Our principal is ALWAYS at our meetings unless some other school business conflicts it. We welcome him! If we ever have a question that is really school business and not PTO he is there to answer. We also welcome him or any teachers to tell about upcoming events at school that we might not be aware of. We feel that the PTO meeting is a place for our parents to get informed!
I would like to thank everyone for replying. So far we have had two meetings. The Principal did not come to the second one and we discussed the situation. The teachers basically said all meetings should be open to everyone. The meetings will now be open to all. I told the Principal. I then said I would like to work on a PTO seed money fund-raiser. She was not on board. She thinks the PTO and the school should not compete for the same dollars. I discussed it with the President of the board and he told me to go ahead. Again, we are a charter so we do not have a Superintendant. I feel a PTO is so needed at this point I am charging ahead. I hope I have enough momentum to move forward, the teachers and the board want it, as do some parents. But within that, this has become public so to speak so I think she will support us, even if it is superficially.
I did have a discussion with her after the first meeting. It went so-so.
Principal (or her designated proxy if she can not attend) is a voting member of our executive board. There are many times she has provided invaluable guidance in wading through the district system. She can also steer us in the proper direction in allocating our funds. We do direct teacher surveys and often times she takes items from this survey and gets the district to provide them or at least split the cost with us.
We are very lucky to have tremendous building support for our PTO.
I encourage you to sit down with your principal and have then list out their goals for the school, things they would like to see done for the school (big or small) and have them prioritize them or give them a ranking of importance. Then look over the list and see if the PTO could work on or take care of some of them. Not only will this let you see the principals goals, you may see another side of your principal - someone who is truly caring and wants the best for the school - which is your goal, too. Some of the smallest things on the list could be the biggest irritations for the principal and parents could take care of it in a flash.
Just remember when working with principals, teachers, parents - always look for the win-win solution. Never create a situation where someone loses, because in the end the students lose when we the adults don't work together.
Please listen to the posters who suggest that your main problem is that the principal does not want a PTO.
Even if he/she had not attended this meeting and "stuck their oar in" where it wasn't wanted, your group would not go far without resolving the main problem.
While the variety of posts that repeat how much they need and value their principal may not *sound* as if they are answering your question, in fact, they are addressing the root of it: you need to have the principal on board.
Groups have been formed in defiance of school administration, but they usually flame out after a year or so. This is counter-productive to what you really want to accomplish.
I am sorry that you have to deal with someone who is more interested in protecting their own tail end and their status than in promoting the interests of the kids. But the best way to handle that type of person is to pull them in to your mission even stronger: make it very public and very difficult for the principal to come out against you, and very easy for them to work with you.
Our principal is always present. I believe that it is actually even in their contract in our district to attend meetings. Our relationship with the principal is crucial to our success!
