It’s now winter and already time to plan for the fall! Your PTA’s nominating committee needs to be recruiting candidates for 2011-2012 (see page 15). Most of you who get this newsletter area already PTA officers. You can help to strengthen PTA by identifying and mentoring members who may be future leaders of the organization. Are you an outgoing officer? If so, continue mentoring by becoming a council or district officer!
PTA provides parents and teachers opportunities to develop leadership skills that can be used in other settings. I know that I have benefited from my PTA experience, and have gained skills that helped me both at work and as a volunteer for other nonprofit organizations. As the president of Seventeenth District PTA, I represent the PTA members in our county on the State PTA Board of Managers. It is amazing to see all of the work that is done by these volunteers on behalf of the families and children in California. They organize all of the workshops at the California State PTA Convention (see information in this newsletter) that benefit all PTA officers, whether or not they have previous experience, and I hope you will take advantage of it.
Each autumn, PTAs hope to recruit talented members from the new group of incoming parents. However, because of the diverse population in California, many parents new to our schools are not familiar with PTA. Even the name “PTA” may not mean anything unless it is spelled out as “Parent- Teacher Association” in the language of the parents. This winter, several PTAs in South San Francisco PTA Council are holding sessions to increase parent engagement and knowledge about the school system. This pilot program is organized by State PTA with support from the Hewlett-Packard Foundation. The training curriculum has been developed just this year. Our hope is that this will be a valuable tool to educate a new and diverse group of parents and enable them to become better advocates for all children.
The Founders Day Luncheon will be held on February 15. We are honored to have Jo Loss, President of the California State PTA, Anne Campbell, Superintendent of Schools in San Mateo County, and Rachel Andres, San Mateo County Teacher of the Year, on the program for this event. We also will be presenting Honorary Service Awards in recognition of outstanding service to children and families. We hope that you will join us!
Sincerely,
Colette J. Rudd
President, 17th District PTA
