Timing of PTA/PTO meetings

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have never heard of daytime PTA/PTSA meetings... and I'm a teacher! It would mean that kids, teachers and working parents were excluded and only the SAHM/SAHDs would be running the whole organization. Yikes.

Not sure about DC but for Langley PTSA - only SAHMs

May 28, 2014 - 9:15 a.m.
October 22, 2014 - 9:00 Am
November 19, 2014 - 9:00 Am
January 21, 2015 - 9:00 am
March 18, 2015 - 7:00 pm

Note that only 27 people present at the 3/18 PTSA evening meeting, so recommend no night time meetings next year.

Back to 9:00 AM meetings

May 20, 2015 - 9:00 AM
May 27 Great Falls Library - 9:00 am

no working parents need attend, we got it covered.

[Anonymous]

Lunchtime? I would never be able to make them. Definitely evening. Ours are 6-7 and include babysitting by parent volunteers.

[Anonymous]

Thanks everyone for your replies! Very interesting.

I brought up the lunch meeting because I also thought it would be somewhat of a compromise between the needs of the SAHMs and the working parents. I can take a long lunch, but I cannot roll in 3 hours late (which would happen with a 9am meeting). Also, I'd kind of rather take a long lunch from work than drag my tired small kids to a meeting at the time when I should be reading books to them in their PJs.

I'm in a transitioning neighborhood bilingual DCPS, and the parents group currently meets at 9am. Very few working parents can attend, and I worry about what I see as an impending clash between the mostly-hispanic SAHMs, and the newcomer mostly-anglophone mostly-working parents, when the latter come in and ask to have evening meetings.

Fingers crossed for a smooth collaborative blending of backgrounds and skills. And come to think of it, it's the same potential clash at every corner and every event or decision in the school, so we'll just have to take it step by step.

[Anonymous]

I'm very interested in this question, but as it pertains to charters, which I think is very different. For neighborhood schools, I think evening meetings generally work pretty well because people are still in the neighborhood, but for charters it gets complicated as many people have already left to get back to their side of town.

I can't imagine how lunchtime meetings would work. Even the stay at home parents are usually doing something by then. The working parents are, of course, working. We have viewed our options as (1) right after drop-off, (2) right after pick-up at 3:30, (3) at the end of aftercare, 5:15, (4) later in the evening, 6 or 7, or (5) weekends. We have tried all of these, and right after drop-off on Fridays seems to get the best attendance but a lot of very vocal complaints.

Please share how your charter handles this situation as we are reevaluating ours yet again.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Thanks everyone for your replies! Very interesting.

I brought up the lunch meeting because I also thought it would be somewhat of a compromise between the needs of the SAHMs and the working parents. I can take a long lunch, but I cannot roll in 3 hours late (which would happen with a 9am meeting). Also, I'd kind of rather take a long lunch from work than drag my tired small kids to a meeting at the time when I should be reading books to them in their PJs.

I'm in a transitioning neighborhood bilingual DCPS, and the parents group currently meets at 9am. Very few working parents can attend, and I worry about what I see as an impending clash between the mostly-hispanic SAHMs, and the newcomer mostly-anglophone mostly-working parents, when the latter come in and ask to have evening meetings.

Fingers crossed for a smooth collaborative blending of backgrounds and skills. And come to think of it, it's the same potential clash at every corner and every event or decision in the school, so we'll just have to take it step by step.

Please, if you do this, actually attend the meeting. It is so frustrating to change meeting times to accommodate people who don't actually end up attending.

[Anonymous]

I just have a hard time seeing lunchtime work out-- and I'm a SAHM. I have a PK4 and a 1 year old who needs to nap after lunch, so unless it's a super early "lunch" like 11, that wouldn't work for me.

[Anonymous]

My DCs attend different schools and neither school makes it easy. One parent works, one stays at home.

One school has them at 6pm in a location close to a lot of offices so it's convenient for working parents in that area, but impossible to get to if you do not work near there. My family never attends, but either or both oarents might be able to if they happened in the morning or at lunch.

The other one is in our neighborhood and also starts around 6pm, so it's hard for parents who work late hours. They provide babysitting for children above 3, which is good, but the meetings always go beyond my young DC's bedtime and they are always on school nights. My family 1/2 attends part of most of them. Would also be better if they were in the morning for either or both parents.

[Anonymous]

Our DCPS HSA meetings are always held in the evening. I can't imagine another time that would ever makes sense!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Thanks everyone for your replies! Very interesting.

I brought up the lunch meeting because I also thought it would be somewhat of a compromise between the needs of the SAHMs and the working parents. I can take a long lunch, but I cannot roll in 3 hours late (which would happen with a 9am meeting). Also, I'd kind of rather take a long lunch from work than drag my tired small kids to a meeting at the time when I should be reading books to them in their PJs.

I'm in a transitioning neighborhood bilingual DCPS, and the parents group currently meets at 9am. Very few working parents can attend, and I worry about what I see as an impending clash between the mostly-hispanic SAHMs, and the newcomer mostly-anglophone mostly-working parents, when the latter come in and ask to have evening meetings.

Fingers crossed for a smooth collaborative blending of backgrounds and skills. And come to think of it, it's the same potential clash at every corner and every event or decision in the school, so we'll just have to take it step by step.

