PTO Today

Our principal has let the teachers vote not to have any of the children attend the Back to School Night evening scheduled for next year (2008/2009 school year). Anyone elses school do this?

No voting here-- we do ask teachers to come alone, but if you can't come without kids-- bring 'em....

Do you mean children as in the students??
We always invite the whole family. This is a great chance for them to show their parents their new classrooms, teachers, friends and all of the other good stuff going on.

Yes I mean students-- the teachers feel the kids do not need to hear the boring details of curriculum night- an that they get disruptive after 20 min. most of the time, these last 45-1 hr.--

Our school has two events in the fall.

Back to School Night is held a few days before the first day of school. Families are invited to tour the school and meet their teachers. Parents are not given the names of their children's teachers until this eveing, so it's incentive to show up to find out who has whom. It's about a two hour event held from 4-6 or so.

About 3-4 weeks into the school year we have Parent Nights. 1st-3rd grade one evening and 4th-5th grade another evening. This is when parents are asked to leave their children home as it is ~40 minutes of curriculum overview and 'what happens in the classroom' stuff. Very boring for children as it is about educating the parents on classroom expectations, benchmarks for the year, curriculum etc. It's also a time for parents to ask questions. The key word here is "ASKED", the letter sent home by the school administrators asks the parents to not bring their children...most comply (~95%).

All schools in our district do this...K-12. Allows for a 'fun' evening for the kids and an 'informative' evening for the parents.

But FYI, teachers are not required to be at the Back to School Night. However, they are required to be at the Parent Night. That is why Back to School is scheduled to begin at 4:00 PM. The teachers are already in the building setting up their classrooms so it's timed to allow for them to stay a bit later without a major inconvenience. All 40+ teachers and paras in our school stay for the evening with the exception of one first grade teacher who is notoriously absent each year.

Okay, so I understand about the teachers not wanting children to attend the evening because it is a meeting to "educate" the parents, but what about families who can't get a sitter? What if the parent group offers an activity in the gym to entertain the kiddies during the meeting? You could even ask for a small donation.

__________________
Hey Rocky, watch me pull a rabbit out of my hat.

We have a Back-to-School BBQ the evening of the first day of school (the PTO holds it every year). That's when kids can introduce their parents to their teachers...nearly all teachers and families attend the BBQ.

A few weeks after school starts we have "Open House" which is when the teachers tell the parents about the plans for the year. At this event parents are encouraged not to bring the kids....most are able to find a sitter - but there are always a handful of kids.
I can understand how kids can get a little antsy if they need to sit for a while - but if bringing the kids along is the only way a parent can attend...then attending should be most important.

Thank you to everyone for all of the replies.

Our schools "Back to School Night" has traditionally been an evening where there are two 20 minute sessions scheduled for classroom presentations (that may or may not be informative depending on the teacher) and a 20 minute presentation in the gymnasium. There are also tables set up in the front entrance area for other organizations to get their information out, i.e. Scouts and PTO. As well as some type of food being served by the PTO for free or a small fee to cover the cost of the food.

All family members have always been welcome and strongly encouraged to attend. Yes, that does make for a lot of people and for things to be hectic, however it also allows every family the opportunity to be involved with their child(ren) and their school. With this change that opportunity is being taken away, as this is the only time this is done throughout the school year. There is no seperate open house type night scheduled. This was suggested, but turned down by the principal in order to not take up more of the teachers time.

Some of the questions raised were; Why should parents have to chose which one of them attends the function and which one stays home with the children? Why should a parent have to pay for child care that can be very costly, especially when you have more then one child? Why should the children be cut out of this night and their excitement about starting a new school year dampened by not being allowed to attend? Why can the parents not have the opportunity to see the teacher handle this bit of chaos and get a feel for their personality on such situations? Why should the parent not have the opportunity to see how their child interacts with other classmates? There is a lot of questions that have come from this decision and the only reason we were given for the change is because it becomes chaotic with so many people and the teachers put a lot of work into their classrooms and it can be messed up very quickly. Honestly, none of that really floats with me very well. If the teachers can't handle the chaos they feel that arises this one night a year for an hour or so, then I seriously have concerns if they can handle a class room of 25-30 students on a daily basis.

The fact that we are a large military community adds to this, as many families have members deployed and that has effectively made them "single parent" families for the duration of a deployment. The majority of those families do not have other family members that live close by to rely on and those they have become friends with, and made into extended family members, are usually in the same situation and will be wanting to attend the Back to School Night as well for their own child(ren). So, relying on them for an hour or so of child care isn't an option and the school isn't offering child care and honestly even if they did I don't believe they would have any place to put them as the gymnasium is used for a session during this event.

I think what has surprised those of us that have been made aware of the upcoming change is that it was done without any input by those it would truly effect---the families. It was told to those in attendance at the last PTO meeting of the year by the principal and those present were permitted to voice their concerns, thoughts, opinions, etc. However, that was just a nicety and it didn't matter what was said by anyone as the decision had been made and was going to occur for the next school year, period. The PTO was also told they wouldn't be supplying food for this night, another decision just made by the principal and teachers without any input from those involved. So, a lot of folks left wondering just what had happened. The PTO and the school has worked hand in hand the last few years in a very tight knit manner with what was believed by PTO members to help support the feeling of community and family within our school. Once we were informed of the changes we were all left feeling pretty well cut out and this put an entirely different color on the picture. It will be very hard to regain the support of the families if they feel they have been shut out and that will be very sad for the school in the long run. While the overall intent of everything has always been said "it's for the children" this change will not follow that standard, as the change is only for the teachers and everyone else just has to deal with it.

At the moment it is a wait and see game as the majority of the parents/families are unaware of the upcoming change and for now things are calm, but once the new school year starts and the flyer is sent home telling the parents not to bring their children, I believe that's when the real chaos will begin.

Thank you again to everyone for your input.

We do two events at our school. One is "Meet the Teacher Open House". Children attend with their parents, and they get to meet their teacher. We (the PTO) provide cookies & drinks for this event. This is also when we sell our school spirit wear, and we have tables set up so that parents have the opportunity to learn about various committees, and sign up to volunteer for those committees. We also do a "Treasure Hunt" around the school so that the kids get a chance to tour the school, but are doing it in a fun way! Then a week later we do a "Curriculm Night" for the parents/teachers only. We offer two time sessions so that if you have more than one child at the school, your able to attend both!
Hope this info is helpful to someone!

We have "Meet The Teacher Night" which is a few days before school starts. Last year we had an ice cream social that was free to the families to help celebrate the event. It was very well received by the school and the families and we will repeat it this year.

We have Curriculum night a few weeks after school begins and unfortunately, it is not well attended. I'm not sure how we can get more people to attend it but that's our goal for this year.