Our school has two teachers as officers, the president and VP. I find it to be a conflict of interest bc the teachers are in control of where and what the money can be spent on. We have always in the past had teacher reps on the board and worked well with them. This year they did not actively pursue parents as officers, just put these teachers on.

Just to clarify, only the executive board meetings are closed. The general meeting is open to anyone and everyone; the more, the merrier.

I assure you that everything is above-board. As I mentioned earlier, our president is very, very formal and adheres to Robert's Rules like nobody's business (often annoyingly so). However, the one thing I can definitely say about her is that she goes way out of her way to include all views on all subjects. The results of all voting are available to anyone, but the remarks by individual board members are not. I have only been on the board for a year, and this has been the system since who knows when. Long before I joined the board. I believe the thinking was that the group as a whole would get the praise or the blame as opposed to individual board members.

I'd also just like to add that, per our bylaws, only items concerning elections, budget, and bylaw revision are voted on by the entire membership. This year our PTO had to obtain its own liability insurance, and we literally have to vote on everything, even something as benign as holding a PTO membership drive. I don't know for sure, but I think the feeling "back in the day" was that it could become quite unwieldy to have the whole membership vote on each and every issue.

I find the whole closed session/secrecy thing very strange. If it can't be said to someone's face, maybe it shouldn't be said. If you want others to participate, don't appear to be a secret society.

"Some have wondered if it is nothing more than a "spying mission." Let her spy. If you're being above board and fair, she can only learn the truth.

I am a PTA president and we never have a closed meeting. Let all come and join us.

Our president is ultra-formal and insists on following Roberts Rules of Order. Hence, the closed executive board meeting and confidentiality. She doesn't feel it is appropriate for anyone outside of the board to know individual board members' remarks in our deliberations. Rather, she believes that what we decide as a group is sufficient. As far as I know, that is the way it has always been. It has always been just a parent board also.

I find it odd that you have need for "confidentiality". Typically only boards that have to deal with personnel or discipline issues have a closed meeting.

I can see how this kind of setup would definitely lend itself to cliches.

I have no idea. As with everything our board considers, if our bylaws don't say anything about a particular method of handling something, we must debate it and vote.

I do find it odd that the teacher will only attend executive board meetings and will not be present for our general meetings. The timing seems curious, too. This is a veteran teacher (20+ years) who has shown no prior interest in PTO. It appears the genesis of her interest coincided with our difficult volunteer's complaints. Not the best situation.