We have 1 or 2 Teacher Reps that attend the PTO meetings. A teacher can ask one of them, or the Principal, or one of the board members to make a request of the PTO for something beyond what we already do. The request is discussed openly at a regular PTO meeting and voted on by the memebership. (Usually it is a motion to transfer $X from the General Fund for such-and-such request.) If the discussion indicates that we need more information, we have no problem tabling a vote until the next meeting when the requestor can get us the answers.

It is only in the case of an emergency, something that can't wait until the next PTO meeting, is the board able to approve something like this. But the Board does have to account for its actions at the next PTO meeting, and since we meet almost every month there are very few emergencies that come befoire the board.

Can you please tell me how teacher requests are handled and who makes the ultimate decision as to whether or not it gets approved. What do you do for small dollar amounts (say under $200), versus big dollar amounts ($500). Our current president thinks that it should be the executive board who makes the decisions at an executive meeting. The executive board will then inform the rest of us, the general committee, as to their decision. This does not seem right to me.