JHB;126816 wrote: As I said before, I'm not opposed to this - but we have experienced issues having an officer who was also an employee. I'm not at all discouraging you. However, you need to think through the possible issues and be prepared for them. Most of this comes to bear because as president you work closely with the Principal. In a nutshell:

• A PTO president often spends enormous amounts of time at school. Now, as an employee, you have to be very aware of when you are "on the clock" for school and shouldn't be conducting PTO business. The bigger problem may be getting others to understand you can't do XYZ right now because you have your PTO Pres/Employee (whichever) hat on.
• The PTO president is the single most important advocate for the PTO and it's activities. No matter how great your relationship with the principal, you may not always agree. Having him be your boss can make this uncomfortable.
• You controll funds, assets, and resources that your principal may want to use.
• You are in a position to spend extra time/to have a unique relationship with the principal. Other staff members can be jealous of this. It's easy to forget that a school is basically a big office with the Principal as the top manager. They have all the personnel issues of every other business.
• Any problems that do surface in one role can spill over into the other role.

Both Mommytic and the principal sounds like sensible people who can make this work and negotiate any problems. But from a policy point of view, where some of you are considering where this should be allowed in theory - replay the scenario casting the overbearing principal who wants a puppet to control or the flaky president who somehow got the office but wreaks havoc as she goes.

It can work well for some, but it can be a recipe for disaster in other situations.

These are the kinds of things I am worried about. I also am afraid, a little, that it would look like the principal 'hired' me as a reward for the volunteering I have done, which is not a big deal, but it bothers me.

This is just a part time position taking care of the landscaping. I'd report to the building supervisor but have flexible hours. (I think she also might be angling to get me a bigger job at the school, lol.) It's a total cush job, which is another thing I worry about -- like city employees used to get for their family members where I used to live.

I already put a lot of hours into landscaping at the school because of our Lowe's Toolbox project -- PTO is supposed to do the maintenance. I am a little afraid that if this becomes my job I will either stop liking it or I'll get stuck doing other projects and let the maintenance go by the wayside.

The PTO landscaping is not finished, either, so what, then, happens if the principal and I disagree?

I am thinking this will be a little too much stress for hardly any $$.

Thanks for all the replies.

Cape Dad, I wonder if you would be willing to share what kind of position you are considering? I am also up for a job at our school, one of the duties of which is increasing parent involvement. Seems like a great job for the PTO pres but I'm seeing where there could be conflict between the two roles...Just wondering if you were facing a similar situation?

As I said before, I'm not opposed to this - but we have experienced issues having an officer who was also an employee. I'm not at all discouraging you. However, you need to think through the possible issues and be prepared for them. Most of this comes to bear because as president you work closely with the Principal. In a nutshell:

• A PTO president often spends enormous amounts of time at school. Now, as an employee, you have to be very aware of when you are "on the clock" for school and shouldn't be conducting PTO business. The bigger problem may be getting others to understand you can't do XYZ right now because you have your PTO Pres/Employee (whichever) hat on.
• The PTO president is the single most important advocate for the PTO and it's activities. No matter how great your relationship with the principal, you may not always agree. Having him be your boss can make this uncomfortable.
• You controll funds, assets, and resources that your principal may want to use.
• You are in a position to spend extra time/to have a unique relationship with the principal. Other staff members can be jealous of this. It's easy to forget that a school is basically a big office with the Principal as the top manager. They have all the personnel issues of every other business.
• Any problems that do surface in one role can spill over into the other role.

Both Mommytic and the principal sounds like sensible people who can make this work and negotiate any problems. But from a policy point of view, where some of you are considering where this should be allowed in theory - replay the scenario casting the overbearing principal who wants a puppet to control or the flaky president who somehow got the office but wreaks havoc as she goes.

It can work well for some, but it can be a recipe for disaster in other situations.

I'm PTO President at my son's school, and I might be getting a position at the school as a teacher's aide. I don't see anything wrong with it. I'm at the school all the time, and I might as well be on the payroll. I need to get back to work anyway. Good luck to you.

We've had both situations. In elementary - partially at the principal's request - our bylaws were drafted so that no employee of our school or anyone who held a management level position within the district could be an elected PTO officer. (Note they could still be active and serve many other roles such as committee chair, just not one of the 5 officer position.
Having been through some conflict of interest issues, I think this is a good policy for us.

However in our middle school PTO there's no such requirement and we've successfully had full-time school employees serve as president.

If you, your principal, and the other officers are okay with it and there's no provision against it - then go for it.

CapeDad- As I am sure many schools do, we actually have 2 teacher reps, Principal, VP and 5 parents that make up our PTO exec board. Following that logic, I would think there would not be a problem.

I do, however see where you would feel it was a conflict of interest. I think where there is a conflict of interest is when a board member uses his/her personal business to earn money from the PTO. For example, if the PTO exec board decided to do an " AVON Fundraiser" and the PTO President was the avon rep they used, so the President was earning money - THAT, to me would be a conflict of interest.

congrats on the job offer.. do it! and, if someone puts up a stink, do what i would do , politely offer them the reins of the PTO.. bet they will back down like wildfire.. there are so few us us nuts out there that are willing to take the reins_