Reply to UMC parents in low income schools

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Agree. I work at a high FARMS school where the PTA president refuses to spend PTA money on interpreters to attend the PTA meetings, which essentially keeps the Spanish speaking majority away from participating in the PTA. When we looked closely at the budget and expenses, we saw that the amount of money spent on book fair decorations would pay for the interpreter for the whole year but the president still wouldn't budge. They said that if a staff member would volunteer their time to interpret then they would be ok with it. Staff members ended up finding high school students needing SSL hours.  The PTA serves the interests of the English speaking UMC minority, and not the majority of the school's population. [/quote]

Devils advocate-but a PTA like that won't have a lot of money. Surely there should be a staff or parent volunteer who speaks both languages who could interpret for free?  [/quote]

+ 1

In all probability, the PTA (the handful PTA involved parents who do everything) are the ones who are raising and donating money and time and are choosing (as is their right) how they want to spend the money.  The school population can attend the PTA meeting where budget is voted on and decide how the money will be spent, but since most people do not show up for anything they lose the right to complain.  Yes, you get the PTA you deserve. If you do not show up and vote and are knowledgeable you get the 1 or 2 PTA parent who will do it all - raise the money and spend the money.

In a Title 1 school - the Principal should be spending their own slush funds (which is plenty considering that they are Title 1) and get interpretors.  But the administrators do not care either, even though they are paid for that.

A good Principal will engage the underrepresented community.  But usually we get the worst Principals who are biding their time so that they can get away from such schools. They expect the PTA to do their jobs.  [/quote]

Thank you for posting.  My kids go to Catholic school (where the latino minority are very involved), and I really had trouble understanding the article.  I have never known the PTA to have so much influence over substantial matters in the school.  I have lived in a few different areas and had children at a few different schools, and the PTA has always been a fundraising body providing extra supplies as needed by teachers, some new technology, and paying for field trips.  The most I even saw the PTA involved was in raising money to hire additional teachers aids.  
I was very surprised to see how much influence these PTA's seemed to have.  My initial thought was that the author of the article was exaggerating what was happening.  It sounds more like it is a somewhat spineless principal and administration.[/quote]

This x 1,000[/quote]

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