Thank you for your responses. I know some parents are upset and I hope they can work it out because they are very valuable to the school. I think part of the problem is a lack of communication and appreciation of what all the PTO officers do. I will continue to support the PTO and learn more about it along the way. Maybe someday I will be an officer. I will visit this site often over the summer so that I may learn more about PTO and its rules and regulations.

To answer your question on the principla calling the shots...yeah, he can do this if no one is trying to stop him. Now the election stuff, he used what is called the 'usual' second election procedure where you can nominate "Joe" and "Jim" vote then go to the next office. Sounds like he did this "his" way but unless it is clearly stated in your group's by-laws he could have, for your sake I'll stop there. I have my Roberts Rules right here and was a parlimentarian in high school and college clubs, just so you know I'm not making this up.
anyway.....

Being new to the school, you and I don't know if there have been problems all along, lack of leadership, etc. Remember there are two sides to each story, I was reminded that when I had lunch with the principal yesterday (I have a unusally close relationship with mine but it affords me the ablity to talk to her about almost anything) and something that came up was her image with the elementary parents verses the middle and up (K-12 school). The K-6 parents feel she is aloof and "snobby" while the 7-12 parents love her! NOW her side is she can't even WALK to the K-3 release area without being mobbed with complaints etc. so after while she tends to avoid that area. Right or wrong it gets to be to much. A mom complained about 5 kids waiting to go do the slide on a brand new playground!! yeah.... (I was tickled to hear the new slide was installed!!)

Keep talking to people and if this is still an issue a recall of the election can be done in the fall with new canidates, if this is what parents want.

Hi! In our PTO, the Officers, Coordinators, and general membership decide what happens with the PTO. Our principal is extremely supportive as an "advisor" only.

Last summer, the officers updated our bylaws and presented it before the general membership for adoption.

I guess I don't understand why your principal feels the need to take such an active part in your PTO.

Hi, I am new to your site and to the PTO in general. I am a parent at a new school this year and have questions about the PTO elections. It seems to me that this PTO is still figuring out how to run. Can the principal call an end of the year meeting and adjust bylaws without the help of the present officers? The principal ran both meetings. The change of bylaws meeting and the nomination of offices meeting. The current officers were not involved. At the nomination of offices meeting the elections were over, votes counted and the current treasurer came in late. The principal reopened the election for the Treasure postion ONLY so the current treasurer could be placed on the ballot. He then got the postion. This didn't seem right to me. Let me know what your experience is on this. There are a lot of officers upset about the way this was handled. Thank you for your help.