From the Washington State PTA

WAPTA will no longer have a lobbyist at the Legislature.   Expect to be asked to send someone from your school/region to the Legislature to testify; it will become more important than ever.

Dear WSPTA Members:
As you may have heard, WSPTA took action this week to align our staffing and expenditures with our mission. In particular, WSPTA eliminated three positions on our staff, and made other spending plan changes to align our actions with our mission. We acknowledge these changes will be difficult for the three employees who have left us and for those of you who had meaningful relationships with them. We wish those affected the very best in the future. I want to explain why we took the staffing and cost realignment actions and what we can expect in the future as a result of these changes.

As the WSPTA Executive Director, I understand that “everything we do is for kids.” Every dollar we receive from a member must be spent on our mission. Members must be supported with the tools they need. I was hired by the Board to ensure the organization’s current and future sustainability. When they hired me, the Board sought to supplement membership dues with grants and other resources. Also, the Board wanted better communications with membership. My first action was to direct a complete review of all operations. This included all staff positions for current and future contribution to our mission requirements. No position, including my own, was exempt from the review. It included consideration of new potential positions. More on that later.

The Board had already begun an assessment of the IT infrastructure and our database. Recently we completed this work. We determined that the organization was better served by outsourcing most IT functions. As a result of the decision, the database administrator position was eliminated, at a substantial budget savings. We expect service levels to rise significantly and will hold our database vendor accountable. This will provide the best service to our members, board and staff.

Also, we eliminated the governmental relations position. The present Board seeks to return the organization to the grassroots efforts for which we have been known historically. Our greatest impact has and will come in the future from parents, teachers and students, passionately testifying before the legislators. We will not leave those who take up our cause unsupported or unprepared. WSPTA will engage lobbyists as needed to prepare our members and staff to testify and lobby our agenda. This may take many different forms in the future.

Finally we eliminated an administrative position, primarily with bookkeeping functions. Our remaining staff is now asked to absorb additional functions and we will supplement with outsourcing as needed. These staffing changes alone will allow us to devote about $120,000 each year to our core mission at a time more critical than ever for Washington’s schoolchildren.

Our review did not involve only staffing. We scrutinized expenditures and budget as well. We reduced the cost of board and other meetings. Some Board members, have elected to donate meeting expense reimbursements as an additional contribution. All these changes are expected to result in savings of about $100,000 per year. This is again, more money for our mission-critical actions.

Our great organization cannot survive or sustain itself without making tough decisions. We acknowledge they are painful for those affected. But we must move forward together. We truly believe that these changes will drive forward our mission, ensuring that every child has the education and tools they need to be successful in life.

Thank you for your support! If you have questions, please communicate with us. I promise we will return every phone call and email on these issues.

Kathryn Hobbs, Executive Director, WSPTA