The politics of parents' associations

It’s hard to know what gives some school-parent committees a bad name. Is it the people they attract or the things they do? Even members of such committees, who do a huge amount of good work, say that some have an image problem, admitting that adjectives such as “busybodies”, “cliquey” and “bossy” are used against them. They’re part of the school-gate politics that are conducted, to a greater or lesser degree, outside every primary school.

When working full-time, I used to regard the parents’ association (in reality the committee – all parents make up the PA) at my children’s national school with a mixture of awe and annoyance. However, now that I am one of them after switching to part-time work, I see both sides. A few parents of the little darlings for whom you’re busy organising extracurricular activities can be pretty annoying too.

“I think people who are on the committee get exasperated because they are working so hard and they tend to get a bit bossy,” says Emer Halpenny, who served two years as chairwoman of the PA at St Raphaela’s Primary School in Stillorgan, Co Dublin. But she thinks other parents should “cut them some slack: they are just people doing their best”.

If your PA is involved in a lot of fundraising, you can expect to have to put up with some abuse when trying to sell tickets, she says: “People having an opinion and being rude with it.”

Members of St Raphaela’s PA have even been known to don hi-vis jackets in campaigns to improve driver behaviour outside the school for the safety of all. Standing between school-run drivers and their favourite, inappropriate stopping places is certainly putting yourself in the firing line.

Now that her two daughters have moved on to Muckross Park College, Halpenny admits she would be reluctant to get that involved in a PA again, mainly because of the time commitment. Because she runs her own drama school and is a codirector of ANU, a natural beauty products company, she feels it’s a hassle she could do without.

At least as chairwoman she could keep meetings short and to the point, she adds. Otherwise she would have resented parents spending 25 minutes “talking about what to put in a kid’s sandwich” or bringing up their own experience of parenting at meetings.

“A lot of time it is to show off – ‘My child is reams ahead of everybody else in the class: that’s a special need’ – and everybody else is sitting there fuming.”

Alison, a mother of four with a busy job, feels torn about not having time to be involved with the PA committee at her children’s Dublin school. She believes the way a PA operates can magnify a divide between parents who work outside the home and those who don’t.

“When I worked part-time, I met a lot of parents – mostly mothers – at school and enjoyed catching up with them and their children. If parents were ever asked to do things that coincided with my days off, I’d help if I could.”

Now she is working full-time, she has less time to bake or to volunteer. “And sometimes, when I’ve made cakes or whatever, I’ve sensed an unspoken ambivalence in the PA mothers (there are very few PA fathers, in my limited experience).

“Of course I know they put hours of their own time into the PA and that they generate vital funds for our cash-strapped school, organise extracurricular classes and subsidise outings for our kids and do lots of other unseen things,” she says. “No one wants a red carpet, but I just wish some of them didn’t seem smug.”

Fit for purpose

The image of parents’ associations and the reluctance of parents to get involved at some schools is something the National Parents’ Council – Primary (NPC) is currently looking at, says chief executive Áine Lynch.

“We are wondering if the structure, which was established probably 25-30 years ago, is still fit for purpose.” While it seems to suit a fundraising committee, that’s not necessarily what we want parent associations to be doing, she says.

There is no register of parent associations, so the only record the NPC has is of the ones who become its members. It has slightly more than 1,500 members, out of the Republic’s 3,200 primary schools.

It is difficult to talk about parents’ associations as a homogenous group because they’re not, Lynch says. They vary widely in the way their committees are set up, in their activities and in their relationship with the principal.

Lynch is critical of schools that regard parents’ main role in the school as fundraising and believes it is this attitude that puts people off getting involved with the PA committee. They are doing a lot of good work, she acknowledges, but it is characterising the parents’ role in a very narrow way, when they should be regarded as equal partners in the education system.

“We feel if there is a funding issue in the school, there should be a fundraising committee that reports directly to the board of management,” says Lynch. “That fundraising committee should be made up of all the players in the school community.” This includes the board of management, the teachers and the parent body.

Louise Burke, chairwoman of the association representing parents of the 1,500 children in both the junior and senior schools of St Colmcille’s in Knocklyon, Dublin – the Republic’s largest primary school – thinks it is unusual that it is involved in very little fundraising.

“The fundraising that we do is only to fund the activities of the parents’ association,” she says. Once a year they hold a “colours day”, on which children can wear their favourite sports jersey and pay €2 for the privilege.

The association organises events such as teas after First Communions and Confirmations (with each of the seven classes having its own First Communion Mass, these are spread over three weekends); coffee mornings for parents of junior and senior infants in the first part of the year; a Santa visit; a week-long book fair; and they always invite a guest speaker to address the association’s agm.

Re-election

Burke agrees that PA committees can be seen as very “cliquey”. Their association changed its constitution last year so people can’t join the committee and then sit on it for years without being re-elected.

“There are now timelines so that if people want to stay on it they can, but they have to go up for another vote at the agm.”

This allows for a better turnover of parents and they have no shortage of volunteers, she says.

There is a good mix on the committee of 20 (incorporating the board of management’s four parent reps), with both stay-at-home and working parents, including four fathers. It meets once a month and then four members meet the principal about four times a year.

Although the association operates well within year levels, it is looking at ways of engendering a better community spirit – “like you would have in a small school”, Burke says. One of the ideas on the table is an “Operation Transformation”, involving morning and evening walking groups and a weigh-in on Tuesdays in the school hall.

Burke, who has a part-time job, became involved with the committee three years ago because she had two children in the school and a third who was due to join.

“I wanted more of an insight into activities in the school that aren’t academic,” she says and she enjoyed the experience from the start. “It is a nice way of getting into the school.”

All the committee members would agree, she says, that their children enjoy the fact they are in and out of the school.

Julie got involved with the parents’ association for the sake of her children at their school in north Cork. “I believe we get as much as we put in.”

There is a committee, but the association’s meetings are open to all and are held about five times a year. A mum and dad from each class are elected as parent representatives but actually don’t do very much, she says, with some not even attending meetings “in spite of agreeing to fulfil the role when they are nominated”.

The association organises an annual Halloween fundraiser, helps with a May fair and runs basketball classes during the winter.

“It has been suggested the PA get more involved in the school, via a reading programme with some of the classes,” she says. However, although that was proposed over a year ago, nothing has happened.

The NPC, which provides training, sees a PA as a key organisation in supporting parents’ involvement with their children’s education. Research shows that your children will benefit if you engage with the school and the PA can help you do that. If you’re a PA committee member , your own child is already reaping a reward.

But, as Lynch points out, any classroom is only as strong as its weakest student. By investing time in helping other parents to be involved in their children’s education, which has been shown to reduce behavioural issues, among other things, that is going to benefit all pupils.

While supporting fellow parents is “less tangible” than holding a cake sale, she acknowledges that its “crucial” associations realise this kind of work pays off for all children. For instance, it may be inviting a speaker to address parents about the best way to support children doing homework.

Lynch believes the forthcoming guidelines on a parent and student charter – to be published before the end of the 2014-15 school year, according to a Department of Education spokeswoman – will clarify the relationship between schools and parents.

While it is a matter of wait-and-see, Lynch says she expects it to “strengthen the voice of parents as individuals and parents as a group within schools”.

See npc.ie swayman@irishtimes.com