Can someone school me? RE: Parent Teacher Orgs.

[Melissa W.]

I know I have complained about my own town budget recently. Tonight is the Board of Finance meeting to revisit the cuts that are being made so we can send the budget back to referendum. I plan on attending that meeting.

One of the things that frustrates me is that the parents seem really disorganized in getting the right information out there. I thought that the PTO was supposed to be the vehicle for this sort of parent/school interaction. Am I missing something?

[secretlyevil]

PTO in my world means paid time off.

[Melissa W.]

LOL. Sorry about that!

[cookiemdough]

Every PTA is different. Generally the agenda and supporting items for board meetings are posted on the board website (at least in my area). I would check there.

[onomatopoeia]

In our town the PTO doesn't really get involved in the nuts and bolts of the budget, especially in terms of getting people to vote either side. It's just what the name implies...parents and teachers coming together (more so parents) to raise money for extras and to get families involved in the school in a "school spirit" sort of way. The PTO president might send out a bulletin on facebook about an upcoming budget meeting, but that's about it. I think they want to leave politics out of the group as much as possible...they want to have a good working relationship with teachers, administrators, and community members, and being seen as having a political agenda/slant could harm that.

[heightsyankee]

May 22, 2012 8:59:59 GMT -5 onomatopoeia said:

In our town the PTO doesn't really get involved in the nuts and bolts of the budget, especially in terms of getting people to vote either side. It's just what the name implies...parents and teachers coming together (more so parents) to raise money for extras and to get families involved in the school in a "school spirit" sort of way. The PTO president might send out a bulletin on facebook about an upcoming budget meeting, but that's about it. I think they want to leave politics out of the group as much as possible...they want to have a good working relationship with teachers, administrators, and community members, and being seen as having a political agenda/slant could harm that.

My kids go to private school, but this is pretty much the case there as well. PTO is a secondary group that works to improve the classrooms and get/keep families engaged in the school.

[Deleted]

Our teachers embezzle PTA funds.

YAY!

[Melissa W.]

Our PTO does a lot of fundraising and such. I don't even want to tell the parents to vote (although I would like a "yes" vote to avoid cutting 24 teachers ad pushing class size up to 30 per class.) I feel like the information is just buried and the information that does get passed through the rumor mill is blatantly false. I've been wondering how to best get the word out there.

[Deleted]

It really depends on the leadership. I've been very impressed with the leadership of the PTO of my zoned middle school (they've raised over $300k this year and were very active in the political fight to keep class sizes smaller --the gov. wanted to change the ratios to save money). My elementary school PTO I've been less impressed with. I don't have a freaking clue what they really do, or what they do with the money raised.