When Carla Atkinson walked into Norman PTA Council meetings a few years ago, she saw only a handful of parents scattered around the room. Fast forward to this fall, and the same meeting buzzed with three times as many parents representing schools across the district.
For Atkinson, Norman Public Schools’ family engagement coordinator, that growth is more than just numbers — it’s a sign that parents are finding their way back into schools. Across the metro, educators and community leaders are seeing the same trend: parent involvement is on the rise again, and with it, fresh energy for student success.
School districts across the Oklahoma City metro are working to restore parent and family engagement to pre-pandemic levels with the help of PTA units, local foundations and volunteer programs.
“I don’t think parents ever chose to not be involved … It was just something that happened,” Atkinson said. “And then you build your new normal. As things lifted with the pandemic, people had forgotten ‘we can go do this at our school.’”
Why family engagement matters
School administrators and the leaders of organizations that raise money for programs and services point to the need to restore human interaction lost during the pandemic, calling those connections essential to student success.
“It is 100 percent true that the more families engage in schools, the more successful their students are,” said Breea Clark, Norman’s former mayor and current PTA Council president. “It’s because parents are learning about what their kids are learning. When they show up, it adds validity to the experience of learning itself, and the students get more excited about it. It becomes a family affair.”
The role of PTA
PTAs promote family engagement, fund programs, organize events, raise money and advocate for students and schools. Individual school sites charge dues, a portion of which is funneled to state and national units to support advocacy efforts and the Reflections Arts Program, Clark said.
“It pays for the grants that go right back into schools for STEM, the arts and parent engagement,” she said.
Nancy Perdomo, director of family engagement for Oklahoma City Public Schools, said the 33,000-student district is focused on growing parent involvement through PTAs.
PTAs, though, aren’t the only way parents can get involved in their child’s school, Perdomo said.
“There are a variety of volunteer programs, whether that’s tutoring or mentoring through the OKCPS Foundation,” she said. “They can be a reading buddy, or they can volunteer on the Read OKC bus.”
The Read OKC bus is a mobile library program that provides free books to students in the Oklahoma City school district.
“Field trips are probably our most popular volunteer opportunity,” Perdomo continued, “Because it’s an opportunity to go someplace fun with their kids.”
Another positive sign of increased parent engagement is the return of popular school events, such as Super Kids Day and Family Fun Night, which require a lot of volunteers.
“This helps teachers to focus on teaching when they don’t have to organize the events that create special experiences and foster a love of education,” said Clark. “Once parents withdrew, there were no volunteers to organize all of these events.”
Engagement comes in many forms, according to Perdomo.
“Everyone here at OKCPS can contribute, whether that’s time, talent or resources, so we have something for everyone,” she said. “We want to make sure that our families and community can offer support in whatever way they feel comfortable.”
Fundraisers with a purpose
Alesha Leemaster is executive director of the Norman Public Schools Foundation, which raises money to enhance educational experiences for teachers and students.
The foundation awards more than $150,000 annually in teacher grants that “will bring a lesson to life,” she said.
One way the community can support public education in Norman is by purchasing tickets to Gingerbread Jingle and decorating preassembled gingerbread houses with high-end gourmet candy, Leemaster said.
“Santa’s there and you can write letters to the North Pole,” she said of the foundation’s December fundraiser. “It’s a great way for us to create awareness for what we do with young families.”
The Norman PTA Council hosts one annual fundraiser, the Norman Chocolate Festival, organized by the Firehouse Arts Center.
“One hundred percent of what we raise besides the cost of the event goes right back into individual PTA units,” she said. “We gave away four $1,000 grants to units in Norman, and we gave away a $1,000 scholarship to a Norman High graduate.”
One size doesn’t fit all
Not all school districts rely on PTAs to increase parent involvement.
Millwood Public Schools doesn’t have a PTA, but parents serve on committees, participate in the school’s foundation or volunteer as coaches, according to Superintendent Cecilia Robinson Woods.
“It definitely is an outdated idea in my school district,” she said of PTA. “I have had parents who have tried to get it back going again. We just haven’t been successful.”
Robinson Woods views the idea of engagement differently than most.
“Whenever people talk to me about engagement, I always want to understand their definition of engagement,” she said. “I feel like this picture of parental involvement, community involvement, it’s an unachievable task in a space that doesn’t have a large majority of parents who stay home.
“We’re also at a time where both parents have to work. The amount of time they have to give to be present is really limited.”
Whether through PTA, school foundations or simply showing up for a field trip, parents and community members are finding new ways to connect with schools. The methods may look different from district to district, but the message remains the same — family engagement matters. As schools work to rebuild those relationships, the result is more than successful events or fundraisers. It’s classrooms where students feel supported, teachers feel empowered and families feel like an essential part of their child’s education.
“We know that when families are involved, they attend parent-teacher conferences and support learning outside of the school day,” she said. “Research shows that it increases test scores, graduation rates, attendance and all academic measures.”
Editor’s note: This article is the final part of a year-long series called What’s Right with Our Schools, highlighting the innovative and inspiring programs shaping public education in the Oklahoma City metro. Each installment explores a different theme, showcasing how educators, administrators and communities are coming together to create meaningful opportunities for students. Read the full series at metrofamilymagazine.com/whats-right-with-our-schools.
