Advocacy in Action
March 29 ACPTA Meeting
Advocacy in Action
How to Make Your Voice Heard
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With Your PTA
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With the Austin Council of PTAs
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At the Austin ISD Level
What is advocacy?
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Why should I be an advocate?
How do I get started?
The focus today is
LOCAL ADVOCACY
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AISD Public Input Meetings
ACPTA
AISD UpClose
AISD Committees
District Advisory Council
AISD Board of Trustees
AISD Public Input
Opportunities
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Community Meetings
Surveys
ACPTA
With your PTA’s approval of a resolution, you
could bring an issue or concern to the ACPTA
level for discussion and possible action
http://acpta.txpta.org/
AISD UpClose
http://archive.austinisd.org/inside/initiatives/upcl
ose/index.phtml
AISD Committees
Standing Advisory Bodies
 Boundary Advisory Committee
 Budget and Finance Advisory Committee
 Community Bond Oversight Committee
 District Advisory Council
 English Language Learner Citizens Advisory Committee
 School Health Advisory Council
 Special Education Citizens Advisory committee
 Strategic Compensation Steering Committee
Ad Hoc Advisory Bodies
 Capital Improvement and Bond Planning Advisory Committee (CIBPAC)
 Performing Arts Center (PAC) Task Force
Periodic Advisory Bodies
 Calendar Task Force
 Citizens Bond Advisory Committee
http://archive.austinisd.org/inside/advbodies/
Previous Related Task Forces Strategic Plan 2010-15
 Facility Master Plan Task Force
 Community Committee on Neighborhoods & Schools
 Facility Use and Boundary Task Force
 Early Childhood Task Force
 African American Quality of Life Task Force
 Hispanic Quality of Life Task Force
 Safety Task Force
 Cultural Connections to Teaching & Learning Task Force
 East Side Action Coalition Report
http://archive.austinisd.org/inside/initiatives/strategic_plan/relatedreport
s.phtml
How could I get involved with
an AISD committee?
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http://archive.austinisd.org/inside/advbodies/a
pplication.phtml
Welcome!
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Andrew Smiley, Chair, AISD School Health
Advisory Council
http://archive.austinisd.org/schools/shac/acco
mplishments.phtml
http://www.sustainablefoodcenter.org/about/s
taff
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What if your PTA wanted to get involved with
this issue?
What could you do?
Texas PTA Resolution:
School Recess
Because Texas PTA has already taken a position on this issue with a
resolution, your PTA has the “OK” to proceed in taking action!
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Be it resolved that the Texas PTA and constituent associations
recommend that Texas school districts develop policies for school
recess that include unstructured outdoor play, unstructured indoor
play for inclement weather days, educating students on safe
playground rules, ensuring the safety of playground equipment and
developing an adequate adult to student ratio that should not
exceed one adult to 30 students, and
Be it resolved that the Texas PTA and its constituent associations
oppose any child being refrained from school recess as a
disciplinary measure, for academic reasons, or inappropriate
classroom behavior.”
2012 Texas PTA Resolutions
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Strong school libraries
Reduction in childhood obesity
Violence prevention in schools
Fine arts in the core curriculum
Cement kiln regulation
http://www.txpta.org/resource-library/entry/legislative-resolutions/
In 2011, Texas PTA worked to:
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Minimize cuts to funding for public education
Pass legislation to address bullying, including cyberbullying, in
schools
Pass legislation to ban possession of K-2 or Spice, a powerful
synthetic cannabis sold as incense
Maintain class size limits in grades K-4 and maintaining the
parental notification requirement when a waiver of class limits is
obtained
Maintain School Health Advisory Councils
Maintain Fitnessgram, although it was reduced
Maintain the Back to School Sales Tax Holiday
http://www.txpta.org/legislative/
Texas PTA Resolutions or
Legislative Positions
There is a process through which a local PTA,
council PTA, area PTA or the Texas PTA board can
submit resolutions or legislative positions for
consideration by the Texas PTA convention body.
