Ours is roughly 10% for TAWeek as well as providing a meal for the 2 conference times and 2 grading nights to help get teachers grades done with our own tech support on hand. I think ours is high because we have 2 staff members to every 1 classroom teacher and no parental support.
The irony of commitment is that it’s deeply liberating-in work, in play, in love. The act frees you from the tyranny of your internal critic, from the fear that likes to dress itself up and parade around as rational hesitation. To commit is to remove your head as the barrier to your life. --Anne Morris
What percentage of your total annual income do you budget to Staff Appreciation? Ours is about 3.5% (about $1,000 for us) and want to know where that fits in to the average group.
Our room moms are not coordinated through our group but through the school itself. If the room moms want to do something, I guess they can organize. I have never received any letter asking for donations. Usually it is something that comes from each individual family and not an organized thing.
The organization does give a "staff appreciation" gift to all staff members and only once per year.
Personally, I believe it is something that should be done individually if so desired, especially if your organization already does a staff or teachers appreciation gift or acknowledgement. What if your child did not have a "stellar" year with the teacher(it does happen) and does not want to do it.... You have to be careful, also, to not go crazy with gift giving. I would be interested to see how many groups give holiday gifts, end of the year gifts and teachers appreciation gifts. I know some do and really... it is too much.
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My 2 cents
We used to get gift certificates but had a difficult expereince that the store went out of business about a month after the gift certificate was given. Also, we were discreetly told that a $300.00 gift certificate to one store (like Barnes and Noble) was overwhelming. The teachers really like the $$$ so they can do whatever they want with it. A couple of teachers had weddings coming up and they used the money to help with expenses.
Anybody else have any experience with this?
Oh boy we had that same problem this year at Christmas with our "elective" teachers. The homeroom teachers got all these wonderful gift certificates and the elective teachers did not. Mainly, we all chip and get gift certificates and not cash, though. We did ask every single teacher last year to fill out a sheet listing their favorite restaurants, stores, etc and it stays on file at the office for anyone's reference. Sorry if I didn't answer your question but thought I'd chime in.
Shelly
Hi there! Our PTO has a budgeted amount of money as a teacher appreciation gift at the end of the year. We have never asked the parents for donations for that. I would be interested to know if anyone has tried this, and how it went over. We are also getting the teachers a gift, this year, to try to get more teacher involvement in our meetings. We are making potted plants for them. Good Luck!!!!
