This feels like a communication and ruffled feathers issue to me.

Communication because .... really, there was some sort of secret vote about PTO presence in faculty room? I can completely understand why teachers desired that rule, but wouldn't an adult discussion of it have been better than some kind of vote? That's on the principal and the teachers.

But it's done. Worse things have happened.

Ruffled feathers because now the PTO leaders are feeling offended. I hope you can help them see this as a communication mis-step rather than some grand offense. Fighting over who owns the fridge will lead to really bad things for your school. Did your fellow PTO leaders really think they owned the fridge before this whole dust-up started? Or is this a reaction to feeling offended? The school will be better for all if maturity can reign here.

Important to share from the teacher's perspective why the faculty might like the privacy. My guess is that there was a real informality to how parents started using the faculty room. One volunteer started doing it, and she was very good about it (or even well-liked by faculty). But then it likely got a bit more each year (more volunteers) and more of a burr in faculty's side (more parents, less privacy and maybe even the occasional parent who wasn't as cognizant or natural about faculty room habits).... and it snowballed to point where faculty felt it had to change.

For the full-time teacher, those 35 minute gaps in their day are important. Some eat. Some socialize. Some correct papers madly. Some discuss/vent/process tough classes or tough kids. That venting can often be done in ways that wouldn't -- with the benefit of some reflection and downtime -- make the parent-teacher conference. Even school and faculty policies are discussed.

Now, that said, I hope your principal is follwing up this new policy with lots of solutions on how parents and parent-teacher interactions can be really wel-served in your school, A differnt space? A different fridge? Etc. I'm not at all saying that parent-teacher interaction can just be ignored. Just saying that I understand about the faculty room.


Wish the change was handled differently. Hope you guys don't let the communication miss take you down a year-long (or more) bad path.

Tim

As far as the "legalities" go, my thought would be that the school owns them. The PTO is an entity of the school, whether or not it's an independent 501(c)3. Without the school, there would be no PTO. The fundraising dollars that the PTO earns are then given to the school in one way or another, be it purchasing appliances for the teacher's lounge, or paying an assembly speaker, etc.

I wouldn't have a problem with the policy per se, especially because the teacher's are on tight time tables with the break/lunch times. I would like the scenario to copy machines. In our school, we have access to any copy machine in the building, but if a teacher comes in and needs copies, I have to stop what I'm doing and let the teacher make his/her copies, and then continue what I'm doing. That makes perfect sense, and I would think that using the microwave would fit perfectly in place of the copy machine scenario.

What is the PTO storing in the staff refrigerator? Is there a walk in type refrigerator in the cafeteria that might work better for your PTO? Was there a reason that the staff voted to keep the lounge staff only? Perhaps people were storing large amounts in the refrigerators and there was no room for the staff to effectively utilize the space that was originally purchased for them? Or were people leaving things in there and forgetting about them, making it a less than desirable place to store their lunch?

Maybe your PTO could fundraise for it's own refrigerator and that would elimate the problem entirely. Just put a sign on it that says "PTO." That's what we have.

Sorry if this was long winded or all over the place; recovering from surgery and on some pretty lovely painkillers

[Reposted from article comment for Wendy C.] I am the president of our PTO this year and we have an issue with the principal and teachers early on. This year our principal told PTO the teachers voted to keep the staff lounge as a "staff only" room. Several of our board members are severly offended by this. They PTO board members say they have receipts showing they purchased appliances used in the room and should have access to that room, or they will take them out. Personally, I am not offended by the policy, but I have to address this issue. Any help on the legalities. The appliances (2 refrigerators, microwave, etc...) were bought with fundraising money, so who owns them?