We actually had a board of ed member chair our middle school this past year. We just amended our by laws so that this won't happen again. There were no major problems, but the chair herself felt there was a conflict of interest, and it was inappropiate to have it happen again.
BE CAREFUL!!! Our PTO (and our school)is in a world of a mess because of this very same situation. Our PTO Pres. is also VP of our school board. She has served on the school board for 30 years! (no kidding) Where the conflict of interest becomes so obvious is here...the PTO has always used the concession stand at the high school football games as a fund raiser. Somehow, about ten years ago, she and a few teachers decided that the concession stand actually belonged to them. If any of the other teacers worked a football game, they would pay the teacher directly so that the money would go strait to the classroom...or so they say. They stopped reporting the income from the concession stand to the "PTO", but continued to pay concession "bills" with PTO funds. Parents have complained to the superintendents, the principal, the school board...but all to deaf ears. Administrators see her as their "boss" and many of our parents feel that a lot of them have also received rewards from the concession unit. Our school board policy states that the school must cooperate in the establishment of ongoing operations of a PTO to promote parental involvement in school activities. (Texas Education Code 26.001(e)) It further states that "generally accepted accounting principles" shall be required of all school sponsored and school support groups, but they will not enforce this law, because no one wants to step on toes. FINALLY...a parent has confronted her about this misappropriation of funds. This parent has been "attacked" by 3 or 4 teachers saying that she is out of line for questioning the "president's" accountability and many teachers avoid talking to her for fear of being associated with her in her efforts to put an end this. Since the newest superintendent and the school board has denied her request for them to step in and demand financial records, she has contacted the District Attorney and local law officials. This is just getting started, so we'll all just have to wait to see what happens. We are hoping that the Attorney General's opinion will support our belief that serving on both a school board and the executive board of the parent-teacher organization, is a conflict of interest since one has the responsibility to enforce the honest operations of the other. I hope this helps in your schools decision.
I could see where it could be a conflict but your bylaws says "anyone" without any restrictions. As long as the board of ed policy and school policies do not say anything about it I don't know how you could prevent this from happening.
I don't know all the rules and policies of our Board of Ed. I do know that you are not supposed to be related to a board member in order to work in the school system. In the past the wife of the former super taught at 2 different schools and one of our board members holds a full time government job and his wife works with an organization affiliated with the school system. Nothing has ever been done about that though the school board member has been turned in to the "proper" authorities, I am told. If the members of your SCO are voted in then I don't know how you could over rule that.
Even if your PTO Bylaws do not address this issue, chances are your districts policy manuel does. Our districts policy manuel states that no School Board Member can hold a position on any other governing board. The terms used leave it a little open to interpretation however.
As far as a conflict of interest goes, that depends on the personality of the person. There are some people who are very good at separating issues, and some people who creat conflicts of interest where no one else would think to look. Our PTO has had both types of personalities on the PTO Board.
As a three year PTO veteran, now running for our School Board, I personally decided not to run for anything on the PTO. In the past we have had a school board member as a PTO board member with no problems.
We also welcome teachers and administrators to hold PTO positions. We have a 5 member executive board and put most of our issues to a public vote.
Our School Community Organization needs input on the following. We have a situation where we have a member of our School District Board of Education wanting to hold a position on our school board. Our by-laws state"The membership of this organization shall not be limited. Anyone interested in the progress of the school is eligible for membership. Any parent/guardian or community member are to be considered as active members of this organization" Is this not considered a conflict of interest to be on both boards? I have also been told that we are not allowed to have teachers at our school on the executive board. Nothing in our by-laws state they cannot. We have not had a lot of people interested in these positions for the past years. Anyone that can offer any input please contact me. Thanks. This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
