Hi Scottmom! Actually Muffins with mom & Donuts with Dad cost us each about $500 a piece. It is the other brunches/lunches that get us in the $1000 range per event. We just served the teachers lunch for teacher appreciation week and that was in the ballpark of $500 to feed them. The principal also ordered coffee mugs as a gift to all the staff so that was another $300 making that an $800 day.
While my town in middle class, we do live in one of the most costly areas of the country. I like your wording of "Prioritizing the budget" I will have to use that. So it is really going to be a matter of what we decide to cut out. Regardless, I am sure many people will not be happy, but what else can we do ...this is insane!
scottmom - i applaud your 10% parent pop (and you)that is most likely supporting the discretionary pto spending for the 100% of kids! what good people you are to keep on doing what youre doing and stay motivated.
actually, only 1% of our parents go to meetings and are really involved, so we too have a lot of people just taking what comes and not contributing what they can (time, etc. it doesnt have to be $$) or should. its an entitlement mentality they have, i guess, and i feel sorry for their kids to have such role models. hopefully thier kids learn from people like YOU and YOUR KIDS whom they may befriend!!
To answer the earlier post, parents at our school don't want to "donate" because they have found they don't have to do anything and their child will be taken care of. We are a 90% reduced/free school and lots of parents take advantage of someone always supplying whatever their child needs.
Serendipity, you do pay an awful lot for buses. It also sounds like you do a lot for your school in the way of free activities, maybe you could find some local donors or sponsers for these events to help you cut costs. I can't imagine paying for food for the whole school!
Just comparing costs, I don't know where you live, but $1000 for Muffins With Moms sounds like a lot. I believe we spend around $200 for those types of events, but we also don't have every mom show up.
One of the things we started trying to get rid of with our expenses were decorative items that can't be reused, like flowers. For one event someone spent almost $60 for 6 centerpeices when only 7 people showed up and their total budget for the event was $175.
Someone told me we shouldn't call it cutting the budget but prioritizing our expenses.
The irony of commitment is that it’s deeply liberating-in work, in play, in love. The act frees you from the tyranny of your internal critic, from the fear that likes to dress itself up and parade around as rational hesitation. To commit is to remove your head as the barrier to your life. --Anne Morris
my3strongtikes...No I do not think you are being nosy by asking. I think that our budget has become outrageous! You mention you pay $175 per bus for their field trips. I wish! The Cheapest bus I paid for this year was $600. The most expensive for the trip that is the farthest was in excess of $1000. This is just for the bus so were not even adding what admission for about 125 kids & chaperones for each grade level. We pay for their entire trip so the parents do not pay anything for them to go.
We buy certain supplies (folders, planners, etc..) for the kids to get on the first day of school. That expense is around $3000.
We do a kindergarten boohoo yahoo breakfast, donuts with dad, muffins with mom, and at least 4 other events (Mother's day brunch/Gradparents Valentines Tea, etc...) all of those cost us in the $1000 range. There are also a few events that we supply Pizza and ice cream for all the children. Just buying pizza for the whole school costs about $800.
We hold an end of the year carnival (a one day only school day event) It is free for all the kids
and is not a fundraiser. That costs us $5000.
Of cousrse we pay for assemblies and in house workshops, This list just goes on and on and on.
We are fotunate that our fundraisers do well so that we have this kind of money to work with. But now with everything becoming so expensive it is hard to keep up. I assume we will have to cut some things out. The only events we have added are muffins with mom & donuts with Dad(in the last few years) otherwise all the other things were events/programs/items that have been done for years Again I agree that this budget is outrageous and feel that way too much is expected of us. When I see people posting that they are working with a $12,000 - $15,000 budget that shocks me. That would not be enough money for us to do a fraction of what we normally do in a year.
if parents dont want to buy a candle or cookie dough (say, at $10 per, of which only a portion goes to the school/their kids benefit) maybe they would consider DONATING CASH and dedcuting it from taxes, so $10 donated, is the ENTIRE $10 to teh school, and costs the taxpayer less than that, depending on their tax bracket. we call it OPTING OUT of fundraisers, some parents around here prefer to give cash (for the entire year, a one time sum of their choosing at year start) and not hassle with all the ins and outs of fundraisers. of course, its optional, but it does seem to work and just gives another way to help the school with a no hassle method, for those parents who dont like or need candles, wrappijng paper, cookie or pizza dough products.
We are a public school Pre k-2nd and have about 550 students. Our budget is about 20,000-25,000 closer to 20. We pay for field trip buses at about $175 a bus, assemblies, activities, events etc.
Your PTO budget seems quite large what are some of your large expenses that is making it so high?
Not trying to be nosey just trying to help. You might have to cut back on a few things.
Cindy<br />
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<br>"People have the right to be stupid, but some abuse the privelege."
