My wife and I divided up our public education encounters Thursday evening. We had both wanted to attend the Hay Primary Center Parent-Teacher Organization meeting, but the civic group "No Excuses" had invited all the school board candidates to something of a brainstroming session the same evening.
My session was interesting. It was good to meet some of the other candidates and it was informative to hear some ideas batted around. But while we discussed theory, Paddy's meeting had to do with application.
PTOs, it turns out, are critical in the operation of their schools - but in ways you likely wouldn't expect. Here's what Paddy told me happened.
The school principal, Craig Haenes, professed great enthusiam as looked out at the roughly one dozen faces. "What a turnout!" he declared. The group of mostly rookies (parents of Kindergarteners) may have had a different reaction. (We really like this guy, by the way).
In any case, the newbies were brought up to speed quickly.
Through fundraising activities, the Hay PTO raises about $8,000 annually. Great! you might think, We can do all sorts of extra cool things for our children! But as our friendly fake consultant might admonish, "Not so fast, gentle reader."
Not to say cool things don't happen. PTO members put in eight hours labor to make sure monthly "Popcorn Fridays" happen. And Mr. Haenes takes a very active role in collecting "Box Tops for Education" from General Mills and Betty Crocker products and a similar coupons from Tyson chicken products. These companies pay cash to schools that collect the coupons. Hay school uses their funds to sponsor ice cream socials for our children.
Now a word from our sponsor...
If you buy Cherios or cake mixes (any General Mills or Betty Crocker product), or Tyson Products, please cut out these coupons and periodically bring them to the office of the school of your choice. Additionally, Martin's Supermarket customers can assign a school to benefit every time a customer's Martin's card is scanned. A similar program exists for Target Redcard users. All these companies are rightfully proud of these programs, and the money raised for schools is significant.
Back to our program..
However, a lot of the $8,000 is used for things that might not strike some folks as all that much fun.
Part of Mr. Haenes' purpose in attending was to ask for money.
Would the PTO fund $150 for copier toner? Would the PTO agree to allocate $100 for scholastic magazines - so the teachers wouldn't have to pay for them themselves? Yes and yes.
Hay Primary Center's population swelled unexpectedly by 100 students - requiring five additional classes. These five additional classes require five modest "emergency kits" at five dollars each. Would the PTO fund $25 for this purpose? Yes.
I'm left with two strong impressions. First, I can't believe we have to do things like this to make schools run. Secondly, the dedication principals, teachers and the community have to doing whatever it takes - is something to behold.
1 comments:
“Mrs. Sullivan gave birth to two, but she has THOUSANDS” quote from some of her students.
“The teachers teach the ABC’s, but we ALL teach life” quote from Rosalie Emma-Sullivan
I would like to take this time to introduce myself to all of you. My name is Rosalie Emma-Sullivan and I am candidate for District 3 school board representative. I am running as a concerned former employee of South Bend Community School Corporation, a higher-education employee, a local college student, a citizen of our community and a parent of a SBCSC high school sophomore. This is my first time running for public office and I feel that I bring a variety of experience to the position. I have been a part of a successful running elementary school, a successful running high school and a successful higher education institution. I, as well as my family, have been a volunteer for several community events and worked with the American Cancer Society as a three year chair for South Bends Relay for Life, our family has volunteered in several College Football Hall of Fame events, helped with community events for the American Red Cross, as well as with other organizations throughout St. Joseph County.
My primary focus is to work together with all those directly involved in the education of our children. This includes the community as a whole in conjunction with the SBCSC and will be directed to making them all a vital asset to the city of South Bend. I will make sure that the tax-payers dollars are utilized in a cost effective way and I am diligent about making sure the funding requirements are legitimate and assist in providing quality to our education system. I believe in being creative and coming up with innovative ways of enhancing the potential of our teachers, students, administration and staff. I also believe that the citizens of South Bend, as well as its resources, are a crucial part in this endeavor. The need to help our children is urgent and stands as top priority that is shared by all. I will be honored to be your choice in helping our children and our city move forward and upward by bringing pride back.
I was not able to attend the Library Forum and for this I apologize. I was performing my duties at Ivy Tech by giving exams to students, your community members and children. I am writing this because I feel that it is important for the people to know me and I it would put them at disadvantage when voting this November, as well as myself, if they didn't. Does anyone have an idea of how to get in contact with "No Excuses" so that I could find out ahead of time about their events and make arrangements to be there? Feel free to e-mail me if you have questions as well. I will be glad to chat with you. You can do this through betty41993@peoplepc.com
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