Thanks for the feedback everyone. We've been trying some of the ideas (the other school's board and membership were invited to attend our meetings months ago). Currently we are putting together our spring carnival as a joint effort. We were hoping this would give everyone a chance to meet, but the other school has problems with parental involvement and they aren't able to get the volunteers they had hoped for. We are going to be short in a few places, but I'm hoping some folks will jump in that night who initially said "No." I've had moms from both schools calling me disappointed at the response. I've just been telling them that they've done their best and I hope they don't get discouraged. We'll get through this. It has been good for those of us who have stepped forward to see that we are all alike and can work together.
The principal and I had a long talk and we are going to try some team building exercises at the next meeting. We are having a tour of the new section of the building that night so we should have a large crowd. I have also drafted a letter to the teachers at the other school to let them know what our PTO spends the money on and the programs we sponsor. I'm thinking of doing a similar thing for the parents. I wrote one at the beginning of the year for our parents and I think it made a difference in the level of involvement here. We have been really big on communicating with our parents and I guess we need to get more of that information to the other school too. Next week I am hosting both boards at my home for a meeting to discuss tranfer of funds and how to blend our programs together. The other president and I both feel it's important for the students and teachers to have familiar things next year. Plus we both do some different things so it should be fun to put the best ideas together. I so desperatley want this to work out well. I've had time to think and I feel I can mediate and maybe even use a little straight talk to get everyone to understand that this can and will work. No negative comments at meetings or anywhere in public would be one suggestion. The old rule of "If you can't say something nice, say nothing at all." I also think I may run again. I've had several people ask me to and maybe the consistency would be good. I've established relationships with parents from the other school already and so have some of the other board members. I'll have to see if my husband could stand it.

I hear you LuvM', because I have been there. Our district closed the neighboring school after last year, and we grew from 320 to 520 kids. The redistricting was supposed to give us about 50 kids, but the parents were allowed to choose which of two schools to attend -- since we had a better reputation, 75% chose us (including almost all the PTA leadership) plus we had 3x the normal new residents.

State law allowed for a vote to overturn the school board decision to close the school. Our by-laws called for officer elections prior to the closing vote. This made the idea of sharing power next year tricky -- too many people rejected the idea my wife and I presented of postponing elections.

Then, the co-President's both had life changes that required them to resign. When I was asked to stand for election as a replacement, I recruited a friend from the other school community to stand as my co-President.

Advice Item #1: Accept that there will be some tension in that first year among the parents. The kids will be fine, it will be the parents that will cause you trouble. You will have some parents who are upset about being there, and you will have some parents who are upset about having them.

Advice Item #2: Communicate, communicate, communicate. All of your traditions are strange and foreign to the new families. Don't assume they will know how you do things at your school, tell them.

Advice Item #3: Remember that your way isn't the only way. Listen to the traditions from the other school. Be ready to adopt some of their ways of doing things. They almost certainly have some things that are better than yours. If you have things that are done only because they've always been done, now is the time to abandon them for the great ideas from the other community.

Advice Item #4: Create new traditions. We never had a school song, but I convinced the music teacher to write one. The first thing every student learned in music class this year was the new school song. The new kids understood that this was just as new to the old kids, and it became a contest to see who could master it first.

Advice Item #5: Not every problem is yours to solve. Some of the complaints that you will hear are things you can't do anything about. I heard complaints about differences in the lunch room rules -- that's a staff issue. I heard complaints about class sizes -- that's a school board issue. Listen to the complaints, but when they aren't your issue commiserate and direct them to the right place.

At Back-To-School night I did a little exercise. I first asked all the parents to stand who did not have a kid in elementary anywhere last year. Asking them to remain standing, I then asked those who were not in our school district last year to stand. Then I asked those who were not at our school to join them. Next, I asked those with returning students to also rise. I finally, I asked everybody with a student in our school this year to sit down. After everybody had sat down, I pointed out that while we may have all arrived by different roads, we all had one thing in common -- and that was that we all wanted the best possible education for our kids.

It has been an interesting year, and I haven't been a perfect president. But my oldest starts middle school next year, and a parent from the other school community recommended me to their nominating committee.

I am so glad I am not you. That said, here is what I hope will write out the way it is in my head.
As hard as it is for me to say (because God knows I had to do it too many times this last year), I would suggest taking what can only be described as a higher than the high road. Offer to share the rest of this year with the incoming Officers from the other school. It may be a bit confusing at first, with a Co-President, Co-Vice President, Co-Secretary (I don't think I would go Co-Treasurer until they commit to putting the rest of their funds into your funds therefore creating Our Funds), but it may well go a long way to making these incoming folks welcome. I'm not sure I could do it, but it just seems to me that it is the 'fair' way, so that the incoming Officers are familiar with your agenda. It will also go a long way with the membership of both schools, as these 'new' folks are going to cause a scene if they don't get a shot at the elections and then no matter what you do, you won't be able to make everyone happy. I'm pretty sure that is what I meant...lol...
Like I said, I'm not sure I could do it, but it seems to me, that if I was the other school's President, I'd sure appreciate the gesture. I also know that even if they don't agree to do it that way (or some similar way), that it will show YOUR membership, as well as THEIR membership, who is the right person(s) for the job.
Good :confused: Luck!
[img]tongue.gif[/img] [img]tongue.gif[/img]

I think that perhaps you and the other school's president need to get together and discuss ways to focus on the positive. Our district is known for "rezoning" school boundries (our district is made up of 2 towns and many of our schools are over crowded so the answer is to keep moving kids)
One big positive is that with the 2 schools joining you will have double the # of people (board members) who are willing to take on responsiblity (provided they are willing to share responsibility). When we had about 150 students rezoned to our school pto sent fliers home welcoming these new families and letting them know how happy we were that they were joining our school "family". Maybe the 2 pto boards can come together and plan a family picnic at the beginning of the year so that everyone can "get to know each other".
Just wondering, how will you conduct your election this year? It should be interesting.
GOOD LUCK!!!!

HELP!! Our school district is going through a reduction in the number of schools. Our school is under construction to add additional space so that another school can join us next fall. We started working on a transition plan months ago and have some great ideas, but some probelms have arisen. We quickly found out that there are some preconceived notions on both sides of what "the other school" is like. Some of these are very negative and I have heard some comments made in the halls and even at PTO meetings. (By the way, one of our transition ideas was to have joint meetings so there are parents from both schools present to hear these lovely remarks.) As President, I have been trying to remind people that we will all be one school next year and we have to do everything in our power to make sure this is a smooth and pleasant change for our children. I thought things were getting a little better until last night. Our board has a meeting 30 mins before the general session and I had invited the other school's board to join us at any time. Last night two of their members walked into the room about 5 mins after we started and one of our board member informed them in a quite unpleasant tone that the general meeting was at 6:30 and in the library. (I was addressing the board and had my back toward the door, but quickly turned around when this person made her comments.) I of course saw two people with a look of shock on their faces. I informed the board that these were representatives from the other school and I then invited them to join us. They were visibly angered and said they would just wait in the library. It was an upsetting situation and I'm not sure what to do. I have talked with the principal(she got a visit ffrom the other President this morning) and we agree that this person who made the comments must be talked to about the problem. I will be calling the other President tonight to see what I can do to make it better, but I think we need to do more. This person isn't the only one who had made negative and unwelcoming remarks and I'm afraid of how this will affect the PTO and volunteer involvement in the school for next year. Any ideas???