PTO Today

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 an interesting twist I thought I’d share. I recently heard from a TV production company thinking of creating a reality show around a PTO group. Seriously.

Well, if they’re looking for drama and human interest and good work and the occasional tear-filled dust-up – PTOs certainly could fit the bill. I personally hope they’re going more Extreme Makeover (“watch how this group transforms their school”) than Jersey Shore (“watch how this group drinks waaaay too much at the auction”), but either way I’d certainly watch.

Here’s the actual write-up from the producers:

“Do you believe that parent volunteers have the power to make a positive difference in the life of the children in your community? Is your PTO or parent group made up of colorful, opinionated characters that aren’t afraid to confront issues head on – even if it causes conflict within the group? Does it feel as though your organization is frequently struggling to find a middle ground on day-to-day issues, even though both sides feel they have the group’s best interests at heart? Would your group do whatever it takes to advocate for the well-being of your kids?”

If you’re interested in learning more for your group, email PARENTCASTING@GMAIL.COM with your name, location, and a brief summary of your organization.

If this thing takes off, we’ll certainly follow here at PTO Today. Are you the next reality star?

Here are the highlights of the featured articles for this week. Hope you’ll find something that sparks an idea– big or small– for an upcoming event or program.

• Batter up! This PTO has about 2,500 people attend their pancake breakfast. Wow. That’s a whole lot of pancakes. More importantly, that’s whole lot of school and community spirit!
• Now here’s an idea: offer a $5,000 jack pot to get parents to come to your fundraiser. The only catch is that event tickets are $100 per couple. A night out with other parents and a chance at $5k — sounds worth it to me.
• Speaking of prizes, this school is enticing parents of  freshman to come to their information night with a free chili dinner and a chance to win one of four Kindles. Nice.
• We always say that family nights are a terrific way to build community at your school. This PTO has the right idea… they are running a “Minute to Win It”  family challenge, followed by a family movie night.  Sounds like a fun night!
• Like the twist that this PTO put on their school auction:  the auction items are re-gifts.  Re-use, recycle and raise money for the school. Genius.
• Kudos to this school for hosting an environmental fair before green was hip! Really like that more 120 kids are involved in their 15th annual school environmental fair.

Don’t forget to let us know if your PTO or PTA event gets press! We’d love to include your story in our round-ups. Email me at lgundlach@ptotoday.com.

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.

I try not to get too exercised by parent involvement articles in the mass media, knowing that the nuances of involvement are often lost on reporters who cover minivans one day and best vacation spots the next. But this New York Times piece today (“Frazzled Moms Push Back Against Volunteering”) is so one-sided and, frankly, poorly done that I just had to respond.

The article paints this picture of Moms who go waaay past balanced in their volunteering to the point where they are causing harm to their family lives and even their personal well-being. Does that happen? Absolutely. We’ve written about volunteering that goes too far many times on this site.

My problem with the article is in the conclusions. Reading, one would think that the only solution to over-volunteering is going completely cold turkey. One of the moms celebrated in the article won’t even let her husband write a check to support a school fundraiser? Really? She went from running about everything in the school to attending nothing, supporting nothing and (obviously) volunteering not at all? That’s the solution?

How about balance? Millions of parents do a great job leading parent groups in a balanced way or finding a way to volunteer or support the school that fits their lifestyle. I can name you 200 moms and dads at my kids’ school who work full-time but who have found a way to chaperone one field trip or help with the weekend school basketball program or solicited some donations for the school auction. That much more common experience doesn’t even get a mention in this article. Ludicrous.

My biggest objection is to the writer not mentioning the decades of research that makes a compelling case for the value of parent involvement at schools. My kids do better. The other kids at school do better. The school as a whole does better when the school has higher degrees of broad parent involvement. To read the Times story is to think these Moms who have completely opted out are some kind of heroes. They’re not villains for opting out (sounds like they had trouble finding balance any other way), but the story potentiallly does real harm implying that zero connection to school is the right recipe.

I know there are folks in this world who live by extremes. If they volunteer, they are going to be the greatest, most committed volunteer in history. And if they stop volunteering, boy-oh-boy are they ever going to stop volunteering. But don’t we expect our reporters to go beyond the extremes to where the real facts lie? This article takes a stereotype, find three examples to back it up and – voila! – school volunteering is only awful. The Times can and should do much better.

The holiday season is a great time to get students involved in community service. Many parent groups organize projects that help kids make a difference. These creative holiday projects from last year are among our favorites.

Toy Joy

Students at Granger Elementary in Medina, Ohio, made the holidays brighter for patients at Akron Children’s Hospital. For the PTO’s Giving in Granger service project, the preK through 5th graders donated more than 200 new teddy bears and other stuffed animals last December. Cards handmade by students at the PTO’s Santa Shop were attached to each toy.

