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Title : What About PTA?
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What About PTA?

I'm a long-time supporter of PTA but I now find what comes out of the local, state and national orgs to be somewhat confusing.

I have lost count of how many schools have gone to PTOs.  (A PTO is a parent-teacher organization that is school-based so they operate solely for the benefit of their school.)  I think there are at least five SPS schools now. 

The SCPTSA has a page that explains the difference between a PTO and PTA.

I've also lost count of how many schools have no parent group.  I know this occurs generally at Title One schools where parents may be immigrants or working two jobs and don't have a a core of people to create a parent group.  I recall that some PTAs did offer to mentor schools in this situation but I'm not sure that went very far. 

I bring this up because I attended the end-of-the-year meeting for the Seattle Council PTSA.   There were roughly 60 people there including Board president Leslie Harris and now-superintendent Denise Juneau.  The district was also represented by Gail Morris (Native American issues), James Bush (Family Engagement) and Carri Campbell (Communications).

I was perusing the minutes from the previous meeting and this caught my eye:

"Sherry Rudolph - Membership - Seattle Council is down 800 members."

Wow.  That is a heck of a lot of members to lose in a year or two.  Any thoughts on why, Readers?

There were elections for new board members for SCPTSA. 

 They elected:
- Chandra Hampson for president (She will be the first Native American elected to this office and a means the head of SCPTSA, the head of the district and two of the seven members of the Board are all Native Americans.)  Ms. Hampson has a very good background for this kind of work and President Harris said she would be "measured and careful."  I've heard Ms. Hampson at a couple of public events and that would not be my take on her.

- Co-Vice Presidents - Emijah Smith and Manuela Slye.  Both Smith and Slye are members of district advisory and/or taskforces. 

- Treasurer - Katy Banahan. 

- Secretary - Lindsay Yost

A national award was made to Sacajawea Elementary for its family engagement and diversity.

Juneau gave some brief remarks.  She expressed gratitude to the Board and said her first audience is families.

She said the program she had created in Montana as state superintendent, Graduation Matters, had an 86% graduation rate and had cut drop-outs by one-third.

She said that her advisory board had found that relationships with students matter - "A caring relationship with one adult for every child."

She referenced the upcoming levies and the issues around fully-funded schools.

She did mention spending six months "listening" and that there could be revisions to the Strategic Plan.

She spoke of how well-thought of that Seattle Schools is.  One person, during the Q&A, pushed back and said that during the superintendent candidate forums that all the candidates said the same thing as she did about Seattle Schools.  The speaker questioned that attitude with the racial inequity in the district and "it's not the rosy picture" that Juneau sees. 

Juneau, ever good natured, laughed and asked how long her honeymoon period would be.  She said that we point out faults and then talk about them.  She mentioned Sped and HCC and said there would need to be collaborative approaches to hard conversations.

There was a brief Q&A with one question about principals being able to deny lunch to a child who acts up in the cafeteria.

I did look up the National PTSA and saw a couple of interesting items at their webpage.
- They now have a "Gun Safety & Violence Prevention" tab right on their home page.

- They have several good grant programs to promote science fairs, math fairs and healthy lifestyles. 

- National PTA is now part of a group, Learning First Alliance.

The Learning First Alliance is a partnership of leading education organizations with more than 10 million members dedicated to improving student learning in America's public schools. Alliance members include: American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education; AASA, The School Superintendents Association; American Federation of Teachers; American School Counselor Association; Consortium for School Networking; Learning Forward; National Association of Elementary School Principals; National Association of Secondary School Principals; National Education Association; National PTA; National School Boards Association; and National School Public Relations Association. To learn more about LFA, visit LearningFirst.org.
- They also have a fairly good Diversity and Inclusion Toolkit. Lots of good advice in here.

One section I found of interest was "Key Strategies for Specific Groups" which includes black parents, Hispanic parents, Native American parents, Asian-American parents, Pacific Islander parents, male parents, parents in the military, foster care, LGBTQ, Special Education and location (urban, suburban and rural). 

Pop Quiz for readers:

I'll give you a quote from the PTSA Toolkit about a specific group - you tell me what group it was about(noting that all of these quotes were only for one specific group and not repeated; I don't have a quote for every group) - answers at the end of thread.

1. Help families make education a priority. Educate families about the value of learning, advantages of staying in school, and opportunities that open with a high school diploma.
2. Between 2000 and 2010, this group's population increased 43%, and the increase is 46% when mixed identities are included. This rate was faster than any other U.S. racial group.
3. Work with community groups and organizations. Build relationships with community and faith-based organizations, youth-serving groups and businesses to expand networks of support and opportunities.
4. Suicide among (this group) youth 18-24 years old is the second leading cause of death and higher than for any other ethnic/racial youth population.
5. From 2000 to 2010, this group's population grew 35%, from 399,000 to 540,000, making them the second fastest growing race nationally.
6.  Only one-half of students in this group complete high school by age 18.
7. 30% of these students reported missing at least one entire day in the past month because they felt unsafe or uncomfortable at school. In 2011–12, state-level data indicate that between 3% and 18% of children in this group had repeated one or more grades since starting kindergarten.
   
   

 

  Answers:
1. African-American students
2. Asians
3. Hispanics
4. Native Americans
5. Pacific Islanders
6. Foster children
7. LGBTQ

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