Yahoo Answers is shutting down on May 4th, 2021 (Eastern Time) and beginning April 20th, 2021 (Eastern Time) the Yahoo Answers website will be in read-only mode. There will be no changes to other Yahoo properties or services, or your Yahoo account. You can find more information about the Yahoo Answers shutdown and how to download your data on this help page.
Trending News
How do you go about setting up a school PTA/PTO?
My kids attend a small private school that has no organized Parent/Teacher group. I am trying to find out how to go about starting one from anyone who has been through it.
Do you have officers?
How often does just the core group meet?
How often are open meetings held?
How close do you get to work with the school board on things?
(I am also considering running for the school board)
Any and all ideas would be so greatly appreciated!
2 Answers
- 2 decades agoFavorite Answer
Hey, First of all congrats for taking this into your own hands! Its not an easy job. PTA is a registered trademark and affiliate of a national association. So, if you use PTA you have to register through the national thing and pay them dues. You don't want to do that!
Just call it PTO. All PTO's need officers who meet about once a month (more or less depending on what is on the calendar that needs to be addressed) The open meetings are often held quarterly.
PTO's do not generally work with the school board at all. The PTO only works with their school. Most PTO's exist to do fundraising for the school and organize events like "Teacher Appreciation Week" (which was May 8-12th). In our county in NC PTO's are often responsible for raising money for new playground equipment.
As state and federal dollars to school continue to dwindle the PTO's have a harder job because they are often raising money for things that used to be paid by govenment money. There is no govenment money for playground stuff and similiar other "non essentials" so PTO's fill that need. In my area if you drive around to the different elementary schools you can tell which are in poverty areas and which are in wealthy areas by the quality of their playground equipment. Isn't that awful!
Hopefully at a private school you would have greater success and perform some different tasks; but the PTO has nothing to do with the school board and no input on the school board (unless your area is wayyyy different from mine).
Start by getting your school administrators behind the idea, then send home info with each child with an area where parents can indicate their interest. At our school the dues are $2. This money is used for all sorts of things. Sometime a child may not be able to afford a field trip....the PTO pays for it.
Our school has a yearly spaghetti dinner to raise money, McDonald's has a program call "McTeacher night" where the staff from the school come and "work" (basically cleaning off tables, etc) and a portion of the proceeds go to the school. The PTO is all there and many families from the school show up. It chaos but a great fundraising with very little effort. We do facepainting that day too.
Good luck with it. If there is anything further I can do to assist you please don't hesitate to email me!
