I believe that OUTreach (i.e. engaging the local community outside our school) and, even moreso, INreach (my term for increasing family engagement) should be the primary focus of the PTA. Any advances we can make in these two areas will have tremendous roll-down impact on all other aspects of the PTA's mission (student achievement, fundraising, etc.)

Some ideas on where we can start:

1. Reach out to other PTAs to share "best practices" in family involvement. I recently read (see page 2) that Beacon Hill Elementary has had some recent improvement in outreach to Spanish-speaking families. Does anyone have any contacts at that school?. Here are some ideas from a school in Florida.
2. Translation. I know many of our families are not English speakers. I remember hearing somewhere that 20 or more languages are spoken within our school community. Does anyone have an idea of which languages are most prevalent? Does the district provide any translation/interpretation services that might be available to the PTA?
3. Access - How easy is it for people to access the school via public transportation? How can this be improved?
4. Parent/Family Area at school - We have applied for a grant through Lowe's to transform the PTA room at school into a place where parents and families can interact. Unfortunately, we didn't win the grant, but perhaps we can find other ways to make this happen?

These are just some thoughts to get the conversation started. Do you agree that this should be a primary PTA focus? Do you have any other ideas on what we should try? What other things have we tried in the past?