"No Excuses" and the PTO

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 census 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.