I have realized within the last year, with a new principle at the helm, that each one of them are very different and can make or break a PTO's moral. Our school has a request form for after hours use of the school. The BOE ok's it but we really only need it for Saturdays because we are allowed in the building at night and often will have committee meetings at the school. There is a large school calendar in the office which every-one refers to in scheduling. The janitors know what is happening also because of the calendar.
Good Luck
In reference to your principal "needing" to be there for every function, I think it is a personal decision unless the activity in in the school building. We have been having problems with our principal trying to take control of PTO. I recently went to the district office and spoke to her boss. In our district, principals are in no way able to influence or dictate what PTO does. They are there for liason purposes only, ie.. to make sure a date for a function does not interfere with the school calendar. We have monthly skating parties in which she felt it was her job to be there and control, but district said no. In fact, we had some unruly kids at one, and we were told by the district to call the police, they could not get in trouble by the school since it wasn't a school sponsored function. Hope this helps.
At our school different groups use our facilities for gatherings (boy/girl scouts), basketball teams etc. for after school functions and the principal is never there. The only person who is there is the night custodian. Our PTO is always allowed access to the building. There have been times where I have been up there at ten o'clock at night sorting fundraisers or running copies because that was the most practical time that I could go. I never knew other schools were not allowed access without the principal, that would make things very difficult.
I think communication is key to all of the goings on in the school. The Prinicpal definately has to be supportive of the PTO and the efforts of the volunteers. If the prinicipal is not supportive then it makes thing difficult. We are lucky that we do have a Principal that sees the value in all we do as volunteers. I would make a timeline of your plans for the year and sit down with the Principal and go over them with he/she. She can then present the proposed items to the staff to see if there are any schedulding conflicts etc... We try and make a schedule the summer before the start of school and go over it with the Principal. It is subject to change either way but normally we can follow the schedule pretty good. Good Luck!
Thank you for enlightening my understanding of the situation. Hopefully I can present her with some ideas and options that she will feel are beneficial to the children. Thank you for your help.
