Thanks for your help in this. The new group is meeting tonight and I am sure this is going to help us to make a decision on what to do [img]smile.gif[/img]

Does the old PTO have any outstanding debts? Or did the fundraising profits just happen to end up in the wrong bank account? If the old group doesn't owe anybody anything, then you should be in good shape from that angle.

The next question to check out is if the old group was incorporated. As part of your effort to distance yourself from their group, you should certainly put forth the effort to incorporate your new group as a not-for-profit corporation. Make sure you incorporate under a different name than the old group. If they were "Rizzle PTO", be "The Parent-Teacher Organization of Rizzle Elementary School".

Remember that there is no PTO umbrella group. Nobody can stop you from calling yourself one. PTA is a different issue, but any local school group can call themselves a PTO.

Several parents have tried to get together a PTO for our school. After discussing with several different parties, I found out that there was a previous PTO group that was only run by a few people. The person in charge of the fundraiser had "misappropriated" (as far as we have been told) The school had decided not to have another parent organization until the matter was settled. Just recently the matter was put aside.?. We have been given permission to start another group. We have been told that we will have to find out if we are liable for previous group leaders "misappropriated funds". Is this so? Could we still become a PTO or do we need to develop our own group? :confused: