I hate to say this but I have been there too. A parent purchased things with PTO funds for her daughters class. It really frustrated me to see the teacher carrying on about what a wonderful parent she was for buying things for the class and we weren't supposed to say anything about what transpired. As for the teacher in your school wanting to hold a position, our rules suggest attending a certain number of meeting before someone can appointed/elected into an Exec position. Is it possible you can require her to attend a few meetings beforehand and maybe all of her suspisions will be resolved?

Thanks once again for the response. I ask your indulgence on the following long-winded post...

All of our executive board discussions are bound by confidentiality, per Roberts Rules of Order. We use Roberts Rules as well as our own bylaws to guide us in all that we do. So, from the easiest no-brainer decision to the most deliberated item, we must keep all board debate confidential.

Let me first say that we ask for teacher reps to attend our regular meetings to provide input, relay concerns, and to give feedback from all staff and faculty. We have had only 4 or 5 meetings attended by even 1 teacher. They simply do not come. Some feel that if staff chose to attend the meetings, the same function would be served. I'd like to add that even when we solicit staff for something as innocuous as a wishlist of items wanted/needed for classrooms, which we are willing to fund completely, we often receive no response. Example: we solicited teachers for a list of items desired for indoor recess purposes; only 1 teacher responded. Also, it is very rare for any teacher to attend any special events at the school, except for the one teacher who has a child at the school.

We had a very awkward situation this year--dealing with a very difficult and unresponsive volunteer who happened to oversee the disbursement of fully 1/3 of our total budget. We simply could not get this volunteer to work cooperatively with us and in a timely manner. I must also mention that the 2 previous executive boards, for which this volunteer served in the same position, had exactly the same issues. It was a 4-year problem. Ultimately, we implemented a policy to better define what info we needed and when, and the volunteer opted not to follow it. Our board was then in the regrettable position of having to abandon the one-person "committee" in favor of a 4-to-5 person committee (including a staff member) to coordinate this PTO function. Predictably, this volunteer relayed this info to her daughters' teachers, omitting, however, the role her actions played in our decision. We as a board were unable to address the issue due to confidentiality constraints. We simply do not talk out of school, no pun intended. Our principal is fully aware of all that transpired and understands our decision completely.

The teacher showing interest in joining our board teaches this volunteer's child. Her interest is borne out of this year's unfortunate situation. Some have wondered if it is nothing more than a "spying mission." I don't know that I feel that way myself, but the timing is curious (this is a veteran teacher that has been here longer than all of us and has never shown any previous interest).

Whew! And that's just the background! Thanks for listening.

CTvp, what information do you keep confidential that you are worried about and why would people feel stiffled? We have Exec positions for parents to be voted in to and staff positions for staff to volunteer. Though we did not have the best results with staff holding these exec positions (they have to be a parent to have them) we find the staff input invaluable at our meetings and events. I want to give you some good ideas but I'm not sure exactly what your concerns are't help you.

Thanks for your response. Unfortunately, we haven't had much luck with the teacher participation in our school because they have not wanted to devote any time to PTO functions. Even now, the teacher interested in being on the board would not be attending our general meetings, only executive board meetings. There are some that are concerned that "free speech" would be stifled and that board confidentiality would be breached. How did your PTO handle that?

Until several years ago, our board structure consisted of a teacher/parent in each officer postion. For example, we had a teacher co-president and a parent co-president. It worked fairly well, but the teachers did most of the work.

Some of the parents wanted to take the burden off the teachers so we restructured the board to have five officers and two teacher representatives, but we welcome any teacher who wants to hold a officer position especially if they have a child in school. In fact, we prefer to have a teacher co-treasurer who has the checkbook.

Maybe those groups wouldn't have quite the adverserial relationship with the teachers if they were included more. It is a PTO.

Our PTO is debating whether to put a teacher on our executive board. We realize that any member in good standing can run for office; however, the PTO/faculty relationship has been quite adversarial at times. How do we preserve honest and forthright debate and decision-making among board members without fear of repercussions?