I do not have any HS aged children yet. My oldest is going into middle school and I'm accually surprized I have not heard anything from the PTO at the middle school. But I agree at a HS level you really need student involvement to bring in the parents. My HS had more of a PTSO (parent, teacher, student organization) it tended to cater more towards funding the extracarricular activities and we had over 20 committees. By combining them all into a PTSO we were able to "pool" the fundraising efforts and create a budget that helped everything from the dramma club to football to chess club and even help out with school supplies for science lab and computer. Alot of fundraising was done during the school day with a school store, a school restaurant, and we even sold off campus lunch passes for students and teachers (not sure if todays society would still allow that one. If your school includes grades pre-K through 12 you may concider created addition committes and have the committees submit proposal and budgets to the PTO for approval have the committees set up as mini PTOs ?????
I have to agree with Kathie, the high school PTA's are entirely different for all reasons she mentioned. We are a very low key PTSA planning to go PTO. PTA's at the elementary/middle school level spend a great deal of time with fundraising activities. When you get to high school, there are too many groups and everyone is fundraising. Our principal does not want our PTA to fundraise, but to be in place to keep communication strong between administration and the parents...and also to be a service support organization--help filling volunteer positions needed at the school. We do have membership dues and have been able to help fund projects with money available after paying PTA dues and operating expenses.
Although here in my part of Northern Nevada, I only have one PTSA high school (rural area) There is a very successful PTSA in the south (Vegas).
Obviously, high school students have different interests and needs in high school than the elementary or even middle school PTAs. The biggest key in the highschool PTAs is the advocacy on top of acting as a booster club. They are far more involved in the issues of their area, state and at the National level and some even tie Government into their involvement. (the students) To get the materials home to the parents, collect e-mail addresses at a game or at any other activity that parents attend. That way, the kids can't throw away their parent's e-mail!
Our high school has a PTO, I am not sure about participation, I haven't talked to the pres in a while but they did offer a scholarship this year for a Senior whose parent was a PTO member. I thought that was pretty neat. If you could plan a carnival or dance, something the kids like that would probably help if you put them on committees. They could help with prop designs etc. Make clear what you expect from them. I think many people still sees parent groups as something used for elementaries.
Our middle school PTO was pretty active at one time. I am not sure who runs that now. I know they did a hat day and everyone that wore a hat had to pay a dollar, it paid well. I am not sure what all they did with their funds but I heard they were put to good use.
My kids are still in elementary but I am available to work at all the schools as a sub aide and I know a lot of people in our small town. I often contact them when I see a question I think they could help with on this forum. I am glad to give my opinion/advice when I can. [img]smile.gif[/img]
[ 06-09-2004, 12:14 PM: Message edited by: C. Brooks ]
This post is a perfect example of why it would be good to have a seperate section for ms/hs. The OP posted two good questions but they were both bumped over by the old post. This Free for all section has too many postings and some ms/hs topics just do not fit into the other sections.
But to answer the question regarding hs parent participation. There are several reasons hs parents do not get involved. 1) They don't know about it because kids don't bring home papers to parents on a regular basis. Kids look at the paper and don't think it's important and throw it away. 2) Parents are involved in specific groups - sports or music/theatre booster clubs and have no more time for overall parent groups.
3) HS students (studies even show it) consider their friends more important then their families at this age and would rather do things with friends. 4) Parents work during the day and are busy running their kids around to their activities at night. Once the kids start to drive, the parents breathe a sigh of relief and stay home. 5) Parents that for years have been active with their kids agendas are burnt out and no longer have the energy to particpate. (Can you tell it's the end of the school year??) [img]smile.gif[/img]
