While I have no experience with DOD schools, I do know some parents who have children who attended them. But it seems that you are faced with some problems that are familiar to parents at all schools. I think your start from scratch approach is best, but you have the benefit of having had an established PTO, so you don't have to start from nothing. Take everything you can lay your hands on and sort thru it, looking for the best pieces before things fell to the wayside. Use what made the previous organization good and build from there. You have a great opportunity, one that will undoubtedly inspire all of your parents to want to be a part of!

Wondering if anyone out there has had any experience with running a PTO in a DoD school. I am finding that PTO bylaws coupled with (in this case) Army regulations and Joint Ethics Regulations makes for an obscene amount of red tape. I am also facing tremendous apathy from parents and I don't get that warm, fuzzy feeling with too many of the teachers in our school, either, unless they are asking for money from the PTO. Our principal is supportive but wants to take a "hands-off" approach.

The PTO at our school "imploded" a couple of years back and was basically non-functioning for more than a year. I stepped in to help re-establish our organization last school year and quickly found myself alone crying in the wilderness. By-laws went out the window because there was no one else willing to form an executive board. The largest PTO meeting we held had seven participants, 4 of which were teachers. As the school year progressed, things began to look up but we are nowhere close to being a properly-functioning organization.

Can we dis-band the organization and start from scratch? What do we do about things like auditing the account when there has not been an audit for two years and all of the previous board members from back then have moved to new Army communities? Any thoughts on how best to maintain continuity in our transient community are appreciated.