PTAs help schools with funding

By Michelle Knight knight@theacorn.com

JANN HENDRY/Acorn Newspapers PRINCIPAL FOR A DAY-Katie Rogers, a Banyan Elementary School third-grader, gets tips for leading the weekly assembly from the real principal, Judie Tetzlaff. It was part of a school fundraiser.

Katie Rogers took the helm as principal for the day at Banyan Elementary School in Newbury Park last week. The third-grader led a school assembly, met with the PTA, and performed other administrative duties with real Principal Judie Tetzlaff by her side.

Katie received the honor because her parents bid on the item at a PTA fundraiser earlier this year. So far the event has brought in around $13,000.

Because the state has cut school spending, PTAs are increasingly pressed into the role of school fundraiser, said Aleta Smith, president of the Banyan PTA.

Even though the traditional role of the PTA is that of an advocate and not a revenue source, PTAs in the district are feeling the pressure to step in and take more prominent roles as school fundraisers, Smith said.

Banyan Principal Judie Tetzlaff said the school needs the money raised by the PTA.

"Without parental support, we literally could not supply a lot of the extras," she said.

For example, Tetzlaff said, the school recently replaced 30-year-old equipment on its three playgrounds so they would meet current safety standards.

But since the school didn’t get enough money for the project from the district, the PTA stepped in and held fundraisers.

Tetzlaff said the money the PTA has raised also will help update the school’s aging computers: the two dozen or so in the lab and about five in each of the 26 classrooms.

Tetzlaff said that five years ago the school received a generous donation of computers, which at the time were a couple of years old. But with technology advancing so quickly, they’re now outdated and in desperate need of upgrading, she said.

But fundraisers put a lot of stress on parents, Smith said, adding, "Maybe we need to put the stress on the politicians."

Banyan’s PTA will do just that, adding their voice to the growing list of protesters opposing the governor’s proposed budget.

Its members have been urging parents to sign a form letter of protest, and on April 27 Smith will deliver the letters to the governor and legislators when she travels to Sacramento with other members of a three-county education coalition. They want the state to make good on a promise the governor made last year to repay school districts $2.4 billion.

They also want the state to uphold Proposition 98, the law voters passed in 1988 that ensures schools receive a minimum amount of state funding.

"This is just not something you let fly," said Smith.