Thanks, Snookie! We'll have to look into the handouts idea. We will be a little hindered by the fact that we do not have classroom parents who can hand them out to the kids to take home so will have to go through the school office. I'm not sure if this would be allowed by the principal, but it's worth asking.
We actually asked to have a poll taken a year or two ago and the PTO did do a poll of parents, but most of the questions were biased toward the answer the PTO wanted or were worded so that there was no way to disagree with the way that things were being done. There was not opportunity to comment on the quality of the activities and they never shared the actual results, just their "analysis" of the results (no actual percentages of how the votes went).
I just wish there was some agency that would oversee non-profits that are being improperly managed. If our PTO was a business, I could get the better business bureau after them. As it is, there is nothing that can be done except to either ignore the fact that our school's PTO is mediocre at best, which reflects on the quality of fieldtrips, assemblies, etc. that should be rounding out my children's education, but is not or pull my children from public school and re-enroll them in private.
It is so frustrating--been there--Thankfully our president who has a horrible personality and is cotrolling and does not see to take on new ideas is leaving the school this year. She has run nice events but with little help because of her personality. So yes I waited. We intend to ask for classroom parent representatives(maybe a couple of parents of boys and a couple of parents of girls) We are trying to get a copy of the BY LAWS --with that said, is it possible to send out anonymous memos to the families on the qt. ? Please return to your teacher with a comment..Ask questions like are you happy with the way the PTO runs events? Would you like to see more such as, Bingo night etc.. Please give any ideas or changes you would like to see.
The increase in enrollment may suggest that parents/families have no clue ---these days both parents work or are single. Maybe new to the system so a way to get to the parents maybe better than just going after the PTO. Then HOPEFULLY, once you have responses of changes wanted or needs met than go to the principal and PTO and say LOOK this is what we need to do --parents have spoken!
Already there. Her response was that PTO was outside the realm of the school district since they are independently incorporated and we need to take it up with the school principal. Imagine our frustration at hearing that -- basically, the school administration (school board/superintendent) doesn't want to address the issue. Our school gets good scores so they don't want to mess with the principal. Our standpoint is that she is a control freak who is micromanaging the PTO to the point where parents have no say in anything, except for the board who mostly work at the school as aides. We feel that if we had a strong PTO board who would stand up to her, things would be very different at our school. Mostly, I feel bad for our kids because the things that other schools are able to do that make elementary school so enjoyable just aren't allowed at our school -- no family nights, no rollerskating parties, no 6th grade graduation, no kindergarten field trip, etc. Basically, anything that is fun and might make school enjoyable and make the kids want to go is not allowed.
Well, we have started to boycott the fundraisers. The problem is that enough parents don't want to impact their children's fieldtrips, assemblies, etc. that they don't want to go along with that. Our principal has also "confiscated" several of our fundraisers, such as donations from local businesses and the clipandsave fundraisers, by having those checks sent directly to the school's account for student activities -- she has sole discretionary spending on this account. As I said, fundraisers are already down 35% and student body has increased by 25% during the same time period. It is significantly impacting funding already, but there are still no signs of the current board changing anything.
It seems to me that a grassroots effort by you and the group of parents you are know that are also disappointed in the PTO is in order. If participation in fundraisers drastically dropped immediately (which would be your group's goal), the PTO would be significantly weakened. At that point, the principal would have to be more amenable to a re-organization because of how dependent the school actually is in accessing the PTO funds. In other words, money talks, so organize an effort to cut the PTO off at the knees.
