Your bylaws will specify, among other things, who is eligible to hold office. It's totally up to your group whether or not teachers should be eligible. There's no "official" rule.
Now is the perfect time to establish a budget mentality. Granted, there's no history for your group to help you structure a budget, but that's ok. At this point, your budget should be based on (1) your PTO's mission, (2) your best guess of income.
First have an Executive Board meeting to thoughtfully consider how your PTO will fulfill its mission in general terms. Then allocate a percentage to each area. For example, maybe your PTO wants to give half its attention to family events, 1/4 to educational enrichment, and 1/4 to student/staff recognition.
Now think about any known expenses you might have. It's ok to estimate here. For example, maybe your school has asked your PTO to pay a photocopying fee, or you know you want to buy a dozen binders or other office supplies. Write those fixed expenses down, too.
Now estimate how much money you hope to take in this year. Are you charging dues? How much per family; about how many families will sign up? If you're doing a fundraiser, estimate how much you'll make. Check with other PTOs in your area for advice. You might estimate that 50% of your families will participate with each family bringing in $30 profit. For the sake of this example, let's say you estimate a total of $5,000 in gross income.
When you have a best guess on your income, you can estimate your expenses. First, deduct your fixed operating expenses (let's assume $200, which leaves you with $4,800 to play with). Now maybe you want to set aside $1,000 to ensure your PTO has money to start next year. That leaves $3,800. Next, allocate the remaining income based on the percentages you assigned earlier. So...50% of $3,800 = $1,900 your PTO will spend on Family Events. 25% of $3,800 = $950 you'll allocate to educational enrichment, and $950 to recognition. That's your initial budget.
After your initial fundraising efforts, you can adjust your budgeted expenses. If you actually made more than $5,000, you might increase the budget in your categories, or maybe create some new categories like Assemblies. If you made less than planned, you'll need to cut back.
Going through the process of defining your PTO's mission in terms of percentages can be a very thought-provoking, worthwhile exercise. Your officers can really come together on what the group agrees are the PTO's priorities; the budget is a manifestation of that self-assessement.
In future years, when your PTO has developed financial history, budgeting will be fairly routine and a natural part of your group. Now is the best time to adopt a budget-driven mentality so your PTO members and staff don't start bickering over how to spend thousands of dollars each year.
