Our biggest expense are the field trips. We pay for the major field trips that the kids go out on. Which I don't mind at all. But what would happen if PTO did not fund that field trip what budget would it come out of. I think that parents that don't participate in fund-raising should take a look at to at least purchase something for $10.00. That would cover their kids trip ticket. I do think that schools always think that PTO covers lots of stuff. Our teachers want die-cuts $1500.00 worth and PTO to pay well isn't their a budget for that in the school budget. We don't get any support from teachers on selling fundraiser. So I challenge them if between all of them 33 sell $45.00 worth then yes PTO can pay for their die-cuts they just did it themselves by selling. Sometimes I do think that they do get a little ridicolous when they ask us to pay for certain things. They should see what are the kids benefitting from it. I don't mind at all but thought if I was the only thinking that way. Our school is Pre-K to 5 grade.
We recently went through this "financial introspection" as well. Briefly, our process was something like this:
1. Seriously looked at our (that would be Parent + Teacher) priorities and made sure they were reflected in our objectives (by rewriting them in the Constitution).
2. Restructured our budget using 5 categories (Academic, Administrative, Fundraising, Social, Service) --- You can make "sub-categories" of these if it helps, like Field Trips, In School Assemblies, Teacher Supplies & Dev, etc. for "Academic"
3. Analyze whether your planned budget reflects your priorities (eg. Do we want x% of our budget going to support social activites vs. the y% that supports service/academic/etc.)
4. If needed, adjust the planned budget to better reflect your priorities while remaining fiscally sound. (eg. We added far more in-school assemblies and $$ for teacher development and worked with the pastor/principal/etc. to phase out "capital equipment funding" ie. desks, book carts, etc.
5. Use an approval process to vote on this planned budget. (Ours is for the Executive Board to vote.)
PS - We did institute a "Mini Grant" program for teacher's to still get at some funding ($5000 total in program). This vehical still lets us be a source of $$ for those in need, but seems to have reduced the "sugar momma" aspect of our PTO.
All items that are in the budget get paid when needed. All other spending has to go through the President, the executive board and or the membership for a vote depending on the amount needed.
Just wondering if other PTA/PTO's have set policies on who gets what monies, or if money is given out on a "just ask" basis?
We did have a budget meeting and approve certain monies for activities that happen every year, but otherwise it seems money just gets handed out to whomever asks, sometimes for things the PTA shouldn't be paying for in my opinion. (We were just asked to find and pay for the gifts for Volunteer Week for example; shouldn't we be receiving this, not buying it?)
Also, an item had been requested by an ex-board member that was pretty important, but her request kept getting overlooked due to time constraints-holidays, not enough members helping out so those of us that did do the work were overwhelmed,etc. The other day I asked her in front of our president if she had received the item she needed (she works at the school, BTW) and when she said no I proposed a way for her to get it. The next thing I knew the president was on the phone making arrangements to go pick it up and handing me a check to co-sign. While I agree that it was a quicker way to fulfill the request, it never got run by the board and approved, and even though I have no problem with her receiving the item I don't think it was done properly.
I should mention we are supported by the administration very much, and by the teachers to a lesser extent, but it seems like we're also looked at as a source of funding for anything and everything; don't have money for something, ask the PTA, they'll always pay. I expect to be president in the next couple of years-only 2 of us are interested in the job, and one is the current president- and I don't want my year to be like this, but I need an alternative plan. Ideas?
