When I first found out families were on food stamps and such, I thought... hey, let's not ask people to bring anything. But, let me explain...
I'm an active member of a church that has many young families who are in medical and dental school. They get a lot more in food stamps than what we can afford for food, and some are on WIC as well. They are the first to volunteer to bring food and the first to suggest we have volunteers bring food when they organize things themselves. When I said maybe we should stop asking those who are on food stamps to bring things, I was quickly told otherwise.
That's not been the experience I had with families on food stamps. Those families themselves will admit that they have a lot of extra money for food items and those things that they can purchase with food stamps.
Our group gives teachers a $100 reimbursement. Teachers do ask parents for Kleenex and other supplies throughout the school year. Sometimes parents donate needed items and sometimes they don't. Most of our teachers use their money for things they need, but want to pick out themselves i.e. posters, books etc... On average teachers spend hundreds of their own dollars to set up their classrooms every year. The items they buy directly benefit the students so i don't see a problem with it. If I were you I would be careful about your attitude to the poorer families in your school. Most families on food stamps can't afford to supply snacks or supplies, but they do anyway because they feel obligated. If your not careful you could alienate part of your school population without meaning to.
There articles on this site that advocate not charging dues, so that is not unheard of. It allows everybody to be members.
That's a good question, I don't know how the group is run. In addition, no one mentioned any PTO dues, which I know is usually typical. That makes more sense that it is a reimbursement process.
Well you can go ahead and get involved and continue to observe. If their goal is parent involvement, that's an area you should be able to agree with.
As for fundraisers - again - wait and see. If parents haven't been supportive/involved in the past and teachers ran the fundraisers, it's logical when they considered the needs that "more supplies in the classroom" came up. It's likely more a matter of perspective than self-interest. With parents now involved, when that question arises, new ideas can be thrown into the mix.
It's not uncommon for PTOs to allow funds for this. How much and if they do it varies by group and even by year. However, if they are doing this, it's normally a reimbursement process where teachers submit receipts to the PTO; not an automatic distribution where each teacher automatically gets a check for $125.
By the way, what is the structure? Is the PTO an independent entity with its own bank account? Is it a 501(c)(3) tax exempt charity? Or is this a committee of the school and the school holds the funds?
