<p>Next week our HS is starting a parents group. I would like ideas on how other parents groups are run or what you think would be the ideal parents group. With all the other booster groups at the school, I don’t think fundraising will be a focus or may not even be done. I’m so glad this is finally starting and would love to speak intelligently about what works with other groups.</p>
<p>different from a PTA? I know PTA is supposed to be Parent/Teacher Association, but the meetings I have attended seem to be more like a “parent” group (after the official meeting).</p>
<p>kathiep -</p>
<p>I am the chairperson of our parents’ group at my son’s HS. PM me with your email address and I’ll send you a set of our goals for the group and a little insight on what we try to do.</p>
<ul>
<li>Bob (digi)</li>
</ul>
<p>Yes, this would not be a member of a PTA. PTA’ s require a lot more structure and you must collect dues. Also, since most (public) High School’s have numerous booster groups, there is less of a need for fundraising. Also, as you pointed out, there really aren’t any teachers directly involved. </p>
<p>The main purpose, imho, is to find out the reasoning behind the decisions that are made. For instance, in our HS, gifted kids are the only ones that are allowed to take Russian. Most of these kids were pronounced, “gifted” in second grade. What makes them considered to be more adept at taking a certain language? A lot of times we parents will be talking and wondering but besides a formal appointment with the Principal, there’s no forum to ask those questions. </p>
<p>My question then, is what else can a parents group do besides information sharing?</p>
<p>There is nothing similar in our school district, but it sounds like a very good idea. One thing you could do is send a representative of your Parents’ Group to School Board meetings to present your concerns. There have been a number of occasions in our district when parents have attended and spoke at School Board meetings, for example, to object to proposed cuts in the Gifted program or the Music program. An official representative of the Parents’ Group might be a more effective voice than individual parents. P.S. I also live in PA!</p>
<p>The parent group for S’s h.s. magnet program helps get volunteers for the school, addresses school concerns by going to the school administration and school district administration, sponsors family-oriented and other activities for the magnet program and school-wide, helps organize field trips, and does fund raising for the magnet program and school-wide since our group is the only thriving parent group at the school. Since it’s a magnet program and students come from all over the county, we have found that sponsoring family activities such as a picnic is a good way for the students, teachers and parents to get to know each other. Such activities are extremely important for the cohesion of our program, but may not be as important in a high school that draws mainly students from the neighborhood.</p>
<p>Northstarmom,
Thanks for your response. That’s just what I was looking for. </p>
<p>Mother of Two, I’m not especially looking to cut a program that is beneficial to many students. The example I gave is one of many that we parents sometimes talk about and would just like to know the reasoning behind the decision. I am one of the few parents that attend the school board meetings on a regular basis and have seen representatives from groups come, present their needs and been granted or denied their requests. Our school board meetings are fairly formal events where guests can address the board at either the beginning or the end or can ask to be put on the agenda ahead of time. Not a place where you want to go just to ask questions. What part of PA are you from? This group is having it’s first meeting Monday, so we’ll see how it goes!</p>
<p>I don’t think I’d call our HS a neighborhood school, mainly because we are a semi-rural district. There are just under 1,000 kids in the HS, 99% are bussed or drive in. Many of us parents know each other from working together at the MS or kids played together on the same team/band, etc. But, a lot of that stops at the HS, where if your child does not continue with a sport or instrument, there is no reason for a parent to go into the school. So most of the information gathered is of the whisper down the alley variety.</p>
<p>Kathie, besides taking an issue to the school board…I can see the need to simply address educational issues like you describe and one thing you might want to look into is seeing if your Parent “Advisory” board/committee/group, can have an administrator or faculty rep partake in the discussions and bring these issues back to their groups if need be. I think this year, with our new principal (who ironically has been out of school for a couple months due to health reasons) started a parent advisory group to discuss issues. Maybe if your group formalizes, you can talk to someone at the school to see if they can send a rep to your meetings so that any issues that the parent group has might be addressed or taken to the appropriate folks at school to take it from there. That connection between the parent group and folks at school is an important piece. I realize you can take issues to the school board but sometimes these issues are not really something that should be addressed at the school board level but more at the administration or faculty level (in other words, not necessarily policy issues). I would like to think that an administrator might welcome the connection of the school to a parent advisory group. See about looking into that too. </p>
<p>Susan</p>
<p>Kathie,
I’m sorry if you misunderstood my point. I wasn’t thinking that you want to cut programs at all. This was just an example where parents in our district voiced their concerns at the Board meetings. I was just saying that, if, as a Parents Group, you have concerns about any aspect of your high school, the Board might listen more to a representative of your group than if the concerns were presented by individual parents. I know what you mean about parents not knowing what is going on at HS, due to no need to go into the school and also seeing other parents less frequently, as compared to elementary and middle school. It is even worse when your kid drives him/herself to practices,etc. as you even miss out on the talking to other parents in the parking lot while waiting. It is a good idea to have a way for parents to get together to discuss high school issues. I live in the suburbs of Philadelphia, our district is suburban, not rural.</p>
