In some school districts it is actually in teachers contracts how much 'extra" time they may give. this time is usually used up at conference times.If your school is very union oriented one teacher stepping forward to help you can make the others look bad. Yes it seems that if a school truly wants to foster that home school relationship that they would require staff member pto attend one pto fun night a year but if their contract says they leave at 2;30 then that's the way it is. Over years in our district so much bs has been added to teacher contracts that it is very hard to get it our now...just my school's way of looking at it.

It sounds like maybe your principal ought to step in here and start requiring some participation? I thought that's sort of how that worked...Is your principal a good leader?
Shelly

I started life at my school as a parent volunteer and PTA board member. After working for free for a couple of years the principal asked me to join the staff as a Teacher's Assistant. I have been an employee of the school for 2 years now. Over all I think that my school is a wonderful place. My gripe is that very few staff members are willing to step to the plate and do anything extra for the school. I have coached our school's debate team for 2 years because none of the teachers were willing to do it. If I hadn't stepped to the plate our students would have missed the opportunity to do have a debate team. Out of 197 schools in our district mine is the only team that doesn't have a regular teacher as their sponsor. My other gripe is our Science Fair I stated the program as a PTA volunteer. The program has grown and become a big event and I think had an impact on our increasing science test scores. But not one teacher has ever showed up at school the night of the science fair in 6 years of doing the fair. While this makes me mad, the students don't understand why their teachers don't care enough to show up. As an employee at the school I understand just wanting to leave at the end of the day. However, I think that there are some things that teachers should show some support for. This years science fair is just two weeks away how do I convience the school staff to show up and support the fair?