We have had a husband wife teamin PTO, my wife was treasurer when I was elected President, we served together for 3 years. It cause a problem at first partly because it was an upset victory but once everyone saw how committed we were everything was fine. At our PTO, all parents and teachers are members and have a vote and the principal is a member of the exec. board. All votes on by laws must be advertized or the vote can not take place or does not count. Large non budgeted spending must be advertised as well before a vote. Don't give up remember we are here for the kids.
I'm going back to the orignal question asked here about voting --
Yes your by-laws should outline this but when that isn't happening you should be able to consult Roberts Rules of Order or parlementary procdures. In that case any member has the right to vote. In a PTO, this varies as to weither or not a membership due is needed.
Otherwise this justs sounds like a brush fire that is outta control! All I can offer you is to keep your relationship with the Principal and support her everyway you and your husband have done and can. I have honestly seen parents like this come in and try to take over not just the PTO BUT the whole school (we were a small 400 student school but have grow since with a new building). If they haven't already, they will stumble and fall and hopefully the PTO checkbook won't be part of the downfall....think about this, how hard do you really think the sheriff was laughing when he got back to the station? OOOO the evil principal asked for $100 from the PTO....call the Attorney General!
Support your Principal now, step back from the PTO and concentrate on the real leader of the school right now, you know the one that is paid! [img]smile.gif[/img] This is not brown nosing, it's better.
Okay, deep breath. Sounds like there is a lot going on here and you need some back-up. My suggestion is to round up parents that feel the same way you do and ask for a meeting with the executive board. In our school that's the officers of the PTA and the Principal. Be prepared for the meeting, do some research. I would guess that you find that it is standard for by-laws to be done by a committee made up of board and non-board members. Also that new by-laws would be posted for 30 days before an announced vote is held and that a quorom is needed for passing.
But, sounds like the new pres. probably won't go for a meeting and the Principal is not showing any authority. So, I would try to speak at the next PTO meeting but it would be very important to have other parents there that agree with you. This cannot be about just the two of you and different opinions. Unfortunately, she is in a position of power and your best shot of tipping the scales is by coming to a meeting with facts and people to back you up. good luck!
I did check with other parents to find out if they knew that new by laws were being made and no one knew and did not even know that they were voting on them on Tuesday. They were never posted and even the principal did not even know. I asked the PTO president again yesterday about not informing the other parents about the by laws and she said they no one comes to the meetings so they have no say so on them.She had the gaul to tell me it was not a matter for me when I have three children that attend this school and this was there first meeting. I asked a simple question about how much was raised at the fall festival and she told me that only $232.00 and that they are off setting it with the fund raiser money we had three weeks prior. She catches an attitude everytime I say anything or ask any questions. The new by laws doesn't state how long and office can be held or about the voting process. She also told me to go to other schools to see how PTO is ran, when I ran it last year and had to stop to take care of very sick grandparents and a son. We are a school of about 280 kids very small it's like a family. The principal said her hands are tied because the pricipal has no say or basically ask any questions, when she did they called the VP of superitedent out to the school and even had to call the sheriff out to the school. The principal told me that I would have to ask the questions to the PTO but I can't get anywhere with the attitude I'm getting from this group.Should I go to my local school district office? I am the president of SIC and another thing every year since I can remember the PTO has bought pizza's for the principal honor roll and also ice-cream for A&B&C honor roll and the principal informed me that they have not even asked about purchasing them for the report cards any this year she acts like she is scared to ask anything. So me and my husband gave her a check for $100.00 to go get the stuff for the kids.(pizza's and ice-cream)The kids need to be rewarded for there hard efforts for doing godd because alot of the kids parents where we are aren't able to reward there kids for all there good work. Somebody PLEASE help.
check and make sure that the bylaws werent posted some where for public view and check the last meeting minuets. Just as a personal experiance. If you look around and see if steps were taken to make people aware what is going on
Ironically, the voting process should be found in the bylaws!
With our group, board meetings are open to any member of the PTO (except when in executive session), and those board decisions that need membership approval move on to the membership.
The husband/wife thing bothers me, too. I should know, 'cuz I'm our President, my wife is 2nd vice president in charge of volunteers. I would never serve with her if the treasurer position was involved.
