What school system/stte are u in?

Our (K-5) elementary 5th grade does an end of yr fieldtrip (grauation party) the 5th grade fundraiser pays for the trip and bus cost have been donated by PTA and local councilmen.
The buses arent be needed anywhere after that's their only use of the day because they might run late...
I'd too approach the principal with "Is their a better way? Is their something we can do 2 get buses that dont have as tight a schedule?"

Maybe ask for an explaination on how the system currently worked (or didnt work) and then go from there. Your the liason, there's nothing wrong with getting as much info from your principal before bringing subject up with board (they wont feel left out, if they feel you've gathered the best info 1st)

Communication is the key-- keep board and principal informed and in dialoge

[ 08-05-2006, 03:46 AM: Message edited by: Shawn ]

Why do you need to confront the principal when you could ask "Is there a better way to do this?" "How can we work at this issue smarter?" If you even have the option of leaving earlier from your school so the buses can be back earlier and/or in better time, have that discussion. Also you don't know what kind of flack the principal got for messing up the bus schedual. That's a tough one to overcome.

In very simple terms, wouldn't you rather ask your kid who broke the glass and help them clean it up with an understanding it was going to be okay and the situation is fixable or upset, mad and unwilling to work with the child to understand the mistake.

I would never want to embarrass our principal thats what I am tring to avoid by not informing the board of this problem. Still I am a new president and have no relationship with this principal so I don't know how to approach her on my own. I want us to be able to work togther this year and better our school but I know that our parents and teachers will be very upset if we don't have this field trip(so will I). I just don't want to make a mistake in the way I approach her and lose her support for the whole year. Thanks for the advice since I am new at this I didn't want to seem like I was tring to shut the other board members out of this discussion but I thought it might be better to talk with the principal before anyone else.

You catch more flies with honey than vinegar. I would not try to embarrass the Principal into changing her mind - even if she does on this issue (very unlikely) you will have alienated and lost her trust. That is a very bad path for a PTO to go down (the relationship with the Principal is really key to meeting a PTOs goals).

I would sit down 1-on-1 and explain that there is a lot of desire to continue that field trip. And then try to explore what the issues are and how they can be addresses. If she is willing to discuss it, you can then bring other people in to help solve the problems. Maybe you can use busses from another company that won't interfere with the district busses. Maybe some things can be cut out to make sure you get back to the school on time. There may be lots of ways to mitigate the problems experienced last year - especially if it was a 1 time occurance (in other words, that was the first time in the many years you have done the trip where you returned late).

But before you schedule the meeting, try and sit in her seat for a few minutes. You said that the field trip "messed up the bus schedule for the whole district for that day". How much grief did the Principal get from her boss and peers? How many parents called the district/other schools to complain about the busses that day? She may have really gotten reamed out for allowing this to happen. If the impact was that large, it may not even be her decision - the district may have told her she can't authorize that trip anymore. If you have a good working relationship, she should be willing to explain all this in confidence 1-on-1.

Okay so at the end of last year our principal annouced that we could no longer take our annual all school field trip because of bussing issues. I have since found out that was not true. Yes there had been a problem last year because we arrived back to school late which messed up the bus schedule for the whole district for that day. However if we leave earlier in the morning and return on time there is no problem for bussing. Our principal decided to not pursue this option and told the pto there was no way around the bus issue and the trip had to be cancealed. Possibly she did not want the field trip anymore or maybe she just didn't ask questions to try to make it work that is unknown. I have not shared this new info with the board as of yet however at our last meeting we all were very disapointed and were tring to come up with new was to keep our field trip. Help I have a meeting with our principal and a meeting with the board at the begining of next week. Do I confront the principal (hopefully to save her some embarassment and to work out the trip togther) or take it to the board first? :confused: