I say go forward without them, done deal. They withdrew on their own, so hopefully you filled the needed positions and are ready to have a successful year. It is a shame that you may lose these volunteers, but you can't make everyone happy.
When they brought up the issues that they did, as a President I know that I would have addressed it a certain way. I would have explained that a request to go with co-treasures is something that should have been brought o my attention prior to the voting meeting, and that at this point we must move forward, as per the Bylaws, with the elections. Next, in response to their worries about the Treasurer not handling the funds correctly, I would have stated that as President, I am aware of all transaction and I am part of the auditing process that happens annually. That the budget is available and discussed at every meeting, and that the Treasurer will provide a budget on all event or program expenditures, as well as any profits.
In regards to their belief about the Principal or Vice Principal controlling the group I would have explained that the PTO is a non-profit, independant organization that governs itself using the group's Bylaws as reference. In addition, the Executive members, consisting of (whomever) is in control of the group, again per the Bylaws, but we rely on the Principal's input.
If your group has bylaws it should all be spelled out in them. There should be a section that states who is eligible to be members of the group and a section to define the requirements for serving on the ex board. There should also be sections on what positions can be served as "co", being nominated for board positions, and election procedures. Most groups require nominations to be done well in advance of the elections. If you don't have bylaws, I'd say that your group should form a committee and get some written ASAP.
It truly sounds like this group of parents is just trying to cause trouble and their comments as to funds being "handled inappropriately" is not only unkind, but slanderous. Unless, they had firm proof of misappropriations, that reference is unwarranted. I feel sorry for the person who was the current treasurer- if that was me I would have been furious.
It sounds like your group was running quite successfully before this bunch of parents came along, and it sounds like they were informed of the policies your group has in place for serving on the board and the election procedure, so you dodged the bullet of having them take control. Hopefully, your troubles will end there, but I would guess that this bunch will be causing headaches throughout the year. It will be crucial for your board to keep control of meetings and maintain a professional, courteous, and open attitude toward all of the parents. If they don't already do it, they should make sure to provide treasurer reports at each meeting and be very open about the group's finances, so that there can be no question about how those finances are being handled.
**Please offer some guidance and info regarding if school administration can be an elected member of the executive board. **
It all depends on if this is allowed or, at the very least, not prohibited in your by-laws. With many of the PTO's represented here, the principal is a voting member of the board. On other boards, the principal and/or other administrative positions participate on purely a consultative level.
With regard to the meeting where the vote was to take place, it appears that it was all handled in a transparent and upstanding manner. Non-members do not have the right to demand a change in any given position. Only voting members can raise a motion for a vote, with proper notice and deliberation, to make changes of this nature prior to an election.
That said, the underlying issue is that this group of parents apparently feel that the money is being mis-handled, that there are not the proper safe-guards in place to prevent abuse or theft, and/or that the amounts fundraised from parents are not being used properly. It seems that your PTO would do well to make diplomatic outreach a priority this year.
Recently new parents to our middle school presented to the first PTO meeting of the new year. With them they brought negative attitudes towards the current PTO board, some of these new parents were running for ex board positions elections were being held this night. This particular group wanted the treasurer position to be a CO- treasurer position and indicated that they wanted this for they felt that the funds might not be being handled appropriatly. Also running was the current vice principle of the school who is more than qualified. They were told that the position was not voted on to be a co position and that the ballots were out and the vote was ready to take place. It was also said that they felt it was inappropriate to have a member of the school staff be a ex board member. These parents then withdrew from the elections and alot of tension developed. Things then went from bad to worse and for some reason they also feel that the school principle/ vice principle have to control or right to any input into the PTO. This has caused a split with in our once successful PTO, these parents were part of the sister elementary PTO and had started the same issues at that school. Please offer some guidance and info regarding if school administration can be an elected member of the executive board.
