I was wondering if anyone out there could help me with a major problem we are having these days. This may be a little lengthly but here it goes.
I am the PTO president at our middle school we have our yearly budget and funds are distributed thru out the year like we have always done we get requests we honor them or we don't we give certain monies to whom or where we fell it is necessary to do so after a majority vote. So this is pretty much the norm - now the problem we have groups in our school which thru the district have been set up as their own club lets say and they have their own checking account so they do fundraisers and pay their sales tax (??) another area of concern and then they use the balance of the funds they have collected for what ever they seem to need to use it for. Example Student Council and New Yorkers now in the past couple of months our Orchestra teacher had decided to do a fundraiser so that she could raise monies to take all the children in both the middle and the elementary schools (we did two seperate fundraisers)to hear the Syracuse Symphony (which personally I think is fantastic) this would help pay for the symphony and a year end party for all the orchestra and after speaking with her she said that she would use the funds also to purchase books, strings, supplies needed - even and instrument if one was needed to get and this would be left at the school at all times so that if there were a child who could not afford to buy this particular piece they would have one to use at school no matter what. Well after she did her fundraiser she got alot of static from both the principal at the middle and the elementary schools informing her that she could not use this money when ever she wanted and that it had to go thru arts and education which means she would not see a penny of any of the money well I got upset by this and I started to do some research but now I am stuck and need help. If she does a fundraiser and the district will not let her set up as a group and have her own checking account is there a problem with her putting the funds thru the PTO or PTG and putting it in as a seperate line item and every year budget a certain amount that she thinks she will be raising to take care of whatever is needed for the year. This is the orchestra's fundraiser not the schools - why should we not allow her to use the funds as she sees fit. I was told the other day by my principal that if she needs funds which right now I have on the books as a seperate line item marked orchestra it has to go to the school board first for approval and also this is to give the PTO the recognition showing how they did good by orchestra but this is not the case. Its orchestra's money they raised it. Not the PTO.
So I guess the question is, is there a problem with funneling the monies thru the PTO so that she is able to do her fundraiser (which by the way if I am not mistaken she paid sales tax on) because she is not set up in any way so she does not have a tax exempt number to use. To have the funds to do for the orchestra as she sees fit.
Is it legal to have clubs - example - orchestra, band, music - student council - new yorkers and so on - put everything thru the PTO so that they can all get the tax exempt status. We do not have any guidelines or bylaws of any kind from the District telling us what we can or can not do they have never been set up that way - so why should I have to go thru the district to get permission for my PTO and PTG to distribute funds where ever we see fit. But now all of a sudden district wants things to go before the board to get permission is how I see it so that we can distribute funds to where ever we see fit. Well I hope this was not to confusing. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for listening and sorry this was so long.
Robin - NY

P>S> Does anyone know of any districts who have guidelines or bylaws telling the PTO - PTG - HSO - PTSA - and so on -- what they can or can not do. I always thought that we were on our own - that as Volunteers we did things as we saw fit for the better of the students and the school