BE VERY careful.
It is really not the job of any non-profit to fund any kind of staff- no matter how great the need.
For one thing- you could only fund the salary-
A temporary fix does not solve a permanent problem. what about the benefits package?
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A suggestion you could make to your principal would be to write a grant proposal- (there are LOTS our here). Failing that organize your school to have a writing campaign to inform (or remind) your district school board and state legislators that your school is overcrowded, and you need this problem PERMANENTLY solved.
If nothing else it will raise their awareness.

Again- remember, your Parent group's aims and goals should be kept in mind whenever spending your groups funds. Also, your group should not spend any excess money without the approval of your general membership.
I am sure you can find some need your school has, that you can better spend the money on. Failing thatt- poll the membership for their ideas.

Thanks so much to everyone who responded. I agree with everyone who wrote but wanted to make sure that I wasn't alone in my thinking.

I agree with the others, be careful. It is unusual that a school district would allow parents to raise money for district personnel. It could be seen as favoring one group over another.

I have had experience in this department because our PTO has been asked to do this in some capacity in past years. Now the situation about the grade that has alot of students and the parents have funded another teacher: I'm not sure I would do that. That doesn't benefit all the children. Our PTO, (a private school) was asked to help out hiring a cleaning lady for the cafeteria. That benefits all the students. My sister's child's public school in a $$$ public school district funded a Spanish teacher for the school because they wanted Spanish to be taught. i would think hard about funding a teacher for one grade, though.
Shelly

I agree with the others. As tempting as the PTO surplus might be to those parents, a temporary fix from the PTO isn't the answer to this difficult problem. Why the parents should feel its their job to raise funds is a little weird to me. I'm actually surprised the school district will accept donations for that purpose, although I'm not sure why I say that. Just unusual, I guess.

The PTO shouldn't be put in the position of hiring school staff, and that's basically what you'd be doing.

Tread carefully as ScottMom#1 said. If the funding source of your school system finds that you are providing $$ for this, they will expect you to do it from here on out. I would say that yes the need is there, but your PTO/PTA should not fund it as hard as that need may be. The funding source needs to know that the need is there and they are responsible.