Episode 53: PTA with Britney Wood

August 23rd, 2024 /
Alexander Glaves /

Sup with the Sup

00:00 / 40:10

Welcome to the next episode of Provo City School District’s What’s Up With the Sup’ podcast. I am Superintendent Wendy Dau. For our episode this week, I visited with our Provo City School District Council PTA president, Brittany Wood. We talked about the role of PTA, how the district and PTA can coordinate their work, and what the Provo PTAs have in store for this school year.

I’m excited for you to hear our discussion right after our updates.

The next school board meeting will be a study session and business meeting on Tuesday, August 27th. During this meeting, the board will be finalizing their work on the new strategic plan for the district. Several policies will also be reviewed and looked at.
- Look for more information and specific start times on the district website as the date approaches.
The Board of Education currently has three new draft policies available for community input on the district website.
- From the main page of the district website, click on the Policies, Forms, and Document button.
- On the next page, at the top left, there is an orange Review Draft Policies Here button. The new policies available for review are
  - a draft cell phone policy
  - a draft student survey policy
  - and a draft sensitive materials policy.
I will continue to send out a weekly videocast from me with information about the work happening throughout the district. This year, these video casts will be sent out every Monday morning.
If you qualify for free or reduced lunch, remember to send in your application within the first 30 days of school. This needs to be done each year.
Please remember to update your information in PowerSchool. This needs to be done annually.
- This allows schools and the district to contact you with important information and in emergency situations.
The Provo City School District’s Foundation’s Links for Kids Golf Tournament will be held on September 26th at the Timpanogos Golf Club. Proceeds from this golf tournament are used to support after-school programs and to provide teacher grants.
- If you are interested in participating, please visit foundation.provo.edu.

And now let’s go on to our guest.

I’m here today with Britney Wood, who is our Provo City District Council PTA President. Did I get that right?

Britney Wood: Yeah, that’s a mouthful.

Wendy Dau: It is. Okay. Thank you for being on the podcast this week.

Britney Wood: I’m so happy to be here. So happy to be here.

Wendy Dau: You explained this morning, we had a meeting with all of the PTA presidents and president elects and different boards. Tell us a little bit about the structure of PTA, just so that people understand. Who is Britney and how is she different from my school’s PTA president? So-

Britney Wood: Okay, so on the local level or the school level, you have a PTA president that runs things in your school.

And then if you go up one step, There’s the council or sometimes called District PTA, and that’s where I sit. And then above that is our regional PTA, and they oversee several councils. And then above that is the state level.

Wendy Dau: And that’s where Ashley Raback comes in. She is the region PTA president that serves over Provo and Nebo.

Britney Wood: That’s right. And then Corey Fairholme is the state president.

Wendy Dau: Okay, perfect.

Britney Wood: Mm hmm.

Wendy Dau: That’s very helpful. Tell us a little bit about how you got involved in PTA.

Britney Wood: Oh boy. It’s kind of a convoluted story actually. So I had done quite a bit of PTO, to be honest, and I needed to find a new president for the PTO.

It’s getting harder and harder to get people to volunteer. And the person I really wanted had already signed up to be the treasurer at one of the PTAs. So I talked to them and I said, what if I stepped in as treasurer so that we could use her over here? And they said, well, that would be great. We just need someone to fill the spot.

I had never done it and I was willing to learn. And then once we got through the process, the president elect ended up needing to quit because of some life changes. So they said, we actually have someone who’s done treasurer before, and she’s willing to come back and do treasurer, but she doesn’t want to do president.

Would you be willing to do president? And I said, yes, and I still don’t remember saying yes, but somewhere along the line, I said yes, and I don’t know why.

Wendy Dau: So here you are

Britney Wood: And here I am, and I, I had a big learning curve, and I had to learn quickly kind of the ins and outs. of how this all functions. And then it’s just continued from there.

Wendy Dau: So what has been the greatest part about being in the PTA? What do you love most about it?

Britney Wood: I’ve learned a lot. I’ve always been an involved parent and an engaged parent in the classrooms and try to support teachers, but I have learned a ton about what happens on the other side of things. So administratively speaking and district wide, I have learned a lot.

So I love being engaged at the school level where you really can see the impact your own children are having. But sometimes as a parent, I wasn’t understanding the reasons decisions were being made or how decisions were being made, and I really only understood my closed bubble, what’s happening with my child in my own home, and one of the things I’ve loved about being involved in it has opened my brain up to an entirely different world of understanding about what’s happening in the school systems.

Wendy Dau: Well, it’s interesting that you say that because I, I hear sometimes from parents are like, well, I don’t know, like, how did you come to this decision? Like what happened? There’s this perception that it just happened overnight. And I think when they’re understanding that process and that, that there really is a procedure and things are being talked about and there is a feedback loop and, they’re like, Oh, I had no idea that these were all of the reasons behind what was happening in a particular school.

So that’s really good to know, because I think that does connect you.

Britney Wood: Well, and I think most parents start from the framework of I want to be an advocate for my own child, which is really important. I remember years ago, one of my oldest sisters was a teacher, a school teacher. She’s an English teacher in high school.

And I was kind of explaining some struggles my own son was having. And she said, listen, if you don’t advocate for your child, no one’s going to, and no one’s going to advocate the same way you can. And so I learned to get involved and have a voice as a parent. And that’s, I think, where most parents enter PTA is with the desire to advocate for their own child or the hope to advocate for their own child.

And once you get into the process, that’s when you realize this is bigger than my household. This is bigger than my child, and this is where I’ve learned to understand how vastly different the circumstances of lots of households in the district are just by starting, by getting involved, talking about how it’s impacting my child, and then learning, oh, their life looks very different than mine, and this impacts their life differently than it impacts mine.

And then you start to understand the decision making process that’s going on that feels like it’s out of your control as a parent. And a lot of parents who complain about the decisions or question things, I think it’s because they haven’t really opened themselves up to the whole process that’s going on.

Because we only know what we know. So I know my bubble, I know what goes on in my life, and I start there. But the best thing about PTA is it has opened me up to understand what’s happening to advocate for all of the children in the district, which ultimately, as humans, we care about all of the kids, right?

Wendy Dau: That’s right. That’s right. I think it’s awesome when I watch this meeting come together and you see PTA presidents from say, Franklin Elementary and then Lakeview Elementary. You know, you get these different backgrounds and perspectives and there’s different challenges at different schools. And it does, it opens up your brain to say, Oh my goodness, it’s not all the same.

And we have to be taking care of all of our kids. All kids deserve the very best.

Britney Wood: Yeah. I think ultimately as a parent, if you want your child to be well cared for in a school system, Then you have to want for all children to be well cared for because there is no single system on the planet that could care for just your child to the very best ability while disregarding all other children.

So really it is a perfect formula where you have to keep in consideration all of the different kids needs. I have learned a ton about the different needs in the district and the different circumstances and the different experiences that people are having in the school system and it’s, it’s important, it’s important to learn that it functions differently than the way that my brain might think it should function.

Wendy Dau: That’s such great insight that you’re sharing. Tell us a little bit about how PTAs really support a school. What are some of the things that you’ve been involved with or that you’ve heard different PTAs and how they support teachers, how they support families, administrators, whatever might be happening in a school?

Britney Wood: So I think the easy first answer is fundraising. I think that’s the first thing people think of. And Ashley Raybeck actually had a great quote about PTAs don’t exist to fundraise. They do part of that is, Oh, now I’ve messed up the quote. So Ashley’s quote is PTAs don’t exist to fundraise. They fundraise to exist sometimes.

I think first and foremost, PTAs fundraise. And why do they fundraise? They fundraise to help fill the gaps where possibly education is missing a few things, or they need additional support. Obviously, there’s never enough money in the world for what education could possibly need or do good things with so they fundraise first and foremost. However, there’s a big branch that sometimes gets left out of the thought when you talk about PTA Legislatively, there is so much that has happened with legislation because of PTA joining forces and becoming a body of a voice a joint voice That’s a very big PTA does is combining as one giant voice saying “we are parents.”

We’re in this as a team with educators and teachers, but we are parents first and foremost, and we know what we’re hoping will happen for our children for that good, and we come together as a big body, and we speak on behalf of the kids in the schools. So I think that’s another really important part. I personally am very passionate about helping and supporting teachers.

I love teachers. I love really good teachers. And it is a tough job, and my hat goes off to anybody who chooses that job. Because I see my child, you know, for a few hours after school, a few hours before school, and then, you know, They sleep and I don’t see them when they sleep usually because I’m hoping to be asleep quickly after they’re asleep, but I see them for a very short chunks of time.

Relatively speaking, the people who see my children the most are the people at school, and that’s usually a teacher. A teacher sees first and foremost, what my child is doing throughout the day. So I love supporting teachers and PTA does a lot of that, trying to support and fill the gaps and really help to make their job, um, better so that ultimately our children can benefit.

So fundraising, legislative action, supporting teachers and admins, PTAs are not in existence to have their own agenda. PTAs are here to support what these professionals and experts know. All of the children in the school need, not just my child, but all of the school, and they take that into consideration.

So, our job is also to help be part of the team. What is the admin trying to accomplish and how can we help support that? And to represent to the admin sometimes, well, this is what our experience is like for our children and our family. Because I think, without that dialogue we have some real barriers.

Wendy Dau: Well, and I think it’s really important that that parent voice is heard. And even if there isn’t an, a 100 percent solid agreement on how to move forward, it’s, it’s this side can see how the decision making worked. You can help spread that information. And then on the other side to be able to say, oh, this is an unintended consequence of what happened.

That was not, you know, sometimes you don’t even realize that. And then when you get those parents that come forward and they. really ally with you and partner with you, then you can come up with better solutions.

Britney Wood: Yeah, but as a body, if we unify under PTA, then we can have a unified voice. If I come to you, the superintendent, with just my voice and concerns about my one child, what are the chances I’m going to be able to have those met?

How many students are in the district?

Wendy Dau: Over 13,000.

Britney Wood: Over 13,000. So the chances of each individual parent coming to you and saying, meet my children’s specific needs, and there’s 13,000 of them, that seems impossible. But if we unify as a voice and come up with a consensus of what we feel might help meet need a wide array of needs, and that’s why we’re hoping we have a wide array of parents who join PTA so that they too can have a voice and say, this is what my experience is or what my needs are in my household.

If we can come together unified and then represent that voice, it’s so much more effective. We can actually make more progress in meeting the needs of more children.

Wendy Dau: That’s absolutely true. Tell us a little bit about what your goal is as the district president.

Britney Wood: This year, I love your theme of cultivating magic.

I love that whole concept, and I think there’s a real sense of magic that happens when parents are engaged, and engaged in the education of their children, aside from just helping with homework, which Doesn’t feel good, by the way. I don’t-

Wendy Dau: It is never a positive It’s very rarely a positive experience for the child, nor for the parents.

Britney Wood: Homework is not my children’s love language. I will just out them right now. But, when a parent engages in the full education of a child, there’s really great things that can happen. And can be impactful. Especially if the parent feels like they are an ally with the school as opposed to working or contending against the school.

If we work together better as teams, there’s some really great things that can happen. But sometimes some parents feel like they’re on the outside of that for lots of reasons. I have felt that way. I have felt like I don’t really fit. I’m not sure where my place is. I’m kind of an older mom. And I have a lot of kids and I feel like I’m constantly, you know, a disaster.

I’m just basically running around like a circus monkey. And so I’m not sure if there’s a place for me. And so I think there’s lots of different reasons that people stay back and don’t participate. And our goal is to make sure that the PTA feels like there’s a place for everyone. I have a really great friend who I had asked her to help with something at one of the schools and she’s like, Oh, I can’t, I can’t do that.

And she’s very engaged. She’s a mom who’s very engaged and she’s really good with her children. And she said, I can’t do, I’m not creative. I can’t do that kind of thing. And so then we talked about something else that she wanted to do. And she’s a superstar, and she’s a superstar mom who steps forward and she gets involved in what’s happening legislatively, and she’s smart, and she’s so engaged, and she’s a powerhouse communicator.

