We also have two teacher reps (one from the grades K-6 the other from 7-12)and this has been great! We also are fortunate enough that the Principal is willing to announce to the staff events, meetings, elections etc. We have the two teacher reps as apart of our by-laws and needed to complete our Executive Board.
I'm an incoming pres. for next year. I just spoke with our principal this week about this very thing. He thinks it would be helpful to have a PTO rep at the first faculty meeting, but probably not any others.
I do like the idea of having faculty reps at PTO exec. board mtgs & may pursue that.
My point is that you probably need to speak with your principal & maybe faculty.
I agree with Michele C. We have two teacher reps (plus the Principal and Vice Principal) on our Board, so our lines of communication are pretty good. If we had something special to report, we might ask to address the teachers at a specific staff meeting. However, I'd be leary of suggesting PTO reps routinely attend. The staff meetings are the workplace meetings for teachers and staff. While some of what's discussed would be of interest to us, they also need the privacy to deal with confidential student matters, policy issues, internal school problems, difficulties with parents, etc. Not that I think there are a lot of negative or secret topics discussed, but I think they deserve to keep those meetings to themselves. If not, perhaps a Michele's suggestion about doing their meeting in two parts would work. Or, if they have weekly meetings, maybe PTO could attend one a month.
I think you'd definitely want to get a true feel for how the teachers and principal feel about PTO sitting in.
We don't have a parent sit in on staff meetings,but we have a teacher rep (actually 2 teacher reps) who come and report back to the PTO at the next scheduled board meeting. I would think there are confidential matters that come up at staff meetings that would be inappropriate for parents to hear. Not everyone knows how to handle certain types of information that should be kept confidential....
I suppose the informational content of the staff meeting could be done first and include the parent rep, and then the parent rep could leave before the teachers started in with the sensitive information portion of their meeting.
We have thought about persueing parent involvement in staff meetings, but have found our current system works very well. Perhaps it is the players we have in those positions, but everything works well.
We will begin going to staff meetings in the fall.
I feel it is important because once the school year starts the teachers are so busy it's hard to keep communication going. So many ideas can be offered by the teachers and the pto or pta.
If the staff is open to your attending, I say go for it!
I was just curious to know if any of the teacher staff meetings were attended by a member of the pta/pto. (or is this getting to involved?) Thanks, maggie
