Membership Idea Swap

A Parent Liaison’s Story . . .

Three very short years ago, my youngest son Ronny started the 6th grade at Talbot Middle School in Fall River, Massachusetts. I cannot believe that I will watch him graduate from the 8th grade next week and begin high school in the fall. I can remember how apprehensive I was at the mere thought of my “baby” leaving his very small, very secure and sheltered elementary school, only to be thrown into this scary, middle school zone. As I attended the open house for new students and parents, I promised myself that I would become as involved in my son’s school life as humanly possible. Then one day it happened . . . Read more.

Literacy Night at Maple Wood

How do you increase membership? By holding meaningful programs. Here's what one PTA did ...

A recent Wednesday night at Maple Wood School was all about comfort and all about reading as students, along with their parents and siblings, put on their bedtime best to settle in the classrooms and listen to some stories. The night is called Literacy Night, and has been held for many years at the school as a way to promote the importance of reading. Each year, Literacy Night has a theme, and this year's was Pajama Party.

PTA President Ian MacDonald went one step further than just wearing his red Dr. Seuss pajama bottoms. Atop his head was a red and white Cat in the Hat hat, fitting for the reading of Dr. Seuss books in honor of the author's birthday. Read more ...

Calling All Men!

Here is my story of our Men-bership drive no there is no spelling error! We call it a Men-bership! It was during one of our interesting PTA meetings, you know the 6:15 on a Tuesday night in the Parent's room kind of night. We started talking about the number of members we have, I stated that Newbury Elementary had all but one teacher signed up under their PTA membership! Well being like any other group we said "How many do we have?" So at the next meeting I am happy to say we had everyone of our teachers signed up, yes even the ones on maternity leave.. So we had all our teachers plus some...

Nope it didn't stop there. For one reason or another I think it was our Secretary Stacy Johnson mentioned the ratio of women to men, this made me think,"Where are all the Fathers?" We were going to have to change that!! I called Stacy and said we need a man hunt! I can still hear her laughing. I explained that we needed more men and that we should have a slip with at least three sign up forms on it. Stacy did just that and called it The Men-bership Form.

In just four days, the new form has already brought in about 25 members. We are very happy with the results. It has been great team work!

Korean Moms’ Teacher and Staff Appreciation Luncheon

Many of our Korean families are in Lexington for two years only while they attend graduate, PhD, or specialty programs at Harvard, BU, and other schools in our area. Harrington PTA reached out last year specifically after we had moved into our new school building - we wanted to know if our communications were understood by all in our community, especially by our international community. They were - and the feedback we got as a result motivated our PTA Board to plan an "International Coffee": we invited all of our ELL parents into the home of one of our Vice Presidents for coffee with the Board, our school principal, and our school ELL tutor & ELL teacher. Parents had lots of questions about PTA: what is it? How do you volunteer and what do I volunteer for (many are regularly scheduled to help out in the school library)? On Friday, May 18th, fourteen moms from our Korean community at Harrington contributed their culinary skill by generously preparing a buffet luncheon of traditional Korean dishes for our teachers, staff, and PTA board in the Art Room. Read more ...