OneandOnly;135345 wrote: Employing a staff member would totally change your organization. I'm don't think you would qualify as a 501c3 school since you now have employees...
While I don't think this is a good idea for a PTO, it absolutely would not be a problem merely because of the 501(c)(3) as long as the employees' duties still support the original mission. Many 501(c)(3) organizations have employees - sometimes only one; sometimes thousands. (Think Goodwill, United Way, American Red Cross.)
Employing a staff member would totally change your organization. I'm don't think you would qualify as a 501c3 school since you now have employees. It is the board of education's responsibility to balance their budget and have these staff members in place. Attend your board meeting and ask to review the budget. Where is the money going and does it outweigh the need for a librarian.
Our bylaws clearly state that we cannot pay anyone for their time spent related to PTO duties. We surely would not allow the PTO to pay someone's salary. If the board learns you can no longer support this, who knows---they may all of a sudden "find the money" in the budget. However, as a PTO, you can maybe create a parent helper program where parents can come in and help children in the library if they cannot afford a librarian.
Yes, a 501(c)(3) can employ folks. But it's a huge question as to if it's a good idea for an organization run by volunteers. You have to be so careful of classifying the person appropriately as a contractor or an employee. You need to check into insurance. You may need to withhold taxes.
If you are the employer, you have some responsibility for their quality of work and if they do anything wrong. If you hire them, you have to be prepared to fire them. What you are suggesting truly sounds like employment, not merely bringing in a speaker or week long program.
It's not a role I would willingly take on.
That being said, we are also heavily involved in the running a summer swim team that's a 501c organization. (Not a 3, I think a 4.) We hire about 6 coaches for the swim team. Volunteers on our board have the paperwork part down, but there's always some drama about salaries or who's not working hard enough. This year, one of the college age boys supposedy got busted for drugs one weekend. As his employer - what are our responsibilities? He's representing US with small children; yet we don't even know if it's true or false. Even if it's true, we have an "innocent until proven guilty" system (yet often a "guilty until proven innocent" mentality). It would be months before any trial occured. Could we take any action even if we wanted to? Ugh!!
Do any of the PTOs out there employee staff for your school? Example: A librarian, yard duty, janitor. Our school has had some drastic budget cuts:( and are losing this staff. In the past we have given our school the money to employee these people. However, this year we are under the state financial management team for California and we have been told we cannot give the this money to school for the purpose of hiring these people. Do you have a PTO that employees these jobs through you organization and not the school? I'm not sure what steps to take to do this. We are a non-profit with a 501c3.
Please advise.
Thank You,
Dee
