Question: PTO leadership functioning only as worker bees

Is it common for the parents on a PTO to function purely as worker bees for events, and all decisions about events are made by staff with no parent input?

Asked by Anonymous

Answers:

Advice from PTO Today

Rose H writes:
The purpose of a parent group is to bring parents together to work on behalf of their school community by making decisions together. You would expect a relationship with the school administration and you can certainly expect input from principals and other administrators. But, no, it doesn’t make sense that they are calling the shots and you are doing all of their work. If you have been set up as an independent group, then you should be operating as an independent group. Sounds like it’s time to have a meeting with the administrators to work on the ground rules. We have a number of articles on working with the school administration that you might find helpful. For example, here’s an article on working with the principal as a partner.