mconnmommy, our kids' schools must be kindred spirits. :cool: I've seen several things you have posted that are very similiar to our school.

Our PTO has a volunteer program but you don't have to be a member to volunteer. You get a little extra info and we know these people want to volunteer so we don't have to harrass the ones that don't want to volunteer. BUT our PTO also supports volunteers as a whole. We foot the bill for volunteer appreciations and a few other things. We encourage volunteers as much as possible.

[ 09-13-2004, 08:18 AM: Message edited by: C. Brooks ]

I suggest talking to the teacher and the principal. At our school our PTO volunteering is completely seperate from our class volunteering.

A volunteer is a volunteer!

I would talk to the teacher. Our parent group doesn't really have anything to do with the class parties. We do things for the classes though.

If I was a teacher I would want anyone who wanted to help out to be involved.

Our school doesn't even have a call list for snow days, early outs etc. and we only have around 200 students pre-k-12.

If we had a policy like this the teachers would suffer as would the class room.

All PTAs have the right to develop their own policies and procedures as do any parent group unless there is a resolution or position that says it cannot be done but these policies and positions are supposed to be brought to the membership for implementation.

Like pals, there could be an issue of liability here (if for some reason the school does not cover the safety of a volunteer, the PTA insurance would) Or it could be that the PTA is enforcing the privacy of your own information by implementing the volunteer. Is that the case? I have signed confidentiality agreements etc, as a PTA President.

The first step would be to ask the PTA "why they are doing this?" Is there a history that you are unaware of? Does the school request this or is it just a PTA policy? (I find it hard to believe that a decision like this was made without school input)

IMHO, this is something the PTA board members should do, if they should be doing it at all

Not really, it's something that the school should be doing because it's their job. Since they aren't doing their job and they are relying on volunteers to do it, then if your school has 500 students- 4 people would have to call 500 parents (if the board had to do it and as a board member, I don't have the time to make 500 phone calls), or 1 or more parents from each class would have to call 23 people. It's most efficient to delegate it to as many people as possible. Hence the old fashioned phone trees.

(I don't like the fact that my telephone number is floating out there on some list).

Unless every parent in the classroom is a member of the PTA, then it's the school that is putting your phone number on a list unless they only call PTA members which I doubt.

If this is a school policy or school approved PTA policy (again if the school didn't back it up, it would be near impossible for the PTA to enforce) then you can fight to change it (follow the channels of command- site based administration- area superintendent etc) or if it's important enough to you and your reasons for not joining the PTA aren't based on strong personal convictions (is that the reason you won't join?) then just join or you can just let it go. If it is strictly your school's PTA position (and again, highly doubt the school isn't involved here)then join your PTA and work to change the position. Those are basically your options.

Here's another POV for thought: We have a really great 5th grade teacher everyone wants. As it happens, 3 (out of 3 who have kids in 5th grade) of our board members' children were assigned to his class this year. Now parents are asking me how, out of 250 kids, the odds are that good! I passed the buck to the principal, since she makes the lists. I rather suspect there was some off-the-record deals going on and it makes the board look bad. I've advised the parents in question to be aware of this and specifically NOT to be room parents for this teacher. I think it is possible to be TOO visible a volunteer.

It might depend on the definition of a "class parent." Is there a standard one? If a Class Parent at your school is, for example, defined as someone who is selected by the PTA to bring grade level or classroom concerns to the attention of the PTA, and to funnel PTA info back to the rest of the parents in the classroom, then I guess it could be restricted in the way you describe.

What is it that you are thinking that you would like to do as the class parent? If you want to organize the class parties and gifts for the teachers, and that's not included in the "job description," then can you just talk to the teacher about it and see if you can do those things? There's no logical reason that someone would have to be a PTA member to do that stuff.

If there isn't a standard description now, might be a good opportunity to talk to the PTA and the principal about developing one that would make some sense. Maybe the PTA could have a classroom representative that would do their admin stuff that the PTA could appoint, and the teacher could have a class parent (whom the teacher would select) that would do parties and other teacher assistance--coordinating volunteers, etc. The two could be the same person, but wouldn't have to be the same person.