PTO Today

Soon after her children started going to Van Bokkelen Elementary in Severn, Md., Rhonda Ulmer learned that the school might be taken over by the state because of poor academic performance. In 2004, when Ulmer was PTA president, she formed the Van Bokkelen Family Network to connect parents with resources to help stabilize their families, such as food assistance and GED classes. In the next few years, students’ test scores and parent involvement at Van Bokkelen improved and the school was taken off the takeover list.

Ulmer expanded on the idea of the Family Network by starting a nonprofit organization called the University for Parents, which provides educational resources and parenting classes (throughout) Maryland. She offers ideas on how parent groups can help families at home, and ultimately, help them get more connected to school.

What was your involvement strategy at Van Bokkelen?

First, I sent out a survey to families to determine what challenges parents were facing. Some of the barriers to involvement I discovered were everyday hardships such as housing, food, utility bills, and unstable family situations, and the fact that some parents had not pursued a higher education due to working demands to provide for their families.

Our PTA partnered with the local YWCA, set up GED classes for parents, and arranged childcare and bus
transportation.… We also started a partnership with the Maryland Food Bank, which helped launch Van Bokkelen’s School Pantry Program. We provided family food baskets to parents who volunteered at the school.

What tips would you suggest to PTO and PTA leaders to help parents become more connected at school?

Survey your parents to determine what programs are needed to help parents and families be successful.
Host a PTO/PTA program or event at a local library, faith-based organization, or community center.

Don’t forget about the needs of working and single parents. Maybe you can offer programs that include the entire family—online, in the evenings, or on the weekends.

Partner with the school and local organizations, and offer meeting times that coincide with other community events. This eliminates parents having to make repeated trips to the school during the course of a week.

Be culturally aware of the diversity in your school community. Be ready to provide programs that meet the needs of all parents and families.

—Patty Catalano

It’s no surprise that parents often find it harder to volunteer at the middle school level than at their child’s elementary. Still, parents at a California school were taken aback when an employees union came out against a new volunteer program.

The nonprofit Healthy Community Consortium launched the pilot volunteer program at Petaluma (Calif.) Junior High School this fall. About 80 parents signed up to welcome students as they arrive on campus and monitor a playing field during lunch, among other tasks.

Volunteers were needed to fill some of the roles because budget cuts have resulted in numerous job cuts at the school, says HCC volunteer coordinator and school parent Lynn King. However, the fact that the program would use volunteers to help fill gaps created by staff layoffs led to opposition from the classified employees’ union, which represents clerical, custodial, maintenance, and other workers.

One point of contention was the use of volunteers in the library to assist the school librarian. A library aide had been employed at the school until funding was cut in the spring, King says.

“Our stand is you can’t have volunteers. They can’t do our work,” union president Loretta Kruusmagi told the Press Democrat newspaper.

District deputy superintendent Steve Bolman said the district is working with the union and the volunteers so that volunteers aren’t used for positions included in the classified bargaining unit.

King says the union opposition is an obstacle, but won’t mean the end of the pilot program. “Everybody acknowledges that when you have more caring adults around, kids do better,” she says. “We’re making sure the positions we come up with are okay with them.”

After piloting the program at Petaluma Junior High, HCC hopes to expand it to other middle schools and to high schools in the district.

Here’s this week’s featured question from our Ask a Question section.

Anonymous writes:

We have a president but he doesn’t seem to care if the group has a different idea about how to make things for events. It’s really his way or the highway. We have a good group of people that I don’t want to get discouraged about being on the PTO. We need these people. What can we do?

Craig writes:
Your president is a micromanager. Unfortunately, that’s not uncommon and the typical result is exactly what you describe — people get turned off and involvement declines. As involvement declines, the micromanager’s belief that if it weren’t for him, nothing would get done becomes reinforced. To stop this spiral, you have to talk to the micromanager about the effect his actions are having. This can be a touchy conversation — it’s important that you approach in an unemotional way and simply as business rather than a criticism of his personality. It’s possible that he doesn’t really know how to manage effectively without micromanaging. Share the article Change Your Micromanaging Ways with him. And before you talk to him, I’d recommend reading How To Deal With Difficult People. It will help you to prepare, depending on what his reaction is. Good luck!

Have you had experience dealing with a micromanager in your PTO or PTA? What has worked for you in terms of managing the micromanager?

Parenting is a tough job. If parents don’t compare notes and support each other, it’s even more difficult. School parent groups have a tremendous opportunity to forge community at their schools by hosting parent education nights. These programs are a great way to facilitate support and conversation. Nice to see an uptick of these events in the news. Take a guess at the two hottest topics. Don’t look ahead…

If you guessed internet safety and bullying, you guessed right. These are such pervasive and important topics. Many schools and parent groups are stepping up to organize workshops or events.

Top-line of school internet safety programs in the news this week:

• Middle school invites police officer to give parents the real scoop on internet safety and cyber-bullying.
• Another middle school acknowledges that kids online is a fact of life, and invites parent to get informed about internet safety.
• If you are interested in hosting a night to educate parents about online safety and cyber bullying use our free kit to organize an internet safety night.

Overview of anti-bullying school programs in the news:

• Bully expert encourages parents to be nosy.
• Nice to read about schools joining together to address bullying.
• Parent group educates parents about the school system’s anti-bullying program.
• An entertaining bully show gives parents something to talk about…

That’s where it all starts, right? Talk. Talk to experts about what’s really going on. Talk to other parents about what they are seeing and hearing. Talk to our kids… keep talking.

What is your PTO or PTA doing for parent education nights? We’ d love to hear more about them.

