Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our school principal always set the day and time of the meeting, not the board. As a parent, when your kids get mid-elementary school, night can also be a problem because of kids activiites. My spouse would have to adjust his work schedule so I could attend the monthly meeting. The principal didn't care it was an issue for some parents.

The principal likely doesn’t want to spend another minute at school after hours. They too have kids and other things to do after work.

School personnel (admin and teachers) work far more hours than the school day. Think 60 or more hours a week. A PTA meeting is a blip on the schedule.

Given all the days off throughout the year the weekly average is nowhere close to 60 hours a week.

Well, admin is a 12 month position. And teachers don’t get paid for all those days off.

I’m well aware I work more hours in 10 months than many of my friends work on 12. And, because I don’t get paid much, I have to get a second job for the summer.

And I’ve said it here before:
If you think school personnel have it so good, then why haven’t you filled one of the many vacancies? Is it because you’re aware, deep down, that you have to give too much up? Perhaps more pay, more job flexibility, the opportunity to work from home, the chance to pee and eat during the school day…

Weird that you knew all that going into it yet still complain. You made your bed, now lie in it. Others made different choices.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our school principal always set the day and time of the meeting, not the board. As a parent, when your kids get mid-elementary school, night can also be a problem because of kids activiites. My spouse would have to adjust his work schedule so I could attend the monthly meeting. The principal didn't care it was an issue for some parents.

The principal likely doesn’t want to spend another minute at school after hours. They too have kids and other things to do after work.

School personnel (admin and teachers) work far more hours than the school day. Think 60 or more hours a week. A PTA meeting is a blip on the schedule.

Given all the days off throughout the year the weekly average is nowhere close to 60 hours a week.

Well, admin is a 12 month position. And teachers don’t get paid for all those days off.

I’m well aware I work more hours in 10 months than many of my friends work on 12. And, because I don’t get paid much, I have to get a second job for the summer.

And I’ve said it here before:
If you think school personnel have it so good, then why haven’t you filled one of the many vacancies? Is it because you’re aware, deep down, that you have to give too much up? Perhaps more pay, more job flexibility, the opportunity to work from home, the chance to pee and eat during the school day…

Our PTA has a board that meets at least every month during the school day, but they also have open meetings twice a year whose entire purpose is to let the community know what is going on and invite them to participate in activities. I find it especially frustrating that they only have these meetings during the school day when a large portion of families have one or two working parents. I would LOVE to attend these meetings. I donate, I volunteer when I can, but I think it's important for families to know what is happening with the money that they are donating, so I really don't think it's too much to ask that they either do these meetings in the evenings so more people can attend or that they hold them over zoom. No decisions are being made, it's purely informative and supposedly community building.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our school principal always set the day and time of the meeting, not the board. As a parent, when your kids get mid-elementary school, night can also be a problem because of kids activiites. My spouse would have to adjust his work schedule so I could attend the monthly meeting. The principal didn't care it was an issue for some parents.

The principal likely doesn’t want to spend another minute at school after hours. They too have kids and other things to do after work.

School personnel (admin and teachers) work far more hours than the school day. Think 60 or more hours a week. A PTA meeting is a blip on the schedule.

Not at our ES. Staff is out of there like a bat out of hell after the kids leave. The school is all but deserted 30 minutes after dismissal.

Anonymous wrote:Our PTA eventually decided to rotate meetings- 8AM (right after drop off) one month, and evening (7PM or something) the next. I think attendance is pretty light for both meeting times. Not sure if the attendees are much different for each meeting time or not. Usually attendance is better for the first 1-2 meetings of the school year and then drops off. I used to attend often but just read the meeting notes/summary these days. Am less interested now that my kids are a little older (which also seems common). Seems to be parents of the younger students (K-2 or 3) who are more involved. Probably because more parents go back to work FT as kids get older, and kid activities ramp up as they get older.

Anyway- maybe try rotating the meeting times month to month.

