by Journalism Student, Addison K.
The Parent School Partnership, otherwise known as PSP, is gearing up for another amazing year, as they plan for more activities, more fundraisers, and more fun!
Jennifer Knuth has been on the PSP board for ten years and currently serves as president. She says, “Our main goal and role is to support the teachers and the students in activities.” She continues, “If there are certain needs that teachers have, they can fill out a request form. We review those requests and if it’s something they need for classrooms, we try to provide funding for them.”
PSP is a great way for parents to get involved in New Life. It gives an opportunity to get into the classrooms and to volunteer at other events that PSP organizes.
PSP tries to have members that include Early Ed, Lower School, Middle School, and Upper School. Angie King and Tiffani Morelli are part of the Lower School branch and Lindsey Hudson, Amy Poppinga, Patrick Doherty, Jennifer Knuth, Holly McGowan, and Jen Willaert are part of the Upper School branch. Having members in both sections of the school is very helpful to identify the needs in all areas.
Mrs. Morelli, an officer and three-year member says, “Our family has continued to be blessed by wonderful teachers and staff members over the years. I choose to give my time to PSP to try to give back what the community has given to us.”
As the school year goes on, PSP organizes several events for students and parents. Last year, they organized the “Bingo and Bridgeman’s Night” where over 250 Early Ed through fifth grade students and parents attended to play.
Mrs. Knuth also says, “We’ve brought the Kona ice truck to school for the Upper School students at the end of the year. And we also help organize the Culver’s Nights for Lower School.”
Mrs. Morelli wants to give back to a community she has gotten so much from. She says, “We started at NLA in the Little Learners Program. I feel like Mrs. DeBoer, Mrs. Groeneweg, Mrs. Kent and the entire EE team of incredible teachers played such an important role for our family.”
Mr. Doherty and his family have been involved in the New Life community for quite some time now. He says, “I do PSP because I’m so grateful and want to help other parents connect more deeply with school.” He continues, “New Life has been an enormous blessing. From academics to athletics and fine arts or Chapel Band, I’ve loved the way my kids have been able to learn and develop.”
The goal of PSP is to build a partnership between the school and parents. Mr. Doherty says, “This partnership is something that can be done by providing feedback that we hear from parents to school staff through our monthly meetings with NLA principals, or it can be done by developing parent volunteers for the many opportunities to serve the NLA community.”
Giving back to the teachers is one of PSP’s main goals. At the beginning of each year, PSP gives each elementary teacher 250 dollars to use throughout their year.
All the parents on PSP are there to give back to New Life as it has given them so much. Mrs. Morelli says, “Our family has continued to be blessed by wonderful teachers and staff members over the years. I choose to give my time to PSP to try to give back what the community has given to us.”
