Well I have tried suggesting all of the above. I have always been open with the principal. We have never stopped him from asking for anything. We have never spent on anything that has not been requested by him or buy the teachers at a general meeting. He only approches us when he has a complaint. I took all of our stuff off campus and told him we were. Now he has called a mandatory meeting of the board and claims himself to be an officer. We never met except for during our monthly meeting time. We never through out surprises. He always nows of what is going on. Other than disbanding we don't know what else to do. I have three children plus I started working doing sub work at another school and he demands we meet during school hours while our children are in school so that he can tell us how we are supposed to budget our money during the year. I gave him a generic budget as our by-laws state we can and ratify the budget as it seems fit during our meetings. There is not one thing at that school we haven't purchased that he hasn't just walked up to us and said I need this can you go buy it. We go get it without going through the general membership and now all of a sudden he says we are being petty and undermining his authority at that school. He has called me at home at nearly 9 O'clock at night to inform me we can not amend any of the by-laws to fit our group and that he is glad that he seen the by-laws and that he has so much power. He didn't know this until we pointed it out to him. Our by-laws state that he is only an advisor. We give him our agenda's we put him on the agenda so that he can always say something or bring something up and yet he is still not satisfied. We did go to the superintendent and she said she was not aware of any of this going on. I told her I didn't want the group to disband but what are we supposed to do. We are a small school and were do we stand if he can ride roughshod over our by-laws to suit his needs. He has called again and left a not so pleasant message on my answering machine saying he doesn't understand why we are being so petty. I don't know that we have been petty. I have never bad mouthed him. I told him we understand that he is the administrator of the school and he has to do certain things that are not pleasant but in turn we would like a little respect in the sense that he does not go up to my parents and tell them that he has to re-iterate the fact that we have no right to be using any of his equipment and that he has to approve of everything. I was sick today and when I dropped off my kids I found a note in my PTC bos stating that he needs to see us ASAP about the budget and that he needs to approve it. We looked in our by-laws in a rush to get back to him and found out that he doesn't have the right to make those decisions. We could also make up a generic budget to satisfy that portion of it and that it needed to be approved by the general membership. So we put a copy in his box with the statement of our by-laws and that out of courtesy we gave him his this copy. He then calls me at home and says he doesn't appreciate the undermining of his authority and that it is not exacting enough for his approval. So again I have to met with the Superintendent and I tried meeting him at least three times to discuss these problems and all he could do was yell at me that he is the administrator of the school and our group. So he could walk up to any one of us at any time and if he feels it's necessary to chew us out or request something to be ready within the hour that is his right. We are trying to tell him we all have lives and that we can not be at his beck and call. He still doesn't understand. It seems to be a power trip with him. I even suggested so that no one steps on no ones toes that we have at least two meetings a year where the heads can get together and discuss there plans for the year and have it opened up so that no one steps on no ones toes. He doens't want that either. But I have recently found out that he is spreading rumors about us to his employees and that he then turns around and tells us that it is the teachers putting the complaints to him but he doesn't know the whole story. It has gotten to the point where whenever he tells me not to let it go beyond these doors I tell him then don't tell me because it's gossip and I don't want to know about it. Thanks for letting me vent but that is basically where I am coming from. I am worried that he will even begin to take it out and make it hard on my children. He is intimidating us. I have had enough but I am not the type to lay down and let him keep pushing. I have talked to him until I was blue in the face and the more I try talking the more demands he begins to make to punish us. I will see if the Superintendent can help if not I needed to now legally were I stand. I have never given him permission to call me at home for anything other than if there is a problem with my children and yet almost everyday he is calling about PTC stuff that he wants or that he wants me to do. He is getting more demanding and I think he thinks I can't read or I am not intelligent enough to do anything other than whatever he wants. It's beginning to even wear on my husband. He doesn't even like the tone he uses anymore. Thanks for letting me vent and if anyone could help let me know. I would greatly appreciate it. I don't want the repore we have started with the teachers to be ruined because he has to have control.
