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Overview
Alexandria City’s PTAs work tirelessly to raise funds, advocate, and provide support for their schools. But an individual PTA’s capacity to raise money is often reflective of the economic circumstances of its parent membership and the community at large. This uneven playing field can result in large disparities in PTA
budgets among schools, which then impacts equity.
Well-resourced PTAs can fund assemblies, field trips, teacher grants, playground and classroom equipment, among many other school needs, while PTAs with fewer resources and volunteers struggle. Inequitable PTA resources then lead to inequitable opportunities for students.
Addressing the problem of budget equity in Alexandria PTAs
Recently, Alexandria City Council of PTAs (known locally as PTAC), established an Equity Fund. It did so in an effort to support some of the less-resourced Alexandria City PTAs in their quests to fulfill specific initiatives aligned with family engagement and other priorities championed by PTAC and Virginia PTA.
The Equity Fund allows PTAC to disburse funds in the form of grants, submitted by PTA units. PTAC reviews each request and votes to approve, amend before approving, or deny each request. The Equity Fund is shown as a line item in PTAC’s budget, with the total dollar amount available that can be divided between requesting units.
Details
How it’s calculated
PTAC collects the most recent budgets of its PTA units as well as the latest student attendance numbers for all schools. It then uses a formula to:
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Determine the dollar-student ratio given their proposed (pre-grant) budget for all units
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Determine a minimal dollar/student budget number.
How it’s funded
PTAC wants to provide grants to ensure that all units are on the same playing field. But where does it come from? There are two main sources:
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Spring2Action
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Local PTA dues
How it’s used
Our local PTAs can access the Equity Fund in two ways:
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To help with operational costs (this situation applies mostly Title I Schools’ PTAs)
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To help with special events, programs, initiatives, resources, etc. through grant application and approval process (All PTAs)
The grant request form must be completed and returned to Treasurer@alexvaptac.org.
Preference is given to initiatives that serve to "kick start" long term efforts and to those in Title 1 schools.
PTAs who receive funding from the Equity Fund must use the money in the way they were specified in
their requests.
For any questions or clarifications, please contact:
President@alexvaptac.org