Any money in the PTO fund is generally there because the parents of the school community entrust the PTO to use the funds earned to better the enviroment of its childrens school. Misappropriation of those funds is Fraud and at that amount a felony. You need to come clean to prevent yourself from being pulled in and considered guilty by association. If you keep quiet it only looks like you are also guilty.
Good Luck.

.....and maybe copy the superintendent of the school district the principal transferred to!

and send her a courtesy cc as well - if shes done no wrong, she has nothing to worry about, and if there has been wrongdoing, then its your obligation (moral, anyway) to let them know at her new digs.

and, do yoiu know why she transferred? was it voluntary? maybe your super is already aware of this or other things, one just NEVER knows the whole story, does one.

You should report this to the superintendent.

'I'm told that the $1400 incident is supposed to be kept hush-hush' goes against EVERYTHIHNG public education is all about.

Everything is an open book, if you are part of the school as service arm, youre group falls under the 'right to know law'. if your indep non profit, youre bound to the disclosure laws of non profits (501c3).

if a staff (or anyone for taht matter) is telling you to keep somehting $$$ hush hush, you can be sure you aint seen nothin yet and you might want to get a full back audit going, by an outside independent agency to see what else aint quite right to start with a clean slate going forward


i am sure others on these boards (esp teh ones from jersey!) will chime in and help you better.

Can anyone help in any way? I was thrown into PTO last year and was the only member of the "board." That made me the President by default. The previous President's child "graduated." I had no idea what I was doing and asked for some sort of "book of rules and regulations." I was never given anything. The principal basically threw me to the wolves and offered little, if any, back-up. I had no control over the finances. Her secretary had control of the checkbook and I would go to her for cash and checks. I was told at one point that the principal had told the secretary to write a check for $800 from the PTO funds for a limited grade event that was not sponsored by the PTO. I was upset but did not know what to do. I just stopped by the school to check on things before the schoolyear begins. I was told by the secretary that our former principal (she transfered to another school) wrote more checks on our account after the schoolyear ended (the secretary was on funeral leave.) This money was also not for a PTO sponsored event. There was supposedly another event not related to PTO that involved the former principal and money. I think that she mis-used funds given to her by the Board of Ed. The Board found out about it and ordered the secretary to repay about $1400. She had to dip into all of the funds, including PTO. I left the year with about $2000 in my fund. I have no idea how much I have now. The secretary has to completely go through the account to find missing money. What can I do? What are my legal rights, if any. I'm told that the $1400 incident is supposed to be kept hush-hush. I am very upset. Please offer any information. Oh, by the way...I live in NJ.