I know school is out but thinking for next year, if your parent meetings or Bonus Nights are boring -then bring in presenters that are upbeat or who offer workshops that are interactive and informative. We usually contract the same company for 6 workshops a year and the parents love them and enrollment has increased. They actually have make and take sessions.

rac76, we get the parents involved by planning towards the children or family. For instance, our recent family reading night was advertised as bedtime is storytime. We had teachers wear pajamas to school to get the kids excited. Everyone was invited to wear pajamas and slippers and join us for cookies, milk and bedtime stories that night. We had some reading and spelling events that involved the whole family before ending the nigth with bedtime stories. This was one of those events that families and teachers enjoyed being a part of. Our Title funds paid for 1 book for each student of our school that attended, cookies from Walmart, and milk in cartons.

Thanks for the info! We're a Title 1 school, and the money is used for parent workshops (they are called 'PTO Bonus Nights'). These Bonus Nights are about an hour long with various topics throughout the year. I think they are suppose to have 5 a year. Most of them are educational, but boring and not well attended. We did have a literacy night in February which many parents said that they had good time. Attendence is taken so it could be used to send an invitation out for the Family Fun night in March.

I know from experience that the parents don't know what a Bonus Night is or they don't find the topic interesting. So how would you all make them more interesting? I'm looking for anyway to get more involvement from the parents, so anything fun would do!! I'm thinking of asking to do a creative night or a science night. That would work??

copv155 I think you may have misunderstood some of what was talked about. There is a large portion of Title 1 money. Of that large sum 1 percent goes to parent involvement. The large sum is usually what funds actual programs in the schools (teachers, classes,etc.) The 1 percent (in my district) goes for classes for parents (computer, LAN, Math and Science, health related issuess). Basically, to help you help your child at home. We had a parent ask for an ADHD presentation. She wanted to know how she could help her child. This is what our parent group does with the money. Hope that helps. Talk to your school improvement planning committee and see what they did with the larger amount of money. Hope that helps.

brroklyn pta mom you beat me to the one percent! Thanks!

covp I am sorry that you are shocked by how our schools spend some of their title one money but you make it seem like increasing family involvement by hosting a family event doesn't benifit anyone. I was a little offended that you thought we were wasting money...so i asked my school board husband about title one money. Truth is title one federal grant money details that one percent of every school who receives this money is to be spent on some form of parent involvement. That involvement can be hosting a family event that gets families to the school, think about that home school connection. It seems you are passionate about this topic so why don't you check out what your district spends their one percent on? And by the way it is usually the district that says what that 1 percent is spent on...not parent groups.