PresidentJim;131838 wrote: Honestly Megley3, your posts come across as though you are one of those lobyists for the PTA groups trying to convince us that we should join up.

PresidentJim

Jim.. I just read this whole thread, and I have to agree. when the meat of the conversation started.. Megley disappeared!

well.. it's always good to see both sides of the fence

I am also a big supporter of PTO over PTA. As others have mentioned I just don't see why valuable funds should be taken away just so that you can have recognition as a national group.

Also if you want to have a voice regarding your child and their education you need to start at the local level. Getting involved (which being that you're posting on this site I hope you are already doing) in your child's school, is step one, and next would be your town. There's many avenues there. Luckily where I live the new Superintendant of Schools is amazing! She attended our Back to School event at the beginning of the year and talked with parents about her priorities, what the parents can do, what they wanted, etc. She is extremely approachable, and that's the way a Superintendant of Schools should be.

Honestly Megley3, your posts come across as though you are one of those lobyists for the PTA groups trying to convince us that we should join up.

Either way, good luck,
PresidentJim

In our county our School Board has an active research and review grant that is assessing our security issues this year. We (our PTO) was briefed on the initiation of the study and will be appraised of the conclusions at report time. The School Board is very good about keeping us involved with several town hall meetings, meetings to provide them feedback and then in this year, meetings to share thoughts on key issues we are facing as parent leadership in the schools.
We also have an extensive security program within the school that provides specific actions and "routines" that will occur in the event of a threat. I was personally interested in this as my background has focused on security issues and specifically target protection. I am very comfortable with the steps the school has in place and if I were not I absolutely know that my inputs would be taken seriously. So this particular aspect has not been addressed at the PTO level because things are well in hand. I am asked (as the PTO President) to be a part of our schools annual goals and mission review and work side by side with the teachers in establishing and refining azimuths for our children's/schools programs.
It is a very healthy relationship and one I am proud to be a part of.
d

I love the way your group is run. I would really like to find out more about your programs. Is there any security issues that you take on?

Well--we do much more than just fun. In fact we have 4 aspects of our organization that we promote as a part of being our group....

I. Morale and Spirit
II. Educational
Enhancement
*III. Facilities Maintenance
and Upgrades
IV. Community Support

Each one of our myriad programs fits into one of those categories and is designed to teach our children life lessons. That includes our food drives (where kids do the work) to our Backpack Plus program that helped the Katrina children and schools to the tune of over 4000 dollars in direct contributions to a school and 4 adoptions of classrooms, to our "Make a Difference" campaign that assists our own children in need. While I'm sure that changes in Washington make a difference...they don't put Christmas presents under any of our children's trees.

d

I do understand your point of view. It's tough in this type of forum to really express yourself. I think you're saying that while the fun stuff is great and necessary, you also want to tackle some of the tough issues in education. That's commendable. There are plenty of ways to do that within the parent group realm. But, like Shawn mentioned in another post, it has to be part of the group's vision and mission statement and the majority of the members have to agree. Your challenge, perhaps, is to help your group find ways to expand their mission and goals.

If things at your school have been the way they are for a long time and especially if you're getting the "that's the way we've always done it" reasoning then it's going to be a big challenge. Be patient, work slowly with like-minded parents, become very active in the group to help change things from the inside. Big changes, especially in small, well established towns, take time, patience and perseverance. But you can do it!