Our schools have parent liaisons; they are paid positions, and generally part time, with the number of hours depending on the size of the school and its demographics. I don't have a formal job description, but the school system's website says:

Typical tasks of parent liaisons include:

-Facilitating intercultural understanding and respect in the school and the community.
-Linking families to school professionals and community resources.
-Involving families who do not traditionally take part in school activities and events.
-Helping parents understand ways in which the family can assist student achievement.

The practical reality is that the parent liaisons appear to function primarily as social workers, linking people up with available community resources. It is very rare for our parent group to have any interaction with the parent liaison.

We can't get enough parents to volunteer for the exec positions, so I wish I could help. I know from past experiences that getting people to let go of some jobs so that more people could help is hard. Our bylaws give job descriptions for these positions, do yours? Did your group appoint this person or did the school? If she is doing things you think are to be done by your group, discuss those descriptions at the next meeting and politely say that there is concern about who is to do what and get it all out so everyone knows what is expected of them and if it makes sense for her to do or not do something, then bring it up in a nonconfrontational manner so that she doens't feel like she has done something wrong by doing the work and so that she doens't feel ganged up on. Good luck.

As new co-chairs, we are trying to figure out our relationship with the parent liasion. We feel that she is doing too much of what we consider pto responsibilities, and is resentful that we want to give some of these activities/events to parents that want to get involved. What do you consider the role of parent liasion, in relation to the school and the pto?