So glad to find this site. Perhaps someone can identify and offer some incite or suggestions. I have been a volunteer for many years in our elementary school, This year, chairing a fundraiser.
I've been very discouraged the board has an "us" against "the teachers" attitude. This isn't a lack of funds issue. Most of the same women have been PTO officers for a few years now. Our special events pay for themselves by ticket sales and our fundraisers have done very well through the years. Yet, we have purchased very little in the way of major improvements for the school. Parent organized events for the children are the primary focus. We have teachers having their own fundraisers by selling donuts in the parking lot of the school! (Asking PTO for anything is painful...)
So, we have ample funds to cover operating costs for three years or more WITH a great deal left over! Bills are paid, money has been raised and continues to be. I'm not sure why we aren't proud to write checks to the teachers for their classroom needs or development. I don't think a check book should be whipped out on a whim, but this has reached an unfortunate level, in my opinion. I'm concerned we are fundraising, and I'm not sure what for. As a non profit, shouldn't our bi-laws reflect what percentage of funds should be spent from year to year?
Our PTO used to accept funds requests throughout the year from teachers and administration. We had an identified process for review simply because we had more requests than we had funding for. Some of the more vocal teachers and the administration didn't like that we weren't just rubber-stamping requests, and threatened to shut the PTO down if we did not rewrite the bylaws to note that, once our savings requirements each month had been met, all remaining cash was handed over to administration to distribute (and therefore, eliminating the funds request process all together.)
Lo and behold, the teachers stormed the meeting to push the vote to yes, parents didn't show up, and those who did who spoke out against the change were shunned. And, to add insult to injury, the PTO found itself with a shortage of cash for it's own needs for events or savings, so now there's *no* cash for helping teachers until they get their own funds straightened out.
All the more reason I stay away from officership of our PTO; it's all politics and not worth the stress.
Our teachers make requests throughout the year. That's what we're there for. We made a donation to the Christmas play to offset expenses, one teacher asked for funds to reduce the cost of a field trip, our meal services director needed some new cooking supplies and we purchased them. If we can do it, we will.
Hi,
One other point. Sometimes schools get X amount at the start of the school year for supplies, budget it out for the school year, and can't go back to the district should they run out of something. It is pretty common that the school would turn to the PTO at that point.
I think this is one of the things a PTO is for. If your district, like ours, is hurting for money, it might not have $1,000 for construction paper -- or $1,000 for each school in the district. If the PTO doesn't pay for it, teachers might pay out of their own pockets. For several years our PTO focused a lot of attention on ensuring that classrooms had basic supplies; our fundraising has picked up and we've been able to do some other things lately, but we don't regret the years we spent tending to the small stuff.
The only concern I would have about this is whether the school needed that much construction paper. With bulk buying you could come up with 50,000 sheets for that money, and depending on the size of the school that could be more than you needed. If you've got 500 students, for instance, that's 100 sheets per student. If the paper was purchased in 20-packs from the local office supply store instead of buying in bulk, then the money wasn't well spent.
