Our parents pay $5.00 and teachers pay $3.00 to belong.

Teachers receive so many benefits from the PTO for their classrooms and students. We don't feel that $3.00 is too much to ask for !

At our K-1 building the teachers pay a reduced amount. Our dues are $10.00(6.00 helps fund 3 classroom parties, 2.00 helps defray printing cost of school wide directory, and 2.00 to the general fund). The teachers pay $2.00.

Our teacher's pay. We give a school spirit item each year after the dues are paid. We hated to start dues, but felt it was the best way to promote involvement and keep a record of our members. It's working!

Our teachers pay, but this gives them a chance to vote at election time.

I'm against dues of any sort PTA/PTO but if the group does charge... I'm not sure why teachers would be exempt. Why would parents be charged and teachers not? Make no sense to me. Parents and Teachers work just as hard, have families, etc.

If you only charge parents then the T should be left out IMHO (Might as well rename it to a booster/alumni club)

Of my three parent groups:

Elementary PTO - minimal dues (like $5), teacher's dues were waived.
Middle School PTO - no dues; everyone a member
High School PTA - $10 dues, anyone who wants to be a member pays

I personally would prefer teachers NOT pay the dues if it's a PTO. But you do have to consider the membership/voting implications. Theortically that could make the teachers a majority group within your membership and able control all decisions subject to vote. That was never an issue for us in elementary. Everything was really hashed out in our (very large) executive board meetings. By the time anything was presented for vote to the general membership, all issues had been ironed out. When we had elections, it was always with single slate.

Ours was mostly just a statement in our bylaws that dues were waived for teachers. We didn't actually collect contact info or forms from them.

Also, we had a big membership contest each fall with the class with the largest % of PTO families winning a prize. For that, any teacher that was also a parent did have to complete the membership form (no payment) and submit it by deadline for their child's class. They weren't included in the contest numbers automatically as that wouldn't be fair to the others.

So you may also need to consider issues like do they need to complete a form or not.