Helen Street School Staff Tops in PTA Membership

Helen Street School PTA has accomplished a monumental task: enrolling 93 percent of their school’s full and part-time Hamden Public School employees, winning the Hamden PTA Council's membership drive. 

Of the school’s 58 staff members, 54 of them have become PTA members.   

“The Council didn't make it easy this year, but we were up to the challenge!,” said membership chair Kathy Senco.

“Our aim was to put the “T” for teachers back in PTA,” said Hamden’s PTA membership vice-president Marjorie Clark.  ”Parents are a key component of a school’s success, and they feel more supported when teachers and staff join them.”

This is the second year that the Hamden PTA Council has offered a $200 incentive to the first of the district’s elementary PTA units to reach the “90 percent of staff” goal. 

This is also the second year that Helen Street School has won the prize.  They have grown from a handful of members two years ago to more than 200 today, and are just 50 members short of having one membership for every child in the school. 

Not coincidentally, many say, the school got a new principal, Michael Lorenzo, in 2010, and with new administration comes new ideas and energy.

PTA stands for Parent Teachers Association and is the largest child advocacy group in the United States, with more than 4 million members nationwide.  Likewise, Connecticut PTSA (parents, teachers and students) is the largest child advocacy group in the state with more than 50,000 members, more than 1,000 of them in Hamden alone.

“We can do so much more for children, our own and those who don’t have a voice, when we work together,” said Melinda Saller, current Hamden PTA Council President and Connecticut PTSA’s VP of Membership.  “We’re so proud of the work that Helen Street PTA has done, and will continue to do, with all these new members.”

Helen Street PTA is working to qualify for a $300 prize from CT PTSA for reaching 100 percent of membership for every child.  Membership dues are only $5 and are tax deductable. To join, contact Kathy Senco at  kathyseneco@yahoo.com.

The Hamden PTA Council is made up of PTA representation from each of Hamden’s public schools: eight elementary schools, Hamden Middle School and Hamden High School. Its mission is to not only promote the ideals of the greater PTA organization, but to offer support, advice, advocacy and community to our member PTA units, their members and all of Hamden’s children.