I am speaking from the principals seat. I am also a new principal and it is always challenging your first year even if you have moved from another school. the culture at every school is so different. You need to sit down and air your concerns with the principal he has to meet with you. You do not have to share what the mtg is about just ask him to put you on his calendar. Find out where he was before and investigate his leadership style at that school. This may help you in your mtg. go to the meeting with a list of things that your group has achieved and just get to the point with him and ask does he want to improve this organization. You may want to tell him how important he is to PTO.He may have huge male ego. Hope this helps!

Thank you for the words of encouragement. I try to deal with the principal when there is no way around it. I send the president. I can do most of what I do from home. I only go to the school to show my support for our president.

Hang in there. The hardest part of our job is when the "boss" doesn't care about what we do or who we are. For me, the latter hurts the most. This is almost when you just want to be in cruise control and function as normal as possible and dealing with him only when nessary.

But again, hang in there. Hopfully the next principal will be SO involved you'll be overwhelmed!!

(Sigh) I have a dilemma. Our principal is new to our school but not new to the position of principal. He was civil to the parent group in the beginning but over the months has been unpleasant to deal with. He has lied on one of the officers to some from the district level, has them wait for extended periods of time (because he doesn't make appointments), not turn in fundraising papers in a timely manner, yelled at or ignore officers when they do come in the office. The biggest insult is that when the officers go in for an executive meeting he doesn't give you eye contact and tells them what a bother they are and he can do without them. After the officers stated that parent involvement is a right and the law things go decidely worse. The principal doesn't attend the meetings and doesn't send a representative either. If the idea doesn't come from him it isn't well received or if it does, it becomes his. The officers have been biting their tongues when dealing with him so that they can get things done but it seems to work only at times. The parents noticed the tension months ago and keep telling the officers that they know how much work they do planning and setting up meetings. The district seems to side with the school. The officers have wanted to quit but keep going on because number 1 nobody else wants to do it and 2 they want to make sure that the parents and children get information from workshops at the school. The principal always yelling there he is the only administrator and that he can't do everything. The officers aren't asking him to do anything but sign paperwork. We come in with paperwork done properly and so that it can be done in a timely matter. The officers are not looking for pats on the back just a conducive enviornment to work in and common courtesy that you would give anyone. Just needed to vent so that I can go in with a lighter burden on my chest. I'm ready to raise a lot of sane but trying to hold off until the end of the year.