Kmamom,

That is a tough situation to deal with. We came close to being in a similar situation. Our playground is falling into major disrepair. We raise a ton of money for the school and wanted the PTO to start doing a project playground to raise all the money needed for it. The president (for reasons not known, other then it was not her idea) would not hear of it. Even though all the active members were in favor of it.

We knew she was at the end of her term and that in September we will have a new board who will work to get this done.

I do not know exactly what kind of regime you are dealing with, but the best thing would be to try and load your board with people who are willing to raise the funds for all the projects and needs the school has.

What is the name of your group? In the meantime I would just keep trudging along and make sure to the best of your ability that all the parents and your community are aware of what your group is doing and why and what you are raising funds for.
Do you have a local paper that could help you get the word out?

In our past playground situation (when we were considering forming another group) we had talked to many of the parents outside the school when they picked their kids up. They all agreed that the playground needed to be fixed and that they would actually just donate money to get the job done. They were also a bit miffed at why our current board was not attending to it.

Until you can get people like yourself on to your PTA your best offense may be a really good PR campaign. If the parents believe in what you are trying to accomplish then you should have their support in your efforts.

Have you tried seeking donations from local businesses and organizations to fund things like your playground?

Lastly, there will always be nay-sayers, but if you believe in what your doing and that it truly is a great benefit to the children then screw the thoughts of anyone who wishes to think otherwise.
This is a crazy world we live in and some people are hateful just because you are successful. Let that be their problem and not yours.

Our situation is a little complicated, because my group isn't a PTO--we already have a PTA, and we formed intially to raise monies for a new handicapped-inclusive playground, and if we're successful with that, we'd like to move on and work on raising monies for other needs/extras we see the school could use. The current PTA board has had a LOT of issues with us, because they just don't get we're not forming a PTO, and in fact could benefit the PTA quite a bit-- since we're a separate entity without the restrictions on fundraising they and the school have, a lot more money could be raised, and more programs thus implemented. It has a lot to do with their power issues, being afraid of looking bad, ingnorance on what could really be done for the school, and laziness. The incoming pres seems to be with the program, but then she's still got to deal with the "old guard" on some level, so we're going to have to see what happens.

Our superintendent and BOE have been supportive to date, but we're trying not to bother them to much with this, yet. We don't want to come off as being crybabies, and we don't want to pis* anyone off. I feel they also are hesitant about us, on one hand we could do them a favor--get things for the school without having to raise taxes too much, and on the other we could also make them look bad (inadvertantly) because once new things get going at the school, the parent population and general public will want to know why all of this wasn't done before. I understand the super's position, because he wants us to be successful, but he also has to be supportive of an employee.

Right now our fundraising chair, who happens to be one of the secretaries for our current PTA board (she's the nicest person!), ALSO happens to be a "key communicator" at our school, so she's meeting with the principal this week to discuss some of these issues. I and my VP haven't had much success, partly because I think we both are short and look younger than we are so people tend to not take us seriously. Also. we're "new" to the school, and as such prejudices are there too.

Going to the super is definitely an option, but just not yet. I'm picking brains for now to see if anyone has a way we could phrase getting support, without inadvertantly insulting or p-ing off the principal.

Kmamom

Have you all considered approaching your superintendent of Schools to ask for their advice and perhaps support?

Other than that maybe you should say well since your not in favor of fundraising, we will stop fundraising. But know this...You will no longer have (list the things you will no longer have) and tell them when the money runs out thats it.
Also let her know that when the complaints from parents start rolling in that you will direct those parents to her so she can explain to them all about how she is against fundraising and did not want to bother them with such matters.

melloweer--you and I speak the same language!

This is the sort of thing that makes me crazy with our principal--she's nice enough, seems intelligent, and claims to be happy that we want to do for the kids. BUT--we have to run EVERY flyer past her, and she doesn't like us "reminding" people about fundraisers, because she doesn't want them to feel like we're "demanding," or "pressuring" them to give. Anything that goes in the mailboxes has to have her OK, which I guess I understand, but it really bottlenecks things which can be a pain if we're in a hurry, or someting comes up unexpectedly. We're all feeling like she's just not supportive; either because she's leery because we're a separate entity and not technically under her control (and when we set up we didn't want to get caught up in a quagmire of BS and red tape with the school's PTA board who have been less than human over the years, so we let the principal know what we were doing, but we didn't ask) or because she's listening to propraganda against us being spread by the current PTA board (who we also let know what we were up to).

It's a lot of little things--for example, we had a fundraiser the other day (I'll refrain from saying the specific kind-- just in case) after school. She made no mention of it in the announcements, was in the school when the fundraiser was going on, but didn't even stop by, let alone participate by throwing us a $. And that attitude then carries over to our teachers, who are less than eager to help out for the most part to begin with!

The main thing I'm feeling, as well is the rest of our board, is disappointment. We really thought she'd be into what we're doing, and be there cheering us on and encouraging the parents to help any way they can, but her silence has been deafening!

Get 2 inches away from their nose and say "do you not realize that without us you'll have to figure out how to support the school financially a lot more then you are now" then ding them on the nose and MAYBE if you're lucky it'll work.

Yea I know you can't really do that but man sometimes ya just want to smack them and go duh when they don't support the PTO

Hi Kmamom!

There is probably nothing you can do to change the principals mind & attitude, so I would not waste my time there and would find other avenues.

In our school we make up reminder notices for our fundraising sales or any event we are doing. We stick them right into the teachers mailboxes and they get sent home with the kids. Is that something you could do?

If your teachers are receptive you could ask them to remind the children as well.

Good Luck!