Parents raise funds to help schools hire more teachers
By Carol Chmelynski
12/24/02 - In these times of shrinking school budgets - along with increasing pressure to raise test scores - some school districts are turning to PTAs or other parent groups to help raise money for extra teachers and support staff.
Not everyone thinks this is a good idea, however. While some commend parents' helpful take-charge attitude, they warn this practice could be detrimental to the very framework of public schooling by giving some better-off schools an unfair advantage.
Generous parents
The school board of Mercer Island (Wash.) School District 400 approved a policy last year allowing parent donations to pay for additional staff.
Island Park Elementary School is the first of the small, wealthy district's six schools to test the policy. Last spring, parents sponsored a dessert fund-raiser, which brought in $82,000. That was enough to hire five part-time and three full-time paraprofessionals for this school year. The district still makes all the hiring decisions.
Principal Kathy Morrison says that last year, as she and a team of teachers and parents were studying how to improve student achievement, they found several schools with similar demographics but better test scores in other parts of the state had used PTAs to raise money for more staff members.
"When I asked my teachers what was getting in the way of better student achievement, they said they just didn't have enough hands in the classroom, and that's what we were able to do from the generosity of parents and the PTA," Morrison says.
This spring, Island Park Elementary is planning a communitywide auction of items donated by PTA members. The goal is to raise $200,000 to hire one teacher aide per grade level.
Interim Superintendent Paul Sjunnesen regrets the district has to look outside its own budget, but applauds the PTA's ingenuity. "I think the parents, through the PTA, saw a need in terms of what they were trying to do at that school and put their heads together and said 'let's fix it.'"
While PTAs traditionally concentrated their fund-raising efforts on such items as library books and playground equipment, the idea of funding academic staff is not a new one.
Parents at five elementary schools and two secondary schools in Bellevue (Wash.) School District 405 have been raising money to hire teacher aides since 1995.
Last year, a local PTA raised $60,000 for Bellevue's Eastgate Elementary School, which serves 360 students in grades K-5. The PTA then granted $11,000 to help offset the cost of classified staff, so Principal Tracy Maury could use school funds to pay part of a reading specialist's salary, Maury says.
It's tough when some schools are able to raise more money for materials and staff than others, she says. However, some schools that are able to raise a lot of private money for schools donate a portion to the Bellevue Schools Foundation, which supports programs and materials at all district schools.
A lesson in partnership
"There are inequities in the district and people know about them, but when PTAs are able to support other schools, too, everyone benefits in the long run, and it teaches the community a lesson about partnerships," Maury says.
"I think the work PTAs do is really wonderful, and if you were to talk to different principals in the Bellevue school district, they would agree that it's really important that we encourage our PTAs to work together for the betterment of all kids," she says. "But PTAs should definitely not have to pay for teacher salaries or any kind of salaries."
"That burden should rest on the state," Maury says. "But when we look at the crises facing education, and the crisis that is facing the budgets of the states, especially Washington state, I don't have the answers for how to make it better. I wish I did."
Those who oppose parent-initiated fund raising to benefit individual schools say it's not fair that parents at schools in wealthier neighborhoods can afford such big-ticket items as computers and athletic equipment, and even teacher salaries, while poorer schools struggle along without such help.
Supporters of these fund-raising efforts counter that wealthier schools have some of the same needs as schools that serve more disadvantaged students but receive fewer federal and state dollars.
Revenue sharing
Parents in the Portland, Ore., school district are allowed to raise money to hire teachers for their own public school - with one stipulation: They must share the wealth by giving away a portion of what they raise to help schools in low-income areas.
Portland school districts have been struggling since 1990 when voters passed a statewide measure to equalize education funding. The district had to lay off 300 central office staff workers, and the following year, announced plans to cut 400 of the district's 3,000 teachers.
In response, schools in Portland's wealthier neighborhoods began raising money to "buy back" their teachers. Schools with large numbers of poor and immigrant students objected.
To address these equity concerns throughout the 53,000-student district, the school board approved the revenue-sharing plan.
All 97 schools in the district have since formed foundations, but only about a dozen are able to raise significant amounts of money, says district spokesperson Lew Frederick. Individual schools can keep the first $5,000 they raise, and after that, one-third of the money raised is sent to the Portland Schools Foundation which also raises money and gives grants to schools in less-affluent neighborhoods.
"The severity of our financial situation in Portland cannot be overstated," says Frederick. "We already have the shortest school year in the nation - 175 days - and we're looking at cutting three weeks from that and maybe even an extra nine days on top of that," he says.
"Our parents and our foundations have demonstrated extraordinary efforts and have been very effective in making the case for the community to be involved in whatever way they can," he says. "Without their help, things would be significantly worse. I hope we never have to find out how bad."
Policies promote equity
The controversy over individual schools paying for additional personnel with PTA funds came to a head at the Palo Alto (Calif.) Unified School District last spring when a school board member thought two teachers were hired without the board's knowledge.
At the April 9 meeting, board member John Tuomy said he was "aghast" that PTA donations threatened to undermine the school board's ability to control costs. "We are very careful about teaching positions here."
But the school's action actually did not violate board policy, says Marilyn Cook, assistant superintendent for human resources. "These were resource teachers - a reading specialist at one school and a science teacher at another - who were hired under short-term, non-continuing contracts," and thus not subject to board approval.
Shortly thereafter, the board approved a new K-12 staffing policy to address equity concerns. A committee was set up to pool funds raised throughout the district and equally redistribute the money to its 18 schools on a per-student basis.
Individual schools can still raise money for such things as trips, materials, supplies, activities, and personnel costs for before and after-school programs. That money cannot be used to fund staff during the school day.
Whitesides Elementary School in Mount Pleasant, S.C., was able in 2001 to make its school nurse and guidance counselor full-time and to hire an additional fourth-grade teacher, thanks to $39,000 raised through the PTA, an anonymous donor, a bake sale, and other fund-raisers.
With the additional teacher, fourth-grade classes were reduced from 30 students to 25, allowing students to receive more help and attention from their teachers.
"It would be wonderful if our district could support us to the extent that we feel is needed for our instructional program. But there's 75 schools in our district, and it's unlikely to happen in the near future given the current budget situation," says Lona Pounder, interim principal of the 630-student, preK-5 suburban school.
"We have to stretch our dollars as far as they go and then utilize whatever resources we have through grants and the PTA to help supplement them." So far this year, the PTA has raised $23,000, she says.
Public funding needed
"It's unfortunate we have to do this," she says, "but we are fortunate to have a group of parents who really support what we're trying to do."
As grateful as individual schools are and as helpful as parents might be, the National PTA opposes this approach.
"While it's understandable - indeed commendable - that parents want to provide big-ticket items for their children's schools, it's unfair to do so," says National PTA President Shirley Igo.
"When some schools are able to raise additional funds from outside sources, while others schools are not, we develop a multitiered education system that places many of our children at a great disadvantage," she says. "No child's education should depend on where he lives, his socioeconomic condition, or the ability of his community to add to his school's resources."
"As well-meaning and helpful as private donations are, there will never be enough to pay for everything," adds Wendy D. Puriefoy, president of the Public Education Network, a national association for local education funds in Washington, D.C. "The community's enthusiasm for equipping schools should be redirected toward advocating for increased public funding."
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| Reproduced with permission from the Dec. 24, 2002, issue of School Board News. Copyright © 2002, National School Boards Association. Opinions expressed in this newspaper do not necessarily reflect positions of NSBA. This article may be printed out and photocopied for individual or educational use, provided this copyright notice appears on each copy. This article may not be otherwise transmitted or reproduced in print or electronic form without the consent of the Publisher. For more information, call (703) 838-6789. |