For some PTA members in Mesquite ISD, however, the excitement of summer vacation has been overshadowed by a feeling of betrayal after the majority of schools in the district decided to cut ties with their PTA programs without warning the associations. Principals at 47 of the 52 Mesquite ISD campuses have decided to transition to a Parent-Teacher Organization (PTO) in the fall, a spokesperson for the district said.
Sarah Joanis, who served as president of the Florence Elementary School PTA this school year, said she was notified by email that the district would be cutting ties with the statewide organization Texas PTA. Her son has been a student in the school’s deaf education program since 2019, but this was her first year on the PTA, which was previously run by teachers and administrators through COVID-19.
“I have completely rebuilt our PTA this year into a promising organization within our district,” Joanis told the Observer. “No one asked anyone anything. They never asked us our opinion, they never asked us our ideas, they never asked us what we thought about becoming something else.”
A spokesperson for Mesquite ISD said the decision to transition to a PTO system began brewing in the fall, when a district-organized community summit revealed “concerns and desire for an alternative” program. Unlike a PTA, the PTO will not have membership fees and will allow parents to volunteer with campuses on and off throughout the school year as their schedule allows, the spokesperson said.
“Currently, we have over 38,000 students and only 4,400 PTA memberships, half of which are from staff,” the spokesperson said. “The Texas PTA had already removed PTA from two MISD campuses due to lack of involvement and failure to meet requirements. This school year, seven more campuses struggled to maintain good standing. It is becoming a bigger challenge each year.”
The spokesperson said MISD is “very excited for the change.”
Joanis is skeptical of the new program, largely because she finds it “sketchy” that many of the things being touted as advantages of a PTO program were already happening at her school’s PTA. The association at Florence Elementary is “thriving,” and she already had a board elected for next school year, she said. She would have been happy to consult with struggling PTAs if she’d been asked by the district, which makes her even more frustrated that she wasn’t.
While MISD will no longer be working with Texas PTA, which governs more than 500,000 members, she does not believe individual principals have the authority to disband the campus organizations and plans to continue the Florence PTA next year, “as long as [they] have the people who want to be involved” and continue to receive support from Texas PTA. If an individual PTA decides to continue the organization despite the district cutting direct ties, fundraising and membership recruitment will have to be done off-campus, and funds will not be able to be funneled directly though the schools.
After spending “at least two days a week” each week of the last school year on campus, Joanis feels the decision to disband the Florence PTA will result in her being pulled out of her child’s education.
“From the parent side, my heart is breaking,” she said. “The kids have grown to know me and our other volunteers. They know us and welcome us and want to hug us.”
The Green Elephant in the Room
Exactly one week before the last day of school, Ava Moss received an email from her child’s principal stating that the Porter Elementary School PTA would be disbanding at the end of the school year. Moss, who served as PTA president for the last two school years, was thrown into a panic by the short notice, which she felt was intentionally “deceitful.” The Porter Elementary PTA had nearly $5,000 in the bank, she said, which was meant to set next year’s board up for success. PTA’s are notoriously bureaucratic. On top of membership fees and a state governing body, all spending is voted on by membership in a meeting that is held only after every member is given ample notice about it. Less bureaucracy is being advertised as a prime advantage of a PTO, Joanis said.
“[With a PTO] there’s no transparency,” Moss told the Observer. “What is disheartening is they waited until a week before school is out to notify us of this. So now I have a balance in my account of almost $5,000 that I’m not able to quickly spend on the children, the school and the staff.”
In an email to the Observer, Porter Elementary School Principal Leeann Englert said she made the “final decision” about a move to a PTO on May 15. Moss was notified of the decision May 16.
Englert said she decided to move Porter to a PTO system after hearing “negative feedback from parents” about the pressures and membership fees associated with a PTA, and “struggles with maintaining” executive board positions that result in teachers and principals being stuck with additional responsibilities. In an email to Moss, Englert said the plan for the Porter Elementary PTO will be shared with parents next school year.
According to Englert, if the PTA members vote to dissolve the organization, any remaining funds will go to Texas PTA.
“I advised our PTA board to follow our bylaws and spend the money for our students if possible, so that the money we raised stays at our school,” Englert said.
A spokesperson for MISD said PTO finances will be handled through the school finance systems, rather than PTA volunteers, which will result in the district’s business offices overseeing how the money is spent. Internal and external auditors will have access to the account for accountability purposes, she said. Englert said a PTO “can offer” financial transparency with fundraiser spending.
To Moss, it sounds like the “checks and balances” of a PTA are being eliminated.
“With PTA, we govern the money. If the principal comes to us and says, ‘We want you to have a coffee bar for the teachers,’ but we say ‘I’m sorry, we have these funds allotted for the kids to have snow cones,’ we have the authority to push back and say no,” Moss said. “With this new account, we have no say.”
Joanis feels she is being pulled out of her child’s education in more ways than one. Texas PTA uses membership fees to pay for lobbying against school vouchers in the Texas Legislature, something she was proud to support. While she lives in Forney and transfers into the MISD system for the deaf education program, she said she is “blown up about” the fact that taxpayers were cut out of the decision-making process.
“I can’t imagine being a taxpayer and not being given the rights of a taxpayer, to have a voice in what happens in the district,” Joanis said. “I feel so grateful to be able to have my child be in a public school and get the education that he needs in the deaf program. I give my heart and soul to the PTA because that’s how I give back and I just feel disrespected.”
