Thanks for the kind words ptomember111! But I'll be the first to say that I'm not the smartest person here - not even close!!!

As president of my group, I'm constantly quoting our bylaws and it's become habit. Also, I just would personally never ask PTO to intervene in a staffing or disciplinary dispute. Once the dust settles, you do have to go back to work together.

It's being concerned and involved parents that got us all into PTO work to begin with. If you have a contingent of parents truly concerned about particular administrative decisions, then use the skills you've learned doing PTO work to organize and present your issues through the appropriate channels. I would just recommend that it be seperate from official PTO activities.

yeah... headway...

now lets say that the principal you wanted to keep was not so beloved...

let say you voted and 67% percent of you really, really, really wanted him fired..

would you have taken those wishes to the board as the pto???

this, of course, takes us back to "(when necessary) against".

it seems to me that the pto is the group suited for a task like that...

the well respected CrewChief seems to say "no...never"

i am not so much frustrated as confused and ignorant... i've always viewed the pto as a parent /teacher "union". GM and the Auto Workers Union need to work together for common good but their positions are often adversarial... hence GM's CEO
can not be the Union President.


so....what would you do if you had a rotten principal????

ptomember111 i sense that you are frustrated and hope that I can help with that. You wonder where do parents go to complain, they may go to a pto/pta meeting but often will be asked to take it one on one with the principal, school shared decision team, superintendent. the thing with saying no as a PTO/pta against your principal you have to be really aware that your whole membership feels that way, that is why i say you need to use caution. As a pto leader you may choose to meet one on one with the principal and discuss the issue but it sounds like it is more that that. This doesn't mean that a PTO can't take on your district, example last year we were losing our beloved principal, as a pto we fought to have a say in the hiring team and questions. We stated our concerns head on and fought for that principal who advocates for parent involvement. For more personal issues it shouldn't start on the pto level and I am a true believer that pto's should NEVER get involved in politics!!!!

Now as far as why A pto would seek independence from the principal I am not sure what your question really is...are you talking being a seperate entity? If you are then that comes down to financial protection and doing what is best in a legal sense. I mean as a 501c 3 we seem to be looked at as a more organized organization that just a bunch of parents.
If you are talking on a level of not letting the principal totally run things that is just a matter that why would a principal run a parent group? It only seems natural that parents want to run the show with the principal's support and staff being team players. Think of it this way would you be more apt to join a group that is run by parents or a group that is controlled by the principal? hope this helps.

[ 05-10-2006, 05:33 PM: Message edited by: pals ]

GOOD POINT

"....if there is no inherently adversarial
relationship between principal and pto why would a pto seek independence from the principal?"

either the two bodies aspire to teamwork and if its not, how do differences get resolved between the two bodies.

if someone has an answer to THAT last question, probably evertything else would be self evident

Thanx for your help...

clearly my understanding is not correct....
this leads me to other questions...

you are saying that the pto has no tradition of addressing parents' grievances.

is there (has there been) anything like a "parents' union"?

is the only recourse to complain to a higher administrator???

are these complaints to be lodged person by person??

how would a group complain???

sometime, somewhere a group of parents will have had a good idea... how will they implement it if the administration resists??? what mechanism is there to "direct the administrative activities"??

if the pto is not the "voice of the people" what is their role and who will be that voice?

Also, if there is no inherently adversarial relationship between principal and pto why would a pto seek independence from the principal???

Thanks TeacHer! I'm lucky enough to be surrounded by smart people. And like yesyesyes said in her post:

isnt that one thing that school is all about anyway, being role models for the kids

I've learned a lot from some great role models and am just trying to be the same...