JulieO - I'm sorry the situation at your school deteriorated to the extent it did. It sounds like you tried your best. Hopefully, the leadership in your district will learn a painful lesson and change things later. Good luck.
Lisa@Tx: the account to which I was referring over which the Principal has discretion is a school account - it has nothing to do with the PTO account. The establishment and use of activity funds is defined by state law - although districts have some choices over how to handle the accounting of them.
<blockquote>quote:</font><hr> Activity funds are defined as funds consisting of resources received and held by the school as trustee to be expended or invested in accordance with conditions of the trust. Specifically, they are funds accumulated from various school-approved money-raising activities and the receipt of student dues or fees, commissions, investment interest and donations. These funds are to be used to promote the general welfare of the school and the educational development and morale of all students. <hr></blockquote>
Thank you all for your advice. We are a very small school, and as a lot of you know it is hard to find those volunteers. So after the president of our Board of Education told everyone at our parent meeting that he was going to hire a lawyer I lost many of those people. Last year it was just two of us who did the fundraisers, the carnival, the yearbook, and the book fair. So after much thought on this I called the superintendent that they would be getting the money back and that I was going to be done this year with the PTO. It was the hardest thing I have done in a long time (I'm not much of a quitter). I'll keep you updated on what happens now because they don't want to lose my help. Maybe this is the wake up call that the Board needs... now who will raise that money?
I am with a PTA in Texas and our Principal has NO account. She is a member of our PTA, but has an equal say (vote), like everyone else. We ask teachers for their wishlist, members suggest other purchases, but we all vote. Our treasurer handles all the money, and the President must co-sign all checks. PTA/PTO is a separate organization. Sure, the school is under the control of the Board, as in who they employ, the curriculum, the physical aspects of the school, but they can NOT tell you how to spend your money. Sure, they might suggest, cause you should work hand-in-hand. You have to have their approval to be on their property because of the liability aspects. We sign in and wear Visitor badges. When I read all this, I realize I am SO LUCKY to have a wonderful principal who supports us, as well as gives us guidance. They love us--cause we support them as well. Plus, we take good care of the faculty there!
I just hope you realize how much better some principals and Boards are...I have even emailed our superintendant and gotten a response within 24 hours.
Good Luck,
Lisa @ Tx
Tim, again not that I'm favoring the school getting control, but in Texas each campus DOES have it's own "activity account" over which the Principal has discretion. (That's where the school's fundraiser goes as well as certain part of their budget.) These are the funds the Principal uses for field trips, extra classroom purchases, some staff development, etc. Things beyond salary, books, building maintenence...
The checks and balances are pretty tight. They have policies they need to follow, the account would be subject to "Open Records" requirements, the district auditor audits it routinely, etc.
In our case, any funds in that account are earmarked for the campus, not consolidated at the district level.
I absolutely agree that if the funds go to the district rather than the campus, parent participation would likely decline. And parents don't want to raise funds just for the sake of raising funds.
It's much better if they understand WHY the funds are being raised and how the school will benefit. If that's true (like for Spring fundraiser), our parents don't care who "owns" the account. As an independent PTO, you are assured of that input. As a volunteer committee for the school, it's harder to make certain that doesn't change.
In our case, if we didn't have that input, we probably wouldn't bother to coordinate it for them, they would just have to use school staff.
JHB's input is really sound. She's captured the push-pull of this nicely.
I'll add my two cents:
I'd fight hard against the #4 solution JHB describes, because I think it tends to have -- over time -- a significant negative effect on involvement. And involvement is just too important to sacrifice.
In my experience, when the school (usually = principal) runs the group, controls the funds, etc. -- then parent input tends to get pushed aside and over time the most enthusiastic volunteers either lose enthusiasm or (worse yet) check out completely.
I've also found that -- in a public school -- that the fundraising funds have no natural home at the school. There typically isn't an "XYZ School" account; instead the funds are district-wide and very carefully managed with requisitions, etc. and a good deal of red tape. Another problem: in this case, the district has the ability to use "your" funds for other district needs or other schools.
If the principal is going around the district system and creating his/her own fund just for your school -- then all of a sudden that system is as reliable/unreliable financially as any the PTO could come up with on its own. In fact, there's probably fewer checks and balances in that system.
Every time I analyze this, I become more convinced that an independent parent group is the way to go.
