I quickly wanted to thank everyone who responded. All the responses were informative and it gave us an insight to how other PTOs around the country handle the situation. Again thanks everyone, you were most helpful.
We are very fortunate that our High School has a Print shop that does all of our large quantity orders. We pay nothing for this - and copies made at school so far we are never questioned or asked to pay for anything. We did however get a new copier this year that we have to put an ID number in for PTO - I'll let you know what they say now that they can track how many copies we make.
At this point our PTO doesn't pay for routine copying. However we try to send many/most things out on colored paper to distinguish them, and do pay for our own reams of colored copy paper.
It is a routine policy that the Principal and PTO President approve any PTO document being distributed within the school. (I don't know that it's rigidly followed in every case, but in general we agree this makes sense.)
The principal doesn't make nit picky changes. But there are a LOT of details floating around the school. A date discussed in a meeting or in a "hallway" conversation last month might have a conflicts once things have crystalized. A recent parent or district concern might influence wording or timing. Things "pop up". Things change. This give the key leaders (school and PTO) a final opportunity review details and catch any problems.
Our PTA pays for all the school's copier paper, about $4500 per year. We also bought two photocopiers for the school. This frees up money in the principal's budget for education and there is never any question about whether we can copy something or not. If we are distributing something other than a simple flyer, we give a courtesy copy to the principal just so that no feathers will be ruffled. She would only make a change if it concerned something that was her responsibility, as opposed to a purely PTA thing.
At our school, the PTO makes a yearly contribution toward copying costs (last year, we paid $50.) During a time that our Principal has to make tough budget decisions, this seems like a more-than-fair deal!
Our principal has never required us to get her approval on our flyers...but we always show everything to her first anyway!
We have also paid for two new copiers in our school. We used to pay for paper, but we don't have to any longer since we have a new principal. All our funds go to the school anyway.
