How to start a parent teacher organization
There’s a lot going on in the United States and world right now. My family is safe – we evacuated our Capitol Hill home for some friends’ house in the suburbs – but tensions are still high. I can’t stop doom-scrolling through my Twitter feed. I used avoid Twitter like coronavirus, as a holdover from my public official days, but those same reporters and busybodies have up-to-the-minute news about what’s happening downtown. So now I check my growing list of go-to journalist accounts dozens of times a day. Writing today’s blog post is a diversion to keep me off Twitter and focus my anxiety into something useful. But it’s also a re-packaging of a resource I created during my time of the board of education. In other words, not a heavy mental lift. Hopefully, though, it’s something you find useful.
As an SBOE member, I had the opportunity to meet with education advocates all over the city. It shocked me to learn that many of the perks enjoyed by students in wealthier parts of the city were funded by their school’s parent-teacher organization. At one Capitol Hill school, the PTO held an annual fundraising gala. They used that money pay an after school enrichment leader to teach their kids Spanish! It made me realize that schools in my district rarely had functional PTOs. That had to change.
Parent-teacher organizations are a great way to funnel resources to your school!
In an attempt to solve the problem, I cobbled together a guide that basically functions as a PTO-in-a-box. It contains worksheets and the actual forms and links that motivated families need to start a parent-teacher organization at their child’s school. I partnered with our city’s Chief Student Advocate to host a workshop in my ward. At the workshop, I shared this resource with my constituents and walked them through the early brainstorming stages of the process. Not many people attended, but my how to start a parent-teacher organization guide remains.
Today, I’m sharing it with all of you. Good luck with your new PTO!
Note: Because I live in the District of Columbia, the forms and contacts included in this how-to guide are D.C. specific. You can easily type “how to incorporate [your state here]” to find the correct information for your location. Also, I can’t remember the sites and resources that I visited to create this guide six years ago. If I’ve borrowed ideas and text that you created, please drop a line below, so I can give you the appropriate credit and link to your original resources. I’m sharing this to empower families, not to steal your shine.
A malcontent with a heart of gold, Tierra is a first-year medical student, former high school teacher and history PhD candidate, plus mom to four of Bebe’s baddest kids. She curses a lot. Tierra is a DC native but lives in southwest Michigan and will happily exchange writing (hers) for cash (yours).
