Feel free to call him Mr. President.

This year, Sgt. Robert Pangaro becomes the first active-duty Soldier to run Park Lodge Elementary School's Parent Teacher Association (PTA).

"I think it was my assertiveness they liked," he said, "because I'm so proactive and I stick to my guns."

This is the third year Pangaro and his wife, Stephanie, have been involved with Park Lodge's PTA. Their daughter is a second-grader at the school.

Pangaro said his new role has caught people's attention.

"I get it all the time, especially from people who are not in the military," he said in reference to being asked if he's really the PTA president. "I also get it a lot from military fathers. They're like, ‘What? You're active duty and doing this?' It's always a good reaction. I have not seen a negative reaction."

So how does someone in his role have time to run a PTA?

"I'm one of those lucky - or unlucky - people," he said. "I was injured to the point where I am non-deployable right now, so that opened up the door that I can do this."

Pangaro has been enlisted in the Army for five years. He previously was in the Navy and then a teacher and behavioral specialist. He returned to the military to support his wife and five children.

"Unfortunately, education does not pay enough," he said. "I was putting more into health care for all of my kids than I was getting in my paycheck."

At Park Lodge, he is facing his fair share of challenges: Not only does the school have a new principal, but the PTA last year had a total membership of six.

 "There are schools in our district that get almost 100 percent parental support in the PTA, and we're not even close to that," he said.

The first meeting of the year, on Monday, brought in about 12 members.

Still, there's a long way to go. There are 322 students at the school. Park Lodge has a high number of low-income families, and 33 percent of the student body is military - the largest concentration of a non-base school.

"Those two are our biggest issues," he said. "But people also look at a PTA and think it's just for moms and dads. We are trying to encourage other family members (and) community members. You don't even have to have kids at the school to get involved."

Pangaro is making a big push to raise involvement among men and military families. He said that he will e-mail meeting minutes to deployed parents and invite them to vote on issues via e-mail.

"Even when they're gone, they'll feel they have input in their children's lives and the school."

He wants families to know that to be in the PTA, they don't have to volunteer all year.

"If you want to do it all year, that's awesome, but if I could literally get an hour from every parent in the school, I would have more than enough help for the entire year."

These plans require time - and he's aware of that.

 "This is my two-year project," he said. "I'm hoping over the next year to grow our PTA, and hopefully by next year, we can start focusing on the goals we want to attain, such as a new playground.

"But we can't get there until we get the members."

Despite the challenges, Pangaro said he wouldn't change a thing.

"I love it," he said. "It comes with its stressors and burdens and whatever ... But at the end of the day, we get to look back at all of the things we did for the kids."