If the combined number of all the students in all of the schools is very small (200-300 total)then I could see why maybe they would combine the groups but you each need your own group and definitely seperate bank accounts. It will get messy eventually and their will be fights about who needs the money more etc. and one of the schools will likely lose out.
I'm totally against sharing one bank account. You should take all the money and split it, start a new PTO for each school. If there is something that would benefit all the schools then and only then should the PTO's chip in and get whatever they need. I've seen schools share a bank account only to find out what a big mistake it was.
As for being involved in three schools, been there done that and still doing it. It's not that bad. Each school is different and has different challenges and if I can help out, I help out. I'm the PTA pres. of one school(that's my main priority) and just helping out where I can with the others. The other schools know if they need me just call and I'll help.
I'm with kma on the fact that if one school wants something that cost a lot, is it fair to the other school. That's when the fighting begins and the kids lose out! BAD, BAD idea
I can only imagine how frustrated you must be! I know if I were in your situation I'd be crazed! Especially if I had to go to three different schools to pick up and drop off my kids! Even though you know the school owns the stuff you guys purchased, who could ever anticipate such a thing happening? And why do the 6th graders get the new desks? Don't your kids need them--that's why you bought them! What's the BOE doing with the tax money if the PTO is forced to provide new desks--that to me is a BOE expense. Is there NO way around all this? How do the other parents feel?
The only real reason that has been given is that it will be easier for say, a person with a 2nd grader, a 5th grader and a 6th grader to be involved. Then they only have to attend 1 meeting instead of 3. I feel that, yes you may have to only attend 1 meeting for all 3 students, but if you intend on being active you are still going to have to voulunteer in all 3 schools. We are not wanting to keep all of our executive comitee members in place, we want to hold an election at the begining of the year when everyone from all of the schools that are being closed and the parents that are being transfered into our school are there so everyone who wants to hold an office has a chance to do so. Our schools are in such a mess right now and some of us feel this is 1 more thing they are trying to do to keep controll over all of the money and the parents in general. They are trying to get us to merge bank accounts right now...well of course our school still hasn't spent alot of our funds and have a large amount of money in the bank, waiting to pay for field trips, and several other things we have going on. It is bad enought that our PTO has been buying new tables and desks for our school the past 2 years( we have over 1400 students in our school) and now most of the new desk will be leaving our school to go to the 6th grade school, because they will be more accomidating for the larger children...I know I probablly sound like I am whining about all of this but I am just frustrated, with all of it...joint PTO's, changing the names of all the schools, my kids in 3 diffrent schools, and the fact that when ever you ask a question they give you some general response that really never answered your question. So to answer your ?'s I'm not really sure why???
Krystal
What was their reason for doing this? Did they give any? The only one I can think of is that since the parents won't be in each school that long the turnover rate might be higher, and if they're handling the insurance and other administrative tasks it's easier for them to go to one PTO (but you said you all had separate PTOs up til now, so that doesn't make sense I guess). Other than that the only thing I can think of is that since each school is "new" they want to make a clean sweep and not have the "same" PTOs?
I can defintitely see your point of view. Naturally the parents of children in a particular school want to be heavily involved in that school. Each school having it's own PTO makes the most sense. If everyone has one bank account--what if one school decides to "need" ALL the money? Even if you have some sort of restraints against that, then it potentially becomes a war of the wills. There are just too many logistical reasons against this.
Is there anything stopping you from branching off and making a PTO separate from the school? While the initial set-up costs can be daunting, I think it might be worth it. Have you checked with the state PTA? Maybe they could help you keep your identities, and also aid you with your set-up.
