Central PTA News

Please join us for the Central PTA/O Meeting at 9am on Tuesday, September 9th, 2008 in the library. Babysitting will be available. Come listen to our principal, Dr. Limperis, share her thoughts, hear from our teacher representative and learn more about our exciting Parent/Teacher Group!

Central School is in transition from a PTA to a PTO. Our Central PTO will not collect membership dues in 08/09 because all parents and teachers are members of our Central School group. If you have already filled out a membership application, you should have received a $3.25 refund check for PTA dues that will not be paid. Haven’t filled it out yet? Well, you have two options:

1. Complete the current membership application minus the $3.25 for a total of $9.75 and either send it in to Central School or walk it on over before 6/13/08, the date the school closes for summer.
2. Wait until you receive the new PTO signup sheet in August, 2008.

The $9.75 will give you one student directory, one District 96 calendar and one copy of the 08/09 Roadrunner Yearbook. Questions, please contact Melinda Brom, thebroms@sbcglobal.net or Michelle Marconi, michellemarconi@ameritech.net. If you’d like to talk to them, their phone numbers are in the school directory.

Just a reminder! Tuesday, June 3rd, 2008, the final PTA/O meeting of the school year will be held in the Library at 9am. Come meet the new 08/09 PTA/O Executive Board and be more importantly, be informed! We hope to see you there!

By a unanimous vote, members of Central PTA voted at the May meeting to form a Parent-Teacher Organization. The process of incorporation and obtaining tax exempt status for our PTO is now underway. All PTA members will be notified when a formal vote to dissolve the PTA will be taken. In the meantime, one of our first tasks as a new PTO is to adopt bylaws. Bylaws were presented at the May meeting and are available for review until the June meeting. A copy of the bylaws can be viewed here. There is no substantive change from the bylaws under which the PTA now operates, other than a change to the Article relating to our “OBJECTS” (mission). Changes made were to delete references to the state and national PTAs, to change “PTA” to “PTO” throughout the body, and to correct typographical errors.

As always, if you have any questions about the PTA/PTO topic, please refer to our past articles, or contact one of the committee members: Nancy Hopkins, Anne Kodama, Mary Jo Robling, or Jane Wilhelm.

The PTA/PTO Committee recommended at the April PTA meeting that our parent group should reorganize as a PTO (rather than stay as a PTA).  A vote to create the PTO structure will be taken at the next meeting scheduled for Tuesday, May 6th.  All members are encouraged to attend.  For further information about the committee’s recommendation, please see http://www.centralptanews.org/category/ptapto/

Questions can be directed to any of the committee members:  Jane Wilhelm, Anne Kodama, Nancy Hopkins, Mary Jo Robling, Michele Mendoza or Mary Ellen Meindl. 

Be sure to come to the PTA meeting on Tuesday, April 1 at 9 a.m. for a presentation by the PTA/PTO Committee. The committee will be presenting their findings, followed by discussion and questions. All prior articles about PTA/PTO can be found at http://www.centralptanews.org/category/ptapto/. The following is a summary of the differences between an PTA and a PTO:

To see other articles in this series, click here.

*Central PTA convened a committee to investigate the trend of parent groups converting to PTOs. Members include: Jane Wilhelm, Anne Kodama, Nancy Hopkins, Mary Jo Robling, and Mary Ellen Meindl. Questions about this article can be directed to any of these committee members.

Article 5 in a series discussing PTA and PTO

When considering whether the Central parents group should continue its affiliation with the national PTA, it is instructive to ask: How well does our mission fit with that of the national organization?

Though incomplete, Central PTA archives show that the priorities of our group have changed over time. What started in 1893 as an effort to beautify the school, a few decades later had become primarily about parent education, and then evolved further to the group it is today. Indeed, the activities and programs of our PTA today make clear the following priorities:

1. To make possible academic, cultural, and recreational opportunities which are otherwise beyond the means of the school district;
2. To build a sense of community among parents and staff;
3. To educate and support parents in their role as advocates for their child’s education, and for the education of all children in the district;
4. To facilitate communication between parents, principal, and school board.

In other words, our focus is on the educational experience specifically in our school and district.

The national organization, by comparison, has a preference for advocacy on a broader scale, as reflected in the following official objectives, which are required to be in our bylaws:*

1. To promote the welfare of children and youth in home, school, community, and place of worship;
2. To raise the standards of home life;
3. To secure adequate laws for the care and protection of children and youth;
4. To bring into closer relation the home and the school, that parents and teachers may cooperate intelligently in the education of children and youth;
5. To develop between educators and the general public such united efforts as will secure for all children and youth the highest advantages in physical, mental, social, and spiritual education.

So the question becomes: do we want to continue to be part of an organization whose philosophy, though worthy, is largely out of sync with our own?

What would be possible as a PTO that isn’t as a PTA?
Complete autonomy and, potentially, more inclusivity. (For example: we could decide whether or not to require dues as a condition of membership.)

Is there anything possible as a PTA that we’d lose as a PTO?
“Reflections” is a PTA sponsored program in which we would no longer be eligible to participate. It may be possible to participate in similar programs sponsored by other organizations.

Isn’t parent advocacy important on more than just a school level?
Yes. But, if enough interest exists, our PTO could sponsor educational programs on how individuals can effectively advocate for their beliefs. Right now, your dues support the national PTA platform, whether you agree with it or not.

* For more information on national PTA mission and philosophy, visit www.pta.org.

*Central PTA convened a committee to investigate the trend of parent groups converting to PTOs. Members include: Anne Kodama, Nancy Hopkins, Mary Jo Robling, Jane Wilhelm, and Mary Ellen Meindl. Questions about this article can be directed to any of these committee members.