Hey Kym, Get a cup of tea (or maybe something stronger) and take a breather.

I hate to say you need to get on the same page with the principal, more like principal needs to get on same page as you do. Get your board together with a copy of your bylaws. Sit down together somewhere outside of the school (someone's home, the library, a local restaurant) and decide which of you has the best rapport with the principal. Now, I would say it should be the president, but if there is head butting going on perhaps a vice president could handle this part. Go in with the by-laws and show the principal that this organization was established to do x, y and z. Doing this involves fundraising. Your treasurer's responsibilities include verifying all withdrawals, deposits and expenditures. There are checks and balances in place to ensure that all funds can be accounted for and they need to be followed. (Take in a copy of the last issue of PTOToday showing how much money vanishes into thin air, and how many people are having their names on the front page of newspapers for missing PTO/PTA money. Explain that even the appearance of impropriety could bring this out and that you don't want this to be your 15 minutes of fame when someone tries to figure out where last year's money went.) Of course all of this assumes that you have by-laws in place that state these things. If your organization has been run without by-laws, then get some in place immediately and then follow them. Protect yourself, and protect the money that belongs to these kids. If I couldn't account for $25.00, much less $25,000, I wouldn't get much sleep at night.

You need to have checks and balances, too, for how the money is spent. This is usually in the form of an annual budget that is prepared by the board and then approved by the general membership. Any changes to the budget would require general membership approval. That does not mean that every time a check is written you need to call a meeting, simply that line items that are added, deleted, or significantly changed need to be brought to the attention of the membership.

Be sure that your bylaws state that two signatures are required on all checks. (Yes - I know, not all banks will enforce this and they may cash a check with only one signature!) Also - given the picture you have painted, I would have to say that the principal's signature is NOT one of the ones allowed on the check. I realize it is done in many schools for convenience purposes, but I also think it is a conflict of interest and won't let it happen on my watch. Go to the bank yourself, get the signature cards yourself, and be sure that they are accurate. Talk to the branch manager about this if that is what you have to do. One signature should be the treasurer, the other can be left up to the board and you can say that "the treasurer and any other officer" or "the treasurer and either the president or vice president" or something along those lines.

Do not let one more cent flow out of your PTO without proper documentation. No receipt, no money.

I am certain that my stream of consciousness is not in the correct order, but these are all things that need to be done.

It really sounds like you are a group with lots of heart, lots of money, but not enough structure. You have come to the right place because there are so many here with so much information and all the willingness in the world to share their experience and information with others.

And one more thing - Is there another bank in town? Go there! If there is a problem with an employee of the bank releasing information on an account to the principal who has no business knowing that - I would go to the bank manager. If that employee IS the branch manager, I would go higher than that. There are confidentiality laws in this country to be observed.

Good luck to you and keep up the good work for the kids' sake.

WOW!!! Sounds like you've really got your hands full!!!

Does your PTO have a set of by-laws? Your by-laws should state the proper procedures for determining fundraisers, appropriating and tracking funds, etc.

In answer to your question about whether or not a principal can do these types of things . . . they probably can . . . unless your by-laws state otherwise. Then trying to enforce the by-laws would probably be another nightmare for you.

I'm curious to see how Metzymom, or Critter, or Venzemama(?), or Tim would handle this situation. Hey folks, help her out! [img]smile.gif[/img]

i was vp of pto the president just stepped down. all this year we have been asking questions to the principal and now its a head butting game its really aweful. i need some advice on how to handle this problem. when we started we had a zero balance in the pto account. but to much is unacounted for. the pto made 32,000 plus started with little over 25,000. our questions to the principal went unanswered as to where this money went there is no documentation anywhere , also she wanted us to pay for things donated, a computer lab was done last year everything in that room was donated except for the wiring pto paid for that. but the pricipal let us to believe that we still owed , also she wants her copiers laminators and paper paid for by pto the county states she gets money for that. its a huge chunk as well 25,000 for these things. a concerned parent called the board and complained she had to justify herself wanting this extra money. so she took last years books 2 weeks later we still dont have these books. we also took these books to a accountant to look at them figure them out, she could not do it, her advice was to open a brand new account so we could not be held accountable for last years books, before we spoke to the pricipal about this problem , we tryed to follow this advice although we didnt know we had to have a tax id number we went to the bank to get the info but before we could do this the principal was calling us demanding why we felt we should move accounts, and the reason was explained to her but she forbade we change, not only this but she knows when we deposit when we dont, information is leaked(relative of hers works there) to her on this bank account from the bank. my question is this does a principal have the authority to do this her name is not on the account.when i called the bank to find out this info. i was again up against her. And frankly im scared because there are so many unanswered questions about where last years money went. so much we are going up against alot, its also very hard because we had to cancel our carnival because we didnt have alot of staff help, the pto had everything in place but we got tons of complains because they didnt want to come in on a saterday, they didnt want to do a game and on it went. we were going to try again in the spring but the pricipal put a halt to that. not only this but a example is this the school sent home credit card apps, a percentage goes to the school we didnt know anything about it, we thought it was the school,until we get a letter in our box staaating many parents were upset we sent those apps home, we were dumbfounded! a second one is the pricipal holds meetings with people for fundraisers for the pto. so 2 weeks ago when we thought we were only doing butter braid and cookie dough we also find out that nestle was put in to by her and she held a meeting with that person without us or our knowledge. i went on vacation to come back to president of pto. and the pto agreed to buy things for the school and teachers that were needed. we spent 5,000 on various items but mainly carpet ink cartrides for the teachers printers and white boards. the principal threw a fit and now wants to cancel our winterfest. when we typed up a news letter for a canceled carnival they were all took up from every teacher and trashed, then we were told to rewrite it and put instead of caarnival canceled because of lack of intrested at this time/ she wanted us to put there was a glitch in the pto planning, which is not true we refused to do that because we would be lying. then last friday a pto class rep summorized the pto meeting for her class in a newsletter and gave it to the teacher she again took up this letter and verbaly abused the parent for informing the parents who could not attend of the meeting contents in a newsletter she printed up. also at that meeting it was stated that pto meeting were only for fundraising nothing else, the biggest problem i guess is that the pto board bylaws are not being followed by the pricipal not only that but me and the others thought pto was get in there make your school better fundraise for that school buy things for it that the school would not normaly get(things the county doesnt pay for and in some instanstes white boards teachers have requested for 2 years). we are being dictated by her on everything we do our newsletters are graded with a red sharpie x'ed out and she replaces the wording to fit her, our pto fundraising letters where redone for our resent fundraiser by her. we also believe that parents contribute aa great deal to our school they should know pto purchases and account balance where there money is going what we made and so on . we were told not to do this, we provided parents with a letter the pricipal gave us that staated the school wanted 25,000 for numerious items our belief is parents have that right thats there money improving that school, we are not allowed to give out that information anymore we were asked to be very vague at our meetings no detailed information at all, and a list what we can and cant say at pto meetings. the biggest problem of all tho is not one pto board member trusts the principal, there are no reciets for last year she told us pto paid for items when they were donated she speaks rudly to parents when a parent asked about a child going to detention for being tardy she told them it was not the time nor place in a rude attitude, anything we give to the school is done at the meetings and handed out there, pto has fixed lockers broken locks shelfing in storage rooms and so much more, also she also informed us that our chili supper tickets would be a certain color but not only that the price of each ticket now i think that should go up for a vote, there is so much a need help with, but basicly its can a pricipal do this or that thanks for listening :confused:

[ 11-11-2002: Message edited by: kym ]</p>