Question: New School crazy PTO

I just moved to a new state. So I went to the first PTO meeting tonight. What a mess. very unorganized. The PTO and the school have separate fundraisers what is that I thought we should be working together! The principle stomps down every idea they offer because it might infringe on their fundraisers. Also was told that the district won't give the school a EIN number because someone in the past years ago did something bad i guess so now the district told them no way don't ever ask you are not getting one. Can they even do that??? I am so confused and I got no answers. What can I do HELP Please!!

Asked by momof3crzykids

Answers:

Community Advice

mum24kids writes:
I would see if I could contact one of the PTO officers and ask to meet them for coffee and get a better understanding of how things work and what some of the history is. From the comment about the EIN, it sounds like this PTO might be part of the school, and not a separate organization. (Because if you are a separate organization, the IRS issues the EIN; you don't use the school's.) That's different from the way PTOs in my district work, so I can't offer a lot of help there. But from posts others have made in the past, PTOs under school control seem to need to work harder than others in maintaining good relationships/communication with their principals and understanding the boundaries.