Question: PTO Bylaws vs District Policies

I was just notified by our principal that even after a full year of being president and almost all the way through this first quarter of never being required to do this, I am now being told that everything I send home pto related (fundraiser info, pto newsletters, event notices etc etc.) has to first be sent to her and approved before I can send it home with students. My question is does this seem legitimate? I am not a district employee and we are governed by our own by-laws and board so why should I have to adhere to this. It's not so much that it's a huge deal to do it necessarily, it's more the principal of it to me. I send things home weekly and I tend to always be working within a tight time-frame as it is with very little help, so having to wait on approval for every little thing really kind of irks me. So with all that said, if anyone can shed some light on this for me I would be appreciative.

Asked by Anonymous

Answers:

Advice from PTO Today

Craig writes:
I'd say the most common system is that the principal provides guidelines and the PTO follows them. However, it's not that unusual for the principal to want to give approval on anything sent home. From the principal's point of view, it's a simple precaution. You might use this as an opportunity to talk over with her why she created the new rule and what concerns she might have. Maybe there was an incident in another school and the district has asked principals to be more cautious, for example. And perhaps its something that you can find a compromise for over time. Either way, communicating with her in a problem-solving (rather than accusatory or challenging) tone can only help.

Community Advice

Parttimeparli writes:
We had this request/demand from the principal. We didn't like it because it caused a hardship but his reasoning was that our parents were inundated with notes, PTA notes were sent without going through the PTA board, and the spelling mistakes were embarrassingly egregious. Filtering all flyers and notes through him and his secretary slowed the frequency and stopped the misspellings.

Community Advice

Cindy Rowe writes:
Our District we have to fill our a fundraiser form which is sent to our principal, activity director and the board secretary. This is to hopefully limit the number of fundraisers happening at the same time. We have youth league, music boosters, athletic boosters, and then each sport sells t-shirts (basketball, baseball, etc.) I know some have been asked to hold off due 2 three other groups already selling stuff and parents complaining about the over load of fundraisers. It is also then placed on the District calendar on their website.