Adapting Your PTO Work During COVID-19
Doing your best work as a leader can be a challenge in the best of times—never mind when things are confusing and up in the air, like they are right now while schools and families are figuring out how to deal with COVID-19 safely. But it’s during those times that your school community needs your help the most.
Our free guide to adapting your PTO work will help you move forward with your parent group even if it’s not quite the same or it’s done from a distance. Plan safe events, get a budget in place, communicate effectively with parents and each other, rock those virtual meetings, and learn (and pass on) ways that volunteers can help even if they can’t get into schools.
Inside the Guide for Adapting Your PTO Work:
Events
Online dance party, at-home campout, and virtual spirit weeks are just a few of the ways you can keep up the family fun even if you’re not together.
Fundraising
Helpful questions to ask of potential vendors, plus great ideas for safe fundraisers.
Volunteers and Volunteering
Lots of leaders and volunteers are wondering how they can even help if they can’t get into schools. We share reasons to encourage them, and tips to keep everyone going.
Communication
We break down how to communicate effectively with parents, the school, and each other.
You Can Move Forward—Even If You Don’t Have All the Answers
Keep going if you can—no one has a time frame for exactly when “back to normal” will be, but it will happen. When it does, having an active and engaged core of volunteers will be a huge step toward getting back to business as usual.
In many ways, the things you’d do to help your school community from a distance, and to keep your group running, are similar to what you’d do in normal times, with some adjustments:
Offer social and emotional support—work with the school on ways your group might be able to help families.
Show your teachers you care with drive-by parades, supply collections, virtual messages from students, and more.
Plan fun spirit-building events like a drive-in movie or online bingo.
Carry on with the nuts and bolts of parent group business—create a workable budget, hold virtual meetings, and plan creative virtual fundraisers.
Still have questions? Call us at 800-557-2670; we’re here to help.