Sorry pioneeroarent, I can't help you with that one since our school forbids students from actually doing any selling and fundraising. Our parents do all of the fundraising for our PTO fundraisers.

I would rather doubt that there are any laws regarding funds raised by students and how they are to be appropriated. Isn't that something that you have addressed in your bylaws?

Would your PTO ever consider dropping the student fundraisers (whatever selling) they are involved with and just have your PTO do events and fundraisers without using the students to sell products? Of course, you would have to be very careful in the way this was done so as to not upset the principal.

Maybe if some things were changed and shook up a bit, administration would realize how much work the PTO has done to raise those funds.

It doesn't sound like there will be an easy answer to this situation anytime soon since it appears the decision has already been made at the district level.

Maybe your PTO members would find it benefitial to talk with your district's other PTOs to see how they are attempting to deal with the situation. There's a lot more chance of resolving something at the district level if you can involve more of the district's schools.

Well the parents concern is that we the PTO does the majority of work and has the responsibility for the fundraisers. The school doesn't do any on it's own. Individual classes may do one a year for a certain need or trip, but other than that it's all parents. The teachers have enough to worry about. We dont mind at all, thats one of our purposes is to make life a little easier for teachers. But I think it is also the reason the parents feel a little stepped on because the school isnt involved in the work part of the fundraisers at all. I dont want to sound bitter at all, I am not, I am just trying to clear up some questions for a few parents. If it wasnt for our fundraisers the kids would not have ANY fieldtrips. So we do feel we should have a little to say about what goes on with the funds. We have an awesome core of parents that are there for everything and I just want to make sure I amgeiving them the correct information. Does anyone know of any LAWS about if the children are doing the soliciting of products where the money has to go? HELP!!!

We are a public school, but the school owns the two book fairs the school has each year. There are a handful of teachers who always organize and work the fair and they always ask for parents to help out during the fair. Most of the parents are active PTO parents, but not all.

Our Box Tops is also run by a teacher and the profits go into the school fund.

I personally don't have a problem with the way this is handled. Even though the parents help out at the bookfairs, we are still contributing our efforts for the good of the students. I think it is positive that the teachers want to be so involved in raising funds for the school. It ends up being less work for us and allows the principal to utilize funds in a way he determines to be most appropriate and necessary.

Boy this is a timely subject. I wonder if PTO Today has done any articles on this. We are a private school PTO and we raise ALOT (in my book) of money each year ($60-$70K). Of course, the school (private) is always in a budget crunch and wants our money for the general budget. We are seen as one BIG checkbook. We pay for the basics like textbooks, etc. It's quite a power struggle sometimes. Would love to read more about how it's done at other schools regarding "ownership" of fundraisers. If a school "owns" it--who organizes it and runs it?
Shelly

You need to re-visit WHY you exist and what impact you have on the school. Personally, I've always felt it was undesireable to have a PTO seen as a fundraising machine or to have making money be the top goal. You'll probably be pleasantly surpised if you make a list of everything the PTO does besides "pay for things".

In our area, an elementary school may only have 2 sales type fundraisers per year.

When I started about 8 years ago, the PTO owned both of them. 5 years ago, the district auditor suggested the school take one and the PTO keep one. (The principal voluntarily took the smaller one.) Last year, the district implemented a new policy where the school owns both fundraisers and they want PTOs to focus on mostly volunteerism, teacher appreciation, and school activities.

Note - we do still have some funds from membership, school supply sales, T-shirt sales, some restaurant nights, and our one big event which is a Spring Fling with Sock Hop, Auction, Bingo, etc. (Spring fling nets us about $3000-$5000, the other things are mostly token amounts.)

The only difference is that now we don't buy so much stuff for the school - and they don't ask us to. It hasn't been that big a change for us, because regardless of who "owned" a fundraiser, PTO provided volunteers to run it. But we knew if it was the school's - it ultimately went in their bank account. It's really no different than providing volunteers for Track and Field or other school run activities.

We still make enough to fund teacher appreciation and hold our activities. In all the ways that are important, we're still actively contributing to the school and serving our goals.

So it's a different perspective, but not necessarily a bad thing.

Note: as parents - even if you are just BUYING items from the fundraiser - it's certainly reasonable to want to know what the funds are being raised for. Hopefully, your principal wants to work with you and keep you in the loop.

[ 01-21-2005, 07:09 PM: Message edited by: JHB ]

We are going through some changes within our PTo pertaining to how funds raised by students are distributed. Our school district is saying that any monies raised by students must go directly into the student body fund(ran by the district) and not the PTO's fund. So essentially the PTO has no say in what happens with the money. We do all the work and the district has the control over the money not the PTo. Does this sound familiar top anyone.