I guess what I was trying to say is in this situation where you are feeling bullied what I have done in quite a few cases is gone to the schools during their meetings with the principal there. In those cases, I played the heavy in explaining what is required of the PTA. Again, I forget that our little part of the world is blessed when it comes to school relation. I am noticing more and more how we have such a great parent involvement policies in place. Our principals need our parents. They are a required part of their job through district and state policies. Sending home flyers etc from the parent groups wouldn't and couldn't be eliminated. Parents have great strength here.
It wasn't meant to be a PTO vs PTA statement.
I think some PTA blinders are showing. In my experience, this issue is equally frustrating (and pops up equally as often) for both PTAs and PTOs.
In a perfect world, both PTAs and PTOs are independent entities. But both rely on the cooperation of a supportive principal in order to work at their best. While a PTA (and most PTOs) may be an independent organization with its own bylaws, etc, the group still needs/wants to send notes home with the kids, to meet on school grounds, to hold events during school time or on school grounds, to gain the cooperation of teachers -- all of those things are in the domain of the principal. The principal *can* restrict your abilities to do those things. Any group *could* hold meetings at a local restaurant and mail letters to parents' homes, but -- man oh man -- that would be very difficult and make for a very different parent group.
If you were a PTA school, I could tell you that your new Principal's involvement would be limited in that he would be required to adhere to the bylaws of your organization, allow you to run independently of the school under the guidelines established by PTA (you can see samples of bylaws all over the internet) and as a Council President, we would be assisting you.
I'm not certain what resources are available to you as a PTO. There are plenty of PTO people in here and hopefully someone can give you some advice. Good luck.
A new principal is stiring things up and I am not sure what to do. All of our officers that we had are now committes. The events that we have always done are now being changed. I am new at this and are not sure how to keep the parents from losing it with this principal. I am in the PTO for my kids and for myself but I feel like I am by myself.So many parents are telling me that the principal is taking over our PTO to do with it only what they want and not thinking about the kids. We went from being a fun school to being one with a very low participation and excitement. I can not let this principal take over and mess this up for the kids. I am just at a loss for what to do right now. I am finding all of this overwhaleming but at the same time I can't be pushed around for the wrong reasons. If anyone can understand what I am trying to say and have any advice please let me know. THANKS. :confused:
