Worries At Woodlawn

This school year, teachers are submitting more reimbursement requests to the Woodlawn Elementary School Parent Teacher Association, putting some financial stress on the organization, according to PTA President Christine Maly.

The organization has not fallen behind on fundraising, but it is attempting to tap into a new stream of funding through local non-profit organizations.

The PTA’s most expensive line item is funding one field trip per grade, which costs nearly $3500 each year. The PTA funds bus trips in order to ease the financial burden on parents and is “not willing to cut” that program, Maly said.

“We don’t want that to be a financial burden on any parent,” said Maly of the bus trips. “It’s a way to give back to the community, which we are there to do.” 

Many Parent Teacher Associations across the country are struggling due to cuts in education budgets that were never funded appropriately to begin with, according to James Martinez, spokesperson for the National PTA.

“Each year school districts are doing more and more with less and less,” said Martinez. “As parents, they are willing to do more to ensure their schools are educating their children.”

Martinez said that the National PTA has seen more PTA’s reach out to their communities and are thinking outside the box when it comes to fundraising ideas. For example, one PTA recently asked a local car dealership to donate a car to raffle off as its fundraiser.

Aside from fundraising, Martinez stressed that PTA’s should lobby their local politicians for more education funding.

“We encourage our PTA’s to do what we do at the national level, to advocate their elected officials for more education funding,” said Martinez. “The problems aren’t going to stop until elected officials get that education needs to be funded more appropriately.”

Maly said that the PTA’s annual budget is between $12,000 and $15,000 annually. The Woodlawn Elementary PTA needs to raise at least $12,000 this year in order to continue to offer programs such as bus trips and its student assistance fund, which funds essential items such as clothing or glasses for needy students.

In order to ease the financial strain on the PTA, Maly has been reaching out to local nonprofits and civic associations for assistance.

“Community and civic organizations realize that PTA's are yet another way for them to support a community, maybe through a grant or donation to re-divert money that we could put towards the buses, towards Family Night, or being able to reimburse teachers more than $50 for supplies,” Maly explained.

Maly has also implemented a Market Day grocery program to help raise funds for the PTA. Market Day is a fundraiser for schools and nonprofits that sells high quality food items such as pre-made pizzas, lasagnas, and even popular bulk items. The Market Day program is “community sensitive,” offering ordering materials in Spanish and accepting state food benefits.

“It’s a program that the student body and parents benefit from, but it is a program that is available to anyone in the community willing to drive to Woodlawn once a month,” Maly said.

If you would like to help raise funds for Woodlawn Elementary, visit the Market Day website and choose Woodlawn Elementary School as the sale site.  For more information, please e-mail Christine Maly at parentsforwoodlawn@gmail.com.