I'm not sure who handles your funds...the principal? We are a private school also. The PTO has their own account and handles all their own monies. The principal told us she needs XXX amount per month for salaries, expenses, utilities, etc. Some months more, some months less depending on how tuition is coming in. Anything over and above that is up to us to spend. We put back into the school for field trips, student/teacher gifts, movie nights, family fun nights, Santa Brunch, skating parties, etc. We pretty much control where the money goes although the Principal ultimately has the final say and should be in agreement with everything we do.
First off most of us are not PTOs to private schools, for which some of the rules are much different.
I would ask you is your PTO organized seperately from the school. Are you a 501(c)(3) organization? Is your private school? (Not all private schools are non profit organizations for the keen eyes here [img]smile.gif[/img] )
You are correct most public school PTOs do not operate as you have described. However there are some exceptions. This all depends on a number of factors that would be specific to that organization.
Next your funds, once again depends on how you are organized. You serve a private school, if your PTO is in fact a sub organization to the school then I see nothing wrong with how the funds are being handled. If you are a seperate organization then there is a problem (based on the info you have given).
Our school is a private school. Each year the Principal comes to us with a budget amount that we must make through fundraising events. This amount goes into the schools general fund which supliments teachers salaries. If we make over the requested amount then we can choose what we spend the remainder on. Our PTO believes that PTO's in other schools do not function like this. We also do not have control over the funds. It is all handled by the school which our PTO believes is not accurate either.
A few responses as to how your PTO's and schools work would help me greatly.