Or because the younger parents don’t know any better and naively think they are going to make a real difference and finally fix things. They they realize the PTA doesn’t really have much power or money to do much beyond the teacher appreciation breakfast or ice cream socials or whatever. They will get jaded in time.

Our PTA eventually decided to rotate meetings- 8AM (right after drop off) one month, and evening (7PM or something) the next. I think attendance is pretty light for both meeting times. Not sure if the attendees are much different for each meeting time or not. Usually attendance is better for the first 1-2 meetings of the school year and then drops off. I used to attend often but just read the meeting notes/summary these days. Am less interested now that my kids are a little older (which also seems common). Seems to be parents of the younger students (K-2 or 3) who are more involved. Probably because more parents go back to work FT as kids get older, and kid activities ramp up as they get older.

Anyway- maybe try rotating the meeting times month to month.

Our principal attends via zoom and one teacher is always in attendance so it has to be in the evening. Detailed meeting minutes are emailed to every parent so there is no question about how money is being spent. Many of our most active members have never attended a meeting, they just communicate via texts. The only real perk of attending is to get first dibs on a volunteer position (because the president will say Z is moving and we need a new chair for pizza day and whoever is sitting there can raise their hand.)

PP here. Here’s one other thing that I don’t think I have seen mentioned in this discussion, regarding the meeting time. There is a T in PTA. Granted, it’s rare for us to have teachers attend our PTA meetings, but we do value their participation in PTA and encourage them to come to meetings and events. In addition, we happen to have a number of teachers in our building who are also parents of students in our building, and they are valued PTA members. If we hold a meeting during the day, it would send a message that we don’t want them there.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At my kids’ elementary, they tried evening meetings and not many came. They switched meetings to 8AM (school start time of 8AM) and had much better attendance. Working parents who wanted to attend would just start work late that day, and most SAHPs preferred it. They also live-streamed the meetings.

I didn’t have any say in scheduling, just saying how it worked at our school.

+1. This is how our school does it too. Working moms who have the bandwidth to volunteer with the PTA usually also have the flexibility to start work at 9:30am one day a month.

This reflects a selection bias. Another way to express the same data is that you are only interested in working mothers whose jobs afford them the flexibility to arrive at work at 9:30– no shift workers, no care workers, no one with international calls etc.

And so, anyone who falls into that category should correctly conclude that you’re not interested in them and not take the PTA requests particularly seriously.

Have you been to a PTA meeting? I haven’t attended one in 3 years. I still volunteer as needed on an ad-hoc basis. What more does anyone really need? This focus on the PTA meeting time is a distraction.

I disagree. The meetings are when the agenda is set— when they decide we need a $10,000 teacher appreciation week fundraiser but no free after school activities. I’m happy to spend time volunteering to support the kids I'm not interested in volunteering to serve breakfast.

Do you think the PTA has an open vote? Usually they just rubber stamp a decision that has already been made outside the general meeting.

+1

This was my experience (and I was on the board for a few years). The Principal also had very significant input- as she/he would need to approve and figure out logistics for things like “free after school activities”. These things were more or less decided before any general meeting or vote.

Agreed. It’s just the way it is. In an ideal world, it would be great if all 500 members could weigh in on decisions, but given the number of projects our PTA does, it would be extremely inefficient and nothing would get accomplished. This is why we elect a board to work on the plans in cooperation with the principal. That said, we use surveys to solicit member feedback and ideas on everything from our programming to staff appreciation to meeting format/time, and we try to respond, as we have a responsibility to do so. We also have members who come to us with ideas for implementing new projects or clubs, and we do our best to partner with them to make these things happen.

On meeting times: Yes, any time during the school day would most definitely be the most convenient time for me, but I recognize that that timing would definitely shut out a large number of our parents. We do 7pm, which is equally inconvenient to everyone, ha ha. And I think that’s the key. It’s not inconvenient to just one group.

-Current elementary PTA board member

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why don’t PTAs get with the times and do virtual meetings like the rest of the world?!

