We just had to elect a VP and Treasurer Monday night. The VP that was elected is our districts Title I Parent Liaision and our treasurer is a teacher at the school. Plus I work for the school system but have never worked at this school. I am thinking it may be best if I don't because I don't want people to start talking conflict of interest.
The majority of our officers work at least part-time. It just amazes me how many parents there are who really seem to have no interest in being involved in the school in any way. I talk to these parents and while I've never had anyone be rude, you can just tell that they can't figure out what the big deal is about being involved and some of them look at me like I'm crazy when I talk about all the things I help with. At our school it seems to be the working parents who put forth the most effort to be actively involved-now granted that's not the 100% case because we also have some stay-at-home moms who are just amazing, but it's certainly the majority. It does make it hard to run programs during the day!
Wouldn't it be nice to have a crystal ball that you could have these parents look into and see the future of their children both with and without parental involvement? Bet that would change some minds.
All of our officers work fulltime. There are five of us. We meet for our board meetings at the school at about 5:30 or so and bring our kids if we have to. We communicate ALOT via email. We try to get everything done ahead of time. We have some moms who are on campus as room moms that help out there at school. We all do everything that we can and so far things are working out well.
This will be the first year where all of our board members work outside the home. I am the VP and I work full time, the other 3 board members work part-time but that means 3-4 days a week so it might as well be full time! We have found already that we have to be very organized and get the other parents into shape, for instance our Treasurer has set up one day a week to pick up her check requests and cut checks to people, not this anytime type of run up to school and sign a check really quick stuff. So we have to have everything in place for events, which means more work on my part to get a sheet together for each event, listing what each chairperson needs to do, their budget, etc. I think it will be hard at first but it will pay off in the long run when we are all organized and efficient!
We have 8 board members, 4 are stay-at-home moms, 4 work including me. This is my second year as Pres. I rely very much on the stay-at-home moms to help with events held during the day but we all work together. I would like to think that everyone can volunteer in some way. I was box top person for 4 years because I could pick up before school and cut and count in the evenings. We are trying Three for Me this year inthe hopes we can increase the number of parents who volunteer..
I am a new PTO President this year. I was the PTO Secretary last year. I also work full time about 45 minutes from home and I have a daughter that is a cheerleader and one that plays soccer. My schedule gets pretty hectic but with some creative scheduling I have been able to make everything work. We have our PTO meetings in the evening. I hope to set an example to other working parents that you can still be involved with your childs school and work full time.
