Our PTO board is appointed and I was recently named President. I have no experience with this type of thing, but I was willing, so here I am. The problem is that they have only been able to get one other parent to agree to be an officer (somewhat reluctantly). I have made call after call trying to find another parent willing to take this on, but no one will. The last board was in office for three years, and they didn't solicit parental involvement. I'm getting the distinct impression that most of the parents now feel alienated. I sent fliers home with the students saying "We need your help", and so far, I've received 10 out of 600 students. If I can't even get parents to become officers, how am I supposed to get them involved with PTO?
I have been involved with our PTA/recently changed to PTO for 3 yrs. Getting parents to attend is nearly impossible. We are having more teachers attend by asking for a representative from each grade to be present. We are also trying something new with having our meetings at 5:30 and offering free after school care for that hour during the meeting. And whoever said feed them and they will come is correct. We recently had a free back to school supper and 250 people showed up!Our student population is 350. We also gave a scooter away as a door prize.
One thing that has helped us that I am just finishing up doing to set our meeting in motion is to send out a parent survey sheet. Find out what is on the mind of parents in your school and then center your ideas around those topics. Our school is considering going to year round schooling. So for our October meeting we will have a business meeting followed by a presentation by the principal and supt. on year round schooling. Offer a pizza party to the class who has the most parents attend. A parent counts as one and a teacher counts as 2. Most pizza places are willing to work with you and the total cost for us is usually under $30. For us $30 is a small price for that extra parental involvement. If your treasury does not have the funds to support a pizza party, how about a popcorn party or work with the principal and that class will get an extra recess.
Door prizes also work well as does food and offering babysitting services. If your school has an FHA they would probably have someone who is working towards an award and would have to have so many communtiy service type hours. We have also had these groups work with us in our carnival. Don't let their efforts go unnoticed. Give them a small token of your appreciation. Fundraising companies might also me willing to give you some promo items that will help for doorprizes as well as promote a future fundraiser.
Don't get discouraged. Eventually things will click for you. Trial and error are your best options for finding what works for your group. Our PTO started out with Co-Presidents, and I was the secretary. There seemed to be a struggle as to who was the highest co leaving one to resign, followed shortly by the other and then somehow becasue no one els would do it I becam the president. Last year was a tough year but hopefully things will be great this year!
If you have any questions on what I have posted you can email me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
We just had our first meeting last night. I stated earlier that we were having about 10 parents at a meeting out of 125 students last year. We had an amazing 25 parents last night! There were many Kdg. parents also. This was very encouraging. I think what really helped was that at our Kdg. visitation last year we provided refreshments. We also sent a letter home in their packets about what PTO does for our school and how they can get involved. I'm looking forward to a very exciting year!!
We had our first meeting tonight.Not many parents showed up(more attend if child is performing in band etc.)but was very happy to see more teachers. We had a free raffle using the little gifts that fundraising companies had sent us. It seemed to work out great. The kids were excited about a chance to win something along with their parents.If something is there worthwhile, they will come!
