Still Trying - I'd encourage you to register as a member of the Forum so that you can participate more fully with all the features.
The "federal education reform act" usually refers to No Child Left Behind, but that's not 1993, so I'm not sure what they mean. I'd definitely ask for a legal citation. Are you sure they said "federal"? By chance are you from Massachusetts? That state had a 1993 Education Reform Act.
As far as school district's oversight of parent groups - I'm in the middle on this one. As a citizen and parent I'd consider a district grossly negligent to have NO guidelines or boundaries for any group that affiliates itself with the school district and has access to our children.
That being said - it is also inappropriate for the school board to totally control the parent group.
chrystal;55672 wrote: Our PTO has been told time and time again the the school board governs all things concerning the schools including the PTO. It is stated in their "board policy" books as well. But one interesting tid bit that I have discovered is that our district is trying to attain "accreditation status" and in order to do this they have to have an active PTO in place at every building or they will lose this status. Perhaps you could find out weather or not your school district has this status and then at the very least you will have some bargaining power. It is truly sad that so many districts have started the "micro managing" of the PTO's, In some cases I do agree that the board needs to step in but when it comes down to the little stuff I think the parents of the students can make good choices for the kids:)
Just a note of update:
We [ executive officers] decided to ask for a slot on the School Committees agenda at their next meeting. Well the request gets dropped off at the supt's office. Almost immediately 2 of our officers received phonecalls from the asst. supt. informing us that they will now sit down with us [ next week] and furthermore our request was not forwarded to the school committee as we are not allowed to address the school committee in regards to the issues we are having [ our agenda request was asking to be allowed and recognized as a parent group, self formed and not authoritive under the supt/principal. We did state that in order to have a good working relationship we shall continue to allow an executive position for the principal and will agree to provide ongoing communications with the principal, but not in the capacity that we are "ruled" under the supt/principal. We also requested that the school committee step in to help us sort thru this problem in allowing parent involvement to continue at our kids' school.
One of us placed a phonecall to a school committee member to verify what the asst. supt. had told us, oh boy!! We are now on the agenda for next meeting and have found out that everything we thought was not "right" is actually not right. Furthermore most if not all that the asst. supt/principal have told us they had a right to do is actually incorrect. We also have this school committee members position that the committee will work with all parties to come to terms so that we can move on from this issue. Sooo hopefully we shall have a newly educated PTO/school administrator who can move forward and continue to accomplish things for our students as we ALL work together.
Oh yeah; that reform law does not have any such provision to the effect that I had asked [ found out from the school committee member who also happens to be an atty.]
THANX for your input!!
Our PTO has been told time and time again the the school board governs all things concerning the schools including the PTO. It is stated in their "board policy" books as well. But one interesting tid bit that I have discovered is that our district is trying to attain "accreditation status" and in order to do this they have to have an active PTO in place at every building or they will lose this status. Perhaps you could find out weather or not your school district has this status and then at the very least you will have some bargaining power. It is truly sad that so many districts have started the "micro managing" of the PTO's, In some cases I do agree that the board needs to step in but when it comes down to the little stuff I think the parents of the students can make good choices for the kids:)
GO DIRECTLY TO YOUR MOST LOCAL NEWSPAPER. AND HURRY! I HAVE NEVER HEARD OF A FEDERAL ACT THAT WOULD SUBVERT AN ORGANIZATION WITH A CHARTER. I'M SURE THE IRS WOULD ALSO HAVE SOMETHING TO SAY ABOUT IT IF A 501C3 IS INVOLVED. THIS SOUNDS CRAZY, BUT IT SURE TURNS YOUR FRIENDLY LITTLE PTO INTO A TOTALTARIAN FORM OF DEMOCRACY. I WOULD USE THE MEDIA TO YOUR FULLEST ADVANTAGE, THEY CAN RESERCH THIS FOR YOU I'M SURE.
Sorry, can't edit...Oh yeah we've tried compromise such as you've mentioned...The problem is that we are being told that there will be no more parental involvement or recognized organization of such...with no explanations either excluding ..."I don't want to deal with any problems which arise".