Sister School

In Austin, the Baranoff Elementary PTA spent nine weeks in fall 2009 focusing on service to others. Baranoff’s sister school in Austin, Blazier Elementary, opened in 2007 and was still working to fill its library shelves with books; the Baranoff PTA coordinated a coin drive that raised $350 to buy library books. And before Thanksgiving last year, Baranoff classrooms donated baskets of food for 25 families at the sister school as part of a PTA project. In a separate project, Baranoff students donated 425 winter coats to the Junior League of Austin’s Coats for Kids drive.

Food Drive

Students at Wadewitz Elementary in Racine, Wis., collected 1,000 pounds of food last December for the Holy Communion Lutheran Church food pantry. The students had plenty of motivation: when they met their goal, PTA vice president Gretchen Berthiaume and a brave student volunteer had their heads shaved during a school assembly.

Is your school giving back this holiday season? We’d love to hear about your projects and programs!

If you’ve ever nudged your child to spend more time outdoors or cracking open a book, you’ll appreciate the reading gardens parent groups are building at many schools. They range from simple spaces with a few benches or boulders to major landscaping projects. In many cases, PTOs call on businesses and community groups for help setting them up.

A Simple Space

An aspiring Eagle Scout did much of the heavy lifting for the reading garden at Ocean Breeze Elementary in Indian Harbour Beach, Fla. The scout worked with the PTO landscape team, applied for a grant to purchase plants, and asked for donations of materials. He also recruited many of the volunteers who joined PTO members in building it. The garden, located near the school’s portable classrooms, features paving stones, benches, and native plants in planters.

A Grand Garden

At the other end of the spectrum is the $22,000 reading garden at Glebe Elementary in Arlington, Va. The PTA spent two years raising money for the project, which features native trees and shrubs, a boardwalk over a stormwater channel, and barrels to collect rainwater. Among the products and services donated is a website that recognizes donors and provides information about plants native to the Chesapeake Bay watershed.

An Indoor Garden

The PTO at Whittier School in Blue Island, Ill., wanted to build a reading garden that students could enjoy in any season. The solution was to convert part of a balcony above the gym floor into an indoor garden. Volunteers painted murals with farmhouses, flowers, and trees; covered the floor with artificial grass; and placed pillows and chairs for students to relax on. Classes visit the space for reading and discussion when it’s too cold to go outside.

It’s great that there’s a week set aside to show teachers some appreciation, but really, don’t they deserve it throughout the year? Groups with the strongest teacher appreciation efforts plan ways to thank teachers from the start of school until the last day.

Taking several cues from the TV show Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, the Midway Elementary PTO in Lexington, N.C., rounded up volunteers to help teachers set up their classrooms at back-to-school time. More than 20 parents and several children made a grand entrance, arriving on a school bus with a banner reading “Midway Kidstruction Bus.” The first person off the bus took a bullhorn and announced they were there for “Extreme Makeover: Classroom Edition.”

“There’s a lot involved with getting the classroom ready,” PTO president Clay Mize told the Dispatch newspaper. “They need to know they’ve got some help.”

Some other ways to thank teachers before Teacher Appreciation Week: Give them cards on their birthdays, and invite students to write notes, too. Add special touches to the faculty restrooms, like hand soap, lotion, and soft toilet paper. Create a classroom supplies wish list and ask parents to purchase items on the list.

Want more ideas? Check out the Teacher Appreciation topic page on ptotoday.com.

Parent groups often buy classroom supplies and special equipment for schools, but as districts across the country face severe budget cuts, some PTOs are shelling out thousands of dollars just to keep programs afloat.

The bailouts raise questions about what parent groups should pay for and what should come from schools. Then there’s the issue of equity: In a publicly funded school system, is it fair for one school to have extras others don’t because a PTO pays for them? Wherever you fall on the issue, it’s hard to argue with the efforts of the following groups!

Field Trips
When the Eau Claire (Wis.) Area School District cut field trip funding, the Eau Claire United PTA/PTO set a goal to raise $70,000 to pay for the outings. The group started its campaign in August 2009 and reached its goal the following June. The United PTA/PTO raised money through corporate sponsorships, a radio telethon, restaurant nights, and other fundraisers. The group has already started raising money to support field trips for this school year. Parents are continuing to lobby the school board to restore funding.

Learning Labs
Parents credit the technology and science programs at Fremont Elementary in Long Beach, Calif., with helping students achieve high test scores. They have been keeping the programs afloat since losing district funding in 2004. In June, the PTA announced that it had raised $60,000, to be matched by a local company whose owner has a grandchild at the school. The funds will keep the programs going this school year.

The Alex-Bradley PTO in Alex, Okla., sponsored a noodling tournament fundraiser last June. More than 50 competitors wrestled giant catfish, which they caught by hand from the Washita River. The largest fish caught weighed 57 pounds!