The only place where balance has been a real issue for our school is when 4 Admin were members of the School BOard and the School Board now is a parent run board. Our PTO BOard has the Pres, VP,Sec, Tres, three teacher rep (we are K-12) and the Director (in a public school principal but we have a director and 3 principals). The teachers don't need to be a parent also but to be on the BOard you are required to be a parent with a child (or more) attending the school.
If your by-laws state to be a member you need to be this..... and to be a board member you need to be this...... that could be the part that helps you out the most.
This way you can still offer seats to the teachers but to serve on the Board you need to be a parent first and if you happen to work at the school too, that's great!
I know with our by-laws that every parent who has a child in the school is automatically a member (We usually only have about 10 of us there). Our officers, 2 teacher reps, & principal are part of the exec. board. The principal is just suppose to act as a liasion between us & b.o.e. They're not suppose to vote, just give us their input when needed. As pres., I can not make a motion or second it but I can vote to accept the motion. Everyone does have voting rights except the principal. I wouldn't consider the asst. princ. part of the board unless it states in the by-laws what their role is. Good luck!
This is the first year that we have had an Assistant Principal. We haven't thought about adding a position to the board just to increase the number of parent to serve on the board. If we do increase the board positions, maybe making committee chairs part of the board, then we would have to state that other places in our bylaws (Under Terms, Duties, Eligibilies, etc). Have you ever had it where only the Principal or only the Assistant Principal vote? Although, that doesn't really seem fair either. It just doesn't seem right that there isn't equal ratios.
Are there parents that want to be on the board? Maybe you can allow the same amount of parents & the same amt. of teachers.(equal ratios)
You can make an amendment to the by-law article you want to change. You wouldn't be voting on the by-laws, just the amendment to the article you are changing. Good luck.
We just amended our bylaws last month. It was brought to my attention that the parents are out numbered on the board by teachers and staff members (3 teachers, 1 principal and 1 assistant principal to 4 parents). Our executive board member consist of Pres, vp, sec. and treasurer which are all filled by parents. Does anyone else have this problem with their bylaws? We hate to have our PTO member go through another bylaw voting again; however, we aren't sure what to do about this issue. All of your comments are welcome!
