Parents Divided Over Plan to Form New PTA Branch

For more than a decade, the independent Parent Faculty Assn. at Westlake Elementary School provided a forum for its members who wanted to raise money and help out at the school--an alternative to the PTA groups at most schools.

But now, PFA members are poised to vote on whether to disband and regroup as a branch of the nationally affiliated PTA instead--primarily because of its stronger national organization.

Kathy Dirks, current co-chairwoman of the Parent Faculty Assn. and a leader in the move to join the PTA, said the larger organization provides training for new members, leadership on political and spending issues and insurance for group events.

“A lot of money comes through our hands and we feel as though we reinvent the wheel every year,” she said. “The PTA can provide us leadership and direction.”

She said the existing group of parents would not change if it affiliates with the PTA. It would just have more help on some issues.

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But a few mothers within the parents group are fighting the idea of hooking up with the PTA, lobbying against the move in preparation for a showdown vote Friday, saying a lot would change if the PFA disbands.

“Our community is comprised of well-educated, very involved, articulate people,” said Debra Lorier, who is leading the opposition to the PTA. “Why ask someone in Chicago or Washington to tell us how to educate, raise and discipline our kids?”

The PTA, officially the National Congress of Parents and Teachers, is now controlled by teachers’ unions, she said. It takes political stands and lobbies for causes contrary to what many members believe, including positions supporting sex education and multiculturalism throughout the curriculum, she added.

In addition, the PTA siphons off a portion of all its local membership dues to lobby for those political causes, and that money would be better spent at home for computers or playground equipment, she said.

In a last-ditch effort to keep the school from affiliating with the PTA, Lorier and another mother handed out fliers Wednesday at the curb of the school. She and a circle of four friends in the Parent Faculty Assn. plan to continue that effort today.

Tonight, they plan to set up a telephone campaign to contact as many parents as possible of the 660 students at Westlake, urging them to vote against joining the PTA.

The vote comes Friday morning at the Westlake Mother’s Day breakfast.

If it goes in favor of the PTA, it would signal a return to the flock for Westlake for the first time in more than a decade. Recollections differ about exactly why and when PTA became a PFA, but issues are said to have included keeping local dues local, and disputes over fund-raising.

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The recent flap started when Dirks and others in the existing parents group sought the additional guidelines and direction that come with the more structured national organization.

“If there is a situation that comes up, we don’t have any guidelines to handle it,” she said. “With the PTA, when a new member comes onto the board, that board member can go to classes to learn the job.”

They invited members of the PTA to address the Parent Faculty Assn. in a question-and-answer session last month.

“All we asked was that the PTA come in and talk to the PFA one day,” Dirks said. “There were no political or religious reasons. We only wanted it for the betterment of our school.”

Two conservative Conejo Unified School District board members who oppose the PTA--Elaine McKearn and Mildred Lynch--attended the meeting at Lorier’s invitation.

The meeting became contentious, with Lorier contending the group cut her off and PTA proponents claiming Lorier was disruptive.

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The move to join the PTA at Westlake comes after Newbury Park High School voted to disband its PTA in favor of an independent organization last fall and a year after Moorpark High made the same switch. Rio Mesa is also considering disbanding its PTA, said Terri Belkin, president of PTA District 12 that includes Ventura County.

But Belkin said PTA membership in the county is holding steady. Every year a few schools in Ventura County join the PTA and a few others opt out.

In 1991, there were 119 units or school sites with PTA organizations. Belkin had no figures available for 1992, but by 1993, that figure had increased to 123. It was down one unit the following year, down to 118 in 1995 and back to 119 in 1996.

In the Conejo Valley, 18 of the district’s 26 schools belong to the PTA.

Of the average $4 or $5 PTA membership fees, $2.75 goes to district, state and national branches.

One Thousand Oaks PTA leader, Colina Intermediate School PTA President Peggy Buckles, acknowledged that the group takes stands that some find objectionable. The PTA supports sex education and HIV awareness, and opposed the voucher initiative, all issues that generated impassioned debate.

But she said the PTA is a necessary and strong collective voice for children.

“There are some people in our town and even on our school board with ultra conservative ideas who would like to see the PTA dismantled,” Buckles wrote in a school newsletter. “These people would like to see public education crumble.”

Lorier said she wants no such thing. But she does want public education and the PTA to take a more conservative approach.

She cites as an example of misguided national policies a recent teachers’ union resolution supporting the celebration of Thanksgiving at school from the perspective of other cultures.

“Thanksgiving is a day to give thanks to God for the blessings we have, not to celebrate multiculturalism,” she said.

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Belkin said the PTA’s position including all cultures in education is an important one for parents and students.

“We recognize that ethnicity and different cultures are among us and that we should learn more about them,” she said. “It only makes people fearful and bigoted if they don’t know or can’t understand other cultures.”