I'm still nominated and the election (at this point) is scheduled to go on as planned, but some of the current PTO board members are just making the entire process difficult. The current parlimentarian is making sure to go through the entire process according to the by-laws. She is just receving a lot of backlash from the others for acutally following the policies. It's such a shame that holding a position as an officer of the PTO only to say that they are President, Vice President, etc. is the more important to them than making their child(rens) school a better place for them.
I just needed to hear others opinions on the situation and if they had any advice, possibly from being in a similiar situation, or just because they have a fresh opinion. This whole situation has really been eating away at me.
What a horrible story. What exactly happened during the nomination and election process? What a shame that you were nominated at a PTO meeting and they simply ignored it. I am glad our PTA is not like that, I mean we have our issues but nothing like that. What about the person who nominated you, could they talk to the PTO/Principal?
Oh good for you! I am glad to hear that you will persue it anyway as maybe they will respond to you. The more the merrier and there is power in numbers so the more people you can get to go the better. The squeaky wheel gets the oil as they say and the bottom line is you are on the side of right and their refusal to tell this group to operate according to it's bylaws make them as wrong as your PTO for doing it. Good Luck and let us know how it works out for you.
Serendipity, you make an excellent point. Unfortunately, the principal DID go to the superintendent and the school board regarding these issues and they were the ones that told him that it was not his place to get involved. I would be interested in going to the next school board meeting however, to see how they dealt with the questions directly from ME. Would they still be singing the same song or would they be more willing to help us to reorganize our PTO? I'm curious to find out that answer.
ptoforadults makes the right point by noting that the school allows these organizations the right to operate within their school and as such they can put you out of the school if they so choose, so they do have some control over what goes on.
A good principal would see to it that the organization operating within his/her building operates itelf according to its bylaws. The fact that your principal is willing to look the other way speaks volumes and it is precisely why your PTO has been able to become corrupt.
My advice to you would be to send a letter regarding all of this to your Superintendent and your Board of Ed. Go to the next BOE meeting and address these issues with the BOE. Just because your principal is not prepared to do the right thing does not mean that the Superintendent and the BOE are also going to look the other way. I would let the principal know first that you intend to go to the Super and BOE with these concerns first...who knows that may prompt him/her to do the right thing if they think their lack of concern for proper procedures is going to come back at them from the BOE.
