Well--I'm not sure how to respond to the inital posting. It is, shall we say...confrontational. It's hard not to respond in a similar vein. It took me a couple of read-throughs before I figured out what the poster was trying to say (not to be mean, but the syntax in a couple of places really confused me).

The students are doing the work, the office staff is doing the work.The PTO is just sponsoring it with their name.

Maybe in YOUR school. Most certainly not in mine! I have yet to see any of our students OR office staff xeroxing, distributing fliers or product, dealing with vendors, collecting any monies or being fiscally responsible for the funds raised.

How can a few parents and that's just what it is delegate how the funds are spent. The principal should be responsible.

Normally it's not just a few parents making the decisions. From personal experience though, I know this CAN be true. That is then an issue to be taken up with the board and membership--if there is any that actually help enough to merit being able to have say in what goes on. You can't expect people to bust their asses fundraising and running programs and doing their best to help the school, then be happy when people who didn't help in the least suddenly feel they know what's best to do! While not all principals are control freaks or somehow deficient in other ways, their position alone does not deem them the most appropriate choice to control the funds.

Do you think that the community would respond if they new just a few people were controlling the funds. No Way!

Well, if the PRINCIPAL is controlling the funds, it really is just a "few" people controlling the money isn't it? I myself would be LESS likely to respond positively to a fundraiser knowing that it was either controlled anarchy concerning the funds raised or just ONE person making the decisions with the money.

Our PTO has over $20,000.00 in their account and yet every little item that goes to the board for approval is like a major act of Congress.

If it really is that bad, that's a shame. The money should be spent on budgeted expenses bettering the school. BUT, you should be happy knowing that at least the money is being carefully watched and not stolen or frittered away.

Our principal wants curriculum: PTO says that is not their resonsibility but the responsiblity of the district. Who ever is responsible is not the issue

I'm not sure what you're saying here. I certainly hope your principal wants curriculum. THAT'S THEIR JOB. DO you mean the principal wants the funds to support the school in ways that your tax dollars are supposed to be? In that case your PTO is right--it's NOT the PTO's responsibility to provide the kids with what they're SUPPOSED to have as MANDATED by the state and federal government. And YES, whose responsibility it is IS very much the issue. You're probably paying good money with your taxes to make sure your kid gets a good education. I know I am. So when my BOE and administration is NOT doing their job with MY money, I tend to get irritated. They money the PTO is raising is for enhancing and improving your child's educational experience. It's not supposed to be used to provide what you're already paying for with your tax dollars. Just whose responsiblity the curriculum is and how it's funded is a very real concern--people are payed very good money to do those jobs. If they aren't doing them, well....

I will never ever help our PTO out again.

Somehow I don't think that will ever be a problem for anyone.

Not much new to say except Who puts the money into the fundraiser Parents, they should get to decide how it is spent. The board resprents those parents and any other can jump in. If you don't like the fundraiser or how the money is spent don't support the fundraiser and if the majority or even a big dip in sales the PTO will know and rethink. Our school earns extra money with picture sales and book fairs and they can decide how it is spent. The PTO earns the money from our stuff we get to decide. Easy!

I never in my 3 years reading from this site have heard such a uninformed initial post. Thank god.

This topic of "fundraising in the name of the school" came up this year at our school. We are a private school accredited by an organization who told our board that "all fundraising is done in the name of the school". In other words, they were trying to tell us that all the money the parents raise is not ours to spend as we see fit but how the FINANCE COMMITTEE of the school sees fit. We politely disagreed with him...

I can give you an example, though, of a public school PTO using their money for curriculum items: my sister lives in Dallas in the Highland Park Indep.School District, which is probably one of the wealthiest school districts in the country. She told me that her PTO spent some of their funds to hire a Spanish teacher because the district could not afford one and the parents wanted this option. I found that interesting because at our private school, our PTO has been asked to help with some salaries of "extra" staff, not teachers, which is never popular with the parents. I was surprised this would happen at Highland Park but I guess it can happen even at the most highly funded schools.

Shelly

Totally agree with you Michelle!!! Whether PTA or PTO we work our tails off and I am guessing that 99.999% of groups would not fundraise if they didnt have to. Our group outs all the money back into famiy oriented nights free to our families...why...our community doesnt offer much so we do! When our PTA was around they funded school equipment and stuff the school needed...we do what we have to do for our children.
It's funny about complainers, at our meeting last night I heard one complaint about our fall festival. A mom had told one of our volunteers that having four face painters wasn't enough, we should have had more. I looked at our volunteer and without thinking said"did you ask her when she signed up". We are all volunteers and to be belittle makes me a little angry!!!There are tons of ways people can help no matter what hours they work, etc...its whether they truly want to be involved!
Now that I am wound up I am going tos chool to volunteer for....seven hours!

