confused as heck,
Our BOD treasurer is a signer on our acct. because we all have the same tax id number. Explain that to me.......I am the treasurer of the PTSO and this is my 2nd term. We have raised over 100,000.00 this year to hand over to the BOD to pay salaries, utilities, etc. We are a small (147 students) private school, k4-12, in a rural town outside of Chas., SC. The cost of running the school exceeds the amount of tuition brought in. We need new students to cover these costs. Any ideas out there?

It's a requirement at our private Episcopal school that our account is managed by the school's business manager, who is a CPA. She prepares a financial report for us each month for our meetings and all expenses are run by the President/VP or Treasurer each month but none of us sign for or ever even see a check. It's different from most of you probably but it's what our accreditation organization recommends.
Shelly

Sorry forgot about this!!

GET YOUR OWN BANK ACCOUNT!!!

As a newly-elected VP at a charter school in New Jersey, we are going through a similar problem. Although we have a separate bank account, the secretary of our Board of Directors says that he was told by a representative of the state that the Board was responsible for monitoring our funds because we are using the school name and are a part of the school. THIS IS NOT TRUE. After consulting an attorney, we were told that as long as we have our own ta ID number and maintain our funds separately from the school, we do not have to disclose any financials to our board.

It seems natural to me that the board of Directors wants to know where the money is going and if you don't have a plan for it, then they will just hold it. So what your Parents group should be doing is setting up a budget for the upcoming school year that will show proposed revenue and expenses.
I just did this for our HS/MS Music parents group. I got together with another member who is an accountant. I'm very familiar with the PTA budget and we modeled it after that. For instance, If you have 2 fundraisers a year and bring in $4,000 profit, you need to show expenses (playground equipment, author visits, whatever) that will be equal to around $3,500. Since you are just starting it really shouldn't be that hard. The budget is not written in stone and has to be adjusted as you go, but it's a great document that shows your goals and intentions. I would suggest that your executive board does a rough budget and then bring that to your parents group for approval.

I've been president of our parent organization since January of 2004. I only took it because we didn't have a parent group. Most parents are disgruntled about someting in the past. By, the way, this is my first year at the school. It is a small charter school, located in a small town. I have a group of parents that work with me, but they are definetly not decision makers. Well, we had a fundraiser, and actually made a profit.Hooray! Now comes the question of what to do with the money. After talking with the BOD, they have pretty much given the directive that we use the school's account with a line item marked for our parent group. I don't see a problem with this, it actually is good for me because I am basically operating solo. OK, when I tell my fellow committee members about this, they go off the hook. According to them, that is why the previous parent group dissolved, because they (being the BOD) wanted total control of the money. According to the Board of Directors, a lot of money was unaccounted for, so that is why they asked for control of the money. I don't know exactly what to do. Someone please help. Can anyone tell me the pros and cons of running under your school account as a separate line item. Thanks for any advice you can give me. By the way, I'm supposed to meet with the BOD again this week, after hearing from my disgruntled parents.