We don't have a K-12 PTO. But I'm involved with parent groups for grades K-6, 7-12, and 9-12 schools. There is a huge drop-off in parent involvement for the schools with the older kids. At the 9-12 school, we could not get anyone to take over for the president who had the job for 2 years already, so she stayed on an extra year. Part of it is because moms start going back to work as their kids get older. Out of a school with thousands of kids, I can count on one hand the moms I know who don't have a job working at least 20 hours/week. Plus, the student council tends to plan the activities for the kids; we don't organize family activities--most are too busy with sports anyway. We might organize a few presentations for parents, like sessions on preventing underage drinking or taking the SAT v. the ACT, but that's about it for activities. And there's not as much fundraising involved--pretty much just membership fees--because the sports teams and arts booster clubs are out there doing all the fundraising things like selling pies and mulch and entertainment books.
So that addresses the parent part of the involvement question. I don't know what to tell you about the administration. I'd say if your emails are going unanswered, go in and make an appointment to have a face to face meeting and try to figure out what is up.
Sort of off the topic of your original question, but I am curious how you have set up your PTO for a K-12. Our school has recently grown from K-5 to a K-12 school and there is talk of keeping the 2 separate with separate PTOs. Do you have officers, etc for the different levels or is it all one big PTO?
Thanks!
...and sorry I don't have an answer for you original question. :-/
You may need to be a little more patient for a response here. I've seen replies to things I thought were much stranger than this, but other parents in your situation may not check this site every day. And I'm guessing you're in a pretty small subset; I suspect K-12 in a single building is pretty rare. So hang in there, I bet somebody in your situation will answer sooner or later.
Not being in your situation, the best advice I can offer is to have the officer who's a secondary parent set up a face-to-face meeting with the people your group wants feedback from. (Since they don't reply to emails, he or she should call to schedule the appointment.) Start the meeting simply and cordially; there's always a chance they're not *getting* your emails, so maybe start with that. In case the answer is now, ideally, the officer in the meeting would have a smartphone or laptop along and could try sending an email right there in the office to be sure it's getting through. Ask if email is even the best way to communicate with them; maybe they'd rather get phone calls, or printed documents, or Facebook or Twitter posts, or text messages. Be sure you can explain confidently and accurately why getting feedback from them will help *them*.
Good luck, and again, be patient on this site; if you still don't have an answer in a week, ask the moderator to send a "lonely post alert".
I am an officer of a PTO for a K-12 school. We are struggling trying to get feedback and participation from our secondary (junior and senior high) administration.
Our school has grown threefold in the last two years (we have a current population of over 1200 students now, with over half in the secondary wing). We have no problem getting participation from elementary parents, teachers, and the principal. But, trying to get secondary involvement is like talking to a brick wall.
Last year, we had no secondary officers, and I think that hurt us - none of us knew how to communicate/who to communicate with on secondary. This year, we're trying - but we get radio silence. We even brought in an officer who is a secondary parent, and we still aren't getting very far.
When emails go unanswered, it begs the question what are we doing wrong?
Is this normal with junior and senior high schools? Has anyone successfully made a K-12 PTO work?
