Brenda...Im not sure anyone was actually taking jabs at your school, I think maybe we all are confused that the scholarship can be narrowed down by board members and their choice. We also have a VERY VERY high poverty level and as much as it hurts we stay away from things that puts one needy child against another. There is no way that we can fairly say that one child deserves it more than another, I am sure we all have unseen circumstances that not everyone knows. At christmas we were approached to do something like this and we declined because picking 10 families out of 380 families just didnt seem fair.Our school has almost a 40% poverty level.
If we run across"extra" money we have a event that covers all the students in our school, whether its a special DJ party, assembly , etc. that way everyone gets a piece of it. We do about five/six family events a year and they are all TOTALLY FREE. As far as getting lower income families involved I truly believe that kindness, appreciation and friendships is what gets more volunteers, no matter how much money they make. If people really want to be involved they will be, I have found in the past all those little gimmicks to get people involved tend to only work for a meeting/event for a VERY VERY short time. Our group has grown because we are very open and truly welcome. The diversity in our group is so obvious yet we all get along the same and we all do it for one reason...the kids.I just think it's a hard decision to narrow down who deserves it the most without causing hard feelings=)
I happen to be from the school she is talking about and am on the board.
I don't plan on running next year, so it's not self-serving. We're not the school that took profits for ourselves. NOR would we ever think about it. We have made more money this year than any PTO ever has at our school.
Our school is low income, has low parent involvement and I thought this is could be one thing that may get some different parents involved. It was simply an idea. I'm pretty disappointed in the personal jabs that some of you took toward this subject. I think my opinion of PTO Today has just changed...and I probably won't be using it much more for advice if people have tunnel vision.
It may seem over the top, but to these parents, $ talks. It's really not that much money in the whole scheme of things. There hasn't been anything proposed at our PTO meetings that we haven't paid for and we have plenty of money to do it.
By the way--it's not self-serving. I feel very rewarded by volunteering and I want others to feel the same--unfortunately, in our school, there's alot of poverty--and these kids don't have a chance in hell living the way they are. One week in camp may be life changing for them.
Just my 2 cents.
Brenda Roderick
Sabin Elementary PTO President
Traverse City, MI
I think this could be a great thing if proposed in the correct manner.
All of you guys who posted are obviously looking at this from a one sided view.
What if this school has the same parents volunteering year after year?
What if they are sick of hearing the complaints from parents that they're putting in hundreds (yes hundreds) of hours taking away from their family and want to really incent parents to help out?
The parents who don't normally help out may look at this as a wonderful opportunity. This may incent some of the lower income parents that wouldn't normally get involved (who may have great ideas they want to share but don't feel comfortable with the snobby PTO attitude that most schools portray)to feel as if they really are benefiting the kids.
What if these kids don't have the opportunity to go to camp?
Biggest perks of volunteering:
1 your kids seem to do better in school
2 you're there to communicate with the teachers
3 (I'm not saying this is right but...) there are teachers that will consciously or not treat volunteers' kids better
4 freinds - in elementary, nearly no one will drop their child off at a playdate or birthday party where they've never seen the parent before.
5 parent support - you get personal perks too from interaction with new people (Like PTOtoday [img]tongue.gif[/img] ).
That's just a few.
If they need to see $ for their work, they need a job. Volunteer work is done out if love.
I have to agree with the others and add that there already are perks to serving on the board in getting to know the teachers and administration and getting the insider knowledge on your childs school! This should be enough for anyone the point is to serve the kids all of them!
