Thanks, everyone, for your insight. My presidential successor is a regular 'lurker' here. I hope she got some helpful information!

Alice's Edible Schoolyard is a wonderful idea, but I think the Chez Pancea (sp?) (her nonprofit) takes care of maintenance along with a Vista Corps grant (its part of the Programs budget not the schools) but I'm not totally sure (I've been trying to pry specific info on setup and running a program out of them for almost 3 yrs now)

I'd say if an agreement is set up before hand fine but the PTO/PTA shouldnt be 'hit up' for routine maintenance repairs, building, school grounds maintenance (especially years after the fact- heck a car warranty is usally only 5-7 yrs)

That edible classroom sounds fantastic!! Uh-oh, you've got me thinking.

Despite my above post, I do agree that you have to draw the line somewhere. If something, such as a piece of equipment, is given as a gift you should not be responsible for the maintenance indefinetly. If one of my kids toys runs out of batteries, I don't call my mother & tell her she needs to buy more. (I just thank the heavens & hide it! ) Seriously, I think there is a difference between an onging project, such as the gardens that we do( this was our own idea-something we wanted to do- noone ever asked us to do it, or to continue doing it- to me, that makes a big difference.) or a playground, and constantly having to buy toner for a copier or some such thing. If the school does not feel they will have the money to maintain an item, they should simply decline the gift. Whatever happened to not looking a gift horse in the mouth?

I have always wanted to do an 'edible classroom' funded by the PTO and managed by the teachers and staff at our school. If you are familiar with Alice Waters in California, she has this amazing farm where local middle school students plan, plant, maintain, harvest and cook up the crops they grow. What an amazing program. Kids could incorporate all different types of learning, from geometry (area) to biology to chemistry in this sort of activity. This is the kind of long term PTO gift that I would totally support with long term funding.

I think this is fundamentally different from maintaining an entryway or courtyard plantings that was done by a landscaping service.

Sorry, seem to be veering away from original intent of this thread.

If it is a "gift" requested via the teachers/principal, via a wish list for example, I think it is given with the understanding that future costs incurred from the gift are the school's responsibility.

However, if in future wish lists the school wants to include these costs, that is their choice, I guess. All depends on whether those costs are more important than some other item the school really needs.

As a side note, I'll add that our group only gifts the school with things that "touch the kids"...in fact, we use that as part of our tagline. Landscaping would not directly affect our kids learning, so we would hesitate to fund that; unless, of course, the landscaping was done by the kids, as part of a class, in which case, we'd be more than happy to take that on...

Oh yes, I absolutely agree that PTO is there to enhance the learning environment and to provide the extras. And the "extras" are whatever the local parent group thinks best serves their community. But does that mean we are tethered to every gift we ever give, endlessly responsible for supplies, upkeep, replacement, and so on?

[ 09-20-2006, 08:41 AM: Message edited by: CrewChief ]