hi party pro...just reading your follow up comments and Im wondering if there are any new members on your school board. a few years ago we had anew member come in and within a month had stired everything up. It only takes one bad apple to get the others thinking??? Ask your principal whats up, maybe he could find out if something happen. Maybe they had some parents complain or something like that...
You brought up an excellent point but that's why this is so strange. We have an EXCELLENT working relationship with our principal. He's AWESOME! We've never stepped over our bounds or went against any rules of the school. We're a group of parents with a lot of common sense and are sincere with our duties with the goal of benefitting our students, families and school. This is why it is so frustrating to constantly be given such strange treatment. We were given a fundraising goal last year to help pay for one of our school programs and not only did we meet it but we surpassed it. We had NO problems between the board members and the school received NO complaints about our activities, fundraisers, etc. We're actually creating a great atmosphere that is encouraging involvement between the teachers, the parents and the students. Everyone seems to be very happy...except the school board???
So the question is...how do we get them to back off a little bit and let us do our jobs?
Hi party pro...this is an easy question for me!! Our school board has never stopped us from doing an event but we are very in touch with what we can and can not do. Ideas usually go in front of our principal and then if she thinks there is a problem then we find out before planning. Our district covers four elementary, junior high and high school(about 4500 students). The board pretty much lets us have the go unless someone complains. the realistic aspect is that they are partly your principal's boss and she has to answer to them. We have policiies that ban us from raffles, soliciting donations,and we have to keep our family nights partly educational.They can also be held liable if you are using the school some night without prior approval and something happens. Our bylaws state right in them that we will not interfere with the rules and regulations in the district. Your board might be voicing louder than other boards, but yes we do answer to them !! To make things more interested for me(leader of pto) is that my husband was just appointed to the school board last month and got sworn in last week!! hmmmmm Good Luck believe it or not they can make things harder for you
Hi Everyone,
I'm relying on you to help me with this dilemma. Our Parent Teacher group is getting a lot of hassle from our School Board about nit-pickey kind of things and I'm just wondering how much involvement they are 'allowed'. I realize that they are the governing body over the school and we've always followed the chain of command when wanting to host a fundraiser or the like. And several members are super control freaks that have something to say about everything but my thought was that the parent teacher group is sort of a seperate identity. Our group has always been in charge of organizing events and family fun nights for the school that encourage camaraderie among our teachers, parents, etc. Here's a perfect example of the nit-pickey. Our plan was to host a Boo-Hoo / Yahoo breakfast on the first day of school. We thought that this would be a perfect event (that wanted nothing from the parents) to show that our parent group is fun and about more than fundraising. We thought it would be a great way for the new parents (nursery, preschool and kindergarten) to be able to meet some veterans and feel like a part of the school. We were just told that we would have to postpone it for a couple of weeks because the School Board never 'approved' the event. Approve what? Parents getting together for coffee and muffins in the gym? These new parents would most likely be hanging around the school on this day for longer than the teachers would like anyway...we just thought we'd pull em' together and help with their anxieties.
I'd like to hear if anyone else (helpful if in a parochial school) has this kind of interferance from their school board and how they've put this 'control freak' kind of crap to an end! Thanks everyone!!!
P.S. I should tell you that we do have our own by-laws and constitution and it says nothing about getting the School Boards approval before planning events, fundraisers, etc. :confused:
