Question: Changing to a PTO

I am a new president and we are changing to a PTO. We have yet to give any updateds to PTA. Can we start our new school year as the PTO since we are starting a new school year with new enrollment and do we need to notify the PTA?

Asked by Anonymous

Answers:

Advice from PTO Today

Rockne writes:
Hi - Can you do what you're describing? Yes. But you'll probably want to take a few steps to minimize any confusion over where the PTA ends and where the new org starts. For example, do you have funds left in the PTA account? Those need to be formally taken care of before your PTA just ends. One way to do that is to spend those funds for proper purposes (like for your school or to build parent involvement or the like. Technically, you're not really "switching" from a PTA to a PTO as much as you are ending a PTA and starting an entirely new PTO. So if ending the PTA takes you a couple of months and you want it to be fairly quiet/dark while you go through that -- that's fine. It's perfectly OK to have a PTO up and running while the PTA is technically still in existence. I'd get a new EIN (tax ID#) for your PTO just to keep things even more distinct. And this time of year is funny. I certainly wouldn't recommend you have a PTA membership drive right now if your PTA is ending. And if you have no members and no funds -- then your PTA will be defunct basically by default fairly soon. Hope that helps. Tim

Community Advice

monster05 writes:
We are ending our PTA and starting a PTO. We held a PTA membership drive at Back to School Night this year before we decided to switch, should we just refund those dues? 23 people signed up and I've talked to about 10 of them and they said they would just donate that money to the school. What are your thoughts?