I would be very opposed to PTO money being used to supplement teacher salaries. That just adds to a vicious cycle in dependence on privately raised funds to fill a gap that should be addressed by public funds.
While I fully realize that funding for public schools is never enough, my own own thought is that PTO money should be used for EXTRAS that directly benefit the kids. My own bottom line when being asked to fund something is "if the PTO (and it's funding) went away, could the school do without it?". As valuable as field trips, extra supplies, additional computers, playground equipment, etc. are - the answer is still, "yes". If the answer is "no", like for salaries, then the PTO should not take on that responsibility.
I am in a similar situation as a new "preschool" is going to be housed in the elementary school this summer. It is going to be for special needs kids to help them prepare for Kindergarten (ages 3-4). The Family Resource Center is getting this together and they are funded limitedly(?) by BOE and the town. They are asking for funding from our K-5 PTO for additional supplies AND to help pay salaries! Am I way off by being against this request?? Our PTO has always spent monies on kids, teachers who are K-5 only. The part about salaries also bothers me. They are not asking to be part of our PTO though. Our PTO also has money to spend and the principal has signed off on the request as "PTO appropriate" K-5 has approx 450 kids and this new class would be approx 10-15. Anyone have any comments about this?
I agree, it seems that the preschools should remain independent. In our district their are 10 elementary schools. The Preschool Unit consists of 5 sub units. Members consist of anyone in the city with preschool aged children, so, they are not attached to any school or preschool. It works out wonderfully for them! They combine to do one large fund raiser a year. (Baby Bargain Bonanza, a big baby garage sale) They use the funds to defray costs of activities. Since they are not affiliated with a school they do not need to raise funds for them. What are the Preschool PTO's doing? Do they currently do fundraisers or are they more a support group for each other? They will reap the rewards of your contributions to the school anyway, and that seems ok. It does sound as if it could get complicated. I admire your forethought! Let us know, how it goes.
Critter,
From my perspective, it looks like it might be more appropriate for both pre-schools to share a PTO, separate from yours. They are run by the same organization & have similar programs & interests.
Jo
The elementary school is a K-1 school with 330 students. Preschool will probably be only about 100. Most of our PTO's expenditures go for assemblies (some of which maybe the preschoolers could attend, although they don't have assemblies in their program today), buses for field trips (which the pre's don't take), and per classroom reimbursements for the teachers (which the preschool teachers are not receiving from their parent group today). Also, we work very hard to spend as much of the annual profit as possible before year-end since our kids are here for only 2 years.
Here's the show-stopper from my perspective: There will still be an identical preschool program, run by the same people as the on-site program, in the old building next year. If we assimilated the on-site parent group, how could we justify excluding the classes in the other building? And then the other building includes 3-yr-old preschool, and day care classes...ugh, I just see it getting out of control....
Thanks for your input, keep asking questions because it helps me think about the issue from other ways.
How many students are we talking about here?Sounds like there may be enough money to go around. I would pass out if we made that kind of money in a year. As far as including these families it would really only be a bylaw change that could be achieved in two meetings. How do you divide up your budget now? Is your school K-1 now or does it include K-5 or something? Sorry for the questions.