And I thought, there’s a place for her. It doesn’t just have to be the typical PTA soccer mom who shows up with treats. It can be, but there’s a place for everybody, and we really want to create a place where all parents feel welcome, and all voices are welcome. We want to hear what their children need so that we can better advocate for their children, not just my child, right?

So that’s my goal is to create a culture that feels like everyone can come, you know If we talk about this cultivating magic theme of Disney and think about what Disney represents Everyone is welcome at you see everyone in these theme parks and everyone wants to be a part of this, this feeling. And that’s what we want.

We want PTA to feel like there’s a place for everyone. There’s a place for single dads. There’s a place for people who speak a different language. There’s a place for people who are highly educated versus people who maybe are also trying to get their education along with their children. There’s a place for everybody in PTA and everybody can take a different role.

Wendy Dau: I would really love this year to see our teachers really embrace becoming a part of the PTA as well, because I think sometimes they shy away from that. And I think it would be really great if we just started seeing ourselves as we all partner together to serve our children. That’s we all want what’s best for kids.

And the more that that happens, I think that’s when that magic will start to take place. And we break down those barriers of or just even perceptions that education isn’t supporting what a family might be supporting at home, and instead they can start to see, no, we’re, we’re all supporting the same right things for our children.

Britney Wood: Yes, that matters. I’m so glad you said that. It’s like I prepped you or bribed you or something, which I did not for the record. Just for the record, that did not happen.

Wendy Dau: It might happen after this podcast, but –

Britney Wood: We would love to see more teachers join. I mean, frequently when I’ve been able to address the teachers, I’ve said, you are the T in PTA.

You are literally in the middle, anchoring what we’re trying to do. We are all a team. We’re not working against each other. We’re supposed to be working together. Again, Not to reference my children too much, but I have no clue what they’re doing in the classroom. Their teacher does. I have no idea what the learning environment is like.

I’m not there, but the teacher does know. And so if I just listen to what my child is saying is going on at school, which of course I’m going to do first and foremost as a parent, advocate for my child, I’m going to say, okay, what was your experience? This is something I tell my kids all the time. In any given moment, There is not just one experience being had.

Two people are having a very different experience. We could have the exact same conversation. We could actually repeat each other’s words, and we will not have the same experience. If the teachers don’t come to the table letting us know what the experience is, what support they need, what’s happening in the classroom, how they are interacting with our children, I can’t better support them.

I can only represent what I know, and what I know is what my children are telling me. So if we join together better as a team, more of the needs will be met, and then we won’t be working against each other. We can work together to make all parties involved have a better experience.

Wendy Dau: Yes. Absolutely. PTA really does value public education.

It feels like there are a lot of groups or individuals that are attacking our public education system are certainly questioning it and worried about it. And so what role does PTA play in helping people understand what a great, I feel like it’s a great blessing that we have public education. Like I was raised in an environment where it’s like a public education really becomes the foundation of a democratic system and talk to me a little bit about how PTA supports that role or what, even if you want to share some experiences with the great things that are happening in public ed.

Britney Wood: Well, PTA wouldn’t really have a need to exist without public education.

Wendy Dau: That’s true.

Britney Wood: I mean, that’s exactly why we’re here, right, is because public education is a thing and it’s a great thing.

I’ll just share a little personal story really quick. My husband and I have been to India several times and in India we went out to visit this small village and to get to this school that’s in this village, you kind of go down a dirt alleyway. And my husband was working with some people with a foundation having a meeting, and I snuck out down the field, and these kids came running out of this gate from this, it was a school.

I couldn’t even tell it was a school. They came down the alleyway, and they wanted to play, and they took me back into the school, and we ended up playing. The kids came out of the classrooms with the teachers. And we played games in the yard, they’re learning English, so I could play a game that I could use one, two, or three, and I would repeat some actions with those numbers, and we had a great time.

It was an amazing experience for me. But then I learned later from our guide that was taking us around that the children in this village might have a public education, but the public education is not well supported by the government. So it’s not a quality education. The teachers leave the teachers don’t stay sometimes the teachers don’t have a great education and I got thinking about the children who live in this village.

I thought how do they break out of this? How do they come out of this lifestyle and progress and get something better? How do they get more? How do they become educated if the public education system is failing them, if it’s not teaching them? And he said, well, a lot of them have to get sponsors or funding and go to private schools.

