When we have a surplus, we have a special meeting to discuss proposals for allocating the funds and take the ideas of the parents and staff to through at least one other board meeting before anything is finalized. We are a Comer school and are taught that consensus and collaboration not majority is the way to go.

We are in the midst of exactly the same situation. Our principal has surveyed the staff and the PTO Board has agreed to allocate 50% of the profit to her wish list. Presumeably, this will buy things the teachers and the principal agree are important.

We are surveying the parent community for input on how to allocate the other 50%. Our survey form is one page, with 6 major categories, defined after a grueling 3 hour meeting with the Exec Board. We've found that the officers and principal don't all have the same priorities on how the money should be spent, so it took alot of give/take to get to an agreed-upon set of categories. Within each category are 2-4 specific items, with price tags. There is a 5-point rating for each item: 5 being most important down to 1 being not at all important. There is room on the back for comments.

We sent the survey out to a random sample of parents to make sure it made sense before we send it to everyone.

The board will review the results from the surveys and develop spending proposal for the membership to approve. We are not simply picking the items that get the most "votes". This is where the really hard work, and the burden of leadership comes in. There's no way to please everyone. The Board has to feel comfortable with their recommendation, but can't just listen to the squeaky wheel.

I'm not a big fan of surveys unless you absolutely have no idea at all how your audience feels. The benefit of a survey is that you get feedback from your respondants. The risk of a survey is that you get feedback from your respondants. Anyone who takes the time to fill out your survey, especially if they hand-write comments, could feel you "owe" them a response. To overlook specific comments or suggestions, for the overall betterment of the organization, might lead the respondant to accuse the Board of being non-responsive. "They asked what I thought. And now that I told them, they're ignoring me!" Ugh!!

We have an allocation committee, made up of an equal number of parents and teachers. The principal attends the meeting and participates, but if it comes down to a vote, he or she does not vote.

Before the committee meets, teachers, admins, and/or parents who have suggestions for how to spend the money complete an Allocation Request form. The principal reviews the forms and indicates if he/she recommends or does not recommend each suggestion. The Allocations chair makes sure all committee members have copies of all the forms before the meeting.

During the meeting, the committee approves or disapproves each request and prioritizes them. The list is then submitted to the PTO membership at large for approval.

Booster - sorry. There are so many ways to pursue information it can be daunting. As a PTO you may first want to see what you as a group would like to pursue: library, music equipment, phyed equipment, education (books, classroom upgrades), computer updates, playground (update equipment and/or grounds), more school events both after & during the week, supplying teachers with everything on their classroom wish lists etc.
Once you have a list developed go to the Principle and discuss the topics. The principle can tell you what you can specifically fund without possibly threatening government funding and what needs to go to either the school board for approval or another entity.
As a PTO decide what you would like to do based on difficulty level (who needs to approve what). From there send out a survey letting parents know the areas that could use improvement & ideas for what could be done with the funding based on the input you have. Keep the questions simple and perhaps leave a couple lines for parents & teachers to jot down their thoughts. Sounds hard but it’s actually easy and quite refreshing. Let us know how it goes.

Thank you, Silver Fox, for your reply...

I guess I was looking for something more specific...for example, do you ask specific questions; do you offer the opportunity for open-ended suggestions by parents; what survey methods are used.

We are considering having parents rank, in order of importance for them, four general categories: Curriculum, Distribution by Grade, Capital Improvements and Technology. The teachers and Principal's wish lists would then be applied appropriately...some things don't fit into these categories, however.

Also, some on the board think that principals know best what is needed for the schools; others think that since it's the parents money, they should have control. What's everyone's opinion on this?

Thanks!

Survey Parents & Teachers as well as have a discussion with Principle to see where budget deficits exist.