Chazz, wow that is tough. What are some of the things your PTO does in the school and for the students. Sometimes being specific with your needs and letting them know what all it is you do can lead people to become part of it. Do you put out a newsletter?

Well thank you all for your views.
When I say that we have 20 volunteers I mean thats it for membership. That is counting the board. The school looks for ways at all times to use parent volunteers. And the principal and all faculty are complety behind the pto and the principal or vice principal are in attendance at every meeting. They are looking for the answers to get the parents involved also.
The thing is at our first meeting of the year there were approximatly 25 people at the meeting....by our last meeting (our 3rd one) we were down to 5 people. Its not necessarly the involvement at meetings that bothers me its the idea of buring out the volunteers we already have.
From reports I have the elementary schools do wonderful with parent involvement but it seems like once the children begin middle school/jr. high the involvement is lacking.
thanks again

At our elementary school we have about 550 students and we to had a problem getting volunteers, especially since we don't allow children under school-age inside the building during school hours.

In order to make the most of our volunteers we came up with a list of activities they could do at home or afterhours (i.e. making bookmarks, grading papers, cutting out letters for bulletin boards, helping with newsletters, outside yard maintenance etc...) They are still required to record all volunteer hours and the person for whom the work is being done must initial the volunteer log when the work is completed and returned. This has allowed more parents to participate when it is most convenient for them. The librarian loves this arrangement and works her volunteers to the max!

I think the first question here is: Are the 20 parents enough to do what you need to get done? If not then yes you are in need of some volunteers and I would recommend personally asking people to help out.

If your desire is to get parents involved in their childrens education and the school you have to give them the opportunity. You did not mention, but, are there already opportunities in place and no one to help or are you looking for ways to help parents be involved?

Especially at the middle school level just getting parents available in the day time is a problem. At night of course everyone has there own business to contend with and can barely make it to the meetings.

I have found that "being involved in your childs education" means very different things to different people.

I have also found that all those wonderful advantages that are celebrated to make the difference in our children have less to do with what goes on at school and more to do with what goes on between home and school.

What are the ways you are promoting Parent Involvement? Is the principal and staff on board. They may be very helpful with ideas that your PTO/PTA could help implement.

Just a note: We have 420 students in our middle school with about 5 parents availbable during the day and a core group of about 10 parents that make everything happen. (190 PTA members) This year we are looking into the community and businesses to secure "tutors" for our students during the day. Aside from the tutoring there is very little opportunity to have parents in the school during the day. We are working on the staff to be creative with ideas that will help parents become more involved with their students education process, even if it is done at home. Best Wishes

I to am a new President. We just voted to start a parent involvement committee. All on the committee are new to the idea but out of rural school of 210 children we had a group of 12 volunteers(pretty sad huh) so we HAVE to do something. There is an excellent web site with a wealth of information. It is www.pta.org/programs/ldrsgde.htm
Hope this helps.

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I am a new president/chair of a middle school pto.
My problem is volunteers and HOW TO GET MORE??
At present our school has about 800 students and only about 20 parent volunteers.
My problem is how to get to the parents to get them more involved in the school and with their children.
If anyone has ANY ideas please e-mail me.
Any and all help will be appreciated.
Thank You