PTO Today

This past year 5 of our senior teachers retired...2 of which held the position of co-Teacher Liason to the PTO (for the past 15 years I might add). At the beginning of this year I asked our Principal who the new Teacher reps were going to be? The Pricipal indicated that had not been decided....This past week a teacher asked me for a copy of the PTO bylaws...I asked if there was a question I could answer? Her comment was, "It is a PTO, and I
feel like we should be represented." I did provide her with a copy of the bylaws. I also took the time to review them....Our bylaws do not make any mention of an offical Teacher Liason position. In the mean time our Prical has made no mention of replacing our Teacher reps. Just today this same teacher sought me out and indicated that perhaps we should add something to out bylaws requiring a Teacher Liason. Our first PTO meeting (my first as Pres)is this week, I'm a little bit nervous....that we already have an "issue".
Does your school have a Teacher Liason? Is this position mentioned in your bylaws? How is this position filled? Your comments and input will be greatly appreciated.........................Rose

We didn't have a Teacher Liason as such, but if the teachers wanted to ask PTA for something generally 1 of the same 2 teachers would show up at our meetings.
Last year there was a total shake up of our PTA board and some teachers stepped forward and said they'd like to join, so now we have 3 parents and 3 teachers on our board. It has its good points and its bad points, but we are much more connected to the teachers and what they want/feel than we ever were.

We are a K-4th grade school & we have 2 teacher representatives. There is one for K-1 & one for 2-4. In our PTO Bylaws Teacher Representative was listed as one of the officer position. We are a new school & K-1 will be in one wing & 2-4 is in another, so having 2 seemed like the best way to keep the teachers informed & involved. The principal was the one who suggested 2 representatives-he had teacher representatives at his other school & felt it was benefical to all involved. The principal & the teacher representatives have been very involved in helping get things started & met with us over the summer a few times to get things ready for the school year.

In our elementary PTO, we had the same situation as hanrae. Very beneficial. The principal would recruit the two reps each year, usually one from the lower grades; one from the higher. We found their input invaluable. Some years the reps were more active than others. Things always went smoother when we had an involved Teacher Liasion.

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Our PTO does not have an official section of the by-laws that mentions a teacher liason. However, since pTo is for teachers too, our principal has always recruited at least 2 teachers/aides for each membership meeting we have. He rotates a schedule. For example, at one meeting a 1st grade teacher and the art teacher may be present. At the next meeting it may be a 3rd grade teacher and the speech therapist. This has worked great for us as we get a well-rounded idea of what the staff questions or ideas may be that we can work on or help with!

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[I]"Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it" - Ferris Bueller[/I]

We are P-2, about 260 students. Our PTO has 4 parent officers and 1 teacher representative. I asked this particular teacher to be the representative. We have 13 teachers and 9 of them were at our first meeting and 10 (plus some aides) at our first PTO event -- a Family Reading Night.