Let’s talk about what Principals can do to both support and attract parents to the PTO (Parent Teacher Organization).
Now, this is especially helpful if you don’t have a PTO or if your PTO is very small and you want to grow it so that you can grow family engagement.
But actually any Principal who wants a healthy PTO in their school community should be doing all of these things on the regular.
That’s you, right? Of course it is!
So let’s dive right on into five things that you can do to support your school’s PTO, attract parents and get them more involved in the PTO, all to the glorious benefit of your school community!
Beyond the immediate gains, this is really going to benefit you and your school long term because, as you know, greater family engagement yields great results for the students and the entire school community.
Win-win!
Grab a bullhorn
The very first thing that you can do is be a cheerleader for the PTO.
You need to grab that bullhorn—maybe that’s metaphorical, maybe it is not.
Maybe you actually have a bullhorn that you use to spread the word at carline, at the flagpole pickup, or just different areas where parents are going to be.
Literally tell all parents, early and often, about all the happenings with the PTO.
As you know, parents are very busy and very distracted, so the more that you can tell them—and the more you repeat it—the greater the likelihood that they are going to get involved and actually show up to whatever you are promoting.
Add to this your enthusiastic support will signal to yet-to-be-involved parents that this (meaning the PTO) is something they should be paying attention to because you’re spending your scant available time to promote the group.
Attend PTO Meetings
The second thing you can do to be super supportive of your PTO is to actually go to the PTO meetings.
As the Principal, go in hand with a building report.
Let parents know what is going on in the school, either in the recent past or what’s coming up to be aware of.
This report might not be something you give a second thought to, but in reality, it’s going to be an incentive for parents to come to the meetings!
Believe it or not, most kids are horrible about telling their parents what happened during the day.
Even when asked about their day or what’s going on at school, most kids tend to respond with a one word answer or in the case of teenagers, a grunt.
But parents really do want to know what’s going on in the building, so that will be a great incentive for them to come to the PTO meeting!
From the parent perspective, knowing the Principal is going to be at the meeting gives the chance to get the real scoop on what’s happening.
Even their child is a talker, they probably aren’t telling their parent everything.
Plus, there’s undoubtably different things a parent is interested in knowing versus what their child remembers to tell them.
The other fantastic reason to attend the PTO meetings regularly is that is plainly demonstrates your partnership with the parent group volunteers.
They’ll grow to trust you more, which strengthens your relationship.
Regular meeting attendance is a strong signal that you value the PTO.
Partner and Delegate
The third way that you can be supportive of your PTO and help it grow is to delegate tasks to them.
What can the PTO help with- copying? Cutting out teacher projects?
Making up backpack tags to help with dismissal? Snacks for finals prep week?
Perhaps a bigger project you’d like to get done?
Whatever you land on, lean as far away from micromanaging as you can because these parents who are giving of their time are volunteers—they are not employees—and they hate to be treated like employees.
It’s disrespectful to not understand that the parents are serving in a volunteer role and are giving up their free time to help.
Your school’s parents, whether you realize it or not quite yet, are full of hidden talents, treasures, and skills that you likely have no idea about.
When you delegate tasks to them, and when you give them some room to make it their own, it might not be exactly how you would do it.
But at the end of the day, if it results in a positive experience for students and gets more parents involved, then that should really be a win marked down in your book.
Collaborate
Next, look for opportunities to collaborate and not compete.
For example, maybe don’t have your own school fundraiser this year.
See if the PTO can run a fundraiser, and you can support their fundraiser by promoting it on the school’s social platforms, in your school newsletter, etc., and see if they will give you some of the profits.
Especially in the fundraising area, competition makes for disappointing profits and broken relationships.
There are tons of other collaborative possibilities beyond fundraising to consider as well.
Look at things you’d like to improve – are student math scores lower than ideal?
See if the PTO can put on a family math night or arrange a math-a-thon program.
The possibilities are only limited by the time you invest in thinking about the opportunities here.
If you’re coming up dry, then that means there’s an opportunity for a conversation with the PTO’s leaders to discover what could be.
Communicate
The last recommendation for how you can support and attract parents to the PTO is to communicate.
This goes along with being a cheerleader—more about the enthusiasm level I was talking about.
Be genuine in your enthusiasm to demonstrate that you are excited about this and want it to happen. If parents don’t feel like you want them around, then they’re not going to come around.
But if they can feel that you genuinely want this to happen and that you are interested in forming a relationship with them personally as well as with the general PTO.
Ultimately, this is going to be attractive to parents.
They’re going to want to feel like getting involved.
Really, the communication piece includes being honest about your resources and challenges.
It’s not a demonstration of weakness to explain your challenges or limitations.
I think that’s just part of being an honest human, and it can create a stronger relationship if people understand that it’s not all “rah-rah” and cheerleading—that there is some honesty, truth, and authenticity behind it.
That is so attractive in a Principal, in my experience, and those are the type of PTO/Principal relationships that have always been the strongest.
Another part of the communication piece is explaining to parents who are not currently involved that the outcomes are actually better—students do better when their parents are involved.
They might not understand this, so you’ll need to remind them of this fact and more than likely, repeat yourself about this point multiple times.
All parents want the absolute best for their kids, so they will go out of their way to make things happen for their children.
Remember to welcome parents at different levels too—they don’t have to give 110% all the time to be involved.
If every parent just gave 5%, that would be a heck of a lot more than what you currently have and would be beneficial for the individual students and the school community as a whole.
So, try to get them involved at whatever level they have the capacity for at the time.
Dispelling myths and expressing a positive attitude about the PTO might do the trick.
Explaining that the PTO is a volunteer role and what the PTO does and why it’s important for them to be involved is really important.
There are many bad stereotypes associated with PTOs and PTAs, so explaining that this is not their mom’s PTO or the 1950s bake sale kind of PTO.
Explain how things have evolved—will help in communicating the true value of the PTO, which will make it more attractive for parents to get involved.
Watch this
Over to you!
In sum, there are five simple things you can do to support the PTO and at the same time attract more parents to the group that you can do as Principal:
1. Be a PTO Cheerleader: Ideally, Principals should enthusiastically promote the PTO by frequently communicating its activities, programs and events to parents. Visibility and multiple reminders boost the likelihood of parent involvement overall.
2. Attend PTO Meetings: Principals should attend meetings and provide updates on school events. This builds trust with parents and gives them an incentive to attend and stay informed about school happenings.
3. Delegate Responsibilities: Principals can empower PTO members by delegating tasks without micromanaging, recognizing that parents bring valuable skills and creativity to the table. This fosters ownership and motivation and deepens the working partnership between the PTO and Principal.
4. Collaborate, Don’t Compete: Principals should collaborate with the PTO on projects such as fundraisers, allowing the PTO to lead while the school provides support.
5. Communicate Honestly and Genuinely: Principals need to maintain open, honest communication with parents, showing enthusiasm for PTO involvement and addressing challenges candidly. This further fosters trust, builds strong relationships, and dispels outdated stereotypes about PTOs.
The overall takeaway is that greater parent involvement through the PTO leads to better outcomes for students and strengthens the school community and that Principals have a primary role in making this happen.
A Resource Principals Love
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