I am wondering if anyone has come up with creative ways to enlist the help of parents with not so pretty pasts. I have a handful of parents who made some mistakes in the past - this disqualifies them from volunteering at our school - I am looking for other ways for them to lend a hand to our PTO?????

I am wondering if anyone has come up with creative ways to enlist the help of parents with not so pretty pasts. I have a handful of parents who made some mistakes in the past - this disqualifies them from volunteering at our school - I am looking for other ways for them to lend a hand to our PTO?????Please don't allow them to handle money!!!!!

At the elementary my children attended our PTO had options for parents to help from home. We didn't have the same issues as yours, just parents whose jobs kept them from being able to be at the school. They cut out or assembled things for classrooms and our annual craft day activities, stapled flyers and notes for bookfairs, and made phone calls for prize donations for our carnival. Just think of all of things your PTO volunteers who ARE available to be in the school do from home now and offer those things to this group of parents.

Just think how good their kids will feel when they see mom or dad doing something at home that helps their school! Good for the parent's self esteem too. This could be a very positive thing for your school-good idea.

thank you! We have very little involvement in our school to begin with - so I really do not want to turn people away if I have other alternatives

We have one mom who used to be a board member and was a region rep for the state PTA, so she was extremely active and an awesome volunteer. Then she got into some legal trouble, which doesn't keep her from volunteering at the school, but does keep her from doing anything that might involve her handling money or items of monetary value. So now she assembles our Student Directory every year, and works with our webmaster keeping our website up to date. She also serves on our Nominating Committee, which never met at the school anyway, although I realize that not all groups have one of these, and she assists with the yearbook.

The big thing is to encourage your committee chairs to delegate things to these parents that can be done from home. I know that there is a lot I do from home when chairing a committee that I would gladly hand over to another parent.

HTH!

I would also encourage you to keep their records as private as possible. Rather than tell a committee chair, "So-and-so can't come to the school because...." I'd simply say, "This is a list of parents who would like to be involved but prefer to work from home." This gives chairs the chance to delegate projects like LUVMYKIDS mentioned without all of their dirty laundry aired in public.