FORT POLK, La. -- It doesn't take a village to raise a child: It takes an installation like Fort Polk and the volunteers and parents who live there. South Polk Elementary School's Parent Teacher Organization, with volunteers like coordinator Staci Stipe, Liliana Farrell and Tina Deffendol, inspires student excellence both socially and academically and fosters a sense of community within the microcosm of the elementary school.
South Polk's Parent Teacher Organization is, simply, an organization comprised of parents. A faculty member is involved in coordinating events and the PTO meets once a month to prepare for year-round programs and fund-raisers like duty-free lunch, when parent-volunteers take the place of a teacher at lunch to give that teacher some free time and Reading Night, when a guest comes and reads a story to students.
The PTO's focus, said Stipe, is "recognizing and helping students, parents and teachers." All things considered, South Polk seems to be doing an excellent job realizing its mission: The PTO was recently selected for honorable mention at PTO Today's 2012 Parent Group of the Year search. The award is a culmination for the South Polk PTO, which, four years ago, didn't exist, according to Stipe.
"When I became involved, there wasn't anything," she said. "We recruited more people to come in. It was a slow process," she said.
Learning, said Stipe, is a three-legged stool with parents, teachers and students supporting the base. Each group of people must do its job for school to be a success.
"If any one of those (people) don't do their job, the whole things fails," she said. "I hold myself accountable for my end; I make sure my child is engaged in schoolwork and is involved."
The teacher's responsibility, said Stipe, is "to make sure our children are doing what they need to be," just as parents need to "make sure their child is prepared, follows up with homework and is invested in school through extra-curricular activities."
One particular activity Stipe thought would be helpful is a coalition of parents coming together to stay informed. "I thought a 'parent to parent' group would be beneficial in that parents could help parents. We provide workshops for each other that will help kids," she said.
These workshops include ideas like things you can do through summer so kids don't slide backwards academically, how to prevent homework hassles, or, on Wednesday, an 8:30 a.m. workshop in the vice principal's office on how to prepare for parent teacher conferences -- how to frame questions to get helpful feedback, how to prepare and what to bring so parents are better able to communicate with the teacher.
Another program the PTO sponsors that has seen stellar success is its Student of the Month program, in which kids from each classroom and grade level are recognized for good behavior and academic achievement.
Teachers nominate students from each of their classrooms. Each child that is submitted by their teacher is given a certificate, a pencil and his or her picture, displayed in the school lobby. Children selected out of each grade level -- a bigger feat -- are awarded certificates, gift cards and a pin.
"It's such a proud moment for the students," said Stipe. "When a student earns Student of the Month, others look up to that student and want to emulate them. It encourages kids to do well, which is always a good thing."
Students look forward to Reading Night, when guest readers tell stories to groups of kids, just as parents anticipate Resource Night -- this fall's Resource Night is Oct. 16 from 5:30-7 p.m. -- where parents can visit, tour the school, leisurely flit from classroom to classroom and talk to teachers.
"It's not a parent teacher conference," stressed Stipe. "It's more informal. It's more about seeing your student's work and learning environment. Much of the time it can seem like school is 'closed' to family. Resource Night allows parents to glean a sense of the school being an extension of family -- a place they can visit and feel comfortably a part of."
It's also an opportunity for parents to become stakeholders in their child's education, said Stipe. "The principal is trying to outreach to parents and establish more open communication. This includes asking for assistance in creating a mission statement for the school," she said. "Parents have a direct effect on how we meet our goals and how we improve our kids' educational experience on an individual level."
More than that, she said, "It's a privilege to be involved in our kids' education. It all goes by so fast. You don't even have to be a PTO member to get involved. The point is just to get involved."
Stipe also encourages agencies on Fort Polk to get involved in Resource Night as volunteers.
"We'd love for agencies here that have anything to do with family or community to set up a booth and give parents a peek at what services they provide. We want this open house to be a self-paced, one stop shop kind of thing. There are a lot of new Families on Fort Polk because of the nature of the military post, and sometimes they're not able to get out to all these places at once."
Stipe offers Picerne as an example.
"A lot of people don't know that Picerne offers a place where students can go in after school and do homework. It's things like that that we want to highlight."
South Polk's PTO could not survive without its lifeblood: Parent volunteers, and it's a precious commodity.
"I'd love it if more people could get involved. Statistics show that parents who are involved in their kids' education contribute to their kids' excellence: Those kids have higher graduation rates," said Stipe. "It doesn't mean you have to be at the school all the time … it can be as easy as doing homework with your kids, answering questions, asking about their day," she said.
For parents who have even 30 minutes to give a week, there are programs the PTO offers like duty free lunch, when parents can come and sit with students at lunch to give teachers free time; uniform swap, where parents can bring in old uniforms their kids can no longer wear and/or trade them for new-to-them uniforms; and teacher appreciation, a program at the end of May, where parents can participate in various activities to thank teachers for what they do.
A new initiative for parents who'd like to contribute is a reading improvement program.
"Each teacher comes up with a learning target to improve scores for their class," said Stipe. "One of the major areas is English and Language Arts. This year the goal is to improve by six percent. To facilitate that, we have had parent volunteers come in to read, one on one, with a child to improve comprehension and fluency. This is another area where we'd love more volunteers, and it's just a few minutes out of a day."
It's every parent's responsibility, said Stipe, to do what he or she can for a child to succeed.
"Parents need to provide an environment that's conducive to learning and growing," said Stipe. "That doesn't mean extensive volunteering; an hour a week is plenty and is so beneficial. It also gives kids a lot of pride to see their parent at the school in some capacity."
Parents can even visit their children at school during lunch and eat with them.
"It's an important piece of time," said Stipe. "Everyone's so busy all the time and if you aren't engaged in the moment, the moments fly by."
Parent volunteer Tina Deffendol participates in South Polk's PTO because, she said, "it makes me feel good that I'm helping kids. The kids absolutely enjoy it, too."
Volunteer Liliana Farrell reiterates that there is no great time commitment to, in Stipe's words, be a stakeholder in a child's future.
"I've seen parents fit in even 30 minutes for lunch with their child. That's a wonderful opportunity. When you volunteer, the teachers and staff appreciate it and it's worth it, even once a month. It's such an honor to do it, but it's not for glory that I do it: It's for the kids. Seeing them thrive is what makes it worth it," said Farrell.
"We all need to make it a point to check our schedules and see what we can fit in. Even 30-45 minutes just to be there for an assembly or a lunch or a fund-raiser means something. Our children are our future. You invest in your future as far as retirement and stocks go, so why not with your child?"
For more information about South Polk's Parent Teacher Organization or find out about volunteering, contact Staci Stipe at (602) 638-4515.
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