Question: Principle and chairpeople

The principle informed our PTO president that she couldn't list chair positions available in our newsletter and he would now be taking over finding chair people. Our PTO president is leaving and we are in need of a new president. If he wants the final say as to who replaces her, that's fine, but to say he is going to find chair people is totally out of bounds. What could his motive be? What say you?

Answers:

Advice from PTO Today

Craig writes:
The only motive I can see is that he wants too much control over the PTO. Some principals are micromanagers or aren't really that comfortable with parent involvement, so they try to personally dictate the makeup of the group. That's almost always discourages involvement and diminishes the PTO. Your president -- or better yet, the entire board -- need to sit down with the principal and draw the line. Let him know you're more than willing to work with him in a professional and cooperative way. But it's not his place to appoint officers and committee chairs. You have to call him on it now or it will only get worse.