Mother-Daughter PTA Team
A 17-year-old shares a seat on the executive board with her mom to make a better school for her little sister.
Twila Morales and Theresa Morales
PTA President and PTA Secretary
Susan B. Anthony Elementary PTA
Daly City, Calif.
Best known for: Their collaboration as a mom-and-daughter team to raise funds as well as support for the elementary school where the youngest family member, Clarissa, is a student.
Time to bond: “I’ll end up getting dismissed from my high school and then immediately get to work at Susan B. Anthony with my mom,” says Theresa, 17. “It’s basically like hanging out with my mom the entire day.” Collectively, the Moraleses spend 70-plus hours each week on PTA activities, including writing grants, recycling cans, and organizing rummage sales, book fairs, and teacher appreciation events. Twila Morales says that she’s enjoyed having her daughter’s “fresh teen look” on PTA correspondence and that working together has brought them closer. “It has also taught me how to see my daughter in a new perspective [and] to see Theresa as more of an adult,” she adds.
An inherited position: “I volunteered to take notes at one of the...meetings and eventually decided to fill in the empty secretary position,” Theresa explains. “Every so often, I also help out the secretary in the main office with filing, sorting out mail, and also typing and posting up flyers.”
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Innate skills: Both of the Morales women are masters at juggling their personal life and PTA commitments. “Sometimes there are also school events that take place during the weekends, and that takes away some of the time that I have to spend with my friends,” Theresa says. “So I try to get a head start on my homework either between classes, or during extra class time that teachers may rarely give.” Twila’s trick: doing a load of laundry every day and having her husband cook dinner.
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Coded for leadership: Susan B. Anthony Elementary principal Gay Gardner-Berk says she can’t keep up with all the wonderful ideas and opportunities Twila Morales thinks up for the school. “She makes me look good,” Gardner-Berk says. Meanwhile, Theresa is exploring college options and considering an early childhood education program. If she attends college locally, she says, she’ll stay on as PTA secretary: “It’s fun, and I’ve gained a lot from it.”
