Question: PTO's acting as an ATM for teachers

We are beginning to start our new school year and as acting president I have reservations with the way the previous board set things up with our teachers/school. My PTO group has become a holding account for money that is collected by our teachers for field trips, buses, and etc. I feel this is the schools responsibility and not the PTOs. The teahers make the parents write their check to our PTO instead of the school and so when our PTO group tries to run our Donation drive the parents are confused. They are confused because they just wrote a check to the PTO and now the PTO is asking for another check. The PTO then gets a negative view from the parents. Shouldn't the checks for field trips and buses be written to school? I thought PTO's are a fundraising organization and not a book keeper for school. This takes away from what the mission of a PTO is all about and leaves a negative outlook on our parents because they feel that the PTO is always asking for something. Do we have the right to tell the principal that our job is to fun raise for our school and kids and will not take on the responsibilities of be a bookkeeper for them. Please help....

Asked by Cassyh

Answers:

Advice from PTO Today

Rose H writes:
Hi Cassyh,
Yes, you want to sort this out with your teachers. If the PTO was raising money for things such as field trips, then it would make sense for your group to request funds from parents and then either write the check to the bus company (or whatever vendor) or gift the money to the school, which would then pay the bus company. At the very least, I think you need to clarify who is doing what for these events and programs and how to best organize the collecting of funds. It's ok to tell the teaches that you think parents are getting confused.

Rose