Dozens of principals, parents and teachers met at Providence United Methodist Church on Feb. 12 for the SchoolMates annual meeting. SchoolMates is a CMS program that partners two schools for mutual benefit. Students, teachers and parent groups from each school work together to share resources and opportunities.

Missy Rainear helped found the SchoolMates program at Elizabeth Lane Elementary, which is now partnered with Thomasboro Elementary.

“I used to teach in CMS about 20 years ago,” she said. “I was struck by the sheer number of folks that wanted to get involved in the classroom to help out and they didn’t have anywhere to put them. I thought, ‘We’ve got all these moms who want to get involved and we’ve got a school over here that needs involvement.’ That’s how the ball got rolling.”

Areas in which SchoolMates partners could help each other include: tutoring, mentoring, PTA/PTSA leadership development, community and business relations fundraisers, book drives, pen pals, character education opportunities, multicultural activities, class readers, lunch buddies and office/teacher assistance. Special projects such as assisting with book fairs and school carnivals provide additional opportunities.

Margot Strickler, the Elizabeth Lane Elementary/Thomasboro Elementary SchoolMates coordinator, said she thinks SchoolMates parent volunteers learn as much as the students they work with.

“I think it opens the parents’ eyes, the parents at Elizabeth Lane,” she said. “They go over there and the kids are cute and they’re walking around and they say ‘hi.’ I think it’s a bridge. The parents see that they’re just cute kids, going to school, and if we can help them learn and provide them with needed resources, then everyone’s better off.”

According to Rainear, partner schools help teach children more than math and reading.  Rainear said one day she stopped at a lemonade stand in her neighborhood.  When she asked the children what they were raising money for, they told her they wanted to buy books for their sister school, Thomasboro.

“They have an awareness and they’re learning what it’s all about and that we all can do something. And that something is huge,” Rainear said. “Those little five- and six-year-olds who were selling lemonade got to donate that money to buy the books and they went to Thomasboro, where they’re needed.”

La-Tonya Millhouse, parent advocate for Thomasboro Elementary, said communication between the schools is an important part of the partnering process.

“We’ve established more than a working relationship, we’ve established a friendship,” she said.

SchoolMates advocates stressed in the meeting that partnerships are about creating mutually beneficial relationships.

“Thomasboro does a lot, too,” Rainear said. “They get involved and the kids get involved and they want to know about Elizabeth Lane and Elizabeth Lane wants to know about them. So, it’s all good because we’re all learning.”

For more information on SchoolMates, call the CMS Office of Strategic Partnerships at 980-343-0954.