Boy, that sounds like a very difficult situation. Luckily I can't say that I'm finding the same problems at my school, but things are never 100% the way you would like them.
I will say that at the elementary school that I am the PTO President of, we almost never have a teacher at the monthly meetings. Sure, once in a while we'll get one to come by, but for the most part they do not. We usually get around 2 or 3 at one of the fun events that we have, for example the roller-skating parties, and this is great.
But, whenever we do something for the staff, such as providing a meal during the Parent/Teacher Conference nights, we almost always get a couple of thank you cards showing their appreciation.
Some of the things that I do to try to promote the positive relationships that we have are:
1. I always post the thank yous from both staff and parents to the PTO Office door (yes, our Principal has actually provided us our own office), which can be seen by anyone who walks by.
2. I send out monthly, colored Newsletters, which is new this year. Numerous teachers have come up to me to express how they never knew just how much we do for the school and the staff.
3. The day before school starts we hold a teacher appreciation lunch, and we try to provide them a token of appreciation, in addition to the meal itself. For evey new staff member we provide a school logo bag, umbrella and water bottle. This year we had a new item, a school logo car magnet. I printed up weather proof labels, which I adhered to each magnet (Teacher, Librarian, Music, Art, Principal, etc.) and each staff member was provided one of these. I think this also helps instill school spirit.
4. I have instituted the practice that if a teacher wants something from the PTO they need to come to a meeting to present it. There's actually a part of the agenda for this. For example, field trips are once again allowed at our school (they had not been allowed since 9/11). We allocated a certain amount per student into separate grade funds, but whenever a teacher wants to take the students on a field trip, they need to present it first to the Principal (to get his permission) and then at the committee meeting. I know that all teachers can't make a meeting, so any representative (other than the Principal who attends every meeting) would suffice.
Some examples of what we have approved this year: a 32" flatscreen, color TV for the Library. Initially the Librarian was looking for just a mounting bracket for the existing, 15 year old, 25" tv, but the cost was so much (due to the weight of the CRT tv) that we offered to provide a bit more in order to upgrade to the lighter, bigger, flatscreen.
The second grade requested that instead of a field trip they would like to invite an educational enrichment program into the school to put on the "Little Red Riding Hood", which we of course approved.
The music teacher asked if we would replace the damaged CD player, which was used during classes.
I think the point is that by promoting what we do and what we can do for the staff, children and the school in general; the appreciation level of the staff increases monumentally.
I realize that my situation is much different than yours, so my best recommendation would be to try a PTO teacher newsletter. This way you're not trying to put out 500 fliers a month (like I'm dealing with - it is tough by the way), but 50 or so would be enough (depending on the amount of teachers/staff at the school). Put in it everything that the PTO is doing for the school, with a special focus on the things done for teacher appreciation. Put thank yous in there for the parents who baked items for the teachers, the committee members who dedicated time to teacher appreciation. Items that may have been purchased by the PTO for the staff. Anything of this nature. Name teachers who may have attended a PTO event or that did something special for their class. Also try to do it in color if possible. People would much rather read colored information fliers than black and white. This isn't even something that you would need to do monthly, just maybe once a quarter or every other month. You're bound to impress a few of the staff members and maybe those who don't realize just how much the PTO does will start to!!!
Good luck.
-Jim
