PTO Today

I am a member of the PTP at my son's charter school & have noticed that our main focus always seems to be raising money for school trips. I was wondering what the "official role" of a PTO/PTA is. I would think it should be more than just that. Can anymore provide a little more information for me?

Thanks so much.

PTA Mission Statement: The mission for the Calahan St. Elementary PTA is to identify curriculum and programs deemed by the membership* in its sole discretion to be vital to affect the richest educational experience possible for our children; to maximize the role of the school itself in fulfilling these objectives; and to plan, organize and execute events and programs which generate the resources and mechanisms necessary to fulfill these objectives.

and another

The mission of Crestview School, in partnership with the Vandenberg Air Force Base community and Lompoc Unified School District, is to provide a positive learning environment which encourages the development of the whole child. We believe every child comes into the world with gifts waiting to be discovered and nourished. It is our goal, as both parents and educators, to help each child find and develop these gifts. In doing so, the children will come to appreciate and value themselves, others, and the world in which we live.

The Crestview Community is committed to the wise use of available resources

to create a positive learning environment for all.



Therefore, we will:

Promote TRUST by using clear, open and frequent communication.
Reorganize and reappoint our TIME to better meet the needs of our school.
Coordinate major CURRICULUM units across 6 grade levels.

The mission of the PTO is to foster a spirit of cooperation and communication among all members of our school community and to help develop a closer relationship between home and school.

and another (that I really like)

The PTA organization was established to:

promote the welfare of children and youth in home, school, community and place of worship.
raise the standard of home life.
secure adequate laws for the care and protection of children and youth.
bring into closer relation the home and the school, that parents and teachers may cooperate intelligently in the education of children and youth.
develop between educators and the general public such united efforts as will secure for all children and youth the highest advantages in physical, mental, social and spiritual education.
To accomplish these goals, your support is needed. While we realize that everyone is unable to participate in all the activities, we hope that you will be able to participate in any way possible.

As Shawn has shown you through the various mission statements, a PTO's mission is what the members decide it will be. Maybe you should take some of these mission statements and sit down with a group of like minded parents and talk about what you think is important and what goals you would like to see the parent group achieve. After you've done that, you could go to a meeting and express your thoughts along those lines.

A PTO(or any other parent group) can benefit the school far beyond financial aid. You just have to find out what the needs are and establish programs to meet them.

NJMOM...

Lots of good ideas on increasing family involvement (beyond fundraising) are available through the PTA.
Lots of info here too, you are on the right track in looking for MORE!
Keep up the good work, and check out www.pta.org.

PTA or PTO or PTP...keep involved.

Whilst we do have an official mission--I really see my mission as the president of our PTO is finding ways to marry up the myriad abilities of our fabulous parents, witht he myriad abilities and teaching missions of our teachers. That, to me, includes 4 basic aspects
-morale and spirit enhancement
-building enhancements as required
-building a sense of "community participation"
-complimenting the teaching missions of our school.

We do sales of spirit items (tshirts, magnets, antenna boppers etc), we are building an outdoor classroom eating area (we raised 12k to do that), we respond with children participation events to help our local food bank-send Christmas boxes to the soldiers and basically stay involved in our community, and we run various morning "clubs" that support teacher goals (our One school, one book reading club, our Thinking and Games club, we periodically publish a child done insert to our PTO newsletter. There are so many ways to stay involved and luckily we have the energy to do it.
It didn't happen overnight, but it's better and better every year!...d

njmom03 - I see fundraising as a means to an end rather than the sole purpose of a parent group. Class trips are an important part of the educaitonal experience. Congratulations on being able to help your school achieve that.

There are many, many other projects that parent groups take on based on community needs. Just by browsing these boards, you'll see a lot of ideas.

I believe PTA has a formula for fundraiser to event ratios. ????? Other groups try to balance fundraisers with free or reduced family events as needed.

My last group chose these to focus on:

[b]Fundraisers[/b]
General Mills Boxtops and Campbell's soup & Tyson labels
Direct solicitation of donations from parents
Winter Carnival (a healthy fundraiser but also a major "family event")

[b]Events & Programs[/b]
Arts Day
Field Trips
Teacher Appreciation (all year, not just one week)
Teacher Reimbursements (for classroom needs)
Accelerated Reader rewards program
Character Counts materials
Playground Materials - balls, jumpropes, etc.
Playground Equipment - Swings, Basketball Courts, etc.
Art Supply Cabinet
Science Lab Consumables
Laminator and Film
Ellison Dies (die cut machine)
Library Books and Supplies

[ 08-21-2006, 07:10 PM: Message edited by: CrewChief ]

Thank you all for your replies. I appreciate the advice & guidance. I am meeting with a small group of parents tonight to begin planning for this year & will share all of your comments with them. I know there is so much more we should be doing & feel that with the right guidance, we can accomplish what previous groups have not been able to. Thanks again to you all. I'm sure you'll be hearing from me again as I am still new to this & have much to learn. [img]smile.gif[/img]