May is Pupil Personnel Worker (PPW) Month at Charles County Public Schools (CCPS). PPWs provide students with additional resources to succeed in and out of the classroom. The main goal is toward enabling students to reach their fullest potential and to become productive members of society. A few CCPS schools offers extra opportunities for growth through mentoring programs called FLEX, where middle school students can mentor students in elementary school guided by CCPS PPWs.

“This is our third year doing our FLEX Mentorship Program together with Berry Elementary School and Mattawoman Middle School,” Justine Jewell, PPW at Berry, Diggs and Gale-Bailey elementary schools said. “We continue to provide our student members this leadership opportunity to build interpersonal relationships, set goals and build confidence so that they can show up as the best version of themselves each day,” Jewell said. Jewell and Tiara King-Phillips, PPW at Mattawoman, collaborate for the program.

The student mentors at Mattawoman were trained over four sessions in the fall and will meet with their mentees bi-weekly for the remainder of the school year. “We are proud that our program has grown and two of our PPW colleagues have also implemented their own FLEX mentorship program to meet the needs of their [school] community,” Jewell said.

This year Pam Jenkins, PPW at Milton M. Somers Middle School, and Donna McPherson, PPW at Dr. Thomas L. Higdon, T.C. Martin and Walter J. Mitchell elementary schools, established the program at Somers and Mitchell.

“It went great,” Jenkins said. “Big thanks to Justine and [King-Phillips] KP for helping to guide us and being willing to share so much of their program framework with us.”

Visit the PPW page at ccboe.com at https://www.ccboe.com/departments/student-services/staff/pupil-personnel-workers for more.

About CCPS

Charles County Public Schools provides 28,162 students in grades prekindergarten through 12 with an academically challenging education. Located in Southern Maryland, Charles County Public Schools has 38 schools that offer a technologically advanced, progressive and high quality education that builds character, equips for leadership and prepares students for life, careers and higher education.

The Charles County public school system does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, age or disability in its programs, activities or employment practices. For inquiries, please contact Dr. Mike Blanchard, Title IX/ADA/Section 504 Coordinator (students) or Nikial M. Majors, Title IX/ADA/Section 504 Coordinator (employees/ adults), at Charles County Public Schools, Jesse L. Starkey Administration Building, P.O. Box 2770, La Plata, MD 20646; 301-932-6610/301-870-3814. For special accommodations call 301-934-7230 or TDD 1-800-735-2258 two weeks prior to the event.

CCPS provides nondiscriminatory equal access to school facilities in accordance with its Use of Facilities rules to designated youth groups (including, but not limited to, the Boy Scouts).