Pamelia Valentine: Start a PTA!

admin — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 13:45:44 -0600

Happy 2010! Here’s a resolution that we’ve been working toward since the beginning of the school year: Change our school climate and get more input from parents, students and Oakland Bay Junior High staff. It all began with a couple of questions . . . 1) Do we believe in miracles? and 2) Do we really want to make lasting changes?

If we are determined to change our school, then we can’t afford to sit around mouthing platitudes any longer. If we truly want to make progress, then we need to get the parents, the students and the staff to work together toward common goals. Because if we are serious about including the community in the decision-making processes that shape our schools future we will need to create a common meeting ground for all interested parties.

Reaching out to all of the parents, all of the students and all of the staff at OBJH will require a whole new approach. We made our decision with forethought and planning. We researched our options and discovered the good old tried and true National PTA (Parent, Teachers Association). We compared the PTA to a PTSO (Parent, Teacher, Student Organization) and learned that the PTSO is not nationally affiliated and each group is an independent organization with none of the special benefits beyond what any local booster club might offer.

From the information gathered we decided that the perks of the National PTA—such as lobbying on education issues and guidance materials for the parents of our students—was very attractive to us. In addition to this, we were also interested in the student recognition programs that the PTA offers, since our group will include students.

Thus the work began to develop interest and start the process of creating this group for our Junior High School. We distributed take-home flyers; we created informational pamphlets that were handed out during conferences; and we asked all staff to extend a personal invitation to parents through phone, e-mail or face- to- face contact.

We had 10 people present at our first meeting in early November. We created a contact list and invited the regional PTA director to the next meeting. Our attendance grew to 20. We presented the idea to our school staff in December and gained 33 more members!

At our next meeting, we will choose officers and really get the ball rolling. Finally, parents, teachers, and students will be able to come together and share ideas. By the way–I don’t break my New Years resolutions and I do expect miracles! I’ll keep you posted.

Pamelia Valentine is a guest blogger and teacher in the Shelton School District.

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Our Battle-Weary Principal

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