And that just seemed to leave such disparity for, only a few kids would ever have access to that. And I got thinking about what an incredible blessing it is to have such good public education that is invested in our kids, that works together as a team. The admin works with the teachers, the teachers work with the parents where we are really focused on providing a quality education that is not something to be taken for granted. It does not exist everywhere in the world. And to not put support into public education diminishes public education. And then you’ve got people seeking other options, um, which ultimately becomes a failed system, which is kind of what we had seen during our experience that because public education was not quality, they weren’t putting more resources into it, which meant children were leaving that system.

But there are inevitably children who could not leave that system. And so then the very basis of their entire society, which was this public education, is struggling, at least in this one village. I don’t want to speak on behalf of India. I’m not an expert, but at least this one small experience I had. And I thought, what a shame that at the basis of what these children’s experiences are, that are shaping who they are as humans.

That the resources are not being sent to public education because that’s ultimately how they will move on from their situations and it’s incredible blessing that we get to have as much good quality public education as we do and it’s worth supporting It is worth supporting. It is worth backing. It is worth funding.

Wendy Dau: Well, and I think we are making strides to do a better job. At least that’s certainly our hope in Provo City School District to do a better job of making sure that our parents know what we’re teaching, why we’re teaching it, what’s happening in classrooms. They can ask questions. They can. We collaborate together and we want to make Our classrooms engaging and awesome places for their kids to be, you know, and just, just a place where they come home and, and they’re like, guess what?

We talked about, you know, this, and I learned all about, like, that’s pretty exciting to me. You know, last week we interviewed a group of students from Canyon Crest and just so cute and just, you know, and you’re like, what is your goal for this year? Well, I want to learn all the things, you know, and it’s just like, of course you do.

You just see that passion and, and their love for school and then somewhere along the line, I worry I don’t I want to make sure that that passion continues. And I just think really partnering with parents becomes really important.

Britney Wood: I agree. And I think you’re doing a really good job of providing that partnership because the communication is so open.

It’s never been easier. To communicate as a parent, to provide feedback, to ask questions, and it’s never been easier to partner with public education and to really be an advocate for your child plus an advocate for the children around you in your neighborhood.

Wendy Dau: That’s great to hear. We want to keep working on that.

What kinds of things would you like teachers to know that you hear parents talk about that you just want them to be aware of as they’re interacting with your children every single day?

Britney Wood: It’s a lot of ownership to turn over to a teacher.

Wendy Dau: Yes.

Britney Wood: And to say, you’re now responsible for teaching this child your perspectives, your viewpoints.

The curriculum isn’t always just facts, and sometimes it’s about shaping and molding who the child is. And I think sometimes parents get concerned about, losing that say in wanting to say, I still get a say in, in how my child is shaped. So, uh, for the most part, most of the comments I hear from parents are they’re just so happy to have teachers who are on the same page, who want to provide a quality, well rounded education to produce really good humans.

We’re all trying to produce really good humans. There’s not a teacher I’ve met yet that has said, I really hope after I finished teaching this math class, I have a few kids going to prison because of what I’ve taught. Like, right, right. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. All teachers that we’ve met so far, all the teachers that we know are engaged in trying to produce really good quality, well rounded, well educated children.

And that’s what I mostly hear from the parents.

Wendy Dau: That’s good. Before the start of school, I worked with some of the social studies teachers because it is an election year and it can get a little bit hairy, you know, and just talking about how we create really safe environments for all students, regardless of what their beliefs are and what their families are valuing.

It was so encouraging to me. So I want to share this with you. So you could share this with, with families. It was so encouraging to me to hear teachers talk about how they want to approach things very carefully and understanding that they don’t want to alienate any child and they want every child to feel very safe when they’re in their classroom.

And they want them to think creatively and to be themselves. And I was just so impressed by that. I was like, I wish I had a video camera so every parent could see how much care was going into this, but I so appreciate that you’re also helping us as educators recognize that you’re giving this very precious thing to us for so many hours a day, and we need to be stewards of that and be really conscientious of how we’re shaping the next generation and the relationships that we’re building with all of our parents.