Our PTA runs a copy committee that copies FOR the teachers and the PTA Here's how it works. Each teacher and the PTA has a folder with their name on it. When someone wants a copy they fill out the form indicating how many copies they want and how soon they need it. Someone comes in every day from the copy committee and makes those copies. We have 2 copy machines plus a risograph which we only use when we need to make 35 or more copies. For a PTA paper to be copied, it needs to be approved by the PTA president (me!) and the principal if it is to be sent out to the entire school. The secretary looks it over too for gramatical or spelling errors. Anything that goes out from a PTA committee is done on blue paper that we buy ourselves. We also have a Youngest or Only Sibling (YOS) list for every class so some papers (fundraisers, etc.) will only be delivered one per family.
One of the reasons we started the copy committee was because too many different people were making copies and the machines were continually breaking down. With only trained people on them now, our break down rate is much lower. Also, teachers can use the copier in the faculty room if they need something done faster but only the copy committe can use the risograph, which means just volunteers! In fact, our last volunteer who was the head of the copy committee became a paid aide and had to give up her volunteer position because the Principal didn't want any staff on the risograph!
Our middle school started a copy committee 3 years ago, at my suggestion, and after an awkward start, the teachers there fell in love with it too. All it takes is just a little more advance planning for the teachers. The copy committee is a true PTA group - parents and teachers working together.
You have bigger issues than just the copier to resolve, but here's our solution. We pay the school $400-500 at the start of the school year for the privilege of using the school's copier for PTO business whenever we want. We've never actually figured out if that payment covers our costs, but it appeases the principal. We defer to the staff when they need the machine, but we also have a great relationship with the staff/principal so tensions are not tight in the first place.
Idea - does your school have paid paraprofessionals to do the teachers' copying requests? If not, would you consider setting up a parent volunteer team to run the copier for the staff? Maybe for a couple of hours per day, a parent would be available to do jobs the teachers/staff drop off. They don't have to use their planning time for copying, and your PTO provides a direct service to make their lives easier. I can't say we've ever tried it, but it's an idea that might be worth exploring. Good luck!
Thank you for all your information. I will consider each one of these ideas. Talking to several teachers and other school employee it has come to our attention that as long as we let this principal think he is in charge he won't bother us and that everything that goes on or is talked about he will tell the superintendent something different. He seems to have a power trip problem and most of what he said about the teachers isn't neccessarily true. He is playing some kind of game with his teachers and parents for what purpose I don't know, but I have taken each one of my parents off all machines and out of the supply room so as not to cause any conflict. I also plan on informing him that he is nothing more than the advisor and he has no control over the group in any copacity other than to help us figure out what is needed to spend on the school. He feels his word is absolute law and everyone else has to fall into to place with his wishes down to what the teachers need and don't need. I will look into local businesses for the making of copies at discount prices. You seem to know what you are doing alot more than the I do and I am trying to get to know all my rules and by-laws.
Hi, I'm New - and welcome to the wonderful world of volunteering in the schools. You will find it very rewarding if occasionally challenging . . .
I agree with Lisa about getting things worked out ahead of time and/or finding an alternative. We have an agreement with a local copy shop (not a national chain). They charge us 2 cents per copy on white paper and 3 cents per copy on colored paper, we can drop off and pick up rather than making the copies ourselves. We also have an arrangement with the school that if we use their machine we pay 1 cent per copy. Our district gives each school an "allotment" of copies that they can make per year without being charged, and the overage is charged to the school's budget at 1 cent per copy, our principal is THE GREATEST and just passed that through. Like you - we try to go during off-peak times and step out of the way for teachers. The other thing we did to accommodate this is set up a "copy mom" group. Mom's signed up for an hour a week, or half an hour a week, or whatever. We designed a form that teachers fill out telling us what color paper, how many copies, whether they need to be stapled, DUE DATE, etc. The teachers leave these in the copy room at the school and our volunteers make the copies for the teachers and put them in their mailboxes. It works out wonderfully so that we show them our "spirit of cooperation" to get it all done! Hope some of this helps.
