Meade High School PTSA wants parents to play a more active role in the school by volunteering and attending meetings.
“Last year we started the program No Parent Left Behind. We want to get 10 hours [of volunteer work] out of you a year,” said Otha Thornton, vice president of the school?s Parent Teacher Student Association.
Meade parents logged 6,000 hours of documented volunteer time last year in everything from helping with school clubs to tutoring students, he said.
“We want to continue to stress academic rigor and increase opportunities for our kids,” Thornton said.
Calling parents and inviting them to volunteer or attend school meetings goes a long way, he said.
“Every little bit helps from answering phones at the school to greeting teachers as they come in the school,” said PTSA membership Chairwoman Carol Miller.
“It?s a bit easier to spread the good word then the bad word. We strive to be part of the solution.”
The PTSA seems ready for another active year in the community since it passed its membership goal, Thornton said.
The goal was 260 members, and the number stands at 275, consisting of 148 parents, 90 students, 31 teachers and six honorary members.
“The vision for the PTSA is making every child?s potential a reality,” said Otha Miller, president of the PTSA and husband of Carol Miller.
Part of the vision the PTSA supports is a Homeland Security signature program, which will partially begin next school year. The thematic program will allow all high school students to study diverse subjects dealing with homeland security and a smaller group of students to study topics on a deeper level, said Maureen McMahon, the school system?s director of advanced programs and studies.
Program classes could include national and international criminal justice and languages such as Chinese and Arabic, Otha Miller said.
Miller said the school is in a perfect area with companies, such as NASA and defense and technology company Northrop Grumman Corp., so close. “Both the military, the National Security Agency and nonmilitary employees such as Northrop Grumman are engaged with us to design the program,” McMahon said.
IF YOU GO
» What: Meade High School Parent Teacher Student Association
» When: 7 p.m. Nov. 13
» Where: Meade High School media center, 1100 Clark Road, Fort Meade
