Parent of the Year
Lewisburg Primary PTO president receives top honor for DeSoto County
When the president of the Lewisburg Primary School PTO resigned last October, Kelly Phillips didn’t think twice about stepping in to fill the role.
Not that she needed a way to fill her time. As PTO treasurer, she was already handling the parent organization’s finances as well as doing things like making popcorn for the entire school during field day, helping put together a back-to-school breakfast for the start of the school year and making treats for the teachers and staff.
It’s that kind of tireless devotion to the K2 school in Olive Branch that earned Phillips, 41, the honor of Parent of the Year in DeSoto County Schools this year. Like the previously announced winners of Teacher of the Year and Administrator of the Year, Phillips now moves on to compete with winners from other school districts around the state for the title of Mississippi Parent of the Year.
“I’m still in shock,” Phillips said of Tuesday’s announcement.
Added DeSoto County Schools spokeswoman Katherine Nelson: “When you think of the number of parents we have who are eligible — 33,000 students with two parents each — it’s quite an honor.”
Phillips and her husband, Steven Phillips, moved their 7-year- old daughter Ericka, a second-grader, to Lewisburg in 2011 from Overpark Elementary, also in Olive Branch, because they thought the school would be a better fit for Ericka’s hearing impair- ment. After the move, Phillips immediately went to work volunteering in her daughter’s new school just as she had done at Overpark.
Among her first missions at Lewisburg were helping set up and break down the fall and spring book fairs, helping organize the Santa Shop and assisting with the Teacher Appreciation luncheon. She also suggested a “Duty Free Lunch” for teachers each month, during which a parent volunteer assists so that teachers can eat lunch together without children. The idea was approved and is still in practice at the school.
“Kelly Phillips is an outstanding parent,” Cynthia Dixon, Lewisburg’s assis-
tant principal, said in her nomination letter. “Her dedication to our school goes above and beyond the normal call of duty.”
Dixon noted Tuesday that parental involvement is crucial to the success of any school, so Phillips’ high level of involvement made her an easy choice for the school’s nominee.
Because of her child’s hearing problem, Phillips took a six-week course to learn sign so that she could better communicate with Ericka and other hearingimpaired students at the school.
“I want them to know that people care about them and can learn their language also,” she said.
But those nominating Phillips, who was recognized at Tuesday’s DeSoto County school board meeting, noted that her dedication to others isn’t limited to students. She also has volunteered at the Olive Branch Food Pantry and volunteered to clean an elderly person’s house, take her food and fill out paperwork for her. When the woman died, Phillips assisted the family with burial arrangements.
“I did this,” Phillips said, “to let my daughter know that you not only take care of yourself, you help others in need, too.”