Does your PTO prepare a budget at the beginning of the school year for the parents to vote on? If they did everyone would know exactly where the funds are going and what goals the group has for the year. With our group the majority of our funds go towards field trips, we are a "walking" district so we have to rent the charter buses to go anywhere. We set up classroom accounts, pay for assemblies, pay for Scholastic Readers and have many family nights. A organized budget is the key to "harmony" there are no surprises and everyone is on the same page...

Thanks everyone. That gives me some ideas to start with.

We spend about $50,000-$60,000 each year. This covers two elementary schools with over 1200 students each.

About $20,000 is spent on Arts and Enrichment programs for each grade level.

We donate $6,000 to our RIF program.

About $3,000 on what we call our PIP (parent Involvement Program). These are science and math programs for each grade, outside of the school day. For instance, the first and second graders have a huge program that we cosponsor with a local supermarket. We set up math and science experiments throughout the store and families come and explore and learn.

We spend over $5,000 on teacher reimbursements for personally purchased items for the classrooms ($50 each).

We pay over $1000 so each fifth grader will recieve a free yearbook.

We pay for supplies for "publishing centers" which allow students to bind up books they have written.

There are also many smaller items we pay for each year- meals during conference week, field days, etc. Book fair proceeds go the school and classroom libraries.

When we have a large sum of unallocated money, we ask the principals what they would like. This year we are donating a large amount of something called "aplhasmarts." These are word processor type thingies that will be used in the classroom. Technology is one thing our schools need to focus on, so we're trying to help however we can. In the past we've donated picnic tables for the courtyard area, printers for the prep rooms, software, cordless microphones for the music departments, and countless other things.

I am sure I will leave some things out, but this will give you an idea.

We have monthly fun days that the PTO pays for, the PTO pays for anything the playground needs, our teachers and staff get $50-$100.00, sometimes we sponsor special events such as Relay For Life or Angel Tree project, ink cartridge money goes to the computer lab, Ropin' and Shootin money goes to the p.e. dept., we sponsor all fundraising activities-Fall Festival, Christmas Shop, and Spring Fling- during this time the kids get free tickets or vouchers worth .50, if our FRC gets low we buy them needed clothing, we sometimes give the custodian $50.00 for coming in on Saturdays after a special event, we purchase anything needed for the meetings which includes; refreshments, door prizes, and supply baskets for the teachers with the most attendees, we keep the work room filled with small supplies; pens, paper clips etc., we buy teacher and volunteer Christmas and appreciation gifts, book fair money is kept in the library account, and most of the time if someone asks for money at a meeting that is in reason they get it, we purchase AR prizes, attendance prizes, and academic prizes, we also sponsor the Talent Show and very rarely make money on that so I don't consider that a fundraising, and in the past we have provided refreshments at Open House and teacher conferences. That is all I can think of right now.

Our budget this year is $15,000. The money is spent on the following items: We pay $7 per child for one field trip a year, Supplies for the Art Appreciation Program, we sponsor a school wide reading program, we celebrate staff appreciation week, year end gifts for non-teaching staff members, principal fund (used at their discretion), teachers are given $100 at end of the year to buy supplies for the upcoming year, we also have the following social events, some of which we charge a small admission fee to: school dance, pancake breakfast, family fun day, ice cream social, we also have a sunshine fund (for memorial donations, staff members wedding/new baby, etc.) and then about another $1000 of misc. items (i.e. office supplies, filing fees, babysitting, etc.)

Hope that helps.

We have staff appreciation lunches quarterly, we support various sporting events, we host the holiday and spring music concerts, we host a bookfair (funds pay for shipping, stationary & setup)in Nov, we host two welcome events (Aug & Jan), we give donations to all the major student organizations (NHS, NJHS, STUCO, MUN), and we do wish lists for teachers throughout the year. :cool: