your students, to build those relationships. And having a really strong mentor who is in your corner, who you can go to, you know, not just formally, you know, in those sort of regular check ins, but, you know, if you're having an issue, if you're having something that you can't quite figure out in terms of classroom management or curriculum or any of those sorts of things. And I think that's something that, generally speaking, Greenville does a really good job of. You know, we will have as many as 301st year teachers coming into the classroom. It's a lot. But, you know, we have 6000 teachers, so, you know, relatively safe in the scheme of things. But. But it's, you know, we have incredible folks at the district whose job is to lead those new teachers, we call them induction teachers, into the process and pep.
We really value everything that we do to try and help those teachers know that we're here for them, provide opportunities for them. We'll be doing a professional development, sort of a virtual session with a local psychologist who's going to talk about sort of what it's like when you're dealing with students who've gone through trauma, which aligns with y'all's work. How do you manage those feelings that you're gonna get from seeing that, from working to support that student? So that sort of secondary trauma is something that. How do we support wellness in our teachers? How do we help them with boundaries and processing? It's a really intense time to be an educator right now. It's intense time to be a human in society.
[00:06:08] Speaker A: I was going to say it's intense time to be a parent.
[00:06:11] Speaker B: That's exactly right. An intense time to be a parent. And so all of that, I think that's why having that mentor, having that relationship in the building is so important.
[00:06:21] Speaker A: Yeah, you mentioned something about advocacy. So tell us where you are in that. Your processes, what you provide for the community or for teachers.
[00:06:34] Speaker B: Right. Well, so public education partners has a long history in the advocacy space, and we are a nonpartisan organization. We don't endorse candidates, but we do endorse policies. We believe that there are choices that we make from a policy standpoint that are evidence based, that the data show work, and so we support those and elevate those. But beyond the sort of direct advocacy work and direct policy work, our goal is really to provide the folks who care about public education. And I always say everyone should care about public education because it's like roads and bridges. It's core infrastructure for a civil society.
So we want to provide knowledge and tools to help them lift their voices, to support teachers, students, families, the public school systems in general. And so we have an incredible data center called informedsc.org comma that I really encourage any of your listeners who are interested in the data behind what you hear people talking about relating to public ed. We've just redesigned the website, and so there's data on student demographics, teachers achievement. We're going to be launching the section on finances this summer. It's a really incredible resource. I had someone reach out to me yesterday asking about achievement in certain schools in the district, and I said, oh, yeah, all that's on here. Just do this and that, really? So that's. Yeah, that's one of the things we're really, you know, that kind of tool. We also do, you know, elections obviously are happening. So this fall, we will have six of our school board seats will be on the ballot. We want people to pay attention to those elections. So we will do candidate interviews for podcasts for the Simple Civics podcast. They do a great job with candidate interviews. We'll be doing an in depth candidate questionnaire that we will be posting on all of our platforms and then sharing in the community. Community.
You know, I go to every school board meeting I'm present, and building relationships with school board trustees, building relationships with elected leaders down in Columbia, that's also part of it. So we really, you know, from a personal standpoint, organizationally, that's part of it. But then we also really want to support teacher advocacy, too.
Yeah, it's a lot.
[00:08:49] Speaker A: You have a lot going on.
[00:08:50] Speaker B: It's exciting, though, and it all works together. I mean, that's the beauty of the pep model. I mean, I think another thing I say a lot is the secret to Pep is in our name, public education partners. So partners, like, just say something. Partners like the on track Greenville program. You know, Greenville County Schools is our 1st. 1st partner.
Nothing that we do is done in isolation. You know, when we have our teacher, we have a teacher fellows program that is designed to help teachers understand the landscape that they're working into, the policy landscape. So, you know, we talk to elected officials, we talk to, you know, education lobbyists. We talk to folks at the district who work with government relations. We talk with community partners who work in the advocacy space. So the idea really is how do we bring together all of the different threads that are seen in our schools? And everything that's happening in our communities is affecting what's happening in our schools 100%. So that is something that, when we talk about engaging communities, that's that third kind of leg of the stool that's engaging communities in public education is really that multifaceted piece of the work.
[00:10:00] Speaker A: Yeah.
You know, the problems that a lot of our schools, a lot of that our communities are facing is larger than any one entity.
[00:10:11] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[00:10:12] Speaker A: And so we all have to work together. You know, as we're here educating parents, we also need the mental health side so we can make those referrals, and there's just so many more legs to that stool that collectively working together is the only way we're really going to make a difference.
