decades as teacher liasion? wow, must be ready to retire soon.
sometimes principals absolutely will NOT change the status quo when something has been ingrained for sooooooooooooo long at their school. they are afraid, or dont want to stir the pot, or raise ire of the teahcer or others. the path of least resistnace is do nothing, for some prinicpals. (sadly)
you can talk to the prinicpal, but that is about all i would do. stay polite, diplomatic, FACTUAL, and above all, do not repeat the hearsay from other teachers.
the prinicpal, if he wants to, can ask his teachers directly thier opinion on the matter, if he chooses. there is nothing worse than passing parent or teacher rumors, and it sounds a bit like youve got a whole bunch of history and hearsay surrounding this person (how can one know that teachers stay away becuase of another teacher? did they tell you this? i would be very surprised. but if they did, your school has lots of issues among staff other than just this one!).
good luck, stay posistive, smile. positive energy is contagious.
Stacey--has the principal been broached about the negative perception the liaison brings to the table. You may want to use your in a crafty sort of way, to see if the current rep has a desire to perhaps allow someone else to step up. This has to be done very carefully. If the current liaison finds out there will be heck to pay.
The only other way is to see if someone wants the position up front. We don't have any term limits in our bylaws so that wouldn't help.
First off, I just want to say that I think what all of you do for your childrens' schools ROCKS!!!! :cool:
My partner has just started her first year on the PTO Board and she is so gung ho and excited and FULL of ideas. She has gotten me excited, as well. I work for a nonprofit and have a lot of experience on many boards, but never PTO.
Our sons are in K and 1st and so we have several years to do some long range planning and the current President's term ends next year and she wants my partner to step into the roll. Everyone on the PTO board and the Principal are pumped about her ideas, as well.
Here is the hitch (because there always is one, right?).... the Teacher Liaison. She is horrid. Apparently she is always the teacher liaison and has been for decades. We have gotten the 'scoop' from other teachers that she doesn't listen to them and what they want. She certainly doesn't listen (or add anything) to the PTO. All she has is negative things to say and whatever the ideas that come up, she says "the teachers won't like it and won't help". Everytime my partner tells me about her comments, I get so angry!
I have asked my partner to get a copy of the by laws because she doesn't have one now. Just because I have written by laws for other organizations, I cannot imagine that there isn't some kind of "term limit" for this teacher liaison.
I just thought I would ask here if anyone has experienced this and what your by laws say in dealing with the teacher liaison.
Because she is so nasty, we cannot get other teachers to attend the meetings. We have come up with several ideas to get teachers to come, but some of them told us that the Teacher Liaison would get upset with them if they came to the meetings. :eek:
Would appriciate anything you all can add to this! Thank you!!
