Dedication And Success Motivate Farnell Middle School PTA President

As the new school year approaches, we caught up with some of the Westchase area's busiest PTA parents. Here's what Michelle Mayfield, incoming PTA President at Farnell Middle School, had to say:

Patch: How did you get involved with the PTA?

Mayfield: I got involved in the PTA with my good friend Julie Escobar 10 years ago at with helping in Memberships and Box Tops. Since 2004 I have been a PTA/PTSA President at Mary Bryant Elementary, MacFarlane Park IB Elementary, Farnell Middle School and Alonso High School.   Believe it or not - Julie is still with me on my Farnell Board this year!!  

Patch: What are your duties?  

Mayfield:The PTA President you are looked upon as a leader. You show guidance, support, creativity and organizational skills. A PTA is success because of the awesome team of people that is put together to form the PTA Board and Committees. I have been extremely fortunate to have been with various groups of these awesome parents.  Whether you are the President, hold a VP position or chair a committee - we all jump in and help where needed.  We are all very dedicated and want whats best for our kids.

Patch: What's the hardest part of your role?

Mayfield: The hardest part of being the president is - at times it seems there are not enough hours in the day to or not enough hands to do everything.  In this role you have to be very dedicated.  Dedication and success drives you to do your very best and want to make things easier and convenient or our students, teachers and families. This means constant communication, updates, emailing weekly newsletters, planning events, etc.  There have been many times where I would look up from my computer and it would be 2am.  That is probably one of the hardest things for me - knowing when to let go and say "that is good enough".

Patch: What's the most fun part of your role?

Mayfield: The most fun part of being a PTA President is when you have accomplished a goal and you see the results that make an impact on the school, students, families and community!  In my years of presidency I have lead my groups to build: 2 PE court covers,built a par fitness course, artificially turfed a school's campus for more usable room, raised thousands for technology and teacher classroom mini-grants as well as created/designed websites to enhance communication within the school community.  When you see the impact a PTA Board can have on a school - it is truly a wonderful feeling.  

Patch: What do you hope to accomplish as Farnell PTA president?

Mayfield: Each year a PTA has a goal or mission. This year's goal at Farnell is to expand our Health and Fitness Program.  We are working directly with a team of terrific Farnell PE Coaches to achieve this goal. We already have several events that will enable us to succeed. We are looking forward to hosting a Family Fitness Night, Community Health Expo, various teacher vs. student sporting events. We want to be able to provide our students, teachers and families with an atmosphere to generate positive, healthy thinking.