PTO Today

I just ran across this t-shirt site (and this one shirt, in particular), and I think I’ve found the best door-prize ever for a Kindergarten welcome event. Cool stuff. Thought I’d pass it along.

Interested and heated discussion on the Atlanta Journal-Constitution site. The crux: should heavily-involved parents get (or expect) occasional school benefits in exchange for their volunteering?

Jersey columnist does a nice job capturing the spirit of a local PTO’s “flocking” event (think: pink flamingos on a parent’s lawn).

Writer includes my take on events like these, but — as happens — the editing process changes things a bit. Basically, I’m a big fan of events like this. Think they add a ton of fun and spirit to a school year, and more fun and more spirit are definitely good things when a PTO is trying to connect with parents.

But even if these events make a few bucks, they shouldn’t be mistaken for fundraisers. Or at least not for good fundraisers. It would take an awful lot of pink flamingos (and more parents than you likely have in your school) to make as much from an event like this as you’ll make from a well-run, more traditional fundraiser. Better to think of your big fundraiser(s) separately from a spirit effort like this. Pink flamingos? Great. A really successful big fundraiser? Great. Pink flamingos as a really successful big fundraiser? Unlikely.

Agree or disagree? Would love to hear your thoughts.

So the long, uninterrupted string of research continues. This must make it 47 for 47 or something, as a pair of University of New Hampshire economists unveil their findings from a big study: parent involvement in education works.

Besides the usual findings (that are of no suprise to regular readers of this space), the UNH researchers added an interesting twist. Turns out that: 1) parent education works (to the equivalent of $1,000 of value for the school system per year); and 2) as school resources/budgets go up, parent involvement tends to lessen (my guess: parents feel that the school has things handled)… meaning that spending that extra $1000 per student may mean losing some of that $1000 in parent-value. Interesting.

I’m sure will find other reactions re: this study. Will keep you linked in. Would love your thoughts, too.

Excited to introduce all of our ptotoday.com readers and users to a new site we launched just this morning — schoolfamily.com.

It’s from the same team of involvement experts who bring you ptotoday.com, but you’ll see that the focus is subtly but importantly different. Where ptotoday.com is all about the challenges of being a great school PTO or PTA leader, schoolfamily.com is all about the challenges of being a great school parent. Example: ptotoday.com might talk about how to put on a spaghetti supper for 400, while schoolfamily would talk about why attending a spaghetti supper actually matters.

We’re excited about how this kind of new content can help you (as a leader) accomplish even more. Hope you’ll share the new site with all your parents, as helping parents “get it” when it comes to getting involved is what you’re all about and what schoolfamily.com is all about.

(We’d also love your ideas on how we can make schoolfamily.com even better.) Enjoy!

We can’t let our schools become factories. I’m all for accountability, but one of the first questions with accountability is: “what are you counting?” And for me, when it comes to school, SAT scores are not all that we should be counting. It’s why I love playgrounds at schools and schools that realize that extra-curriculars matter and schools that realize the atmosphere and discipline and caring matter, too. These are many of the things that PTOs and PTAs are so good about bringing into and keeping at school.

And it’s why this LA Times story on significant declines in school field trips is so disconcerting. Thank God for the parent groups doing what they can to stem this tide. Also worthwhile to give credit (as the story does) to the good work of one of our favorite partners, Target, on this issue. Their field trip grant program is a step in the right direction.

Today is National Teacher Day.

Don’t worry if the holiday snuck up on you. The NEA has some cool electronic greeting cards your kids can email to their teachers. As an added bonus, the teacher’s name will be included on what’s being called the nation’s largest teacher thank-you card. (You can snail mail your own cards to be incorporated into the giant card, too.)

Today’s also a good time to think about ways your parent group can appreciate teachers all year long. Be sure to check out our article on this topic, Teacher Appreciation Done Right, which has great ideas on how to do just that.

Here’s a new twist (and I bet it will be the first of many of these). Talented volunteer puts together a video selling the importance of volunteering at school. Professional editing and a soundtrack make it really slick. Love it! I feel like I’m watching Oprah:

We’ve always said that if announcing: “Meeting next Tuesday at 7PM” is your main involvement-building strategy, then you’re in trouble. These guys clearly get that.

UPDATE AS OF 3/19/08: We had an overwhelming amount of interest in this program and it is now sold out. We know these sampling programs are popular so we’ll keep working on bringing more of them to you in the future!

Yep, another sampling offer to add even more excitement and fun to one of your upcoming events. This time it’s Tide and participating groups will receive free samples to distribute to parents at an event. Could be a nice tie-in with your spring carnival, field day, BBQ, or any other event involving sticky fingers, grass, mud, or all of the above! Don’t worry, ending up with muddy, dirty kids isn’t required to participate

This particular Tide product is so new it just hit the store shelves in February! And we’re told it has Dawn in it to help with those pesky stains.

Couple things to note:

• You need to have an event scheduled between early April and early June.
• You’ll receive 192 free samples along with “thank you” message cards and notes that you can distribute to parents attending your event.
• Limited number of samples available so participation is on a first come first served basis.

Lots more info and details on how to sign up here - ptotoday.com/tide

In our opinion, this is just a step too far for this Missouri PTO.  What’d they do?  Sent a note home to parents advising parents not to let their kids see the Golden Compass movie.  Several parent complaints followed and superintendent reports his office never approved the note home. The big issue:  what’s the role of the parent group here?  Of course, this would be a bad choice for a Family Movie Night, and that would be a perfectly appropriate decision for the PTO leadership to make.  But advising parents what movies kids should watch outside of school? There’s an area that just seems well out-of-bounds for the local parent group.