Britney Wood: Yeah, I appreciate hearing that. I mean, you just start right off with like some dicey stuff.

Wendy Dau: I mean, I mean, why not? Here we go.

Britney Wood: Um, I think the best thing that comes from education, particularly public education. Uh, where public education sees a lot of diversity, right? We see a little bit of everything.

People come from a variety of backgrounds. Because of that, you see a variety of circumstances, and you see a variety of needs, and you see a variety of beliefs. Like you said, all of these things. I think the best thing about education is, the ability for it to open up your brain to see something you probably wouldn’t have seen or known or heard otherwise.

Now, are there boundaries to what that should be?

Wendy Dau: Yes.

Britney Wood: Absolutely. And I think we can partner as parents and as administrators and as teachers to say, hey, this is what kind of boundaries we feel comfortable with in my household. Or this is what we feel comfortable with in our neighborhood or in our community.

I feel like we can work together better as a team to come up with those things. But at the end of the day, I’m always reminded when you go into a classroom and you see a child, like, and you can identify kids who maybe have a struggling situation right off the bat. When you see a child like that, to remember that child didn’t get to choose.

Wendy Dau: Yeah.

Britney Wood: Where they live. That child did not get to choose the parents they have. That child did not get to choose, for better or worse, what income their parents have. That child is in the circumstance they’re in. And if we can work as parents and as a school to support whatever that circumstance looks like, that child didn’t get a choice.

So To hold anything against a child, whatever, whatever it is, whatever has shaped their beliefs or their outcomes or their viewpoints or their circumstances is unfair because no child gets to really choose who their parents are, what their household looks like, those choices are coming from adults, right?

Um, so I think we can even more so remembering that I think we can better partner as parents to work with the schools to say, this is what we’re hoping to create. This is what is important to our community. This is what’s important to our household. And I love hearing that teachers are so heavily engaged and really trying to understand everybody comes from something different and something that’s important to them.

Wendy Dau: Yes.

Britney Wood: And it’s okay. It can look different to everybody. And we can still find a way to provide good education.

Wendy Dau: I was talking with a parent earlier this week about a situation and it was, you know, it great to hear her say, you know, I’m going to advocate for my child, but I really appreciate hearing a different perspective because we do have to do what’s best for all kids.

And that makes sense to me. So thank you for taking that time and, and just being able to see that we could still problem solve and we’re working through some things to help her child be okay and make sure that it isn’t privileging one child over another, but we’re taking into account what can work for kids in that circumstance in many different parts of our district.

And it was really great. I was just like, we’re so lucky to be in this awesome space.

Britney Wood: Yes, but that is a big task. I mean, I could barely figure out what to feed all six of my children that they’re all gonna like much or eat 13, 000 students needs being met. But I think even more so, that’s why It’s really important for parents to get involved, have an open dialogue, communicate.

No one can know what they don’t know. Which means teachers and administrators can’t know what’s important or what’s happening in your household unless you speak up and say, this is how it’s impacting us. That may not be the intention, but this is how it’s impacting us. And the more of us that can have open dialogues back and forth, I think the better progress we make.

Wendy Dau: Yeah, it has just really, um, opened my eyes to when they approach problems and say, well, just tell me more about this rather than assuming the worst of an individual when you see them presuming that positive intent from a teacher or a principal, and then you’re really coming from the space of, let’s problem solve this together.

And it just works so much better. It really can be magical. I’m convinced. I knew I was going to get that word in there somehow.

Britney Wood: I mean, I’m guilty of it as a parent. You know, immediately you advocate for your child, your child says something. I’ve now raised a few children. So you kind of know that there’s sometimes again, going back to in any given moment, there are two different experiences being had with two different people.

So I’ve now learned that what they’re sharing with me might feel like was their truth. There’s also something else that’s going on. And it is really important to not just assume the worst or in public education, we’re talking about dealing with so many varieties of people. I mean, even in PTA meetings, we’ll have a variety of viewpoints coming up or a variety of questions or misunderstandings.

I am shocked at how many misunderstandings we have. Just, just from a lack of good communication and that communication, driving misunderstandings usually happens in closed spaces, behind closed doors, in private group chats, and once we open up and come into these public places like PTA meetings, school board meetings.

