Thinking Again About Possible Revisions to PTA Funding in Seattle Schools

 I've often remarked that you never know what you will find looking around the Seattle Schools website. I'm often seeking one thing and stumble on another. And so it is with Lincoln High School's PTSA webpage. 

Their PTSA has a very informative page on fundraising and the system they have (at least for now as a new school) for fundraising and where those dollars go. All bold mine.

The good news for Lincoln High:

We are delighted to announce that thanks to your generous contributions and known employer matching, we not only reached our $80,000 goal but have just hit $100,000!

They go on:

Since the re-opening just before the pandemic, every single program at our school is a nascent program, forming and emerging as more students enroll and our school grows. Many of our parents have spent very little time actually in our school and few of us have met in person. We haven’t had an in-person PTSA meeting or event since autumn of 2019!

With that in mind we, the PTSA board, realize that many of you might be wondering about the role of the Lincoln PTSA, how and why we fundraise, and how it all works at the high school level and specifically at Lincoln. We know it might be confusing and many have reached out with questions, so we are hoping this will help!

Very thoughtful because I think ALL PTAs/PTOs at ALL schools should answer those questions. It does appear that Lincoln - like many other high schools - just asks for contributions from families without selling anything or having elaborate events like auctions.

How & why is LHS PTSA funding different from other north end high schools? 

Early in the formation of the school, with an eye to equity and access, the decision was made with school administrators that Lincoln PTSA would provide the structure and support for all programs at Lincoln, even those usually supported by booster clubs, like athletics and the arts. With that in mind, the PTSA absorbed an already-forming PAL (Performing Arts for Lincoln) committee and started working toward an Athletics committee to serve all sports teams.

Now this is interesting because yes, other high schools have long-standing booster clubs for athletics and music. It is a lot easier to find out a PTA budget than it is any booster club which is generally private. To note, most high school PTSAs do not raise the kind of dollars that the booster clubs do, a fact which is NOT generally known and I have never seen in Board discussions around PTA fundraising.

We chose a text-to-donate fundraising platform that would allow us to provide an accessible fundraising platform for all of the stakeholders in our programs, like class parent representatives, sports teams, staff appreciation, community support and a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion committee.

Other north end schools form booster clubs that work independent from the school and the PTSA, potentially missing the needs of students and families who are unable to participate or who need additional support for a successful high school academic experience.

Currently, the PTSA focuses the majority of its funds on General Academic Support: grants for classroom teachers and departments to help them purchase innovative curriculum or curriculum support, additional hours for our BASH program to provide academic support to students, treats and prizes for students incentives, parent education programs, and funds to resupply consumable materials in our STEM and arts programs.

Lift Up Lincoln also includes an option for parents to direct their donation or split their donation between General Academic Support, Athletics or Performing Arts. This started as a way for us to seed these programs and support them while the school was forming. Due to the success and the high enrollment and registration in these programs, the PTSA continues to raise general funds to support them. For the past three years, donations have been designated at about 20- 25% each to Performing Arts and Athletics, and over 50% to General Academic Support.

They DO have additional fundraising:

To allow teams to raise funds for coaches’ gear, team travel and meals, and various other needs that arise, we created keywords for teams, PAL, Athletics and other committees to provide a pathway for self-funding projects. For example, safety equipment for football is significantly more expensive than flippers and kickboards for swimming. In allowing for parent representatives to identify and fundraise for immediate and athletic-specific needs, we set up a keyword for each sport. 

In addition, class parent liaisons/representatives are asked to raise funds for senior year events, so we have also set up keywords for each class to raise funds. 

Even though the PTSA only does ONE fall fundraising campaign, Lift Up Lincoln, we also help coordinate other fundraising events for each committee within our organization all year long. 

Each specific committee might use these fundraisers for community building, or they may use them to provide specific support for a project or need.

I like that idea of using funds to create community. 

Thoughts?