O my, I don't even know what to think about alcohol being allowed on school grounds for ANY event, much less a PTO meeting. I'm hoping that's not even true. Yes, adults are free to drink all they want as far as I'm concerned, but I'm satisfied most people would highly object to it being done on school grounds. Can you imagine the fallout if someone had something to drink at a school and on their way home they had an accident and killed somebody. That is scary to me. You know that school would be sued so fast they wouldn't know what hit them. Also, I would think board policy would state that not only guns and drugs, but also ALCOHAL aren't allowed on school grounds. If not, how could they enforce any discipline if a student brought it to school, and I know kids try that sometimes and as far as I know, any student I've ever heard of, no matter where they go to school, gets suspended for that. Whew, and I worry about somebody just getting hurt at a fall carnival doing the cake walk or playing in the blow up gym. haha
O well, still, I feel that this principal should not being using PTO funds for a steak/shrimp/salmon + $200 worth of alcohol dinner for 25 people at her home. I hope the situation is calmly worked out for tk2mom.
I love to see different points of veiw on any subject but am a little surprised at some of the ones defending this principle. The yearly budget for this principle is not very large and she seems to have used all of it providing food for the teachers. I am certainly in support of doing nice things for the teachers but this seems a bit excessive. I do not see how spending this kind of money on one event is necessary. In this economy where there are families that cant even afford a reasonably priced dinner it seems that there could have been a little more thrift in planning this event. I wonder how the taxpayers would feel about their fundraising money being spent in this fashion.
CC...I'm usually pretty much in agreement with your posts. Sorry, but not so on this one. PROTEACHER 100 %. Teacher appreciation, definetly. Trying something different, cool. Holiday event for staff, awesome. $600 for 25 people (excluding part of the staff) to go to the principal's home and enjoy steak/shrimp/salmon and and $200 worth of alcohol, NO WAY. Yes, tk2home, I think that makes a big difference also. PTO funds should never be used to purchase alcohol. And how much alcohol does it take for 25 people to have a dinner party???? For goodness sake, this is a school we are talking about. The way I read lostinpa's posts, the principal had already spent about $450 already out of her $1600 "budget". I read it that this was for 2 events for the entire staff. Makes no sense to me how $600 for just part of the staff could be justified, no matter where she held the party. This might be different, maybe (for some, anyway), if she had "snacks" at her home for the entire staff. Otherwise, this was a PARTY funded by PTO funds at the principal's house. A nice atmosphere could be created at the school, for that matter. Unless I'm missing something, this principal wanted to have a fancy shing-dig at her home and wanted the parents to pay for it. I would be curious to know if the teachers that attended realize that PTO funds were paying for their steaks, shrimp, salmon and drinks. Maybe people look at these things differently in larger towns, but this would never fly in our little community. Not sure who would get the worst end of the parent's wrath...the principal/teachers or the PTO officers....hahahaha Good Luck tk2mom in resolving this issue.
Do you think you would have had a different response if $200 of the funds not gone to alcohol? I do think that is inappropiate but I'm coming from a school district that's had principals and asst principals in the news for DUI. They are there to set an example for OUR children and maybe drinking (no matter how minimal) and driving isn't a good example and I could see the PTO having a problem accepting that expenditure.
