What is PTA?

What is PTA?

The work of PTA is based on the concept that many groups with similar goals working for children are much more effective and benefit more children than a single organization working alone on one school campus. PTAs are governed and guided by bylaws of the unit that correspond with Texas PTA bylaws. All local units and councils are assisted by one of the 18 district presidents and the Texas PTA Board of Directors. A paid 15-member staff at the Texas PTA Office in Austin supports the work of the organization.

Local units (individual school PTAs) meet on the school campus on a regular basis. If you wish to join your neighborhood PTA, contact the school and ask for PTA membership information. In Garland ISD, all of the individual local units have joined together as the GISD Council of PTAs. The GISD Council of PTAs is one of 115 councils in the state of Texas. The council meets in the large meeting room at the Florence Parsons Family Resource Center at 9:00 a.m. on the first Wednesday of the month during the school year.

In Texas, schools can contact the Texas PTA at 1-800-TALKPTA for information on forming a PTA unit. Depending on the location of the school, there are specific contact people and procedures that need to be followed for successful chartering.

The Mission of PTA is threefold:

• To support and speak on behalf of children and youth in the schools, in the community and before governmental agencies and other organizations that make decisions affecting children.
• To assist parents in developing the skills they need to raise and protect their children.
• To encourage parent and public involvement in the public schools.

• The GISD Council offers workshops throughout the year to help local unit PTA officers hone their leadership skills and learn how to get their membership actively involved in their children’s education. The Council works to keep the local units informed about the many resources (printed materials and videos) available to them from the National PTA and the Texas PTA.
• When needed, the Council sponsors candidate forums for persons running for the GISD Board of Trustees.
• An annual awards luncheon is sponsored each spring to honor the accomplishments both of the local units and the students of GISD.
• Recognizing that many families may not have the money to purchase school supplies for their children, the PTA established an Enrichment Fund. The PTA works with local school supply distributors and with local retailers to get discount prices on bulk supplies, then distributes the supplies to the campuses for the staff to distribute as needed. This way, students don’t have to endure the stigma of not having school supplies that first day of school.
• Along those same lines, the PTA noted that often a child would have a serious medical or dental need - but the family simply did not have the funds to take care of the problem. Thus, a Medical Emergency Fund was established to assist in these situations. Ex: A child with a severe toothache is simply not going to be able to concentrate on their schoolwork as well as a healthy child can. A child who needs vision correction is going to be a much better student once he is fitted for a pair of glasses.
• While school districts continue to grow larger, the pool of qualified teacher applicants continues to shrink. The Council sponsors a Future Teacher Scholarship to a graduating senior from each of the seven high schools in the district. Part of the criteria for the scholarship are:
  • the desire to enter the teaching field, and
  • plans to enter a Texas college or university.
• When funds are available, scholarships are also given to GISD teachers pursuing advanced degrees in the teaching field.
• To keep local units from being bombarded year-round by companies offering fund-raising opportunities, the Council sponsors an annual Vendor Fair. Not only are the local units able to see all the possibilities at one time, enabling them to make an informed decision, but the vendors are able to make contact with many people at one time - rather than spending hours of valuable time on the phone or on the road making sales calls.

Even with children enrolled in public schools, there are still scores of parents who have no clue what is happening in their child’s classroom. However, parents are their child’s first and foremost teacher; as such, it is to their advantage to have a full understanding of the code of conduct at their child’s school, to understand how state and national legislation affects what happens in the classroom and/or in the district, and in general what they can do to be a part of the team shepherding their children to responsible adulthood. And this is what PTA has to offer.

The Garland ISD has one of the few councils in the state that can boast a PTA unit at every campus in the school district. The GISD Council has been recognized at both the district and state level for membership programs and for parent education programs.