Question: Hostile takeover

We have a PTO board and a very active PTO. The president submitted a resignation letter on 8/16/17 effective for 8/17/17. The night of 8/16/17 we had a PTO meeting planned and had 7 nominees to vote from to take over the President position and the vacated VP position. So, we would not have gone 1 day without a PTO board. The headmaster and principal came that night (charter school) and took over the meeting with no work to the current board and basically told all the parents and members they were taking over PTO with no warning, explanation or chance for us to speak at all. Is this allowed? We share the same tax ID with the school but is there any way to stop them from dissolving the PTO for no reason? We have a lot of money in our PTO accoutrements and have a full calendar of events that had already been sent out to the entire student body (k-8th grades). Help!

Asked by Anonymous

Answers:

Advice from PTO Today

Rose H writes:
Hi there,

Sorry to hear about this. Sounds like it was really upsetting.

If your group is part of the school, then the principal does have a lot of say about what's going to happen. It sounds like he/she was responding to the resignations and got concerned that things would go off track.

Can you reach out and ask for a meeting with the principal? Is his/her plan to dissolve the group? What you want to do is appeal to the principal that a parent group is a very important part of the school community and should be allowed to continue if possible. It sounds like you have folks who are ready to step into leadership positions. Calmly make the case that parent groups really do make a difference and you want to find ways to work together so you can move forward.

Rose