Have you reviewed your bylaws recently? In this video blog Tim talks about why it’s important to take a look at your bylaws through the lens of prospective volunteers. In other words, what are your bylaws saying about the spirit of your group? Your goal is to grow parent involvement, right? Listen to what type of laws should be eliminated, so your group is not perceived as old-fashioned and unwelcoming. No need to unnecessarily scare off volunteers!

Is your group helping parents understand and manage the Internet and all its related risks and opportunities? If not, you’re missing out on a great chance to serve and connect with parents. I know I really appreciated when our school HSA put on an educational evening for parents at our school.

As the parent of a 12-year-old (and three more coming after), yes — the Internet scares me. I love all the things it makes possible for our family. But I’m also leery of the social mistakes that are so much easier for kids to make these days. I think back to my youthful missteps and shudder at the thought of having all of them captured for eternity on computer servers. Yikes.

It’s why I’m such a big fan of PTOs and PTAs putting on Internet Safety Nights at their schools. Whether you do it with local law enforcement or by using our ready-made Internet Safety Night planning kit (which comes with a built-in expert presentation), it’s a topic that many of your parents are actively concerned about. It’s the most requested service topic among parents we’ve surveyed.

To me, building parent involvement at school, building a community around the school, then serving parents on school-related topics are three pillars of PTO and PTA work. Internet Safety Night fills that third bill perfectly.

We’d love to hear if your group has already planned or is planning anything around this key topic. Would you share your group’s thoughts on addressing Internet Safety on our message boards?

I don’t often do this, but I loved, loved an email I received yesterday and want to share it.  For 11 years we’ve been trying to do exactly what  Sara Nakai (from the Humphrey Elementary PTO in Chandler, Arizona ) captures here in her note:

Thank you so much, PTO Today, for offering such a helpful resource to PTOs around the country.  Our organization has benefitted so much from the ideas and advice in the pages of your magazine, your e-newsletter, and posts on your Facebook page.  The 2 Hour Power Pledge idea is pure genius and our group has more active members than it’s had in recent years.  During the second half of this year, we’re planning a Family Reading Night, a Family Fitness Morning, and several evening parent education classes to provide parents with strategies for dealing with topics such as bullying and internet safety.  Thank you for these golden ideas!

Man, that made my day!  I hope we can help your group in the months and years ahead in the same way.

For reference, here are some links from Sara’s note:

• Our Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/PTOToday
• Our Two Hour Power involvement pledge program:  http://www.ptotoday.com/2hourpower/
• Family Reading Night Kit:  http://www.ptotoday.com/sfn/SFN_reading_leader.php
• Internet Safety Night Kit: http://www.ptotoday.com/pen/

Thank you, Sara, for taking the time to share those kind words.  And good luck to all for a great 2011.

Happy New Year to all our PTO, PTA, HSA friends! Did you have a chance to re-charge over your holiday break? Are you ready to do great things in 2011? Flipping over the calendar in a new year is always energizing for me — fresh possibilities, new ideas, a clean slate. But where school is concerned, it’s also a bit daunting. Only six more months of school (in some of your cases, five). Gulp. So much to accomplish on the PTO front, so little time. That’s where resolutions or goals come in! Just writing them out lends clarity, purpose and a new sense of calm.

Does your group revisit or set goals in the new calendar year? What are some of your resolutions? In the next week we’ll be posting the top ten New Year’s resolutions for PTOs and PTAs for 2011, over on our Facebook page. We hope you’ll join the conversation or at least give a thumbs up (like) to the goals you can relate to.

Here’s to a fun and productive 2011!

This news round-up can be summed up into two categories; parent groups thinking outside the box and parent groups doing good. Hope you’ll find a nugget of inspiration somewhere.

Parent groups thinking outside the box:

- LA School may seek corporate sponsorships as a way to get money into budget-restricted schools.

- Parent groups get creative in addressing lack of funds and a busier-than-ever volunteer pool. Read carefully:  you’ll find some great words of wisdom in here from PTO Today community member, Gary Parkes.

Parent groups doing good:

- PTA gives school library a makeover.

- School community comes together to spruce up playground.

- PTO kicks off winter break by hosting a winter wonderland breakfast for teachers and staff.

- Kudos to this school for being one of the first to be recognized for making healthy changes.

- Georgia school wins nation-wide coat drive. I end with this link and a line from the article I think you’ll all enjoy:

There is nothing more convincing than a PTO mom on a mission. I’ve seen them in action. They work a little like The Godfather; they’ll make you an offer you can’t refuse!

Here’s to all the PTO & PTA moms & dads making a difference. Wishing you a weekend of holiday happiness with your family and no parent group to-dos!

I’m sure you do a ton for your school. But do your key audiences really understand all that you do? I bet you talk about your fundraisers a lot. Do you talk about all that your fundraisers provide even more?

A key habit of successful PTOs and PTAs is to focus on your good work all year round. If you don’t, no one else will, and you’ll be known as “the group that always wants my money” or “the group that always wants my time” rather than “the group that does such essential work for our school.”

One of my best tips here: Make sure you tag anything and everything you purchase for the school with a nice plaque or sticker or nameplate that reads something like “Gratefully Donated by XYZ School Parents and the XYZ PTO.” Working on a playground or new risers for the auditorium? Find a way to remind all of the students and families who use those items (for the next 10 years!) that it was the good work of your PTO that made them possible.

This is not just to brag. It’s how you strategically (and consistently, and frequently) emphasize your good work. This is the kind of habit that makes your fundraisers more successful and that helps you bring in new volunteers each year. Folks like to be associated with and support successful endeavors. If you’re successful but don’t tell anyone, then that dynamic will never help you out.

We have several great articles on marketing your PTO and changing impressions:

• Basic Marketing That Builds Involvement
• Communication Tips for Better Involvement
• Put On Your Sales Hat

Good luck!