This south Charlotte PTA was just recognized as the best in the country for 2023
.jpeg "Huntingtowne Farms Elementary’s PTA hosts “Donuts with Dear Ones” in January.")
This was hardly your typical school bake sale.
But this isn’t your average PTA, either.
When the parent-run organization for Huntingtowne Farms Elementary School decided to hold a “Donuts with Dear Ones” event in January — a catchall version of what many schools do as “Muffins with Mom” or “Donuts with Dad” — it became a mission to find enough glazed doughnuts to feed the crowd.
The morning event drew more than 700 students and their loved ones; the school enrolls about 850 children. PTA members bought out doughnuts from every local Food Lion and Walmart. Late-night runs were made to find more.
They ended up needing 65 dozen doughnuts. (That’s 780 doughnuts, if you don’t want to do the math.)
“We know many of our students have families that include multiple moms or dads, no moms or dads, grandparents, aunts and uncles, and we didn’t want to be prescriptive in what a special day with a loved one might look like,” PTA president Lorin Bent said. “It was a really sweet morning where families ate at communal tables together before students headed to class.”
Bent says the Huntingtowne Farms PTA embraces diversity and incorporates inclusiveness in all of its events. Its mission to reflect families’ voices and meet their needs has earned it national recognition.
PTO Today, a resource for school parent groups, this month named the Huntingtowne Farms Elementary PTA the 2023 National School Parent Group of the Year.
“Our goal each year is to provide support and scaffolding for our staff, students, and families so that they can thrive,” Bent said.
Embracing diversity
Huntingtowne Farms Elementary has students from 18 different countries who speak 12 different languages. About 65% of its students speak Spanish as the first language, and two of six classes in each grade are dual language.
Bent, who served her first year as president during 2022-23, shifted the PTA to reflect that diversity: officers appointed someone to take the lead in reaching out to Spanish-speaking families, partnered with Latina family advocates and ensured they had an interpreter and headsets for every PTA meeting.
The PTA moved away from email for communications and instead relies on ParentSquare, the school’s tool that automatically translates everything into a user’s preferred language. They handed out fliers in Spanish when parents waited in pick-up lines and provided child care and refreshments to increase attendance at PTA meetings.
PTA monthly meeting attendees are majority Spanish-speaking, and overall attendance has increased from an average of 10 members to 30 in the past year.
During the 2022-23 school year, the Huntingtowne Farms PTA hosted its first Latin Family Night, where hundreds of families enjoyed music, dancing and donated food from local Latin restaurants.
The PTA also hosted the second annual Fox Fun Run, the group’s major fundraiser. The fun run raised $40,000, and that money goes directly to supporting students and families inside and outside the classroom. The first fun run raised $32,000.
“It is incredible, especially considering our school is comprised of 86% families who fall into the low (socioeconomic status) category,” Bent said.
More to come
Fabiola Escarcega was the PTA’s Spanish-speaking families lead last year. She and her family moved to Charlotte in August 2021.
Her parents, especially her dad, always joined the PTA when she and her siblings were children, so joining the Huntingtowne Farms PTA was a natural step to take, “particularly in order to understand the public school system in North Carolina,” she said.
Escarcega said she noticed a very low number of Spanish-speaking families attending events and PTA meetings, despite the school’s diversity.
“I learned that many families at Huntingtowne Farms were not involved in school life, in general, and PTA activities particularly because they didn’t know about any of them and/or they don’t speak English,” Escarcega said. “Having faced the challenge to research, understand and navigate through the system myself, I felt the need to help those who don’t have the skills and knowledge I’m fortunate to own, by providing them with information and making them see that they already are part of a community willing to know and embrace them.”
The results, she said, have been amazing: parents are attending monthly meetings and answering the call for volunteers in different activities for the first time in their children’s school life.
“This is just the beginning,” Escarcega said. “We have many ideas for the years to come, and with such outcomes we are fully committed to accomplishing more every time.”
As the National School Parent Group of the Year winner for 2022-23, the Huntingtowne Farms Elementary PTA will receive a $500 Visa gift card and a commemorative plaque from PTO Today.
“We have a lot more work to do to increase engagement and ensure the PTA reflects the voices of all families,” Bent said, “but we’re really proud of the community we’ve built.”
This story was originally published July 17, 2023 at 6:00 AM.
