Question: School's Power?

What power does a school have over a PTO? We are being told everything we want to send out to parents has to be approved by the principal first in order to "protect us" since we do not have non-profit status yet or insurance. But we have our own EIN and function independently of the school. It was my understanding that we are separate from the school. Now this is a charter school up for charter renewal and they say we represent the school and if we do something bad then the school looks bad. But we represent the parents not the school, right?

Asked by Anonymous

Answers:

Community Advice

mum24kids writes:
If you have your own EIN and function separately, it does sound like you are independent of the school. And yes, you represent the parents. But that doesn't really mean you can just do whatever you want. All of the schools I've been involved with have had the principal review most if not all of the communications going out. You'll probably find that most parents don't really get what the relationship is between the school and the parent group anyway. If they have a problem with a fundraiser, they call the school office. If they have a problem with some family event, they tell the principal. The principal needs to be your partner in the stuff that you do, if for no other reason, just as a courtesy. But yes, if you do something bad, then most times it is going to make the school look bad as well.