We, we listened to the podcast. We go on to the district website. Once we start communicating more openly, that’s when we really start to have better understanding because now we’re not restricting all of this communication down and so when we open up that dialogue and that chain of communication, I think that’s a better first approach to understanding, and I’m guilty of it.

I have been really frustrated sometimes by things I’ve heard that have gone on in classrooms, but I also am old enough to understand we can’t expect perfection. Yeah, I can’t give perfection as a parent. I cannot give you a perfect child. Oh, I have tried. It will not happen. I gave it a good go, but it’s not happening.

You will not get a perfect child from me in your school, which means I can’t parent perfectly. I don’t even know what that means. Have I shed many tears about that? Yes, I have, but I cannot parent perfectly, which means I also can’t expect a teacher to teach how many hundreds of children? Perfectly. I can’t.

I can’t give them a perfect child. They can’t give me things perfectly. And I’ve been guilty of that before, where I have immediately been upset and fired off an email and said, this is not okay, blah, blah, blah. As opposed to saying, can you help me understand what’s happening in the classroom? Can you help me understand what the situation is?

I don’t think it’s fair to immediately take the teacher’s side, but I also don’t think it’s immediately fair to a teacher to take a child’s side. There’s a space in between there where we can better communicate as parents with teachers and not assume the worst. Let’s start with the assumption we really are all on the same page.

We want something really great to come out of these experiences for our kids. We want that. And so let’s have open dialogues about how do we make this better? What happened and how do we make this better?

Wendy Dau: When our kids see that. The parents and the teachers and the administrators are all working together, and they see that there’s this community of people that want them to be successful.

You watch children actually do so much better in their education because they’re like, wow, there’s all of these people working together. And I can’t maneuver this situation or, you know, and it really does make a difference when we are working together with that than when we’re pitting ourselves against each other.

Britney Wood: And students know this. I mean, my kids know when I’m on the same team as them, they feel that support. They also feel it if I’m acting like I’m on the same team as the school. Yeah. Now, are we going to get it right 100 percent of the time? No, and we’re going to have to have some tough dialogues about how to make it better, but they know that.

And I, I mean, we’ve had situations in our household, uh, where I’ve told a child,

Wendy Dau: I can’t wait.

Britney Wood: I’ve told a child if I couldn’t tell what was actually happening. And I think the child was telling me the truth, but I, again, I don’t know what I don’t know what’s going on at school. And I told the child I am happy to come sit in your math class, I’ll meet you at the door and we can sit there together. I’ll come join your math class. That was enough, not a threat, but it was enough of a suggestion and an option to help better the situation that we were able to see results. And that’s where I, I learned, not that I actually wanted to leverage that, but I learned that we are a team in this and there’s no one perfect piece in this team, but we can communicate better.

To try to actually make improvements before we make assumptions.

Wendy Dau: I think that’s very well said anything else you want to add or share. I mean, this is your opportunity. So I want you to know how much we appreciate our relationship with the PTA. Just, you guys make such a difference in our schools, in the lives of kids, just in the lives of our teachers, they feel so appreciated and loved.

I don’t even have the words to describe the difference that it makes. What lasting, uh, words of wisdom would you want to give us or shout out what you want to leave us with.

Britney Wood: Words of wisdom might be overstretching. Fair point. Okay. Just some parting words. Well, first of all, we really appreciate the willingness from you to partner with PTA.

Again, it allows parents to feel like you have a voice, and parents should have a voice.

Wendy Dau: They absolutely should.

Britney Wood: It can’t be the only voice, but they should have a voice. It’s a piece to the puzzle, right? If we are all a team, and we’re all trying to strive after the same thing, not one of us is going to get it perfectly.

But each piece is going to be important, and we really appreciate your willingness to partnership and support PTA. The other thing I would say is that sometimes there’s a negative rap with PTA, and they’re like, I’m not a PTA mom. I just read an article the other day and she said, I’m not a PTA mom. I’m a Venmo mom.

