Oor principal was also adament about our placing PTO info in the teachers mailboxes, but had nothing to do with content. She was concerned that if there was something in the mailbox concerning a student, it should not be seen by a parnet's eyes. This was solved by our leaving a stack of flyers withthe admins in the office who would then distribute them to the teachers. We also had teacher reps on our board; you might want to check with them to see their feelings. Our teachers liked to get copies of the flyers because sometimes the children would ask about something and they'd have no idea what the child was talking about. Also - the faculty likes to attend a lot of our functions!
Get hold of a copy of "The Seven Habit of Highly Effective People". To get anywhere with the principal you need to start making "deposits". Find way to compliment the Principal.
As it stands now, a teacher's mailbox is the property of the school district. As the agent of the school district the principal has the authority to halt the placement of the form. Please refer to: PERRY ED. ASSN. v. PERRY LOCAL EDUCATORS' ASSN., 460 U.S. 37
(1983) 460 U.S. 37
Thanks Clevelandprez for your help. Just an FYI, during our presentation to the principal, she got indignant (even though my co-chair and I were very calm and rationale) and said that she had "the support of the administration" on her decision not to let the PTO put anything in the teacher's mailboxes. I innocently asked her if that meant that this policy was a new districtwide policy. She didn't answer me at first so I asked again and she said "no" but indignantly said that "other schools do this". I haven't checked with our district school superintendent's office to see if what she told be was true.
Also, I did check with with someone in the know about the legality of the policy....a family member who happens to be the Director of Education under the Governor in a particular state (and a former teacher, state teachers'
union president, and elementary principal). He said that he knew of no law that would require the mailbox prohibition.
I know ya'll are really trying to be diplomatic and nice about this...but this is our children here! I wouldn't be much nicer at all! I'd go straight to the superintendent with this, and see if there isn't a way to make the new principal understand what you are doing. EVERYTHING we do goes back to our kids, no matter what. It may not look like it..but think of it this way. For every dime you raise, that is a little less money your principal will have to pull from her bond or splost money each year. Her budget doesn't suffer, and yours doesn't either since you've already deemed where your funds go. If she's pissy about copies, copy them somewhere else, see if you can't get a bulk discount, or offer to help fund the copies. We pay a penny per page that we copy at the school. Someone else does the copies for us, and we don't even have to have a committee or helpers. This way, our admin is making money off us, we are making money to go toward all the kids, and it seems sadly enough, that everyone is happy in this situation.
I personally wouldn't put up with this much longer, I'd gather information from other area schools and PTO's....I'd even consult a high school principal on the laws/legalities, if you have a friend of a friend, etc. I would get this done, then if she doesn't respect you enough to listen to what you have to say, and at least compromise on it, I'd go for the big dogs and head to her boss.
Educate her. She is obviously no dummy if she has gotten this far in that short amount of time. I almost wonder if she is afraid of not being taken serious. No really, 27 and a Principal, everyone I knew were much older and I remember you had to teacher for years before being qualified. Now you just sign-up for the classes and get the degree you need and talk your way into a job.
I'm thinking it's more than paper. Help me out here...how would this kind of issue be handled in the office? Isn't that what this really is boiling down to? How can this person deal/work with a new supervisor? :confused:
