[SD19565]

I have a few questions and would love input:

For those that do not participate in your school's Parent/Teacher group (PTO, PTA, HSA, or whatever it is that your school calls it), WHY do you not participate and what would you like to see that would make you interested in participating?

For those that participate, do you participate only at the elementary levels? And if so, why do you stop participating?



What do you wish your Parent/Teacher group did that they currently do not?


TIA for your input.

[aidan&logansmommy]

I am active in PTA at my son's school. He is in the first grade, and I volunteer twice weekly in his classroom too. I think the PTA is very important and really helps improve the quality of my child's education. I try to support them as much as I can and help out as needed.

Things I love about our PTA:
We do staff appreciation on a regular basis. This year, it has included dessert lotteries for the staff and drawings for gift baskets. They also do a week long teacher appreciation event in the spring.

The time/work they put into activities such as the book fairs, fall carnival, skate nights, fundraisers, and the annual volunteer appreciation night is huge!

I would like to see our PTA do different fundraisers and focus more on offering incentives for BTFE collection.

[katieculpepper]

they call it PTA at my kids school. I do NOT participate in the PTA. I will volunteer in my childrens classrooms and do anything the teachers need or ask of me. I do not participate because I do not like being told to pay to volunteer or help out. At the kids schhol it is $15 bucks to be in the PTA for EACH CHILD). I don't think I should have to pay AT ALL, but I am definitely not going to pay seperately for 2 kids!
I think they would get more helpers doing more volunteering and fundraising for the school if they weren't demanding money for me to even show up.

[Lovage2]

Our PTO does ask for a fee to become a "voting member". It's only $5.00/family though. They also make a point of telling you that you can always come to meetings, volunteer, help out etc without being a voting member. This year the voting members got little membership cards that give them a discount off of purchases at the local Dairy Queen (franchise owned by a parent). They are hoping to add additional incentives to the card in the future to encourage more parents and teachers to become more involved.

At present my oldest is only in Kindergarten. I hope I am still involved in PTO when my children are older but at this point I cannot speak to your 2nd question.

What do I wish they did that they don't currently do? I wish they had more fundraising events that required the children to do something active or academic. Math-a-thon, REad-a-thon, FunRun, etc. I very much dislike all the "Sell this and earn a prize" fundraisers. Most of the time the merchandise if overpriced and low quality and the children who don't manage to sell it feel left out.

Recently the PTO started a facebook page and while they do not post as often as I would like I feel it is a good way to get parents informed and involved. I would like it if they would utilize it more as a means to keep us updated on what the various committees are up to in between monthly meetings. Not all parents can make it to the meetings and a paragraph or two on the facebook page could be a great way to drum up volunteers for projects and support for events.

[Robbo]

I don't participate because I don't really have the time at the moment. I am a teacher's helper, so occasionally my 1st grader will bring home stuff for me to do and send back (punch holes in paper, cut out a million of something for an art project, assemble packets, etc.) I like that because I don't have to GO anywhere I can always find 20-30 minutes here and there to get things done but committing to being somewhere on a regular basis is more difficult.

Originally Posted by Lovage2

I wish they had more fundraising events that required the children to do something active or academic. Math-a-thon, REad-a-thon, FunRun, etc. I very much dislike all the "Sell this and earn a prize" fundraisers. Most of the time the merchandise if overpriced and low quality and the children who don't manage to sell it feel left out.

^^ This.

The fundraising efforts by the PTA are exhausting... I totally understand that they need to raise money, and always try to be supportive but usually whatever they're selling stinks and it seems like there's a new one every month. To be honest, when the "sell this and earn a prize" fundraisers come home, they go directly to the recycle bin. I don't want my family/friends to feel obligated to buy $10 rolls of wrapping paper, $10 buckets of cookie dough, etc., and we'd never sell enough of anything to get more than the stickers, pencils and silly bands and would rather they not even waste the money for those prizes

Candy always sells well, especially when it's already here. DH takes the box to work and returns with an envelope of cash and 0 candy bars They also did a gift card program around the holidays that was great. $25 got me a gift card for $25 and the school would get 2%, 5% or 10% depending on the store.