<p>The parents groups where I have belonged tended to address issues such as teen drinking, unsupervised parties, teen “hooking up”, drugs, . They would also specifically address things like the senior trip, the prom, and the logistics that those things entail in the light of the general issues with highschoolers. I found them very valuable. Since we moved so much, it also helped me get to know those parents who have these concerns. I also learned so much about how things work in the community. Not many academic issues were addressed, however. It was mainly the extras and the out of school activities that were the discussion. And very general topics most of the time.</p>
<p>Motheroftwo,
I agree a representative of a group does better then a single voice. The Russian language thing is one of the many things that I just want an explanation for. Yeah, sometimes, I long for the carpool days when the kids would just talk freely, oblivious of the driver. Other times (like today’s cold morning, I am soooo glad my son drives!). I’m just North of you, near Allentown but have lived in Downingtown and Garnet Valley school districts.</p>
<p>Susan, I think this is going to be run by a teacher, I’m not really sure. I got an e-mail from the district just saying that if there were any questions, to contact Mrs. so and so and then it gave the schools phone number and an extension. I was hoping for my son’s (great) GC to run it but when I mentioned it in passing to her last week, she knew nothing about it. If it’s just parents then I don’t think it would be much more then more guessing about what’s going on…</p>
<p>Kathiep,
Feel free to PM me if you’d like more info about the parents’ group activities that I am involved in. While the group I am in does address issues, the most important thing that we do is community building – helping parents connect with other parents and with teachers something that is very valuable throughout kids’ schooling, but something that often disappears at the high school level.</p>
<p>At our monthly meetings, we try to provide an overview by administration of information that’s important that affects the students. For instance, at a recent meeting, parents got info about a new, free afterschool study skills program that the school was offering (Incidentally, a parent in the group had informed the school about the grant that eventually funded the program, and parents had strongly encouraged the school to set up the program.) </p>
<p>We also have presentations about specific aspects of the school’s programs, such as having the head of the math department provide information about the different math courses and their implications for students options after graduation. In addition, we provide miniworkshops of 1/2 hour to an hour on subjects such as what parents can do to prepare students for colleges or careers, or what parents can do to help students make a successful adjustment to high school.</p>
<p>We also try to attract a diverse group of parents to the officer positions so that we don’t seem to be a clique and so that all parents feel welcome. A consideration to keep in mind when finding people for officer positions is to try to get diversity in terms of educational and economic backgrounds. This can be hard to do, however, because the poorer, less educated people aren’t as likely to have the time to come to meetings. If, though, they can be made to feel welcome and can be given some kind of visible positions of responsibility, that can help attract members to the organization . It also can help raise students’ graduation rates since the parents would be more informed about how to help their students succeed in high school.</p>
<p>Kathie - Our PHS also semi-rural (just over 500 students, 9-12). Ours is not a PTA. But - and someone else suggested this - Principal or Asst. Principal attend each of our monthly meetings, share with us what is going on from their perspective, ask our input on upcoming issues. We also, of course(!), bring up issues. Many very akin to your Russian eg. Have had such successes as brainstorming, with adminstration, how to avoid eliminating a very advanced course even if only a few kids want to/need to take it; addressing inequities about how weighted GPA calculated, etc. </p>
<p>We are very fortunate that Admin. sees us as a valuable sounding board, and I hope you can achieve same.</p>
<p>Also cover “teen/student life” issues such as ways to avoid drinking at prom etc. Many of us have as our main reason for belonging just to “know what’s going on” as HSers not always much into sharing at home.</p>
<p>We do raise some funds, various ways, and use them to [ul][<em>]sponsor 6-8 small but symbolic scholarships at Sr. end-of-year. There always seem to be a few deserving students who didn’t get anything/much from college/outside scholarships and it is wonderful to do this. We provide $$. Guidance id’s “winners” [</em>]fund a similar number of grants each year based on teacher requests - maybe support a sabbatical trip to another country to observe education programs there, etc.; seed $ for a new EC;…[*]We develop email list of all HS parents and keep them posted on doings. We publish (and charge for, see fundraising above) a school-wide directory: all students K-12 and their parents. Can’t tell you how helpful it has been to have it cover all of K-12, instead of separate ones for each level.[/ul]</p>
<p>Thanks everyone. I’ve cut and pasted quite a bit of this and will make some suggestions at the meeting tomorrow morning. Communication and socialization seem to be the best goals. I’ll let you know what happens!</p>
<p>Just wanted to add an ending. We had our first parents group meeting Monday. I brought in my cut and paste report and gave it to the Vice Principal and Principal. They did run the meeting. Both ladies are very nice and did a good job. The Principal announced right away that they have not decided what kind of format they wanted but would finish out the school year and then decide. So, although we’re going to meet monthly, it sounds pretty loose for now. I know that what I gave them will be food for thought. Next month they’re bringing in a police officer to talk about identity theft and how our kids could be victims. or us too, I guess. I was disappointed that they did not ask for parents input but am sure that will come. If not, then I’ll just give my unsolicited opinions!</p>
<p>Interesting, kathiep. I just assumed that the HSPA at your school would be a parent-run group. Maybe because that’s how it is here. Don’t know if it was originally parent-initiated way back when, but it is certainly parent-organized now, w parents as officers, parents setting agenda, inviting guests (including regular “guest” Prin or Ass Prin) at each meeting.</p>
<p>Don’t know how different it will be when it is a school-run organization. Keep us posted.</p>