Because it mostly about building community, not accomplishing a list of tasks. We do both, of course, but the virtual meetings are pointless -- might as well send an email to accomplish the same thing.

It's hard to build community when you are excluding a large portion of families.

I find it hard to believe neither mom nor dad is ever available at whatever time your PTA meets.

Really? Just like the SAHMs who would prefer to spend time with their families in the evenings rather than attend a 7pm PTA meeting, I would prefer use my paid leave/vacation time to spend time with my family rather than use it to attend a PTA meeting.

Again with the SAHMs. Are you just jealous or what? Because plenty of working moms don’t want to meet at 7 either. I can’t imagine being this worked up about missing a PTA meeting. Count your blessings- they are boring and they will talk about planning a bunch of events you won’t agree with or want to use your precious time volunteering at.

Way to miss the point, lady.

What is your point other than dumping on other parents? The PTA meeting isn’t worth all this angst. Nothing of substance happens at these meetings.

Then why are you going on and on and on about this stuff on this thread? Move over to troll a different thread. Or have we all struck a nerve?

The troll is the one starting mommy wars.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our school principal always set the day and time of the meeting, not the board. As a parent, when your kids get mid-elementary school, night can also be a problem because of kids activiites. My spouse would have to adjust his work schedule so I could attend the monthly meeting. The principal didn't care it was an issue for some parents.

The principal likely doesn’t want to spend another minute at school after hours. They too have kids and other things to do after work.

Our principal doesn't come to PTA meetings.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why don’t PTAs get with the times and do virtual meetings like the rest of the world?!

Because it mostly about building community, not accomplishing a list of tasks. We do both, of course, but the virtual meetings are pointless -- might as well send an email to accomplish the same thing.

It's hard to build community when you are excluding a large portion of families.

I find it hard to believe neither mom nor dad is ever available at whatever time your PTA meets.

Really? Just like the SAHMs who would prefer to spend time with their families in the evenings rather than attend a 7pm PTA meeting, I would prefer use my paid leave/vacation time to spend time with my family rather than use it to attend a PTA meeting.

Again with the SAHMs. Are you just jealous or what? Because plenty of working moms don’t want to meet at 7 either. I can’t imagine being this worked up about missing a PTA meeting. Count your blessings- they are boring and they will talk about planning a bunch of events you won’t agree with or want to use your precious time volunteering at.

Way to miss the point, lady.

What is your point other than dumping on other parents? The PTA meeting isn’t worth all this angst. Nothing of substance happens at these meetings.

Then why are you going on and on and on about this stuff on this thread? Move over to troll a different thread. Or have we all struck a nerve?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our school principal always set the day and time of the meeting, not the board. As a parent, when your kids get mid-elementary school, night can also be a problem because of kids activiites. My spouse would have to adjust his work schedule so I could attend the monthly meeting. The principal didn't care it was an issue for some parents.

The principal likely doesn’t want to spend another minute at school after hours. They too have kids and other things to do after work.

School personnel (admin and teachers) work far more hours than the school day. Think 60 or more hours a week. A PTA meeting is a blip on the schedule.

Given all the days off throughout the year the weekly average is nowhere close to 60 hours a week.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our school principal always set the day and time of the meeting, not the board. As a parent, when your kids get mid-elementary school, night can also be a problem because of kids activiites. My spouse would have to adjust his work schedule so I could attend the monthly meeting. The principal didn't care it was an issue for some parents.

The principal likely doesn’t want to spend another minute at school after hours. They too have kids and other things to do after work.

School personnel (admin and teachers) work far more hours than the school day. Think 60 or more hours a week. A PTA meeting is a blip on the schedule.

Anonymous wrote:Our school principal always set the day and time of the meeting, not the board. As a parent, when your kids get mid-elementary school, night can also be a problem because of kids activiites. My spouse would have to adjust his work schedule so I could attend the monthly meeting. The principal didn't care it was an issue for some parents.

The principal likely doesn’t want to spend another minute at school after hours. They too have kids and other things to do after work.