Question: Expanding to High School?

There is a discussion in my town to expand the PTO (currently serving K-4) to the middle school and even the high school. I am very new to parent groups and wondering what the pros and cons of such an expansion would be. I'd love to hear the experience and opinions of others.

Asked by rachelachmad

Answers:

Advice from PTO Today

Rose H writes:
This is a great question for our Facebook community and I'll post it there to get some responses for you!

In the meantime, I would say we know many PTOs and PTAs that are very successful at the middle school level. It is certainly a different ballgame, but it's possible to build an involved parent community. We have a section on the site the focuses exclusively on middle schools.

Here's that link: Middle School

https://www.ptotoday.com/middle-school

Community Advice

marisa312 writes:
The elementary and middle school PTOs in my town have very recently combined to form a K-8 PTO. We've been working all summer to make all the necessary modifications (merge budgets, accounts, draft new documents). We're hoping the expanded, more inclusive community will gather more support for events and fundraising. But we're nervous the eager (not yet worn out) elementary parents will carry the vast majority of the volunteering load. We have chosen to include parent grade-level representatives for each grade on our executive board (parents with a child in 1st grade, 2nd grade, etc.), to ensure that 1) all grade levels are supported by funds as needed and no one gets overlooked, and 2) we can request the parent reps find a certain number of volunteers from their grade level for PTO events, to (hopefully) avoid the same parents helping at every event.

Good luck with your decision! My only advice from my experiences so far is to be VERY organized and get systems in place for check/reimbursement requests, grant requests, meeting structure, etc.