A New Focus on Communication

CHRISTINE LESTER-DEATS
How one group repaired its image by reaching out to parents.

by Emily Graham

01/22/2014

With the enthusiasm people have about the PTO at Solvang Elementary, it’s hard to believe that a few years ago the group had only three members and was on the verge of disbanding. Stagnant wages had undermined staff morale, enrollment was down, and parent volunteerism at the southern California school was at an all-time low. In two years’ time, a small but determined group of parents turned the languishing PTO into a vibrant and vital part of the school community.

To do it, the group first developed effective ways to communicate with parents. Then they focused on sending positive messages about the benefits of volunteering, both in person and through school newsletters.

“We pushed the point that if the parents are at school volunteering, it gives the message to their students that school is important,” says president Melody Hunt. “We also said it was a great chance for people to socialize and have fun.”

The PTO welcomed new families with an orientation and a Boo-Hoo Breakfast and held fun family events like a movie night, an ice-cream social, and a community-building carnival. Parents struck up friendships at a mixer and a fundraising golf tournament. The PTO also livened up its meetings with prize drawings.

When moms and dads helped out, the PTO made sure they felt appreciated, and when parents couldn’t fit volunteering into their schedule, they were invited to help at a more convenient time. The idea, Hunt explains, is not to force parents and teachers to adapt to the PTO’s plans but to make it easier for them to fit the PTO into their jam-packed schedules.

That approach made a difference. Gradually the PTO’s image changed from a group desperate for volunteers to a flexible and fun organization to volunteer for. Last year, it had more than 60 new volunteers. The K-8 school has 590 students.

“There’s an excitement building,” says Miren Armenta, now the newsletter editor, who admits that someone had to twist her arm to serve as president two years ago. “Instead of trying to rope people into volunteering, we have way more people saying ‘What can I do?’ ”

When Armenta became president, she didn’t know how the PTO communicated with parents. The group’s newsletters and flyers had been printed sporadically and often didn’t make it from children’s backpacks into parents’ hands. The PTO had little interaction with the Latin Family Group, which serves the school’s 150 Spanish-speaking families.

To keep parents better informed, the PTO began mailing monthly newsletters, which notified them about volunteer opportunities and touted what parents had already accomplished for the school. Volunteers translated the newsletters into Spanish, and Armenta made sure the Spanish versions of materials were designed as attractively as the English versions.

For the first time last year, the PTO worked with the Latin Family Group to raise funds for student field trips. It also appointed a liaison to facilitate communication between the two groups. As a result, says Armenta, Spanish-speaking parents feel more connected to the school community.

Although the majority of Solvang Elementary’s teachers already supported parent involvement, Hunt sent teachers separate newsletters four times last year to explain upcoming activities and ask for feedback. This was key to getting teacher buy-in for new programs like Dads’ Volunteer Day, she says. Some teachers initially expressed concerns about the event, but the dads earned rave reviews for their help in the classroom and on the playground. Several fathers helped with a fence project, saving the school an estimated $4,000.

The PTO also worked with teachers last year to implement a weekly folder system to quickly get information to parents. In addition, the publicity chair regularly drafted press releases, which resulted in local newspaper coverage of school events and helped raise morale.

The regular communications improved awareness of the PTO’s activities and made involvement something parents think about all the time rather than just at back-to-school time and open houses, according to Armenta. That’s a big change from a few years ago, when enthusiasm for the PTO was low. “It’s hard to describe, but the whole attitude of the school is changing,” she says.

One-on-one conversation helped build involvement, as well. Friends talked to friends about their positive experiences with the PTO, and enthusiasm grew as more people became involved.

Through formal communications and informal conversations, PTO leaders talked about how much parents had achieved and thanked them for their hard work. In the final newsletter of the school year, Armenta set aside a page for thank-you notes to volunteers. At a year-end volunteer appreciation event, attendees got to check out the 30 newly installed computers the PTO had purchased for the computer lab.

Even when the news was bad, such as when the state eliminated funding for the school library, the PTO kept its message positive. “I could very easily turn around and say ‘Oh, it’s so horrible, it’s doom and gloom,’ but I think as a parent leader what you should do instead is really encourage people,” Hunt says.

When the library funding was cut, her message to parents was that they had accomplished so much together already, she knew they could raise the funds to support the library, too.

“We’re always trying to be positive about the message we put out there rather than the negative begging, which I think people just tune out after a while,” Hunt says.

For the Solvang Elementary PTO, the focus on the positive has paid off. Both Hunt and Armenta are continuing in their positions this year. Parents have volunteered to form new committees to improve school board relations, apply for grants, and assist with technology. And when members learned that the school would have fewer teachers’ aides this year, more parents began volunteering in classrooms.

The PTO has started a middle school athletics booster club to give those parents more ways to get involved and began PTO Today’s 2 Hour Power volunteer program. The parent group logs parents’ volunteer hours, which can be used as credit toward a child’s field trip fees.

“I think it’s really important as a parent group leader to focus on what is great about your school,” Hunt says, “because if you start rolling the drum on that, people get excited and they see the hope in the future instead of what they can’t do.”

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