That would be a REALLY long lunch for me. I don't even work that far away from our school but it would take at least 30-45 minutes in the middle of the day to metro back and walk from the metro. So assuming an hour meeting, that would mean a 2-2.5 hour lunch. I don't know any working people who could do this except the ones that work from home.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thanks everyone for your replies! Very interesting.

I brought up the lunch meeting because I also thought it would be somewhat of a compromise between the needs of the SAHMs and the working parents. I can take a long lunch, but I cannot roll in 3 hours late (which would happen with a 9am meeting). Also, I'd kind of rather take a long lunch from work than drag my tired small kids to a meeting at the time when I should be reading books to them in their PJs.

I'm in a transitioning neighborhood bilingual DCPS, and the parents group currently meets at 9am. Very few working parents can attend, and I worry about what I see as an impending clash between the mostly-hispanic SAHMs, and the newcomer mostly-anglophone mostly-working parents, when the latter come in and ask to have evening meetings.

Fingers crossed for a smooth collaborative blending of backgrounds and skills. And come to think of it, it's the same potential clash at every corner and every event or decision in the school, so we'll just have to take it step by step.

That would be a REALLY long lunch for me. I don't even work that far away from our school but it would take at least 30-45 minutes in the middle of the day to metro back and walk from the metro. So assuming an hour meeting, that would mean a 2-2.5 hour lunch. I don't know any working people who could do this except the ones that work from home.

OP here. Yes, a 2 1/2 hour lunch, which I thought would be less disruptive to a work day than arrive into the office at 11.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thanks everyone for your replies! Very interesting.

I brought up the lunch meeting because I also thought it would be somewhat of a compromise between the needs of the SAHMs and the working parents. I can take a long lunch, but I cannot roll in 3 hours late (which would happen with a 9am meeting). Also, I'd kind of rather take a long lunch from work than drag my tired small kids to a meeting at the time when I should be reading books to them in their PJs.

I'm in a transitioning neighborhood bilingual DCPS, and the parents group currently meets at 9am. Very few working parents can attend, and I worry about what I see as an impending clash between the mostly-hispanic SAHMs, and the newcomer mostly-anglophone mostly-working parents, when the latter come in and ask to have evening meetings.

Fingers crossed for a smooth collaborative blending of backgrounds and skills. And come to think of it, it's the same potential clash at every corner and every event or decision in the school, so we'll just have to take it step by step.

That would be a REALLY long lunch for me. I don't even work that far away from our school but it would take at least 30-45 minutes in the middle of the day to metro back and walk from the metro. So assuming an hour meeting, that would mean a 2-2.5 hour lunch. I don't know any working people who could do this except the ones that work from home.

OP here. Yes, a 2 1/2 hour lunch, which I thought would be less disruptive to a work day than arrive into the office at 11.

*arriving

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Thanks everyone for your replies! Very interesting.

I brought up the lunch meeting because I also thought it would be somewhat of a compromise between the needs of the SAHMs and the working parents. I can take a long lunch, but I cannot roll in 3 hours late (which would happen with a 9am meeting). Also, I'd kind of rather take a long lunch from work than drag my tired small kids to a meeting at the time when I should be reading books to them in their PJs.

I'm in a transitioning neighborhood bilingual DCPS, and the parents group currently meets at 9am. Very few working parents can attend, and I worry about what I see as an impending clash between the mostly-hispanic SAHMs, and the newcomer mostly-anglophone mostly-working parents, when the latter come in and ask to have evening meetings.

Fingers crossed for a smooth collaborative blending of backgrounds and skills. And come to think of it, it's the same potential clash at every corner and every event or decision in the school, so we'll just have to take it step by step.

I guess I think that you're sort of assuming that everyone who works and attends your school work in the District? How would a lunchtime lunch work for people who go to NoVa or Mont County or the far end of DC? Answer: it wouldn't.

[Anonymous]

Please give up this lunch idea, OP. It's kinda ridiculous.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thanks everyone for your replies! Very interesting.

I brought up the lunch meeting because I also thought it would be somewhat of a compromise between the needs of the SAHMs and the working parents. I can take a long lunch, but I cannot roll in 3 hours late (which would happen with a 9am meeting). Also, I'd kind of rather take a long lunch from work than drag my tired small kids to a meeting at the time when I should be reading books to them in their PJs.

I'm in a transitioning neighborhood bilingual DCPS, and the parents group currently meets at 9am. Very few working parents can attend, and I worry about what I see as an impending clash between the mostly-hispanic SAHMs, and the newcomer mostly-anglophone mostly-working parents, when the latter come in and ask to have evening meetings.

Fingers crossed for a smooth collaborative blending of backgrounds and skills. And come to think of it, it's the same potential clash at every corner and every event or decision in the school, so we'll just have to take it step by step.

That would be a REALLY long lunch for me. I don't even work that far away from our school but it would take at least 30-45 minutes in the middle of the day to metro back and walk from the metro. So assuming an hour meeting, that would mean a 2-2.5 hour lunch. I don't know any working people who could do this except the ones that work from home.

OP here. Yes, a 2 1/2 hour lunch, which I thought would be less disruptive to a work day than arrive into the office at 11.

Interesting. A 2.5 hour break in the middle of the day, involving going back and forth between school and work twice in one day, would be much more disruptive to my day then just getting in at 10:30/11:00.

[Anonymous]

Evenings are really best, just figure out a way to provide childcare, and maybe pizzas for dinner for all.