We alternate. One month its at 3:30 when school lets out, the next month it is at 7pm. We get more parents at the later and more teachers at the earlier. But, by alternating it gives everyone a chance to attend a meeting and be heard.
Our meetings are the first Tuesday of the month at 6:30pm. Childcare is provided free of charge. We get 1 parent not on the board and the President and Secretary at every meeting. We get the principal at every meeting. The vice president hasn't come since the first meeting of the year and the treasurer comes sporadically. We have 2 teacher reps each meeting although they are different each meeting.
I am not sure how to fix this because we have almost no parental involvment in the school anyways (little to no volunteers during the day) and all of the board members and staff work during the day until 5:00pm.
We have tried several things to get more parents involved. Last year we met at 6:30 pm so this year we changed our time to 5:30 pm hoping to get parents on their way home from work instead of them getting home and deciding not to go out again. I wish I knew the answer.
We have our meetings every other month on the 3rd Monday at 6:30pm. It's actually in our by-laws-- I have no idea why! Our attendence is pretty good from both staff and parents.
We have toyed with the idea of changing the location of our meetings... has anyone had any success with holding meetings at a skating rink, restaurant, etc.?
Thanks!
Kelley
Madison PTO
Mount Vernon, WA
We have our day by default because there are other school groups that have to meet as well because we are a Comer school. We are the first Monday of the month at 4pm. We have done 7pm which no one came to and everyone complained about and 5 pm which people said should either be earlier or later, so we wound up with 4. In all the different times, it didn't seem to make much difference on the number of parents who come, but 4 seems to be easier for parents picking up kids. It did make a huge difference on the number of staff that attend. Most of them are required to be on duty and in the building until 4:15 anyway. I would say it tripled the number of staff who come and makes it easier for those who want to come but work a second job (which is about 30 of our 65 staff).
The irony of commitment is that it’s deeply liberating-in work, in play, in love. The act frees you from the tyranny of your internal critic, from the fear that likes to dress itself up and parade around as rational hesitation. To commit is to remove your head as the barrier to your life. --Anne Morris
Last year we had our meetings at 7p on Tuesday. This year we tried 4p Tuesdays hoping to get the parents who pick up their kids. The time change made no difference in the amount of parents who show - we just have more teachers now.
