Originally posted by ColumbusPTO:
Legally you can not be under the school's EIN. You are not an employee of or are you directly related to the school. Any connection you have with the school is based entirely on the fact that you're supporting that school.
Jeff,
Not to say that you aren't right, but what exactly make it illegal for us to do fundraising and run a volunteer program and do teacher appreciation and have the money go into a bank account that is under the school's EIN? My concerns were more along the lines of who has final authority over PTSO funds. From what I understand, every one of the PTSO's at the 20+ schools in our district operates this way. I know that the district chose to go independant vs. PTA but since that was long before my time I have no information on how exactly the legal/tax issues were addressed. Obviously, if it's not legal, that's either going to have to change or I'm going to have to step down so I'd appreciate any light you can shed.
Originally posted by ColumbusPTO:
The school doesn't sanction any of your activities and the only thing they can do is not allow you to use school grounds.
I am aware that the school can't keep us from forming an independant PTSO and can only keep us from holding meetings/events at the school... and I imagine they could refuse to take any money we raised if they were spiteful. Can you elaborate on what you mean when you say the school doesn't sanction any of our activities?
Originally posted by ColumbusPTO:
Right now, being under their EIN, the money doesn't belong to your group....it belongs to the school and they can take it and do whatever they want with it and you can't stop them. Depending on what your bylaws state about the spending of funds and what approval is required....they could decide to have a pizza party for the whole school, spend all your money and you can't do anything about it.
This is one of my biggest concerns. If the parents are going to do the fundraising, they should have a say on how money is spent. I have a great relationship with this administration and trust them implicitly (after all, our PTSO account still has $3600 in it, and since it's in a bank account under the school's EIN, they could have depleted that over the last five years where there was no operating PTSO). However, I want to know what our safeguards are in the event that a future administration might not be so honest.
Originally posted by ColumbusPTO:
You need to get your own EIN and get yourself separated from the school.
If that's what is in the best interest of the group (operating legally, with our funds preserved) I plan to, but I want to make sure that I am able to present to our school, and to our district, if that's the case, why the current operating structure must change so that the issue doesn't become contentious, since this is something that affects every other school in my district that has an operating PTSO.
