Sandy,
So many opinions, so little time to digest...
So just one mor recommendation: try to keep the politics out of the school or at least your group.
Tim, I read it the same way that you did. I think that at times, we get so focused on any and all negative issues with a group that it is easy to "make a mountain out of a mole hill". I have been in that predicament before but was lucky enough to recognize that while my mouth was saying, I'm doing all of this for the betterment of the group, that in my heart I was just really trying to stick it too the persons whom I felt were wrong. I actually ended up taking a year off from any PTO function and came back the next year with a whole new attitude.
I'm not saying that this is what anyone else should do, only what helped me. No one is a crusader, no one has the power to sway all members to their side. There will always be two sides, two opinions and to me that is how a organized group should be. I realized long ago, the PTO has and will go on long after I am gone...
I also sit on our school advisory board, in the capacity of PTO President. It was the principal who asked me to join. My take on this position is that as a parent (first and foremost) I can relate to the group concerns of the parents. It is not like a union where the union leader is in bed with managment. We are all there working hard not only to get and keep our state accredidation, but to make the school the best it can be.
In defense of the first "sick of this", I have a sneaking suspicion that sickofthis is a regular around here who may simply be looking for anonymity on this issue. Just a hunch.
I don't think sick of this was putting down PTOs in any way. My reading of the post is that she thinks Sandy -- after hitting one roadblock -- may now be looking for the worst in every situation she runs into at her school. I tend to agree with sick of this in wagering that the volunteers and the principal, etc. at sandy's school likely aren't all out for personal gain or nefarious goals.
Could they do things better? Probably. Couldn't we all? Definitely.
For me, when it comes to parent volunteers I err on the side of assuming the best intentions. I think that's all sick of this was trying to say.
Not in Texas, so we don't have a SBDM. But, we have several other school or district based committees for which the PTA Prez is the parent representative--not sure how comparable these committees are. I believe general logic behind it is basically that since the person is the head of the parent group, they are more involved in the school than your average joe and have a good perspective in terms of what interests parents at the school. These various meetings are not ones where the parent group has a report to present; the reps are just providing a parent's perspective on whatever the issue is. If something significant happens during one of these meetings where the parent rep needs to get information from other parents, or needs to give them information, it may be mentioned in the PTA meeting as a way to quickly get feedback from parents, but the parent group itself does not take a position. A fine line, I know.
As for the insurance thing, I'm guessing he's the president of the insurance agency (most likely not the company underwriting the policy) who gets a commission on the sale of the policy. So, yes, he would probably make some money (doubtful that it's a ton-o-bucks) off the addition of a new school--as would people working for the construction company, the computer company, and probably lots of others. In my area, normally the only people you hear opposed to school bonds are people who don't have kids in schools. It would be very unusual to have a parent objecting to efforts to get a school bond passed. There's not much campaigning either--support for the school bond referendums is usually so strong; the last one got passed with 77% of the vote, and something like only 30% of the voters in the county have kids in school.
HI...I am the president of our parent group and yes I am a member of the school site base decision team. As long as I can remember the PTA always had a rep...since we switched over two years ago there was no PTO rep until this year when another site base member asked why the principal was doing the pto report? At that point I joined the team. I am not on the team to make waves, I am on it because our parent group plays a huge role in everyday happenings at our school. I am there to listen, put in my two cents and if I feel that there is something the PTO should know I will tell them. I don't know why other presidents are on site base but for me it just gives me a better insite into the decision making of our school and for the rest of the site base it gives them a look into the PTO.
"When you stop learning you stop growing."
