Many schools have an active Parent Teacher Club also known as the PTC. For Cardozo Middle School (CMS), it has been many years since it has had an organized parent group working with the school. Husband and wife Andres and Gloria Aguirre, along with a few other parents, recently decided that it was time to form a new PTC at Cardozo.
The idea began late last year when the Parent Networking Center created a “morning coffee” program where parents would gather along with school staff to share knowledge and build skills to ensure student success. Currently they only have a few parents in the club and have only met four times since deciding to establish the organization.
Cardozo Principal Kevin Bizzini was at the meeting that was held earlier this month and will try to attend as many as possible.
“We are just getting started,” said Aguirre. “They had morning coffees and Mr. Bizzini informed us that they wanted to start having more parent involvement in the school. So that is when we all came together. These are the people that are usually at the coffees all the time. So it was us that just kind of made the PTC.”
They meet the first Wednesday of every month at 9 a.m. at the Parent Networking Center and welcome any family member of any student at Cardozo to join them. The next meeting will be April 3.
“Having an active parent-teacher organization at Cardozo Middle School is a critical component for reaching our goal of increasing parent engagement and building shared capacity to support every student,” stated Bizzini. “In our inaugural year, we have a very dedicated group of parents that have a very focused purpose; they have demonstrated a strong desire to support our students and our teachers.”
Andres took on the President role, Gloria is the secretary and Angel Robles is the Treasurer. Andres was asked to be President or rather “voluntold,” as he explained it, offering a big smile and a chuckle. They are in the planning stages for some upcoming fundraisers and are excited to help boost the morale of the students.
“I was tired of my son coming home and telling me that school was boring,” said Andres. “So I kind of wanted to boost morale and since doing this I can see that his morale has been boosted. His grades are a little bit better. So just showing parent involvement with the students is probably going to help a lot of students around here. I think that is what is missing in this school.”
“We do work together to come to consensus on projects and fundraising ideas,” added Bizzini. “I can provide clarity around any guidelines that may need to be considered when involving students or the use of facilities. They definitely provide the community and parents’ perspective that is invaluable when making decisions on the behalf of our students and our school.”
The PTC has plans to host a breakfast in the morning on May 22 for the eighth grade class that will be promoted to high school. Bizzini expressed there is an impressive and aggressive calendar that the PTC is working on for the remainder of the year. They have other ideas that they have been working on as well that would include a DJ on Fridays.
“They are eager to show their support for our school,” said Bizzini. “I am very much looking forward to working with dedicated and supportive parents.”
Although the club is small with only a few parents the new PTC has hope that once the word is out that more families will participate. With more members the club will be able to host more fundraisers and do more things to engage students, parents and staff.
“I want to make sure that the parents know that there is something that the school is offering to bridge the gap between parents and students,” expressed Andres. “We hope to get more parents involved with their student’s academics. If we care, they care.”
With a seventh grader at CMS and two children at Mesa Verde Elementary the Aguirre’s plan to be around for a long time and are very passionate to be a part of the club.
The Parent Networking Center is open Monday through Friday. For more information call 209-863-0837.
