"For the first time in at least a decade, a parent-teacher organization has been formed at Charlottesville High School.

The PTO adopted bylaws last month and elected officers last week.

“We want to get parents enthused and engaged,” said PTO President Arthur Lichtenberger. “It’s important to have energy in the school system and get everyone on the same page.”

The other elected officers are Karl Ackerman, vice president; Carolyn Harris, secretary; and Stacie Reid, treasurer.

Lichtenberger, an engineering research professor at the University of Virginia with a son who is a senior at CHS, said parents had been lamenting that there was no effective way to communicate with teachers and administrators.

“There hadn’t been a clear channel for communication,” he said. “It occurred on an ad hoc basis.”

Last spring, a group of parents and teachers got together to discuss creating a PTO. Dozens of people showed up at the initial meeting and 15 to 20 were actively involved with the nuts and bolts of the organizing process this summer and fall, Lichtenberger said.

“We grabbed the bull by the horns in the spring and said, ‘Let’s make this happen,’” Lichtenberger recalled.

Kris Kishore, a history teacher who has taught at CHS for seven years, said the PTO would improve communication between parents and the school.

“The most important thing is to facilitate communication with parents who have questions and suggestions,” he said.

The PTO would also better enable parents to find ways to support students and teachers, Kishore believes.

“There is a lot of expertise in this community,” he said. “That is an untapped resource. We want parents to get involved in helping student learning, in various ways, such as tutoring and making presentations to classes.”

The creation of the PTO was supported by the CHS administration. The school’s three assistant principals attended Tuesday’s elections.

“We’re excited about this,” Assistant Principal Gretchen Feury said. “Promoting communication between parents and the school is an important thing and this is one more way to do that.”

Lichtenberger is thankful for the administration’s support.

“The school has backed this 100 percent,” he said.

Parents, teachers and administrators hope to involve students in the PTO. The bylaws allow for two student representatives on the executive committee. Lichtenberger said details of how that will work are still being ironed out.

“Students are the bottom line,” he said. “The more student involvement there is, the better.”

The PTO will meet at 7 p.m. on the first Tuesday of every month in the A Commons area of CHS.

A key goal this year will be to get more parents involved with the school in ways that the administration believes would be useful, such as volunteering in classrooms and participating in booster clubs, Lichtenberger said.

Carol Easterlin, a school counselor who has worked at CHS for eight years, thinks that more parents will jump on board now that the PTO is up and running.

“People have been enthusiastic about this,” she said. “It’s exciting to see how many people are interested in it.”

Parents interested in getting involved can e-mail Lichtenberger at arthurW@virginia.edu." (Barney Breen-Portnoy, The Daily Progress, December 10, 2007)