PTA president Ginger Twichell has a vision for Alex Sanger Elementary School. She sees it as a true neighborhood school as it was prior to the 1970s – a common denominator for area families, a cause to draw them together.
It doesn’t sound like such a grand vision, but achieving it is taking longer than Twichell expected when she and a small group of neighbors with young children formed a pre-school PTA about five years ago to supplement the main PTA. The preschool PTA has since been absorbed by the PTA.
“We would like it if everyone in this neighborhood would send their kids to Sanger” instead of private schools, says Twichell, the mother of three children.
“We think the school and the kids would benefit.”
Twichell acknowledges that “public schools scare a lot of people” because of rumors they have heard, exaggerated reports of isolated incidents or problems associated with a particular school that have been generalized to all schools.
“Sanger has pretty good test scores, and our children are doing very well there – they love to go to school,” Twichell says.
“There are kids of every culture, race and socioeconomic group. It’s a mix I want my children to be comfortable with because that’s who they’re going to be working with later. You can’t really get that from a private school.”
A graduate of J.L. Long Middle School and Woodrow Wilson High School, Twichell remembers when her parents moved their five children from the Park Cities to East Dallas because they thought it offered a more well-rounded environment.
That move was more than 20 years ago, but Twichell is convinced the same philosophy applies today.
She also believes public schools will be as good as parents and the community want them to be – if people become involved. Parents with energy, imagination and enthusiasm already have helped at Alex Sanger.
A few years ago, members of the old pre-school PTA painted a large U.S. Map on the school’s blacktop recreation area so teachers could use it in a new geography curriculum.
Now, Twichell and another group of parents are working on plans to build a running track at the school for use by the track team and the community.
DISD administrators and the school principal are supportive of the plan if the group can raise enough money to pay for it, Twichell says.
“Ginger is such a dynamic person and a real leader,” says Carla Rea, former parliamentarian of the PTA.
“I kind of had this image that the PTA was a group of older moms sitting around baking cookies, but it’s not like that at all here.”
Twichell, who competed on track and swim teams in high school and college, is a volunteer assistant to the Sanger track team, which was started last year. Two students from last year’s team competed in state and regional finals for their age groups in July; one qualified for the national finals.
“Even if they’re not really athletic, the kids can get a good sense of accomplishment from learning how to set goals and pace themselves through sports,” Twichell says.
Twichell’s own desire to get back in shape and reach new goals led her to participate in her first triathlon in May. She trained all spring for the running/biking/swimming event and enjoyed it so much that she plans to keep on training for others.
After watching their mom and the older Sanger athletes, Twichell’s 6- and 7-year-old daughters also became interested and have joined her in training and competing in triathlons.
“We’re having the greatest time,” Twichell says.