And I was like, what is a Venmo mom? This sounds fun. And then she said, I’m the mom who doesn’t show up, but I will send you money because I want the kids to have a fun class party. And I thought, that’s great. There’s nothing wrong with being a Venmo mom. That we all have different circumstances. There are some, some parents who are working two jobs to, and still trying to get kids to school.

There are some parents who can stay home and work from home. There are dads who can take off and go on field trips, which the kids love, by the way, and there are dads who work crazy schedules or, um, can’t ever take any days off. We have so many different circumstances, but there is a place and a way every parent can contribute.

If it’s just staying up on what’s happening legislatively. If it’s just kind of spreading good information in your neighborhood, you can do that. If it’s donating money so that the PTA can provide a lunch for the teachers, you can do that. If it’s something as simple as translating documents, a lot of the PTAs, uh, we have more than one language being spoken in most of the parts of the city.

And if you could translate something, that’s helpful. If you can. Cut something at home for a teacher and assemble and fold something.

Wendy Dau: You have no idea. Yes.

Britney Wood: There’s a way to contribute whatever you have. We are all frazzled. We are all exhausted. We all have too much on our plate. Sometimes I hear people say, but I’m, I’m so busy.

And I know we’re all so busy. The teachers included. I quite frankly don’t know how teachers make dinner. I don’t know what they do. I just assumed as a kid they don’t eat.

Wendy Dau: I just door dash. We either don’t eat or it’s a door dash.

Britney Wood: They just go home and go to bed. That’s what, as a kid, I was shocked when I saw them at the grocery store.

I didn’t know teachers ate dinner. And honestly, I don’t know how they do it because we’re all tired. We’re all busy, but there is a way for every parent to get engaged. And it can be something even as simple as writing a teacher a note saying, hey, I heard this come home from my child today. And I really appreciated it, and he had a great experience.

Just support your teachers by sending an email. I think in our society, we’re so used to giving feedback only when it’s negative. And I think if you really want to help, but you really are feeling stretched too thin, and as a parent, you want to engage, and you want to have a positive impact on education, send a quick note to someone involved in education, say, thank you for choosing that job.

Thank you for being willing to spend time helping my child improve and progress in life. It does not have to be complicated to be part of PTA, but do join PTA. Some people get frustrated with spending the money for the dues. And the dues, support a variety of things up through the state level, up through the national level.

Most of that is in terms of student rewards, as well as teacher recognition programs. I mean, I’m not getting paid anything to be council president. So any of those dues that come to the council help us recognize students and teachers for their efforts. And that’s important. And the other thing it buys us is a big body, a big voice so that when legislative action comes, we can say, well, the parents care.

There’s 80, 000 of us, and we care, and this is what we care about, and this is how we want to see things improve for our children. It’s really a great, easy system to get involved. Join your PTA. Join multiple PTAs. Find out what’s happening, and find even a small way you can contribute, because everybody has something they can contribute.

It doesn’t have to look like everybody else’s contribution.

Wendy Dau: It’s amazing to me how many parents will talk about that they feel a lot more connected to the school by either being on a school community council or on PTA, they’re getting access to information and they’re learning a lot about what’s taking place in their community and in their schools.

And even just that, you know, becomes a way to be involved by joining and being part of that community. But spreading that positivity, I’m all about it. I love it. If we could have so much more of that, our schools and our city and our state would be, it already is a pretty incredible place, but it would be even better.

Britney Wood: I agree. And PTA is not a clique. It’s not a clique with an agenda. It’s a group of parents who want to see education continue to do right by our students. There’s a place for everybody. And it’s, it’s a place where we hope we really, really hope people feel welcome. They can come no matter how ridiculous they are.

They can join me in my circus monkey status. It’s fine. There’s a place for everybody. We want them there.

Wendy Dau: That’s awesome. Thank you so much, Britney, for being on our podcast this week. It was a pleasure to talk with you.

Britney Wood: Thanks for having me. It was a great pleasure.

Wendy Dau: Thank you for joining me for this episode of What’s Up With The Sup’.

As always, all episodes will be posted on the district website, YouTube, and anywhere you get your podcasts. If you have any topics or questions you would like us to discuss on the podcast, please email us at podcast@provo.edu.

We will be back again next week with an all new episode of What’s Up with the Sup’.

See you then.