{"id":5214,"date":"2019-04-03T12:56:32","date_gmt":"2019-04-03T16:56:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thseagleseye.com\/?p=5214"},"modified":"2019-04-03T12:56:32","modified_gmt":"2019-04-03T16:56:32","slug":"the-s-in-ptsa-who-it-stands-for-and-what-they-do","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/thseagleseye.com\/?p=5214","title":{"rendered":"The \u201cS\u201d in PTSA: Who it Stands For and What They Do"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hannah Auten ’19
\nEE\u00a0<\/em>Contributor
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Trumbull High School\u2019s PTA (Parent Teacher Association) has an extra letter in an acronym commonly used by schools all across the country; Trumbull High has an \u201cS\u201d which allows for student representation. <\/span><\/p>\n

The concept of a PTSA is not unique to Trumbull; when searched on the National PTA website, there is a definition of a PTSA and why students should be involved. <\/span><\/p>\n

According to the National PTA, \u201cPTSAs actually provide youth members with the opportunity to make a difference by developing leadership skills, learning about the legislative process, increasing their self-esteem, and contributing to the school. In turn, adult members gain a new perspective for program development, as well as acquire a better understanding of the youth of today.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Although an exact number of PTSAs in the United States could not be found, the National PTA cited that there are \u201c<\/span>more than 24,000 PTA units nationwide, including Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and DoD Schools in Europe.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

There are currently four students involved in the Trumbull PTSA: two recording secretaries and two student vice presidents. In previous years there have been more students involved. While aA typical year has two recording secretaries, who take notes on the meeting which become the meeting minutes, and report them to the secretary, who will type them to be handed out as the minutes, .but has there are usually more student vice presidents.<\/span><\/p>\n

Freshman Nathan Auten, who is a recording secretary, said that he joined the organization in order to \u201cget more involved within the school community and remain informed about some of the issues and topics that are circulating around the school,\u201d he further reflected on his involvement saying, \u201cit really is not a big time commitment or burden, I\u2019ve enjoyed my experience and intend to continue.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cFor my first year I am required to be a secretary, but for those who might not love public speaking, it is an easy way to contribute to the school community,\u201d said Auten.<\/span><\/p>\n

One student vice president, senior Britley Learnard, said \u201cI joined the PTSA my junior year in order to hear opinions from fellow students, administrators, teachers, and parents. The dialogue has definitely been interesting to listen to and has given me new perspectives on different topics.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

As a student vice president, Learnard is responsible for reporting the happenings of the school and can bring up an issues students might wish to discuss with the PTSA. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAlthough I enjoy being a sort of voice of the student body, with only one other student vice president, it has been difficult to ensure we talk about all the events, winnings, and issues that are happening around the school. In previous years there have been more students involved, so it was easier to make sure what needed to get coverage got covered,\u201d said Learnard. <\/span><\/p>\n

The parents in the PTSA don\u2019t take these students for granted, according to Christine Mckinney, former president of the PTSA, \u201c<\/span>It\u2019s great having student members on the PTSA as they provide a more unique and personal perspective that we would not normally have. They are able to report things happening within the students that parents might otherwise not know about,\u201d Mckinney also said, \u201cIt\u2019s a great experience for the students to be involved and hear what goes on at the parent and teacher and administration level.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hannah Auten ’19 EE\u00a0Contributor Trumbull High School\u2019s PTA (Parent Teacher Association) has an extra letter in an acronym commonly used by schools all across the country; Trumbull High has an \u201cS\u201d which…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5214","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/thseagleseye.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5214","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/thseagleseye.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/thseagleseye.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thseagleseye.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thseagleseye.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5214"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/thseagleseye.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5214\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5217,"href":"http:\/\/thseagleseye.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5214\/revisions\/5217"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/thseagleseye.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5214"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thseagleseye.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5214"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thseagleseye.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5214"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}