Q: Why should I become a member of the Mead PTSA?
A: The PTSA mission is to make every child’s potential a reality by engaging and empowering families and communities to advocate for all children.
For more than 100 years, the National Parent Teacher Association (National PTA®) has worked toward bettering the lives of every child in education, health and safety. Founded in 1897 as the National Congress of Mothers by Alice McLellan Birney and Phoebe Apperson Hearst, the PTA is a powerful voice for all children, a relevant resource for families and communities, and a strong advocate for public education.
Whether it's at the local level (like Mead), in Olympia or Washington D.C., your membership dues are used to make children a priority in our communities. In particular, most of our dues go to the State, National and Council level PTSAs and support advocating for kids and national/state programs like Reflections.
Our school rankings improve with a higher level of PTSA membership, as it is one way to measure parent involvement. In addition, if you would like to help run events or programs, PTSA members can handle money and can vote on the PTSA budget and other decisions.
Q: What does the PTSA do with all the money it raises at events such as the Walk-a-thon?
A: Unlike your membership money, which is used to support education, Walk-a-thon and other donations are used to benefit our school directly. For example, the PTSA provides every teacher $300 to help supply classrooms, buys PE and recess equipment, funds school-wide events like Art Night, Science Night, and the Sock Hop. We also provide funds for assemblies, grants and try our best to fulfill needs of the school, students and staff.
Q: Does the PTSA require its members to volunteer?
A: Being a member does not require any volunteering or time commitments.
Q: What volunteering options are available?
A: There are lots of opportunities to volunteer for the PTSA that fit both your and your family's needs. Can you only provide help in the evenings, or for a limited time during the day? Are you looking for a one-off event or something more regular so you can really get involved? Ask our volunteering coordinator for more information on board and committee positions, one off events that need volunteers, school production room tasks, teacher appreciation meals………..or check out our requests for help in the Mustang Report! There are also many opportunities to volunteer directly for your teacher in the classroom!
Q: What is FACE?
A: It is an outreach program aimed at fostering and building community within our school. It supports relationships between teachers, staff, administrators, families and community partners. The FACE initiative really extends to all areas of the PTSA, particularly communication, inclusion, parent education, learning based programming, community building and advocacy.
Q: Does it really matter if there is family and community engagement?
A: Yes! It really does! By thinking about FACE in everything we do, we are helping to create a more supportive and diverse learning environment that can better meet the needs of all students and their families. In addition, did you know that....
....schools would need to increase spending by more than $1,000 per pupil to gain the same results as effective family engagement?
....teachers are more likely to remain in schools where families are involved and are able to develop trusting relationships with families?
....students attending schools that have family engagement as one of 5 essential components for improvement have seen greater results in math and reading?
Q: What is a Box Top and why do you collect them?
A: Box Tops are like little coupons that can be found on the packaging of many brands of food in the supermarket. Once or twice a year we run collections for these Box Tops and ask your child to bring in as many as they can. We are able to change these Box Tops for cash to use in the school. Each Box Top is worth about 10 cents. If you register as a Box Top member, you can find out about bonus Box Top offers and get personal benefits too such as discount coupons.
Find out more at http://www.boxtops4education.com/about