[00:10:31] Speaker B: Absolutely. And I think the parent education part. I know that's, you know, an area that's y'all's area of focus. And I think it's something that, as we've gone through this new strategic planning process, we have heard a lot of need for parents, particularly those who are coming from communities in poverty. And how do they navigate what is a complex system? We have so many incredible opportunities in Greenville for students, dual enrollment, the incredible career and technical education centers, options for AP classes, and all of these things that it's hard to navigate. I have all the resources in the world, and it's been hard for me to navigate with my two boys. And so I think something that we are going to maybe lean into a little bit more is that how do we support families? How do we encourage families to be involved, to be present to the extent that they can be, but how do they learn the lingo? How do they advocate for their child and for the best possible outcomes for their child? And how can we, as a community, support that journey?
[00:11:34] Speaker A: Right. And so part of that is, one of my goals is to have, like, a parent coach. So as parents go through our programs, it's always that next step. They're like, okay, now what? And so we have people help navigate that. Now what? To connect them to services, programs, or whatever that family needs to make them whole. And so there's conversations around that. So that's another way that we can partner to bring that to fruition, because the parents really, they're dealing with so much. And we know realize that some of the parents, if they can get food on the table, that's a wonderful thing.
[00:12:15] Speaker B: That's right. They don't have time to do a PTA fundraiser, necessarily the last thing on their mind.
[00:12:20] Speaker A: I need a roof over my head. My kids need clothes. We need to eat. And so many times parents are just focused on that, that we need to be able to provide them with some tools and skills so they can have some hope for the future.
[00:12:36] Speaker B: Well, and I think so it's funny because that what you're talking about is almost like it's mentoring.
[00:12:41] Speaker A: Right.
[00:12:42] Speaker B: And so that is actually something. We have a new project, a new program that we piloted this spring in partnership with Pleasant Valley connection and upstate circle of friends. That's called parent leadership partners. And it is almost exactly that. It is a group of parents that we brought together in a kind of a cohort model, and we coached them, really, and provided them with, here's how this works. This is how this part of the system works. Here's what self advocacy, looks like. Here's some information about educational policy. And now that group, that initial group of ten graduates, I think we're trying to figure out how can we get those folks to mentor, be navigators for another group of parents. And then you just. It's this sort of domino effect, right. You throw, you know, to throwing that stone in the pond. And I think that's really for all of us who are working in this space where we don't want to do two. We want to do with. Right. We want to impact with. And so how do we partner with. With organizations in the communities that we know we can help and sort of provide with more tools and power and all of those sort of voices, all of those sorts of things. So that's really a priority for us. And I'm really excited to see how that evolves in the next phase of our kind of our work.
[00:14:01] Speaker A: Yeah, that's great. There's a huge need for that. So there's another leg of that stool that we can, more than us, you know, collectively, can make a difference. So I know we're running out of time. Is there one other thing. Well, one thing, I want you to share the website where that dashboard is again.
[00:14:23] Speaker B: Sure.
[00:14:24] Speaker A: And is there one thing that you haven't mentioned about Pep that you would like for our listeners to know?
[00:14:32] Speaker B: Absolutely. So I'll mention a couple of things. So, first of all, our main website is pepgc.org dot. So that is our organization, pepgc.org dot. And from that website, you can get to our data center, which is informed sc.org dot. So it looks like informed script. So that is a separate but sister site. So both of those sites you can access. I really encourage folks to follow us on social media.
We really lean into social media a lot. So we're epgreenville on all your platforms, which is really fun. And we love not only to post our own content, but we are very intentional about sharing for our community partners and sort of leveraging those to be build up, to build up that network. I think the thing I would really encourage folks to do is to remember that a strong public school system, and we have one of the best school districts in the state of South Carolina, and just this is a stellar district. There are places to improve. There are always places to improve, but I think we can't take it for granted. And so that's something I really want. Folks, regardless of whether you have kids in the district, we cannot assume that. We can't rest on our laurels and we can't assume we need to continue to invest in our school district. We need to continue to support teachers.
We need to pay attention. So I think that's the most important message that I want to share.
[00:16:00] Speaker A: Wonderful. Well, Katherine, thank you for being with us today.
[00:16:03] Speaker B: Well, thank you for having me.
[00:16:04] Speaker A: Enjoyed having this time to be able to sit down and discuss what Pep is doing and the support that you're giving. I know our teachers and I know our schools are grateful to have Pep, and our community is grateful. Well, thank you for all the work that you do.
[00:16:20] Speaker B: Thank you very much. And we're so proud to be, you know, be part of partnership with just say something and the work that you do as well. So thank you for having me.
[00:16:27] Speaker A: Absolutely. Well, that's another episode of just say something's weekly podcast. We will be back with you in another week. And until then, if you need anything, check us
[email protected]. or give us a call here at 864-467-4099 we'll see you next week.
