Since you're a new group with no established procedures, I would recommend you use the method that is the "norm in your district" and have an election as long as you are certain you can appropriately communicate to all affected parents about the election. Do you have a way to communicate back and forth with parents to announce nominations, get responses, announce an election meeting, etc.?
If you can't be certain that your communications will reach all of the affected parents, but you feel that you need to have some sort of board in place before the end of the school year, then I would suggest that you put the board together more as a committee. Find parents who would be willing to sit on the committee for the remainder of the school year and over the summer so that you can plan out your events for the start of the year, then once school starts and you have a better means of communicating with all of your parents, begin the process of nominating and electing a formal PTO executive board. To find parents for your committee, you could contact the parent groups at the schools from which your new building will be drawing students and see if they have parents whose children will be coming your way who would like to sit on the committee.
We are a new school opening in August and have a group of parents willing to set up the PTO. What is the procedure for electing officers at a non-established school? Should the principal appoint the board or should it be put to a vote (as is the norm with our district) by the parents who will be transferring? We are quickly running out of school year and want to get the kids excited about transferring schools, but want to have the leadership in place.
We don't have any by-laws set up yet, so we can't go on those.
