School's P.T.A. Can Really Use Parents' Help

They've got a reputation for being cliquey, know-it-alls, who spend their lives at school lording it over their contemporaries and teachers. With their over-priced warm-up suits and bleached hair, you might think they spend every minute at the mall, but they don't. No, they're not a pack of high school varsity cheerleaders; they're the overworked P.T.A. executive board of your local elementary school. And they've definitely gotten a bad rap.

They may look like they've got it all together. Running a school book fair while toting a toddler on their hip, chatting with first grade teachers like they're best friends, standing behind the school office counter opening mail looking as comfortable as if they were in their own kitchen. In reality, these women are scattered in five different directions. Rarely do they volunteer for just P.T.A. Usually, they are scout leaders, religious education teachers, and volunteers at the local hospital. They spend afternoons at home serving frozen pizza to the kids, running them to soccer practice, and then laying awake all night worrying about whose going to complain about the spring fund-raiser more - parents, teachers, or the principal.

I should know - I was on the board of two elementary school parent associations for about eight years. I went from being a na�ve, young parent of a kindergartener who sat in the back alone at her first PTA meeting, to running the whole show at one of the schools eight years later. I've run fund-raisers, craft fairs, fall festivals, kindergarten registrations, and newcomers' picnics. My husband and I have put together countless numbers of newsletters, yearbooks, and flyers.