Question: Can a School Employee act as PTO President?

Four years ago, our current PTO President came in over the summer when the last one resigned. Since then, she has been harsh and creates a high-turnover rate among the officers who fel intimidated and talked down to. Aside from that, she began volunteering in the shool office, then started being paid for covering the office and now is an employed in the afterschool latchkey. The original PTO president still has kids and the school and has mentioned that our bylaws restrict school-paid persons from being president of the PTO - but neither the current President or school board can locate out PTO bylaws. Are there any National or organizational bylaws that supercede school bylaws or fall into place if no other bylaws are in place? Are there any organizational restrictios to having paid school employees as PTO presidents?

Asked by Anonymous

Answers:

Advice from PTO Today

Rose H writes:
Hi!
Regarding the bylaws, is there a former secretary you can check with? Sometimes they are the ones responsible to post them online or add changes/amendments. So, that's one possible source. If you can't find the bylaws at all, then the next step would be to write new bylaws. We can provide you with resources to do that.

How To Write Bylaws

10 Key Points About Bylaws

Sample Bylaws from the File Exchange

There really isn't a national group that has organizational bylaws you could use for your group. As far as the restrictions on school employees as PTO presidents, sometimes the school department itself has restrictions for employees. But, if you are going to need to write new bylaws, it would be a great time to determine what your group wants as a policy regarding school employees and set it in the bylaws.

Having said all of that, the PTO president's status as a school employee really isn't related to her being a bad president. If she's harsh and is creating turnover, that's a problem, regardless of where she works. (Some groups have teachers as presidents and all is fine.)

So, if you want to tackle the personality issue, we have a great article on dealing with difficult people.

How to Deal With Difficult People

Good luck with all of this!