We are a public school and have pretty similar class sizes. One thing we do differently than some schools is we designate how much we are going to give the teachers and then we write a check to the school which is deposited in an account for this purpose. The teachers have to fill out p.o.s and submit receipts to the school secretary. The principal reviews all purchase requests to make sure they are acceptable items. It saves the PTO a lot of paperwork and the principal can keep a handle on what is being purchased.
We are a K-5, 500 students, public school. We give $100 at the beginning to each Teacher (40)and $50 more in Feb./Mar.......on their account so it what they spend it on must be okayed. We do special projects needed and special requests are approved by board vote. We budget $10,000 for field trips. K always goes to a local apple orchard (all trips are standard yearly), First does a Pumpkin Patch, Second does a Farm, Third goes to an Aquarium and Science Museum, etc. so each grade level varies in needed cost.
We give all money raised during our fall festival to the teachers. Each teacher is required to assist in the festival since the profit goes directly toward their use. Some years they may get x amount, while others they may get y. To divide the funds we use a formula based on the number of students in each classroom, with special teachers (music, pe, etc) receiving a set amount. The teachers also work in teams, so if one teacher has more of a need, the others can contribute from their alotment if they see fit. After funding our special projects, the PTO also considers special requests from the teachers on an "as needed" basis. This can range from the purchase of plastic benches for one teacher to several hundred dollars in books for another.
In response to CoPrez's request: We are a public K-5 school. We have about 40 classrooms. Our K-3 classes run about 18 children per class, the upper grades run 20-24. (Honestly, I haven't figured out what our contribution is per student.) We have several resource and special needs teachers, 15-20.
We have in the past given 75.00 to 100.00 per class based on how our PTO fundraising has done for the year. We have about 40 teacher including the special teachers. This is the major portion of our budget and I sometimes think we should cut it down to 50.00 so we have money to start up some new programs. $4,000 is a lot of money!
We give $10 per student to each teacher in regular classrooms with flat $ to specialty teachers (for example $75 for special ed) There also additional requests for money based on funds that are sometimes added to the budget at the beginning of the year, for example Science Assembly for grades 1-3rd or new instruments for the music program.
There are guidelines on what the money can be spent on and receipts need to be submitted. They can't go out and buy say a bunch of candy or a yoga tape (these were before the guidelines were put in place)
