It is difficult to navigate these three situations with accurate, reliable and useful information and understanding. Below are a few helpful hints, some information from the state PTA, and websites where you can find reliable information about what is happening in Olympia.
As a Council, in line with both Region 2 and the State PTA, we recommend refraining from taking a stand on Teacher Strikes, and not using official PTA communication channels to encourage or facilitate participation in the Teacher Strikes. Parents are always free to advocate in any way they choose on their own time.
PTA is an advocacy group but it is often difficult to tell what is best for the kids even when given all the pieces. What to remember about advocacy is; what you advocate as an individual person, i.e. a person might believe option 1 is the best way to go and advocate for that option. But … your PTA membership might believe as a group that option 2 is the best way to go for the kids/community. So what do you do?
Always make it very clear what hat you are wearing….. my individual belief is ……/The PTA at my school voted at a General membership meeting to support……….
If you are going to put out information about an issue or candidate, such as a budget presented in the Senate or supporting a Teacher Strike.
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You need to make three things very clear
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Where the information is coming from….if you did not vote as a membership to support an issue then both sides need to be presented.
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If you take a vote (how to do this is below), then your information needs to state that a vote was taken to support this issue, here is more information on what the issue is and why we believe it’s best for kids.
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If it is your personal belief, feel free to share it with people remembering to make it clear this is not a PTA endorsement, and don’t send your personal reviews with the PTA email distribution list.
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Taking a Vote for an Official Stand
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You will need to have a clear understanding of your LU bylaws.
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Call for a Special meeting of the membership to vote on …………..
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You will need to post this at least 10 days before the meeting is scheduled, check your bylaws for the exact number of days.
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At the meeting you will need to confirm a quorum of members is present.
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Present information for both sides
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A motion will need to come from the floor to support the issue, discussion and then a vote.
Fully funding education, and everything that means by way of the State Supreme Court’s McCleary decision, is the number one platform priority issue for WA State PTA. We have worked hard all year and for many years to achieve that aim.
During the 2015 legislative session, PTA’s in the Issaquah School District have advocated on multiple fronts for fully funding education. Our advocacy has included:
- Participation at Washington State PTA Focus Day in January, with a bus full of parents and students to advocate for more funding.
- Devoted council meeting time to filling out pre-printed postcards with personalized messages to legislators, and delivering those messages to legislators – all in support of fully funding education and McCleary.
- Facilitating PTA events such as brown bag lunches, coffees and candidate forums – all with the aim of encouraging our parents to get involved in advocating for fully funding education.
- Responding to numerous efforts by individual parents to advocate for
In sum, there is no question that Washington State PTA supports fully funding education nor is there any question that PTA stands beside our educators in support of all they do in our classrooms for our kids. But the Washington State PTA general membership (including the teachers in our membership, who voted for the resolution both in 1986 and 2006) does not support teacher strikes because it disrupts children’s learning and puts undue hardship on families. (See Resolution below). Both groups agree on fully funding. We simply disagree that teacher strikes are an appropriate way to further that goal.
WA State PTSA Board Resolution at p 31 – http://www.wastatepta.org/advocacy/WSPTA_resolutions_board_positions_Feb_2015.pdf