During the school year the Tahoma High Parent Teacher Association fills in the gaps.

And finding money to fill in the gaps, explained PTA President Kim Walley, requires some creativity when you are working at the high school level.

Walley, who has two daughters in the Tahoma School District, has been volunteering since her oldest Jordan — who is now a senior — was a kindergartner.

“At the elementary level… it’s easy to do fundraisers,” she said. “You send all that stuff home with 700, 800 kids and it all comes back. At the high school you can’t send home stuff with 1,700 kids. For us to raise money at the high school, you have to be very unique.”

The Tahoma High PTA runs the Bear Beans espresso stand, which is open every morning before school and during lunches, staff by volunteers. They ask people to sign up with eScript so they get a percentage of sales when folks who are enrolled use their grocery store reward cards. They also sell Jamba Juice cards and drinks as well as spirit wear.

With the money raised — this year the high school PTA has $125,000 budgeted for expenditures — the money goes to feed kids before the High School Proficiency Exam in the spring, the junior art field trip, grad night and senior scholarships.

“Every time there’s open house or the AP Scholar awards, any type of function the parents come to school, we do the hospitality for that,” Walley said. “We sponsor student of the month in partnership with Jamba Juice. We do Teacher of the Month. We help pay for the leadership retreat for the leadership class. And on top of that we give opportunities to clubs and boosters to work in the concession stand so they can raise money.”

One of the reasons fundraising is challenging, Walley explained, is because unlike at the elementary school level the money doesn’t go to an individual classroom and kids are involved in clubs and activities which have their own fundraisers.

In a way, Tahoma parents end up competing against one another for the same community dollars because they are spread out among different clubs and sports.

With 80 members and a core group of volunteers, Walley said, the high school PTA could use more help so it can continue to fill in the gaps.

“It gets a bad rap a lot of the time,” Walley said. “It’s the at-home moms or oh, it’s cliquish. It’s a bunch of volunteers who want the best for the students and the staff at the school. There’s no hidden agendas. We want to make sure they have everything they need to be successful.”

And with the current state of the economy, more help would be welcome, Walley added, because “there’s more on our shoulders.”

“If I can’t make enough money to make HSPE breakfasts or those scholarships, they’re gone, there’s no money for those things at all,” she said. “Last year at the high school we had only 80 PTA members out of 1,700 plus students. We don’t expect everyone to give 20 hours a week like I do because this is what I’ve decided what to do with my time. The more people that are involved, the more we can get done.”

Even with needing more help, Tahoma High Principal Terry Duty had nothing but praise for the PTA.

“Our PTA is the heart of our school,” Duty wrote in an email interview. “They care for our students and staff, tending to our essential needs. When we wanted to feed our HSPE test takers before the test, PTA was there serving over 600 free breakfasts everyday. From running our entire grad night event so our seniors are safe after graduation to feeding our teachers amazing lunches… our PTA is always there.”

Dawn Wakeley, associate director of teaching and learning for the Tahoma School District, also has been impressed with the PTA.

“Our PTAs at all the levels were absolutely incredible (during testing),” Wakeley said. “They really have at their heart, ‘How can we help support kids to really shine and do their best and display what they know and are able to do.’”

Walley said the PTA will need to find new partners in the community, as well, because they need to ease the burden on the staunch, long-time supporters such as Garlic Jim’s, Jamba Juice and Java! Java!

Walley said the PTA will take whatever support people and businesses can provide.

“We need everybody,” she said. “The myth that you have to be an at home mom is not realistic. My right hand woman is Jo Haverfield. She does the website. She’s the computer guru. And she works 60 hours a week but she finds time. And she has four kids. That’s an example of a woman who works for a living but she finds time to fit it in her life.”

Ultimately, Walley said, don’t believe all the negative things you hear about PTA.

“Being involved at every level, elementary, middle school, junior high and now the high school, I would not trade the high school level for the world because you really get to work with the kids,” she said. “The kids are involved in what we do, the decisions we make, because we’re spending the money on them so we want to make sure they support what we’re doing. I pull up to that school and I’m excited to be there. I don’t have two daughters, I have 1,700 plus kids and I’d do anything for them.”