Question: School Consolidation

We just learned that 3 of our elementary schools will be consolidating next year. This also means that the PTG's will be, too. Does anyone have any experience with this?

Asked by Anonymous

Answers:

Advice from PTO Today

Rose H writes:
This can be a really big challenge to parent groups, but there are definitely steps to take to help bring together these different groups into one. One thought is to try to have a member from each of the parent groups form a cooperative presidency (a tri-presidency, in your case) at least through a transition. The idea is that parents will be able to relate to a board member or familiar face from their old school. No question, there can be some rocky times -- you may find that the groups have different priorities or are on different election schedules and so on. But, the bottom line is everyone is there for the kids and so if the merged PTO can keep its focus on that, you'll be off to a good start. We have an article on parent group consolidations that might give you some good tips. Good luck!