I like Serendipitys ideal about banding together with the other PTO's and talking it over. After that I would ask for a meeting with the Superintendant and tell him/her specifically what safeguards the PTO's have in place right now to prevent another theft by treasurer. I would be throughly prepared with that and also the many things that the PTO's accomplish right now without the district's ULTIMATE AUTHORITY. And, jeez, I would do this quick!

Thank you for the replies, I'm sorry I failed to put their reason... One of the other PTO's didn't have by-laws set up well and a treasure walked away with all of the money. That PTO went to the superintendent complaining. Now it appears the fix is to place all of the PTO's under their 'Ultimate' control.

This seems like an awful situation! It seems as though all of the PTOs need to get together to fight this. Did they give you a reason as to why they are doing this? Is there some history here?

Since PTO's are a seperate organization from the school this seems like an odd situation. What is the reason they are claiming to want to do this?
Did things happen that made them come to the decision to want to do this?

If things went wrong then I could possibly see them wanting to have some control, but if things have been business as usual it makes me question their motivation. I would worry that they want to use your money for things that they should be paying for.

Without knowing why they are doing this it is hard to say, but I certainly would want to meet with the other PTO boards to discuss this. What would the school district do if you all banded together and refused to do this? Would they be willing to have all their schools function without PTO's?

Our PTO has been running for several years, however our school district is changing the way each PTO in the district is to be run. They are forcing every PTO to turn it's funds over to the district so they can manage it for the PTO. They encourage each PTO to have by-laws, but they have a an additional set of by-laws that the PTOs (9 in the district) must conform to. These by-laws include the fact that the "board of education shall have ULTIMATE authority of the PTO's involvement with the school or district" and the superintendent has authority to disband the PTO under certain circumstances. It states that PTO's fundraising activities must be consistent with the district policy, rules and procedures and subject to the principal's approval - even if it doesn't involve the school or students! The district's by-laws also state that the PTO's by-laws become subject to the final approval of the principal and superintendent designee. They are threatening the PTO's ability to "conduct fundraising in the school" and stated that collecting money at the school will end unless the PTO gives up it's independence and becomes a "School Sponsored" PTO. This isn't just our PTO it also involves the other 8 in our district. What can we do? They expect the PTO's to conform in the next two weeks. I guess the saddest part is that our PTO keeps putting off the issue because it makes our meetings run late. H E L P!!