Classroom, Room Parents

As a reminder, the purpose of the PTA Classroom Parent program is to have a PTA representative/volunteer in each classroom to:

  • Inform and educate families about PTA programs and events. Extra focus for outreach may be given to classmates and their families who are new to your school site and/or historically underrepresented at PTA activities.
  • Repeat or further explain School programs and events, in support of messaging published by the Principal and Staff
  • Encourage and highlight attendance at PTA meetings and family engagement in PTA projects and activities. 
  • Organize and express appreciation to those participating in or contributing to school and PTA programs. 

PLAN AN EVENT: See ideas on Grade Parent page: https://ptac.paloaltopta.org/grade-parents-or-parent-network/

RECRUITING and CONNECTING PARENTS

There are opportunities on campus for parents to volunteer – either for school-based or PTA-hosted activities.

At the start of the school year, it may be beneficial for parents to sign up during your Back To School event and *throwback alert* sign up on a piece of paper.

Here is an example of a sign up sheet from Duveneck, printed on 11×17 paper and posted on each classroom door by the Room Parent Coordinator and/or President/EVP.

COMMUNICATIONS * MESSAGING * CHATS

Perhaps an oversimplification, there are 2 types of communications between the PTA and parents:

  1. Official PTA notification, promotion, engagement about upcoming School and PTA sponsored activities. These are posted by PTA Officers (e.g. the President, EVP, VP Communication) and Classroom Parents (a PTA program) via ParentSquare.
  2. Conversational, quick question, message/chat communication, which can be posted by all parents. These types of communication may be monitored by PTA members to ensure they meet basic standards of civility, tolerance, and kindness, but is not the responsibility of the PTA. Many parents use WhatsApp for these type of communications.

PARENTSQUARE vs other Messaging/Communication Platforms

  • Official PTA platform. All communiques via the PTA portal(s) on ParentSquare must adhere to PTA Communication Guidelines
  • ParentSquare works best for Notifications and Announcements to the entire Class.
  • For conversations between parents, as well as non-PTA, non-School communications (e.g. Daniel left his new jacket on the playground – did anyone see it?), please consider setting up an alternate platform (e.g. WhatsApp). This alternate platform can be parent-created; it does not have to be PTA-sponsored.

How to gain Room Parent level access on ParentSquare

Step 1: Teacher or School Admin (usually the Clerk or the Secretary) assigns a Parent to be a Room Parent. With this level of access – the Room Parent can see the Class Roster.

Step 2: The Room Parent can then create a Message Thread with all of the parents of students in that class.

Step 3: Room Parents may add parents of new students to the Message Group.

Please note – Even if a parent has elected to NOT share their contact information with the PTA, they are still able to receive messages through ParentSquare. However, if a parent has made their student “invisible”, the Room Parent will not be able to see the student on the Class Roster.

Every Child. One Voice. Welcome to the website of the Palo Alto Council of PTAs. Our purpose is to foster collaboration, conduct leadership training, and coordinate the efforts of our site PTAs. This website is intended to be a resource for our PTAs to accomplish their Mission.