Why not join PTA/PTO? Obviously you are interested in your child's school, and education!
as far as member vs non-member, I don't look at it as "extorting" membership as much as I see it as "Benifits of membership"
Does the school require background checks? Do the volunteers have to pay or does the PTA or district pay for background checks?
Or is this a case of PTA is for moms? We ALL talk about improving Dad involvement, why does "DAD" want to limit his involvement to work on the computers? This volunteer effort is important, I m not sure why "DAD" is reluctant to join the association.
Baffling to imagine a school administrator would turn down the free expertise on computers, from a parent in the field of IT.
With budget cuts, youd think they would pull out the red carpet for you, from the parking lot to the computer room.
And one would think the PRINCIPAL and not the parent group, decides who can help on the school grounds for IT purposes, after all, the parent group has NO SAY whatsoever in the computer department and upgrades/improvements thereof, of the school.Its a weird reply you got from the principal, just doesnt make any sense.
The one thing I see here that has been overlooked is that one should need Board of Ed and Superintendent permission to do anything to the schools computers. The PTA or any parent organization does not have the authority to allow anyone to do anything to the computers. If I were you I would go to the next BOE meeting and ask for their permission to do what you want to do.
This sort of "we"/"them" confusion is one of the key reasons we eliminated dues for our PTO a couple of years ago. Now everyone is a member by virtue of being a parent or staff. We haven't missed the dues income.
First I want to say I would be speaking to the Administration for allowing this PTO/PTA to exclude families from the serving their school. I am assuming it is a PUBLIC school.
In the interest of trying to find a win-win solution, I recommend asking to meet with the Principal and the officers of the PTO/PTA to discuss how you and your "IT" Fathers can form the "Technology committee" of the PTO/PTA. give them information about how you will keep them updated of your hard work. Maybe one of you will attend their monthly meeting and give a status report. They may not be aware of the dire situation with the computers. Change in any form can be difficult for some people.....and keep going up the food chain until someone has enough common sense to let you folks, help them.
We have many volunteers in our school that couldn’t tell you anything about the PTO/PTA. All they care about is helping our children in our community with their time and talents. They really don’t care how events get organized or where we get donations from, or what that School Improvement Plan is. What they care about is how they feel when they walk through the door. And that our children are experiencing the "joy of learning". That is not to say they dont appreciate all the PTO does. The have little time and choose to spend it with our children.
And heck, if they really won’t let you all help, how close are you to MN? We have about 100 computers that need some work. lol. Be well!
Volunteer background check issue aside, I would think that any school with substandard computer equipment would jump at your offer,and I think it is irresponsible for a principal to NOT take you up on it. You have a right as a parent to be involved in your child's school and you have the right to NOT do it as a part of a parent group. I think my next call would be to the superintendent. My gosh, we all work so hard on here trying to get volunteers in any capacity, and your school is turning you away?!?
