Wow. I think you have a tough row to hoe! Our principal is very open.
A suggestion- maybe use this magazine and its articles to let your principal read how much parent volunteers can do for the school. Of course you'll have to treat him like a man and let him think the idea is all his. Maybe start with the staff. Suggest to a teacher how much you could do to help her, such as making copies, stapling???? If you go this route maybe the staff supporting you will nudge the principal. If there are other PTOs in your area, get copies of their budgets to let the principal see that he may be missing some funding.
I get irritated when I hear of these things going on. My first experience with a principal was one where he told us its our school. We are a community. Now he always had the upper hand and was very black and white, but he appreciated parental support. One other issue that gets me is that you pay him. It is your money that pays him. Not that I like that attitude but I hate being told to keep quiet. They are your children and the bottom line is you are trying to increase the quality of their education- don't let him not know you are both on the same side (hopefully).
Ask your principal what he expects of the PTO and if their are some educational items or things he would like the school to have but does not have funding for. Then to go after this goal you need to bring the parents together. This takes monthly meetings.
Good Luck and hang tough!

I hope someone has FAST ideas for me. This is my first year on our PTO. (At our school they call it by a different name but it still equals out to PTO). There are two of us that are Vice Presidents and we both have very good ideas for our school and our students. This is a small community and if you haven't lived here all your life then you will always be considered an outsider as both of us are. Every time we try to do something new we get pushed down by our Principal and President of our PTO. We have NEVER held monthly meetings. We have had TWO meetings of officers only. The Principal doesn't want parents involved. I have been instructed to "keep your mouth quiet about the money in our account because the parents do not deserve to know how much money we have, they only get greedy if they know". Now, to me, that would signal a problem. I am not keeping my mouth shut because this is a public school and every interested parents deserves to know about what is going on at our school.
Does anyone have any suggestions on how I can start having monthly meetings, and newsletters even if the Principal will not allow it. I need fast answers because in 2 days I have to go into the Principal's office so he can "discuss procedures" with me. In short that means he will put me in my place and tell me once again to keep my mouth shut and follow his rules. Please Help.
Thanks!