The Seattle Council PTSA blankets the city, working and volunteering in schools and fostering partnerships to support students. We help the kids who aren't reading by third grade. We bring in tutors - - and artists and scientists. We make sure teachers
have materials and libraries have books. We're on the frontlines, and
we see tremendous potential, not only of the children, but also of our
greater community. Seattle is there for kids.

But our support hasn't translated to success for all children.

So the Seattle Council PTSA did something new. We sat down and
found common ground with other advocacy groups. We needed to
know: How could we work together? The result is the Community
Value Statement and supporting recommendations that the Seattle
Council PTSA endorsed in January.

At the heart of this document is a simple premise: What we in the
community see as problems aren't always addressed, or prioritized,
by the school district. It's a matter of perspective, and including ours
isn't formalized in policy and practice. We want to change that.

The Community Value Statement and its supporting recommendations
are very much the result of an organic process. Seattle advocacy
organizations and some key community volunteers started meeting in
spring of 2009 to discuss our work with students and schools. We
continued meeting in the fall, discussing change associated with the
district's Strategic Plan, along with the inequities and recurring
problems we grapple with in our schools.

We found we had more in common than not, and all of us agreed:
The community is a stakeholder and needs to be part of any education
reform.  We collectively drafted the Community Value Statement and
its supporting recommendations. Each of the groups then checked in
with members and asked for endorsement. Those of us who formally
signed on became the Seattle Organizers for Community Engagement
in Education. Initial partners include the Seattle Council PTSA, CPPS
of Seattle, League of Education Voters, League of Women Voters of
Seattle, Stand for Children, Successful Schools in Action and the Vietnamese Friendship Association.

We believe:

All schools must be quality schools, and the district
should ensure:

This is our value statement. We also list supporting recommendations
for each element. Some deal with school board policy or contract
issues. Others deal with school practice, or overlap with legislative
issues. All echo priorities we hear in the community.  

On to implementation

The Seattle Council PTSA is now working alongside other Seattle
Organizers to help resolve the issues we highlighted. By endorsing
the document, the city's PTAs and PTSAs gave the SCPTSA board
authority to advocate the issues on behalf of members. Here's
where we are so far:

APRIL 24: A symposium for families: Support learning, prepare
for college and more. More info

Next steps for SCPTSA

The Seattle Council PTSA believes community insight is absolutely
critical to the success of our schools.  We will continue to identify
steps the district can take to support the four core elements of
principals, teachers, student opportunity, and family collaboration.
We'll also continue to promote the Seattle Organizers' supporting recommendations, or collaborate with the school district on alternative
solutions.

But fundamentally, the Seattle Organizers and the PTA are working
on more than any given list of problems. We want to ensure the
people who actually use and rely on the public schools have a say in
how they are run.

More information:

• Community Value Statement

• PTA's National Standards for Family-School partnerships:
  Within the PTA network, we work toward six standards:
  Welcoming all families; communicating effectively; supporting
  student success; speaking up for every child; sharing power;
  and collaborating with community. Our partnership with the
  Seattle Organizers helps us facilitate all standards, but in
  particular the last three.