From "Interesting Idea" to Fairfield's PTA Leader

Jonathan D. Kaufman remembers how he first got involved with the PTA at his son's school.

Kaufman's wife, Belinda, suggested they attend a PTA meeting in North Stratfield School after their oldest son, Daniel, entered the school's first grade.

Kaufman said he thought, "What an interesting idea, that a dad would go to a PTA meeting."

Eighteen years and thousands of volunteer hours later, Kaufman tonight was awarded with the Fairfield PTA Council's highest recognition - the Deanna O. Kiernan Memorial Award - during a ceremony in Fairfield Public Library.

Kaufman's first four years with the PTA were at North Stratfield School; the following 14 years were with the Fairfield PTA Council, an umbrella organization for all PTAs in town and where Kaufman served as president from 2001 to 2003. He also continued to serve on North Stratfield's PTA during some of his years on the PTA Council.

Kaufman said he joined PTA - and stayed for 18 years - because he felt he could make a difference, adding that it requires a certain degree of arrogance to believe something like that. But Kaufman said he's not the longest-serving PTA member nor did he think the success of an organization has much to do with the person at the top.

"Others do jobs that need to be done, and they just keep going and going," Kaufman said in an interview after he received the award. "They never ask for anything in return or ask for recognition, but if they weren't there, it's likely PTA, or any volunteer organization, would fall apart without those people."

Elaine Davis, chairwoman of the PTA Council's Awards Committee, said the Deanna O. Kiernan award is given annually to a volunteer who advocates for all of the children in town and who is passionate about education and gives unselfishly of his or her time and talents. The award, first presented in 1980, is named in honor of a Fairfield PTA Council president who served from 1977 to 1979 before her life was cut short by cancer in 1979, Davis said.

Past presidents of the PTA Council praised Kaufman's team-building efforts, his willingness to hear different points of view and treat people with whom he disagreed with kindness and respect, and his involvement in every issue that concerned the town's school children and parents.

Brian Kelahan, who received the Deanna O. Kiernan award in 2008, said Kaufman was "an infrastructure kind of guy" and someone who did things many people never knew. "He was the guy who videotaped not just his own child's fifth-grade graduation, but other fifth-grade graduating children," he said. "He does everything, but he's not just the infrastructure dude. He's the guy that holds us together. He's also the guy who led us all."

Kaufman said attending that first PTA meeting in North Stratfield School seemed like a good way to stay connected and get to know people in his son's school, and it wasn't long after that that his wife suggested they go to a budget meeting of the Board of Education. "I started to learn what PTA was all about and the importance of a parent in their child's education," he said. "Not only did PTA provide the best way for a parent to get involved, but this feeling of community and shared purpose was powerful for me...Soon, I began to view the whole world through the lens of my PTA involvement and experience."

Kaufman said his PTA learning continued and that some of the learning came from "battles we didn't want to fight and probably shouldn't have fought." Though never said, the biggest debate in town over the past 15 years - the one vs. two high school debate that carried on for years - was hinted at in Betty Ann O'Shaughnessy's remarks when she spoke of "an emotional issue long ago that Jonathan and I didn't see eye to eye on."

"He always made everyone feel very welcome, he's always there for every issue, he's always involved, he's always been advocating," O'Shaughnessy, who was a strong advocate of opening a second high school, said. "Thank you, Jonathan. You've done a great job for Fairfield's children."

Kaufman said there had been a lot of changes in Fairfield's school system over the past 18 years but the dedication and spirit of parents in PTAs hadn't changed. He added that everyone involved in running Fairfield's school system, which was recently ranked No. 1 by Connecticut magazine, was a person of good will.

"Be kind to each other in the coming months and years," Kaufman said to several dozen people in the audience, many of whom were longtime PTA volunteers. "We're all on the same side."

First Selectman Ken Flatto proclaimed Monday, June 7 "Jonathan Kaufman Day in the town of Fairfield," and the Fairfield PTA Council also honored Supt. of Schools Ann Clark, who is retiring June 30 after eight years as Fairfield's schools' chief.

Clark, in turn, praised the town's PTAs. "Your work, your passion, your dedication has made this school system and community such a viable place. It's why we're one of the very few school communities in Connecticut that keeps growing. It's because of you," she said.