They have tackled everything from school lunches to pinball machines, gang violence to student art contests.
While their image is forever tied to the school carnival – and yes, they still host those – PTA has always had a serious side as well.
As Tacoma PTA members prepare to mark 100 years of activism on behalf of Tacoma kids with a celebration Thursday, they are also looking ahead to Focus Day on Monday. That’s when PTA members from throughout the state will go to Olympia to rally on the Capitol steps and meet with legislators on issues that concern them.
Among the state PTA’s priorities this year: preserving funding for education, consideration of factors other than seniority in teacher layoffs, and strengthening math and science education.
“One of the things that’s exciting when you look back through history is the advocacy, the things parents were able to do for students,” said Janet Stewart, president of the Tacoma PTA Council, which brings together PTA leaders from more than three dozen schools.
Over the years, PTA has helped build school and community leaders in Tacoma. At least six PTA Council presidents have served on the Tacoma School Board, including current board member Kim Golding.
Golding has been working on a history of Tacoma PTA in honor of the 100-year celebration. She’s combed through the group’s archives, stored in vinyl tubs in the basement of Tacoma Public Schools’ downtown administration building.
Sorting through the scrapbooks, photographs, newspaper clippings and meeting minutes written in flawless penmanship has been an educational experience for her. One thing she’s learned is that “Tacoma was first, in a lot of things.”
Some of the founding mothers of the movement in Washington state – begun nationally in 1897 as the National Congress of Mothers – had Tacoma ties.
Prominent among pioneering Washington PTA women was Abby Williams Hill, who moved to Tacoma in 1889 and was later known as a landscape painter. She was the mother of a son born with partial paralysis, as well as three adopted children.
Hill helped organize Washington state chapters of the Mothers’ Congress, later renamed the PTA (Parent-Teacher Association). She lobbied for services to immigrants and disadvantaged families.
In 1906, Tacoma hosted a state PTA meeting; in 1911, the first Tacoma PTA Council was formed. Among the early activists was Nell Hoyt. In 1959, Tacoma named a school for her. It’s now part of Washington-Hoyt Elementary.
In 1914, the PTA helped make Franklin and Lowell elementary schools the first in the city to offer hot lunches to children, with PTA members providing the meals. Over the next two years, PTA helped establish lunchrooms in nearly every Tacoma school.
Today there are a total of 39 PTA groups in Tacoma, some more active than others. Meeker Middle School and Browns Point Elementary School are among the largest, with more than 300 members listed.
Tanya Taylor joined PTA at Whitman Elementary School when her son started kindergarten there last year. Today she is legislative chairwoman for Whitman PTA, keeping members informed about issues in Olympia affecting education.
“I didn’t know what PTA was,” she said. “I figured it was people trying to sell baked goods to earn extra money for schools. I learned what a great organization it is, and how much they advocate for things.”
She plans to visit Olympia on Monday for Focus Day.
She understands the state is in a budget crisis that will impact school funding. But she said educators still have a job to do.
“I would like legislators to make cuts in other places because the return on our investment in education is phenomenal,” she said.
Some schools have PTSAs – the “S” stands for students – and dads are now part of PTA as well.
John Nickle and his wife, Elizabeth, are co-presidents of the PTSA at Baker Middle School. He said they wanted to be involved in their child’s school. They started by joining the planning committee that organizes the school’s fall festival and June luau. Soon they were leading the whole PTSA.
Fewer than a dozen parents make up the active core at Baker, John Nickle said.
“We do a lot, with a few people,” he said.
There are fall and spring festivals, a barbecue for teacher appreciation week, Valentine’s Day candygrams for students, and mini-grants for teachers to buy supplies such as science-class stopwatches and library book bindings.
Nickle knows there are many other avenues for parent involvement today, both in and out of school. But he likes being involved with PTA.
It helps him build a working relationship with school administrators. But mostly he’s proud to be part of a team that helps create fun for students.
“It’s gratifying to know we can give them some memories,” he said.
Debbie Cafazzo: 253-597-8635
debbie.cafazzo@thenewstribune.com
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