Hey, guess what?! I've had my kids in two different private schools, and YES, there are PTO dues--the last school charged $30/family mandatory dues collected at registration by the school. This one is voluntary and charges $25/family. I don't know where that parent gets her information--you might direct her to this particular thread.
As for the principal, that's a much bigger problem! If he's not opposed to the Internet as much as he seems to be opposed to having a PTO, maybe you could direct him to the PTO Today website and the parent groups of the year.
The winning group raised $45,000 in cash to purchase a textbook series...hello! That's not chump change!
The group I was involved with last year was the South regional winner--our parents built an entire computer network of 100 donated computers and gave the school an administration system for the network--a similarly purchased network would have cost the school $100,000.
Anyone who dismisses the influence of a PTO on a school need only visit this site to discover that it is really an integral part of the success of any school environment--private or public.
I don't see any reason why you can't have membership dues. Your PTO should create its own bylaws. Then state the dues in your bylaws.
Our bylaws state that the $5 membership dues/per family/per year. Allows you to vote. This came to be within our organization due to a problem election....Some years back 2 women were running for President. The night of elections people came out of the woodwork to vote one woman into the presidency. These were people who never got involved or volunteered in any way and of course they were never seen or heard from again.
So now you need to pay your dues at the start of the school year to be able to vote.
I can't believe your school WOULDN'T have a PTO, PTA or Parents' Club?? I've never heard of a school that didn't! Now, we are a private school and do not charge dues because we're not affiliated with any kind of national organization that we have to send money to. So, everyone is a member of our Parents' Club. That's just a call you have to make. Do you have a school newsletter? Maybe you can make a big deal out of new members and mention them in your newsletter. I think you need to hang in there--it may take a while to get it going. Good luck
Shelly
I am with a private school and we are just starting our PTO. I have 32 parents signed up for the PTO ( The school has 200 children). Since we are new it was decided that we would have dues. So far 11 parents have paid these dues no questions asked. The problem is that one parent keeps telling members of the PTO board that we are not allowed to ask for dues because we are a private school. Meanwhile she has never confronted me who happens to be the PTO president.I gave my PTO report to our development committee the other day. The principal attended this meeting and was present when i reported on the amount of dues that were collected to date. The Principal said nothing.
I must state that the principal has made it known to myself and others that she does not feel that we need a PTO.
Has anyone heard of such a thing regarding private schools. Our school's bylaws do not address this issue in any way.(It does not even have anything about a PTO)
How absolutly frustrating this whole affair has been for me to start a PTO--You would think THat I was doing something horrible.
