It’s Not What You Think

It’s been over half a century since Jeannie C. Riley wrote and released the country-pop classic where a teenaged daughter delivers a note to Mrs. Johnson from the Secretary of the Harper Valley PTA. In the note, Mrs. Johnson was accused of wearing her dresses “way too high,” drinking, running around with men and “going wild.” It was the opinion of the PTA that Mrs. Johnson shouldn’t be “bringing up your little girl this way.” If you’re familiar with the song, you’ll know that Mrs. Johnson shows up to the very next PTA meeting and outs them as a bunch of “Harper Valley hypocrites,” It’s impossible not to feel gleeful when a young woman socks it to these judgy busy bodies.

Despite many decades of evolution within the education system, for some reason, the idea that the school parental advisory board is riddled with mean-spirited hyper-parents remains. In this article you’ll meet the new-school PAC leaders who, through kindness and care, are shining a light on an old story.
 
Carolyn Doyle and Nykayla Green are co-chairs of École Isabel Dicken Elementary School. When Carolyn was asked why she joined PAC, she answered with the word “connection” and added, “you might just meet your best friends there.” Like Nykayla, she also cited that having a direct line to what’s going on in the school is a great opportunity.

Nykayla expanded on this, pointing out that with 563 kids at EIDES the administrators are spread thin so facetime with the Principal, Vice Principal, the School Board Trustee is valuable. Nykayla said she joined PAC to learn about the school and ask questions about learning opportunities for her kids, curriculums, adaptive learning processes, bus routes, school demographics, education materials and community connections.

Mark Elson is the Fernie Secondary School PAC Acting Chair. While high school students have a different focus, Mark echoed a similar sentiment, joining PAC to help foster connections between the school and the community in general.

Mark also believes belonging to the PAC is a great opportunity to be involved in bringing positive school experiences to the students. As an example, Mark spoke to allocating funding to diverse groups within the school; from sports teams going to provincials, the outdoors club requesting specialized equipment, procurement of a new sound system for the drama club, or assistance to a student council trip to Victoria to experience the legislative process. As a bonus, students gain excellent experience presenting a proposal to the board.

Another positive aspect of attending the high school PAC meetings that Mark suggests are the updates from the Principal and Athletic Director. These help keep you abreast of the school happenings, special visits and victories that your teenaged child might not be interested in sharing with you! It’s heartening to experience the youthful energy of the students and witness the extra time and effort teachers are investing in their students and it can help provide reassurance that when your child heads out the door they are indeed getting exposed to many varied and interesting experiences. 

Nykayla ventured to say that PAC’s extra financial support to the administration year over year is pretty essential. The school is low on the list for provincial fundraising and through fundraising and applying for grants PAC steps in to bridge the gap. For example, PAC assistance enabled the installation of a new playground, and with an eye to the future, they plan to support critical upgrades to the kindergarten playground. The EIDES PAC also creates the school yearbooks and produces the year-end school play, providing an opportunity to perform in a community-wide show.

A fundraising idea of Carolyn’s that has become a favourite of PAC driven initiatives is the Great Big Used Book Fair. She loves that it encourages literacy with affordable/free books and does it in an environmentally friendly way. 

When each of the chairs was asked about barriers that prevent parents from showing up to the monthly meetings, each of them resolutely declared that time was the main issue.

Carolyn acknowledged how busy everyone is but suggested if every EIDES parent gave PAC the gift of just a little bit of their time it would be amazing the things we could do for the kids. Nykayla added that they really work hard to keep their meetings to an hour and that usually someone brings a tasty treat! She stated that the payoff on what you learn about what’s going on in the school and the connections you make with our community members is totally worth it.

Convinced? Look for information about the first PAC meeting in September 2026 and come see for yourself.

Reflections on PAC collected by a different Mrs. Johnson who has spent 13 years going to PAC meetings.