Our community has been fortunate to have had a marvelous thrift shop, the PTA Thrift Shop, whose profits once were dedicated to supporting students, teachers, and staff by helping fund the PTAs in the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools (CHCCS) district. Thrift stores are a wonderful way to recycle useful goods like clothes, furniture, or books into our community. Anyone could find used clothing or household goods at a very reasonable cost, and for some, the low-cost items are more than just a good find – they are a necessity.
The good old days. At its inception in the 1970s and for several decades, the PTA Thrift Shop relied on a model of parent and student volunteers and a few paid staff for operations to provide regular financial support to CHCCS schools through their PTAs. Volunteer labor helped develop a strong community appreciation. It encouraged a culture of generous donations, hard work, and loyalty that helped sustain the PTA Thrift Shop for years. As the energetic women who volunteered at the stores returned to work in the 1980s, the volunteer model became less sustainable.
A shift in mission. After successfully collaborating with the PTAs on a capital campaign in 2011 to build a new thrift shop building in Carrboro, things began to change. The volunteer model ended during this transition, while funding for PTAs dramatically declined. In 2014, new leadership on the PTA Thrift Shop Board of Directors developed a mission of supporting youth in the community and changed the PTA Thrift Shop bylaws to remove PTAs from their governance role. As part of the new mission, the decision was made for the PTA Thrift Shop to build a second new building called “YouthWorx” to house youth oriented non-profits. According to Barbara Jessie-Black, Executive Director, this change aimed to develop a “more sustainable organization” by adding another revenue stream from rents paid by the non-profit organizations for YouthWorx office space. The experiment has failed as we read Tammy Grubb’s article, “Former PTA Thrift Shop in Carrboro May Have to Close Doors.”
Ten years later, it is apparent that the new model failed financially. Sadly, the steady funding the schools relied upon is gone. Paying Community Worx salaries and paying off debt for the new buildings has dried up the funding available for the schools and students that PTAs depended on for many decades.
Where did PTA Thrift Shop profits go? After Community Worx was established, most revenues were channeled into paying the 20-year mortgage on the Carrboro buildings on Main Street – the new YouthWorx building and the Carrboro PTA Thrift Store building next door. See the chart prepared by reporter Tammy Grubb at the Herald Sun showing the decline in the support for the schools. Since 2011, less than 2% of PTA Thrift Shop revenues supported Chapel Hill-Carrboro schools. In 2016/2017, a modest $9K of $1.7 million in PTA Thrift Shop revenues was directed toward special purpose PTA grants chosen by the PTA Thrift Shop staff. Many of the grants were not fully funded nor paid until the following school year, making some funding irrelevant to the intended purpose.
Given the financial trajectory, it is unlikely that the students, teachers, staff, and PTAs will ever regain the former levels of support, which was as high as $300,000 per year at one point. To understand the extent of the loss of financial support, one can look at Chatham PTA Thrift Shop. In 2016, the Chatham PTA Thrift Shop gave over $600,000 to Chatham County PTAs from $1.7 million in annual revenue. The PTA Thrift Shop’s change in mission means millions of dollars in support lost for CHCCS students and teachers.
What changed? After years of discussion with the PTA Thrift Shop and limited progress, PTA parent leaders realized that funding the students and teachers of the CHCCS schools was no longer a priority for the PTA Thrift Shop.
In June 1018, the PTA Council formally requested that the PTA Thrift Stop stop using “PTA” in its name in the interest of donor and community transparency. The Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools PTA Council gave the PTA Thrift Shop’s Board of Directors until July 15 to remove “PTA” from its name, website, and materials.
As the Herald Sun article states, “the CHCCS PTA Council did not take its decision lightly, former Council President Lisa Kaylie said, but the community needs to know where the money from its donated clothing, furniture, books, and CDs was going. If less is going to the PTAs, they must ensure their schools, students, and teachers, who frequently use their own money to meet classroom needs, are adequately funded”.
See more details in this Chapelboro/WCHL article.
What now? How can you help the PTAs better support CHCCS students and schools? You can:
- Support students, teachers, and schools directly by donating to any of the PTAs based at each school – CHCCS PTA & School link
- Make a contribution to the Chapel Hill-Carrboro Public School Foundation
- Encourage businesses and community members to directly partner and support the students through the Public School Foundation, CHCCS PTA Council, or school-based PTAs
A full story of the history of the mission shift is recounted here in this June Herald Sun story.
Chapel Hill-Carrboro PTA tells thrift shops to stop using the ‘PTA’ name
Julie McClintock posted this story. Much of the information came from an earlier Durham Herald story and from conversations with PTA Council members when the Thirft Shop mission shifted.