Originally posted by Michelle B:
LOL, yeah if it's done it's done. Hopefully your parents won't figure it out if an important issue comes up...

I think what we've decided, tentatively, is that all parents, teachers, and students of the school will be members. Those who serve on the board, donate a TBD number of hours, or make a TBD financial donation will have voting rights... and we'll make those voting rights available only to persons over the age of 18. If there's ever a K-3 student 18 years or older... well... more power to them

What you can do to get the kids more involved is to set up a student rep position for each class. {snipped} It would be interesting to see what the students see as a pressing need for their own classrooms or the school...

That's what I think, and the reason I'd like to see a couple student advisors/liaisons. But I found out something quite interesting yesterday... the staff member who handles student council stopped me to ask if we could touch base so we don't duplicate/overlap fundraising. I didn't even know we had a student council! My kids have never brought anything home about it. I told her I definitely wanted to talk to her, because if there is going to be an S in PTO, we need to be making at least a token effort to get their feedback. I'll be interested to talk more with her without little pitchers standing around... she had said that student council was supposed to be from each grade, but now it's only 2nd/3rd (which I think is probably best, I know my 5yo dd's suggestion would be more recess and less of that 'writing stuff'). Anyway, she said at one point that she'd had the kids attend a couple of the board meetings (I'm not sure if she meant BOE or PTSO), but that became an issue or problem of some kind? Anyway, I'm hoping she and I can work together to instill some community activism in the kids via resurrecting the unseen, unheard, Student Council.

[ 03-03-2005, 04:28 PM: Message edited by: curlykidz ]

LOL, yeah if it's done it's done. Hopefully your parents won't figure it out if an important issue comes up...
What you can do to get the kids more involved is to set up a student rep position for each class. They could be elected by their own classroom to represent them. You would need the cooperation of the teacher to do this though. Then sometimes during school hours have the student reps meet with the board to bring their concerns say in the library. Then they can go back and tell the class what was discussed decided, etc.
It would be interesting to see what the students see as a pressing need for their own classrooms or the school...

LOL... too late for that. Our whole elementary school district is PT S O, that was a decision made at a district level before my time. Fortunately we're only K-3... most of the other schools are K-8. I'm not sure what the logic was in the thinking at the time. I surely don't think the kindergarteners should get to vote, but as long as the PTB decided it should be a PT S O, I'd like to see some kind of interaction (not necessarily voting) with the older students.

We have a few middle schools and high schools with PTSAs. The high school students seem to be the most involved and in attending meetings, volunteering etc. I don't recommend it at the elementary levels because other than the sixth graders, students generally just repeat the same things and vote the same way that their parents do. Having a PTSA means that the students would be voting members and someone with a large family could easily get their way on a key issue.

OK, we have a PTSO... parent teacher student organization. Anyone else have one that specifically mentions students, or have a PTA/PTO that has specific student involvement, like a 'student liason'?