I have been involved in PTO for 5-1/2 years now. I started as Treasurer at a small K-5 school. The next year the district was restructured and the PTOs of five schools (two of which closed, including mine) merged into one. Three years later came another restructuring. Our PTO currently encompasses seven schools - one K-8, three K-5, one K-4, one 4-5, one 6-8. I have been Treasurer through all incarnations.

Our current Board structure is a President, Seven Vice Presidents (one from each building, who are essentially the "president" at their building), Secretary, Fundraising Coordinator, Treasurer, and two Vice Treasurers.

As far as budget, some line items are the same amount at each building (assemblies, for example) and some are different, being based on number of students (field trips, holiday crafts). We do one big fall and spring fundraiser, with some variations at some of the buildings. Individual schools can do small fundraisers during the year for special projects.

Individual schools have their own meetings, and we have one or two "district-wide" (except for the high school) meetings during the year. The Executive Board meets once a month. School meetings are scheduled so parents won't have a conflict if they have students at more than one building.

This is our second year in this arrangement and it has worked well. It's great for sharing of ideas among the schools, which didn't happen before. The financial arrangement has "leveled the playing field," so we don't have "rich" and "poor" PTOs in our district, which we did have before.

I'd be happy to answer any other questions you might have, or provide more detailed information.

I would so appreciate some pointers from someone who is or who has been involved in a PTO which supports a k-8 or k-12 school model.

Our situation is this -- in a nut shell: Last year we saw the closing of basically two schools and the merger of 3 Elementary PTO's (pre-k through 5th). There are three (3) physical elementary schools we support -- with the two older classes (4th and 5th) housed in the middle school building. It was agreed from the beginning of this year that the current structure would be transitional for this year only and at the end of the year recommendations would be made should we see fit.

The year has run pretty smoothly with communications being the most challenging issue; however looking ahead we can't help but think that a k-8 model might be something worth examining. (like I said the 4,5 elementary grades share the same building as the 6,7, and 8th graders who have their own separate PTO). And it doesn't take a great leap of the imagination to think about the pros (and cons) to a k-12 merged PTO.

In any case, there are a few unknowns such as a) how are funds allocated to each of the schools -- elementary, middle and H.S. b) How are the Board Officers structured to best "represent" each of the schools? c) How are the meetings structured? Are there more than one per month?

Can any one shed some light?

RUNMOM!