I have been involved wth my PAC for a while but this is my first year as pres. I have never seen a teacher at one of our meetings! I have just stuffed a letter in all of the staff mailboxes today, it was along the lines of we want to serve your needs how can we help you. We are hosting a PAC, Parent, Teacher Mixer for 1 hour before our next evening meeting and have encouraged them in my letter today to come, and then to stay for the meeting and share some ideas with us. This is going to be my approach this year, I'll let you know how it turns out!
Originally posted by lurking in texas: Our infrequent meetings (sometimes just 2 a year - but that is another thread!), are held at 8:30 am as well. I too asked the question, why, and was given the same answer - no body comes at night, blah, blah, blah. What is the problem with switching it up - one month morning, one month evening?
My wife is a teacher in the same school, and one of the reasons (in our case) the teachers do not participate is because they really never see any benefits of the fund raising. Oh, the PTO might paint something or provide snacks at an event, but that is all! After complaining (from the PTO) of lack of participation from the teachers, I suggested that for the fall festival, every teacher who assisted would recieve a $25 gift certificate to a teacher supply store, and the one who had the most players at a booth (verifiable by coupons) would get a $100 certificate - fell to deaf ears! I mean that is what you are there for, are you not -to help the students and teachers?
It's to o bad your school does not clearly see the results of the fundraisers..Our school does (new playground,computer lab,pavilion) We are however her to support the children. Our parents give so much time and moey, but our teacher participation is nill. I disagree with teachers winning prizes like rewards we use for the children...I would recommend your Org make there accomplishers better known..if they aren'tspending the raised money wisely - that is all the more reason th get involed (Teachers INCLUDED) and Vote Vote Vote! How funds are raised are usually voted upon as is how it will be spent. Unfortunatley everyone has an opinion, but no one comes out with suppot and attendance at meetings...go figure
We are a PTO, but I don't expect the same type or degree of participation from the "T" as I do from the "P". We are fortunate to have 1+ teachers at each our of monthly meetings, but they are usually the ones who have their own children in our school. We do get teachers to act as callers in Bingo Night, and work a shift at their class's carnival booth, but I don't expect a teacher to chair a PTO committee or even work on a project.
We focus on enriching our students/school by supporting the professional educators who teach our kids all day, then go home and grade papers, write tests, call parents, plan curriculum, etc. If they do that, they're already doing their part to support our school. We try not to put any pressure our on staff to volunteer for our committees. I guess we look at our teachers as our "customers", not our "workers". Maybe a better name for us would be SSO - school support organization! [img]smile.gif[/img]
Re: meeting time - we've always done monthly PTO meetings at night. But this year, we're having 3 of the 9 monthly meetings during the day. For those parents who are available, it allows them to be updated on PTO activities without sacraficing a night away from the family. For those who are not available during the day, they can come to our evening meetings. Hopefully thiswill be a win-win.
The one thing I cannot complain about (Thank God) are our teachers and the Principal. All of them at our school are very dedicated to the PTO and they are all very appreciative of us and what we do.
I somewhat think the attitude comes from the top down. I think a Principals attitude with the PTO goes a long way. I do not think our Principal would tolerate Teachers not being supportive of us.
This is the first year in a while that we have started with eveing meetings. Both the President and Vice-President(me) work outside the home. It was brought up a couple of times last year that since the meetings were in the mornings that the teachers nor most parents could come. The responses we received were the same as yours---the "heart" of the PTO prefers meetings in the mornings and not to break up their evenings. Most of the core volunteers at stay at home parents and that is who would be attending anyway, right? Well, we had our first evening meeting and had a triple turnout. This is even forgetting to get out reminder notes. So, I would say that we had more parents come and be willing to be involved to their ability than was given credit to initially.
Our infrequent meetings (sometimes just 2 a year - but that is another thread!), are held at 8:30 am as well. I too asked the question, why, and was given the same answer - no body comes at night, blah, blah, blah. What is the problem with switching it up - one month morning, one month evening?
My wife is a teacher in the same school, and one of the reasons (in our case) the teachers do not participate is because they really never see any benefits of the fund raising. Oh, the PTO might paint something or provide snacks at an event, but that is all! After complaining (from the PTO) of lack of participation from the teachers, I suggested that for the fall festival, every teacher who assisted would recieve a $25 gift certificate to a teacher supply store, and the one who had the most players at a booth (verifiable by coupons) would get a $100 certificate - fell to deaf ears! I mean that is what you are there for, are you not -to help the students and teachers?
