[BHS Etree] PTSA: Restructuring the Parent Teacher Student Association

[BHS Etree]

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contact ptsaberkeleyhigh at gmail.com

Restructuring the Parent Teacher Student Association (PTSA)

The needs of BHS students and staff have never been greater than they are
this year. To ensure that BHS’s needs are understood and eventually
addressed, parent and guardian involvement is essential. To better achieve
this, the PTSA is restructuring how it promotes advocacy and action by
adopting a working group model.

As of 2016 a small number of parents have worked to revive the PTSA with
the goal of generating advocacy and resources for BHS students, families,
and staff. There have been successes: bringing food trucks to campus on
pre-pandemic Back to School nights, successfully lobbying to keep Counselor
and Safety Officer staff positions from being cut from BUSD’s budget, and
establishing an annual student Black History Month Art contest. Many PTSA
meetings have been well attended, but none have led to ongoing
parent/guardian participation, in part because there have not been clear
avenues for parents to participate. Unlike K-8 PTAs, the PTSA does not
fundraise for programs (this is the realm of the BHS Development Group) or
recruit volunteers to assist in on-campus roles (BHS’s staff includes a
volunteer coordinator).

The PTSA is not alone in addressing the challenge of sustaining active
parent/guardian engagement at Berkeley High. Last year long standing groups
BOLD, Berkeley High Families Owning Learning Differences, and PCAD, Parents
of Children of African Descent, both dissolved for lack of parents willing
to carry the mantle forward. The PTSA could suffer a similar fate; in 2014
and 2015 one parent managed to preserve the PTSA’s charter, but there were
no meetings or sponsored activities.

Last semester the PTSA had meetings on sexual harassment and harm, advocacy
for 504 students, and emotional support resources for BHS students. All of
these meetings were well attended but fell short of coalescing advocacy and
action. Lessons learned have led to the PTSA’s executive team to establish
working groups in each these areas to make it easier for motivated parents
to get involved. Announcements will be forthcoming soon.

The PTSA will continue to have meetings to inform and hear from the BHS
community, but working groups will become its means to address specific
areas of need. Forming a working group requires the PTSA’s executive team’s
approval and a leader who is committed to solicit participation, run the
group, and ensure ongoing adherence to the national PTA’s institutional
values* in the areas of collaboration, commitment, diversity, respect, and
accountability. Working groups can go forward with as few as 2 participants
for, as the PTSA’s past 5+ years have demonstrated, a few parents working
through the PTSA can accomplish a lot at BHS given the PTSA’s established
position, infrastructure, and resources to utilize. We have built it and we
invite you to come.

2021-22 PTSA Executive Team

Sandra Loving, Mimi Pulich, Bridgett Bernhardt, Steve Levine, Tatiana
Guerreiro Ramos, Monique Buffer, and BHS Student Leaders Anaya Loving,
Hanim Nuru, and Marco Levine

*
https://www.pta.org/docs/default-source/uploadedfiles/images/visionmissionvalues2016.pdf




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