I'm posting much later than the orginal posting but our Parent club has been paying for the Librarian for about 25 years. We also pay for the Computer Lab Tech and the Reading Instructional Aides. If we didn't we wouldn't have them. And the kids need them. The main goal of our parent club is to "support the school in the education of our children" so that is what we are doing. We actually donate the money to the school and they pay the salaries we don't pay them ourselves and that way we avoid all the issues of liability.

It's sad that we have to do this, but our kids need all the help we can give them!

Our PTO funds a part time position for a Spanish teacher. We are an IB school and offer extra spanish language instruction. The District will only fund one full time instructor. Our principal has managed her teacher allotments for a second full time teacher, and we felt we still needed more instruction for the students. We title this as a language supplement and provide the funds to the Administration. In addition, we have parent volunteers in the spanish classes on a regular basis to assist the teachers, so the class can be divided by ability for working at their level. WE, the PTO, feel it is a priority at our school as we hope to have students proficient in a second language.

It is my belief the PTO can fund whatever they desire, provided they follow the proper procedure. Also, our protocol at meetings is not formal. I've found that most parents are not familiar with the 'system'. If they come to a meeting with something on their mind, it is the proper place to address it and maybe direct them to the appropriate channel, or we determine the desire of the PTO membership as to how to proceed. What other forum is there? We encourage input and informative discussions. In turn, we are flexible and responsive. We are just happy to have people show up at the meetings and show an interest in the happenings of the school.

Thanks for all the input guys... I too am on the school Site Council we get $50,000 a year, but there is restictions on where it can be spent (towards title 1, english learners etc...) Also that money is given to us by the goverment while our Parent Group on the other hand works sooo hard for every penny..

I will ask "blurting" mom to (stop blurting!!) and to get volunteers together!!! [img]tongue.gif[/img]

Chic, we have never had any of those jobs that you are getting cut. We do have a librarian but she has no one to help her. We just beg for volunteers. I assume that those people losing their jobs will probably want to find some kind of employment where they get paid. Maybe the parent that mentioned funding the jobs would be willing to put together some kind of volunteer program just for that. Make schedules, describe position and responsiblilties etc. If the regular job holders will be transfered or moving on.

Around here we use the "Foster Grandparent Program". It comes from the same funding as Headstart. Retired people get paid based on their income by this program, we have had some at our school but mostly they have worked at pre-k and daycare centers. I've heard that the library volunteer that is over at our local high school is in a program called "Green Thumb" (?).

It sounds like the blurting Mom is just concerned, even if she does need a course in meeting etiquette. I would use this to my advantage, maybe she can do some research on grants and such and find some kind of solution.

We've not been asked to fund positions, but since PTO also has a position on our SIT (federally mandated School Improvement Team), we get to vote on how Title I funds are spent. We nearly always vote for it to go to extra reading/speech teachers, and last year, the money allowed the principal to fund more assistants in the upper grades at a 75% level. This past month, we had the option of having a PAID (oh my) parent volunteer coordinator or continue to fund the assistant/reading/speech. It was unanimous for NOT having a paid parent. I think I was shocked that it would even be brought up that a parent should be paid to do something to help out the school.
I'd suggest checking out other options available to fund the positions before even thinking about asking PTO to cover it.
Perhaps there are grants( check with the school district--many have a full time person in charge of finding those grants).
We had faced a large budget cut by the county commissioners who fund the school system--we turned out en masse at their meeting to plead for no cuts--it worked--we were kept at the previous year's funding which was bare subsistence, no growth, but also no major cuts. It just meant that we did heavy fundraising to get the extras.
Where there's a will, there's a way.

A few years ago, our PTO and another school's took on the role of paying for an art teacher. Due to budget cuts, this position had been cut. the parents felt very strongly that this was an important educational opportunity for the children and found a way to share a teacher with another school. I don't know if I would feel the same about other positions, but this one affected our children's educational opportunities. I would try to look at the issue from the standpoint of what the children need and make decisions based on that.