Hi
I was just wondering how many of you attend the School Counsil meetings? or even the School committee meetings? And if so, do you find them worthwhile?

Hi Val,
I try to either attend or watch on local cable access. They are worthwhile. Any time you can get information on what will affect the kids now or in the near future,is definitely worth it. As President of our PTC I have had occasion to address the School Committee a few times and to get involved. One of the surprises I had was the amount of information discussed and the amount of future planning that is done. I usually end up learning about a program I did not know existed or one that is being planned, etc...

Thanks Peter
I definately will attend the school council meeting and try my hardest to attend the school committee meeting (as these tend to fall on our PTO meeting nights). Any information I can get from them will be worthwhile.

Peter (and all)-

How does your attending the school committee meetings affect your PTO? Do you report back to the PTO? Does the PTO take formal stands on certain issues and then express those to the Committee? Or do you attend more as a concerned citizen rather than a PTO rep.?

Tim,
Yes to all of the above. All of the PTO's in our city have two representatives on a Citywide Parents Council as well. Between that organization and the individual PTO the parents have an opportunity to express concerns and speak about which side of which issues we stand on. We try to be eloquent, and we are persistant. We believe that there is alot of truth in "the squeaky wheel" theory. In any case, The Citywide reps give a monthly report at our meetings and we also discuss the School Committee as well.

We have a position in our PTO which is responsible for bringing our ideas and concerns to the school committee and who reports back to us on the committee meetings. She can't go to every meeting, but she tries to have someone from our PTO at every meeting. This is our 2nd year doing that and it is making a big difference in getting us heard.