PTO Today

We’ve worked with these guys a bit in the past, when we’ve had PTO Expos in the Philly area, but we’re continually impressed with the Philadelphia public schools and their outreach to parents. Here’s just another example, as district hosts wide-ranging Parent Appreciation Day. Love it.

Few details at this point, but former volunteer under arrest in $40,000 theft. Hope these guys have insurance.

OK, this PTA creatively calls it the “Kindergarten Cry” but I still love the name “Boo Hoo Breakfast” for an event to welcome/support the new parents at your school, who are letting go of their babies for the first time. Fun way to make that first connection and make a great first impression.

Reminds me — there a whole bunch of good “Boo Hoo Breakfast” docs in our File Exchange. Have you seen the File Exchange yet? It’s my favorite new PTO tool of 2008 (though I am a bit biased).

While I certainly don’t agree with all the opinions in this linked blog post, I do think it’s very important for PTA and PTO leaders to think about impressions all the time and work to combat the too-common idea that leaders are cliquey and not open to new and/or more casual volunteers. How do you work against that impression? Check out this feature story on the “Are You a Clique?” topic and my column on why we have to actively work against this clique image.

Wow — $65k is definitely one of the biggest embezzles we’ve seen. This one from a middle school PTA treasurer in California.

Of course, our embezzle blog posts wouldn’t be complete without our plea: please use common sense, basic financial controls.

Had to figure this would happen. School Committee in Massachusetts in hot water after using the PTO-funded emergency phone system to blast a pro-budget override message to all school families.

Several issues: 1) non-profits not allowed to advocate for a certain vote; and 2) Massachusetts election laws may also have been violated.

Technology — these phone trees and email solutions like our PTO Manager tool — is going to make this kind of thing even more tempting. Important that we use it well.

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.

Love to see good results from a program we played a (small) role in.  Here’s a great result ($10,000 grant) from this past year’s Love Your Veggies school grant program, sponsored by Hidden Valley.  PTO Today — through our connection with so many schools — helped manage the back-end of this program for Hidden Valley.

Check out the Love Your Veggies program for your school next year.  Nice dollars and nice, healthy cause. 

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.