One of the beautiful things about a school and a PTO (Parent-Teacher Organization) partnership is the ability to collaborate to get things done—to make your school community a better place.
Let’s talk all about seven different ways that schools and PTOs can collaborate, and really work to expand family engagement, and improve your school community as a whole.
Joint Planning
The very first way the school and PTO can work together is to start meeting on a regular basis and get on the same page.
The Principal and the PTO President can come together at least once a year to talk about goals. And this meeting can happen at any point in the year.
The timing isn’t most important.
Just having the meeting is the priority.
If you are meeting before school even starts, maybe you’re looking at the upcoming school year.
If you are meeting mid-year, you’re going to be looking at what you want to happen for the rest of the year and maybe even talking about what’s going to be on the docket for the upcoming year.
There are some plans in schools that take more than one year to make happen.
For example, if you are planning a playground addition or a playground replacement, that’s something that takes multiple years because playgrounds are very expensive.
You need to do some fundraising, find the money in the school’s budget, or maybe the PTO has been raising money for a special project and has some money set aside.
Whatever the case may be, this is not going to be a short-term project—it is going to be a long-term project.
That’s just one example of how getting on the same page is beneficial for both the PTO and the school; there are many others.
The Principal and the PTO President need to be talking about the same things so they know how to support each other.
If you don’t even know that the school’s goal is to raise math proficiency rates, then how is the PTO going to do anything to help support that? You can’t.
So, by getting on the same page early and communicating often, you can collaborate and work together effectively.
Open Communication
The next thing that really makes collaboration possible is figuring out how best you two like to communicate.
As the school’s Principal and the PTO’s President, you are the two main leaders who will be coming together and then delegating tasks to everyone else.
Having easy communication methods is so important.
Exchanging cell phone numbers is a great way to establish an open line of communication.
It takes having a good level of trust to do this, but that trust goes hand in hand with positive and healthy Principal-President relationships.
There will likely come a time when you need to reach the Principal outside of normal school hours and you’ll need to be able to contact them directly.
Email is always an option, but not the best method in certain circumstances.
There’ve been several occasions when I’ve gone to the school for an evening PTO meeting and the school doors were locked, despite the PTO having an approved building use permit.
Mistakes happen, so it’s helpful to be able to call someone and get help quickly.
Another time, the Principal helped a custodian who was Each year my PTO holds an award ceremony recognizing the founding of the PTA and also the service and dedication of one school staff member and community volunteer for their service to children.
The awards are a lifetime achievement award and can only be received once.
It’s a big honor to be recognized.
Recipients bring friends and family and there’s a big reception to celebrate.
It’s one of the PTA’s signature events that all school PTA units participate in and showcase successes over the past year.
One year one of the outstanding custodians was the selected staff honoree.
He happened to be the night shift supervisor and requested the evening off so he could attend the evening program and receive his award.
His boss was not the Principal but the school district’s business affairs manager.
This manager was not easy to work with, and seemed to take pleasure in saying no just to spite people.
He denied the custodian’s request for time off and said the custodian could merely pop on stage in his work uniform to accept his award and then go back to work.
This was an unacceptable slight to the employee, degradation of the recognition and to the PTA more generally.
Because I’d previously exchanged phone numbers with the Principal, I was able to let him know what was going on.
He was very unhappy with the treatment of the custodian and overrode the business affairs manager’s decision.
The Principal told the custodian to go home and change and come back for the event.
As a result, the custodian was treated to a night of much deserved appreciation and recognition.
Because of our text messages, the Principal and I were able to speak candidly and without pretense.
Without this line of communication, the same result wouldn’t have been possible.
Figuring out how best to communicate with each other is really going to make everything else possible.
That is a way that you can actually—I would count that as collaboration—getting on the same page and learning how to communicate because collaboration is not possible without communication.
And communication—there’s some level of collaboration there too.
Literacy Support Program
All schools want to see improved student literacy, so this is a worthy program to collaborate with the PTO to achieve.
One elementary school PTO sponsored a reading program to encourage the students to read a certain number of minutes every night.
At the end of the month, they would fill up a calendar tracking their reading, and then they would get a special prize.
If they met certain criteria throughout the entire semester, then there would be a semester-end fun program to celebrate their participation and their achievements in reading.
Most students participated and the school supported the program by incorporating the reading calendars into their lesson plans and student expectations.
This idea extends into other subject matters too.
A math night would be a fun way to support the educational goals of the school and helpful in getting families to talk about math.
The PTO can really put a fun spin on it to boost interest and present the information in a way not possible in the regular school day.
A PTO sponsored science night will expose more kids to the different aspects of STEM and really help bring the concepts of STEM to life so they can see it in practical applications.
And the teachers can participate by providing guidance on activities and a structure for the event.
Multicultural Night
Another way to collaborate is to reach marginalized groups in the school community.
Does your school have a group of immigrant families whose first language isn’t English?
They probably don’t feel super comfortable or full a part of the community.
The PTO could host a multicultural night to help everyone celebrate their differences, highlight individualities, and come together as families in community.
This could be a really powerful way to form new friendships, gain greater understanding of community members, and help embrace a group of parents and families that don’t feel part of the community.
This could be a bridge event to help get the ball rolling to more fully include all families.
Staff Appreciation
Another way that the PTO and the school can collaborate is for teacher and staff appreciation!
Because staff and teachers never quite get enough recognition, appreciation, or the love that they deserve.
The more the merrier!
If the PTO and school can plan something together, great!
Prefer to organize different appreciation events or programs?
That is also a fabulous choice.
But be mindful of not competing in this arena.
If the Principal is planning to bring in lunch for the staff one day, you don’t want the PTO’s lunch to be the same day or even probably the day before or the day after.
It’s good to spread the love out.
Other School Identified Needs
You also can collaborate in literally anything else your school needs.
Think about what the school needs, either individually or as a PTO collectively.
Where can you be inventive or think out of the box to achieve goals for the school and PTO?
The head of the AV Department once reached out with a request for funding a new initiative.
His idea was to boost school spirit by using the internal display screens spread throughout the school to create a scavenger hunt.
Students would win prizes based on their participation, finding areas of the school with clues displayed on the tv monitors.
Fun idea, right?
His ask to the PTO was for $50 to buy snacks and candy as prizes.
A small ask with the potential to create a new and unexpected experience for the students.
Tools to Use
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Watch this!
Over To You!
There are so many different ways the PTO and school can collaborate to meet each other’s needs. The examples provided here are just a few examples.
When you’re looking at possibilities for collaboration between your school and the parent groups, you really just have to think in terms of what’s needed.
It’s an opportunity to think out of the box, really.
PTOs are a gold mine for making things happen in schools and can provide so much support for schools to tap into.
And vice versa—there are so many ways that the school can help support the PTO.
The school and PTO can meet your goals together, and, overall, the end result is going to be increased family engagement and an improved school community.
A win-win for everyone!