The resolution or legislative position must have been
presented to and adopted by the voting body of the
submitting group.
http://www.txpta.org/legislative/resolutions-and-positions/
Criteria
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Each resolution or legislative position submitted to the Texas
PTA is subject to consideration by a committee of the Texas PTA
Board of Directors and must meet the following criteria:
 Concern the program of the Texas PTA;
 Be in harmony with national and state PTA policies noncommercial, nonpartisan, nonsectarian;
 Concern a matter of national or state scope, not merely local
interest;
 Request action that is both physically and financially feasible for
the Texas PTA to undertake; and
 State a position not previously adopted by the Texas PTA.
Many topics can be covered by either a
resolution or a legislative position; a resolution
says, "We believe something should
happen..." while a legislative position says,
"We want a law requiring something to
happen..."
Your School’s CAC
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Because your CAC includes both school employees
and parents, a recommendation through the CAC
can be powerful.
CACs can address a variety of topics, like school
safety or new initiatives.
http://archive.austinisd.org/inside/cac/index.phtml
The PTA and/or the CAC are
on board….now what?!
It’s time to visit the AISD Board of Trustees and
speak during Citizens Communication!
General Guidelines for
Citizens Communication
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2 minutes to speak
Prepare handouts, like a letter describing the
situation and the requested action
The day of the meeting, you can sign up between
7:45 am - 4:45 pm in the Superintendent’s Office or
between 4:45 pm - 7 pm in the Board Auditorium
Because you’ve done all of your homework, you can
say you are speaking “on behalf of” your PTA and/or
CAC
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Before you go, check out the board’s agenda
so you know what’s ahead for the night and
what time to expect Citizens Communication
to start
http://archive.austinisd.org/inside/board/meeti
ngs.phtml
District Advisory Council
Another group you could share your position statement with is the
District Advisory Council. This could help raise awareness of an
issue at the district level. The DAC provides review and comment
of:
 District Educational Program
 District Performance
 District Improvement Plan
 Student Code of Conduct
 District Staff Development Plan
 Waiver Requests to the State
 District Budget
DAC Membership
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68 total members
2 parents and 2 teachers from each vertical team
Principals
Employees
Community & business representatives
2 ACPTA members
3 at-large members
http://archive.austinisd.org/inside/dac/index.phtml
Initiating An Advocacy Project
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An advocacy project is:
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In alignment with Texas PTA purposes
Educational, promotes participation, or supports
an adopted position/resolution regarding an issue
A collaboration for parents, schools and the
community at large
Approved by membership
Local PTA Resolutions
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If there is not a Texas PTA resolution or
legislative position on the topic your PTA is
pursuing and you are starting from scratch:
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DO get approval of membership
DO adopt positions that benefit all and are not
divisive to the association
DO NOT adopt a position that duplicates or
conflicts with an existing position/resolution of
Texas or National PTA
Your Advocacy Project
Things to keep in mind if you want to pursue a local
advocacy project:
 How will this benefit ALL the children in your school?
 How are you going to keep your members informed?
 What if you need to change or modify your plan?
 What issues are important to your school or
community?
Have any of your schools adopted positions
with your PTA or CAC and spoken before the
AISD Board of Trustees?
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We all need to learn how to be the best advocates
we can be.
Because you are a leader at your school, you
already have a lot of tools and traits to be a
successful advocate!
You can also identify other volunteers who have
these skills and recruit them to coordinate advocacy
actions.
It’s about more than your children’s school
campus…..
In fact, it is bigger than Austin ISD.
The question really is:
“How can you support the school district as a
whole and potentially even public education
in Texas??”
The 2013 legislative session is coming at us fast!
There are big issues to face:
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Budget
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School finance
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STAAR and end-of-course exam
WHAT CAN YOU DO?
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Educate yourself about the issues
Talk to other public education supporters about what
is going on
VOTE (at all levels)!!
Stay tuned for updates from Texas PTA and ACPTA
leading up to the legislative session
Be prepared to take action during the legislative
session (January – May 2013)
What’s Next?
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Take a look at the some of the web sites
mentioned in today’s presentation.
Be on the lookout in the fall for more
information about state legislative issues.
“Far and away the best prize that life offers is the chance to
work hard at work worth doing.” –Theodore Roosevelt
Questions & Comments
Casie Wenmohs
ACPTA Legislative Coordinator
[email protected]