I went to the PTO meeting last night, and I have to say I was really pleased. First, allow me to pledge my love for Dr. S (Principal). As an administrator, he's got his head on straight and in the right direction. He has a mission and has already made some drastic changes, and I really get the feeling that the staff is on the same page and appreciates having him.
Dr. S was there at the start, as were two of the teachers. The teachers left after a few minutes, Dr. S stayed a little longer and spoke a little, and then he was able to leave. After that, the three ladies of the PTO introduced what they do, the budget {which is horrendously small}, thanked the parents who were there {I think there were maybe 8 of us}, and we all talked.
There is so little parental support of the school, students, and PTO, it's amazing. Due to the 5 principals in 5 years, and the horrible job the last one did, the PTO almost gave up last year. Last year's Principal, Mrs. H, didn't want the PTO and basically shot them down all the time, and severely limited what they could do. These ladies who lead the PTO are so thankful for Dr. S. He talks to them, he walks around the school, he attended last night's meeting, he encouraged them {PTO} to communicate with the school and the parents, it was amazing to watch.
The meeting was great. There were two dads there which was awesome. One of them has a daughter in Ehtel's class, and the way he talked about how excited he is about his daughter being in school was very cool. It's so nice to hear a parent talk like that about their kids. Anyway, most of the parents have kids in the early grades, so will be at the school a while (in theory). The attendance last night was a record high number of parents, and the PTO ladies said they're usually hopeful they get one parent, and that doesn't even usually happen. There were ideas flying around the room like paper airplanes. Awesome.
There is no "membership", there is no formal organization aside from the fact that there is a President, Secretary, and Treasurer. I suggested that they start their own newsletter and not only include the three 'officers', but, list other parents who are involved (ie: those who return next month, those who volunteer, whatever), so that they can start to exhibit themselves as a group, they liked that. Dr. S also told them that they could have their own newsletter(s) and distribute as they felt necessary, which was news to these ladies b/c the last principal wouldn't let them send things out last year. Crazy!
Anyway, I am going back to the next meeting. I suggested that they have a simple open house to welcome parents on a night that's not a formal "meeting", which might attract more parents. We talked about all the fun programs that the school used to do, which recent administrators, and the influx of low income families, have basically prevented the school from continuing, and we all thought such things needed to be reintroduced. One of the moms there has a kindy kid if I remember correctly, but has a 7th grader who was at the school that Dr. S just came from, and she shared a lot of what their PTO used to do, so that rocked, too.
M, the Prez, said that she was totally overwhelmed with how many parents were there and all the ideas that came out. She is very nice. They all said that they are not used to getting any help, so if parents could just give like an hour of time at the things that the PTO puts on, it would be a huge help. Personally, the PTO needs an influx of money, and it's totally appalling to me that they are so limited in what they can do (ie: fundraising, etc) because of how little money the families have, it really makes me sick. They used to do real fund raisers like World's Finest Chocolates, etc, but they can't any more b/c more than 50% of the families there are low income. WTF?!?!?!!?
These women are not the Wisteria Lane PTO that some PTO's tend to be. The ladies are very real, and have struggled to make the PTO work in an environment which has been less than supportive of their cause for several years. I'm looking forward to being a part of it, inasmuch as I can as a working mom.
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