Advertisement - Click to support our sponsors.

PTSA wins awards for
membership expansion

By Crystal Kua
Star-Bulletin

Concerns over playground equipment and the public school system in general led to the Hawaii's Parent Teacher Student Association signing up thousands of new members this past year and winning membership awards in the process.

Officials of the Hawaii State PTSA returned from the recent National Parent Teacher Association convention in Chicago with awards for the state with the greatest percentage increase in membership and the TEAM award -- Together Everyone Achieves Membership -- for program and services.

Membership went from 26,867 to 38,552 or a 43.5 percent increase during the past year.

"For us, we're leading the nation in membership growth," Hawaii State PTSA President John Friedman said.

The increase in membership can be attributed to two factors, Friedman said. "It tells me that they understand the value of speaking as a united voice. It also shows me that there's a true concern for the quality of the educational system in the state of Hawaii."

Friedman said having nearly 40,000 members in Hawaii and 6.5 million nationwide behind PTSA officials when lobbying the Legislature or any other policy-making body carries a lot of clout.

Carol Nafus, PTSA board vice president for membership, said it was easy to sign up new members, especially with the rallying cry of schools across the state losing playground equipment.

"When most of our parents drove into our (school) parking lots and saw their playgrounds were shut down, they said, 'What can we do?' " Nafus said. "We worked off of a disadvantage."

Nafus said the PTSA held leadership training in 10 regions and promoted the importance of numbers in advocating for children.

"We feel that we should have one voice for every child," Nafus said.

The organization carried on with that theme by having schools strive for membership numbers that met or exceeded school enrollments, Nafus said.

Hawaii also won other awards at the National PTA convention, including Samantha Heckman of Kamiloiki Elementary receiving the Reflections Award of Excellence for Primary Music and Kanoelani Elementary PTA and its President Cora Nishimoto receiving outstanding honor unit for parent involvement.