Reply to TJHSST PTSA Election

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I'd be curious to know how many people pontificating about the TJ PTA's actions and behaviors (both individual members and Exec Com) have read the By Laws? https://tjptsa.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/TJHSST-PTSA-2019-Bylaws.pdf. Yes, there's a lot of standard, flowering language in the document; however, there are some pretty clear statements about the purpose of the organization as well as it's legal relationship to the VA and National PTA entities.  Moreover, the by laws do outline very clear expectations with respect to behavior of leadership and the entire charter in relation to the VA PTA. You can also cluck and bristle about whether there should be a TJPTA or if they should move to a PTO. Whatever decision is made, the current TJPTA does have a legal obligation to operate within the confines of the by laws.

Most notable for me in the by laws was the following:

"The association shall work to engage and empower children, families, and educators within schools and communities to provide quality education for all children and youth, and shall seek to participate in the decision-making process by influencing school policy and advocating for children's issues, recognizing that the legal responsibility to make decisions has been delegated by the people to boards of education, state education authorities, and local education authorities."

Seems to me, recent efforts to call in the legality of the counties authority to change the admissions process falls well outside what the TJPTA's purview. They can have an opinion and share that opinion, even advocate for a different approach but they are not the decision makers and are bound by decision vested with the recognized legal authorities.  
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Thanks for posting this.  I was wondering what their by-laws said.  I was a PTA President last year and if volunteers are seeking roles on the Executive Board for the primary motivation of obtaining a greater voice in advocacy, that's misguided. Particularly if your goal is counter to that of the school.  A LOT of work goes into being on the Executive Board and running the day to day functions of a PTA - student events, teacher appreciation, fundraisers, chairing meetings, managing committees, communicating with the school, planning speakers, attending county meetings, assessing needs, budgeting/appropriations, etc, etc.  Advocacy can be one piece of that puzzle, but my concern is that this hostile situation of "who's in charge of the TJPTA" is more about people thinking these roles give them access to affect change and not about about crafting and supporting the student-parent-teacher experience at TJ.  [/quote]

It is difficult to imagine that the Coalition 4 TJ would send a bloc of their soldiers to run as the “recommended slate of candidates” for the TJ PTSA EC if their goal wasn’t to try to impact policy, specifically with political aims in mind.[/quote]

Ah, didn't realize they were from a coalition. I think people who don't understand how PTA works thinks it's some sort of power postition, but it's not, not really.  Particularly if you're at odds with the school. Their Coalition 4 TJ would have just as much of a voice without all the responsibilities of volunteering for leadership roles. Stakeholders and stakeholders - whether they're the PTA President or not.  Doesn't mean you can affect policy either way.

And they need to stop blasting their issues to the media.  They now have a larger responsibility to the community whether they agree with how the students were selected to go there or not.  [/quote]

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