[ 11-04-2004, 07:59 AM: Message edited by: pals ]

Wow, I almost didn't know how to respond to you without being completely rude and I promise, I will try but..

Excuse me, but the PTO is not the one earning the money. The students are doing the work, the office staff is doing the work

Obviously, you have never run a fundraiser. First off, in most situations (99% of the time) it's parent volunteers who run the copies and distribute them or catelogs or whatever, into the teachers boxes. Next, it's the months of arranging the events to coincide on the school calendar. If you are giving the students any kind of prizes and they aren't provided by the company you use, you work months in advance procurring and putting together prizes. Then when the fundraiser goes home, 98% of it comes from the parents who take them home, to work, call the relatives etc.
When the sheets/money/orders come back, it can take days, countless numbers of volunteers to count, sort and prepare.
Then, if it's a catelog sale, products come in and you spend even more time and more volunteers sorting the orders and getting them ready to distribute to the classes. In the jog-a-thon arena, 35-45 volunteers collect tally sheets, count money, arrange prizes etc.

Are you serious???? I don't know how exactly it's been done in your school but if your office staff was doing all the work (which generally is two people and I strongly suspect that you have no real knowledge of how the fundraiser was run and who worked on it) but let's say they did, it would take them days to weeks to get it all done with the average office staff of say, 2 people.

Our principal wants curriculum: PTO says that is not their resonsibility but the responsiblity of the district.

You must be one of the lucky few that pay absolutely no taxes. Of course why would it be the responsibility of our local, state and national governments to provide, oh say, an education and the tools for our children. How absurd of us to assume that our tax dollars should go to things like curriculum. We need to fundraise for our public education and then the school board can spend all the money on booze and women like it was meant to be!

The issue is to help the students get the best education possible. Why aren't there laws for this.

I don't think anyone will disagree with you there but I strongly suspect that most people would expect that some of the tax dollars they pay every year would go that purpose. Because quite frankly, not every school even has a PTA/PTO or any volunteer group. Hey, if they can't fundraise then they should just go work in the factories or live in the streets like urchins. Wait, this is 2004 not 1904. All of our children deserve to get the best education possible and it shouldn't come to the lucky few who fundraise well. And while we're on it, when your illustrious legislators look at the school budgets, they don't see that the PTO bought all the paper for the school or supplied the leveled readers. Only that they got them and they did okay without funds.

I will never ever help our PTO out again.

I get the feeling you won't be missed. I suspect that you had no idea that most principals have money for their own budgets but they do and I suspect that you have no idea how much money is in his/her budget because you've probably never looked at the school's financial report (but there is one and many schools send them out annually to parents)
I also suspect that if you have helped, it's been pretty recent and not much over the years. Seem a little confrontational too since your first, unregistered post, could have been, "I have a concern about how our parent group is run" instead of you coming in here and assuming you know how not only your PTO is doing things but how every other dedicated person on this board works.
We work our butts off for the sake of our children and you assume to belittle that work with your "PTO doesn't do the work, blah, blah, blah"
So open the lid of that little box you live in and see the rest of the world. If there is a real issue with your PTO and you want to know how to handle it, ask us. We're eager to help you. If you don't understand how anything can be different outside of your school (and again, I suspect that there probably isn't a problem just that you assume that it's done that way) ask us, we'll offer advice or give you ideas or whatever. If you want to vent about what might be a problem with your PTO, we'll listen, but don't come in here and belittle the work that we do and assume that you know how PTOs/PTAs or any other group is run.

I really hope that when you voted, like Rocket said, you looked at the candidates and their stands on education because your problems are bigger than your PTO.

I said, I would try not to be rude, I think I failed but I'm certain I made my point!

"Excuse me, but the PTO is not the one earning the money. The students are doing the work, the office staff is doing the work."

In any fundraiser I've been involved with it's the parents that actually fundraise (mostly at the office or soliciting their friends) and always the volunteers that count and tally the stuff. In any group that I've been involved with it's the general membership that decides the budget, i.e. how to spend the money. As other posters said the staff and Principal can have input but it's got to be a collaborative effort.

And what in the world does this mean:" The Principal wants curriculum." ? A parents group can support the curriculum by funding field trips, buying books, etc. but any change in curriculum would most likely be a school district thing.

If you are unhappy with your PTO, my suggestion is to get involved and change it. Ranting on this board might make you feel better but it's not going to help your school. It's not as if we're all one bad PTO. There's lots of different groups here. Good luck!