We solved a problem like yours by just having the classes collect items and we then sorted and made baskets from all the accumulated items. We "puffed" them up with donations from businesses. I don't think we spent more than $20 of PTO money and that was just to purchase the baskets to put the items into. We found some awesome ones at yard sales and the Goodwill, none of which cost more than $1 with most 50¢ or less.We have excellant teacher participation because we try to relieve them of most of the work other than sending home the flyers we provide.Since we do this, we have quite a few who fall all over themselves to help during the actual events we put on.As a bonus incentive, the ones who actually "work" events get a credit in their class accounts to spend on anything they'd like for the class.Mutual respect makes it a win-win situation. It's been hard work on PTO's part to earn the teachers' respect. They've come to see that we're there to boost our kids by boosting them, not work against them.In fact, one of the teachers has an older son who's in ROTC at another school. They wanted to do a fundraiser with the drill team, but didn't have a clue. Enter a couple of PTO members from our school who volunteered to help them.The teachers know we'll go the distance for them.
I DO have to say that I would've been very tempted to put that basket out there with all the mess and make sure the name was very prominently displayed. BUT, after it made me feel justified for a few minutes, I wouldn't actually be able to do it. Sometimes it's better to cover over some things. It wouldn't just reflect on the teacher but on the parents and students in the class as well. To encourage people to "get with the program", you want to make them feel good about participating, not be embarrassed.I might speak privately to the teacher( I'd leave the principal out of it--that's going over the teacher's head) as to the condition of the items and say that the items were unusable and ask if we could put our heads together to solve the problem. Sometimes you just have to give more than 50/50, but it'll pay off in the long run. Just make sure your group has the most fun to be around, enthusiastic people and everyone will want to be with you.You won't have to ask for involvement, they'll be asking you.As corny as it may sound, you have to accentuate the positive and eliminate the negative.
Don't let it get you down, there will always be some who just don't seem to get it.

We wanted to start a classroom art project to coincide with an established evening art program. We asked nothing from the teachers. We wanted 2 or 3 dollars per parent so the room mom could create a project with the students during non class time. We still had 2 teachers stand in our way and refuse to let their class participate. They would not send the flier - even tho the pricipal and art staff had okayed the idea. We had the event twice, and when a parent asked where her class project was we directed her to ask her teacher. Under the 'pick your battles' category we just didn't pick this one and let it go after 2 years. did I mention we asked 'nothing' from the teachers?? WE got even less.

Along those lines of teacher involvement, a few years ago we tried to start classroom art projects to auction off as part of an already established elementary evening arts program. We asked 'no' help from the teachers at all. We just wanted to gather a dollar or two from each parent, and have the room mom work with the kids at non class time to create a project. Even then we had a few teachers outright refuse to participate and we dropped the idea after a few years due to the resistance. (pick your battles and this one was not it) We did have the event twice and when a parent asked where her class project was we simply directed her to go speak with her teacher about it. In this case, the teacher did even less than put out a worthless item - she stood in the way of us and would not even send out a flier that - by the way - had been okayed by both the arts staff and the principal. On the flip side was a wonderful teacher whose room mom had blown off the project and the teacher took it upon herself to supply something so the class was represented. It takes all kinds!!

dragon lady--that you actually got THREE teachers to help blows my mind, the fact that they were willing to do so much extra renders me incapable of rational thought! Ours are unwilling to hand out flyers, and only do so because if the princiapl approves it they HAVE to. They've been bitching for years that parents are never involved, that they don't care yadda yadda yadda. Now that they have parents involved, they're bitching because we ask SO much from them. And believe me--with this lot we keep ANY requests to a minimum.

Here's the kicker to this whole debacle with these baskets. My VP had to meet with the principal today about another matter. At the end of the meeting she asks if the principal answered my email with an OK on the letter to the teachers informing them that their names were going on the baskets and the reminder flyer for that "last call" to the parents.Naturally she hadn't even opened the email yet--now 48 hours old--so they started to go over the stuff there. Three teachers had an issue with their class's name going on the basket--they didn't want to be embarrassed, to which my VP answered, "Well, that might be a problem. We can't label every basket except those three. It would look strange." So our principal answers with, "Well I told them that maybe some money could be spent to puff them up." Thank God my VP thought quickly on her feet, and she replied, "Well if the teachers would like to do that, that's fine!" The principal was very taken aback, and sort of skipped on to another issue.

SOME MONEY COULD BE SPENT TO PUFF THEM UP???!!!

EX-CUUUSE ME??!! I certainly hope you don't mean MY or this group's money! What--now I'm supposed to spend money so THEY aren't embarrassed?? And this coming from the same principal who was all upset because a "concerned" (who by the way was changed to "livid" the last time we covered this ground in a meeting) parent came to her asking if this was how the money she donated to the playground fund was being spent, supposedly waving our very first newsletter in her face! AND, who to date has participated in ONE fundraiser--she bought a cookbook we produced, and as she handed me the money she said--"well you got your ten dollars out of me!" I felt like whipping the book and the money at her and saying, "you know what--F YOU--keep your godda^n money. I wouldn't want to break that bank of yours."

I'm not even going to touch this one with a ten foot pole unless I'm backed into the corner. In that case I'm not sure how to handle it. The funny thing is that we were going to "help" some of the lesser baskets with stuff that we had in our homes or got in clearance racks, but now I'm thinking twice about it, firstly because this...woman assumes we'll do it and that the teachers shouldn't have to, and secondly because now that I think about it, how is it fair to help some and not others? And if she even suggests that we change how a Tricky Tray is run to save these three people embarrassment....

I'm just curious to see when she's going to answer my email--which I've sent two subsequent "nag" emails about.

[ 10-23-2004, 04:43 PM: Message edited by: kmamom ]

We are having a Silent auction next week. We too asked for classroom baskets. We had 3 teachers on the auction committee. It was their job to come up with the different themes and present the basket idea to the rest of the teachers. They made a list of the themes and had the teachers sign up for whatever theme they wanted. The PTO sent home a flyer to each child in the classroom. We basically stated that we were trying to create a basket for each class to be raffled off that night. We asked that each family buy one new item relating to their theme between $5 - $10. Out of 23 classrooms we only had one teacher choose not to participate. Every other teacher participated, the flyer sent home listed the teachers name and their classroom theme. We also asked that the flyer be returned with the item with the childs name, I don't know if that made a difference in our response we got. We were very overwhelmed with the response. We do have a few classes that only part of the class participated. For those that didn't get much we still wrapped them as is. But for the most part we had about 2/3 of each class participate. Each basket will list the teachers name/grade and theme.

When we first discussed doing classroom baskets we thought it best if the idea come from fellow teachers. It really did much better than we expected and there are quite a few baskets that I personally would like.

Well, we had our meeting to which we invited the super today. See the finer points under: TORMENTING OUR STAFF AND PRINCIPAL? in Day to day.

The more I reflect on the meeting and the things she said and her responses to our feelings and opinions I am, as a parent, alarmed by her behavior. On the surface she sems affable and reasonable. However it became obvious very quickly that she seems to hold grudges, opinions differing from her own will not even be reflected upon, she is loyal to her staff to a fault--she refuses to acknowledge that any of them could possibly have issues or faults, she claims that all groups ARE held to the same standards, then would immediately make a statement that proved they are not. I came out feeling that we received a lot of mixed messages, which I can deal with because we're going to have the approved "rules" to go by, but I wonder how she will react at the first comlaint from a teacher or "concerned parent."

Don't get me wrong --this isn't about us not getting what we want and now focusing on ruining this woman's good name. But I have real issues with her OBVIOUSLY not reading the material we give her, nor writing it down. We were in this meeting WELL over 2 1/2 hours, and I swear the Vice didn't write ONE, not ONE thing down, and in fact didn't even come in with a pad or pencil!

THANK YOU for your support! The issue of the "crappy" basket(pun intended) came up. When we asked what we were supposed to do with this, the principal said, "can't you just toss it in another basket?" to which we replied, "Sure, but then her class will be the only one not represented." Well--was THAT a shocker to the principal. "Their NAMES are going on these?! I had NO idea, and I'm sure they didn't." We didn't even bother too express our dismay. I instead replied," Well I guess that's our fault--at the risk of sounding mean I guess we overestimated their inference skills." She continued on with had they known that she's quite sure they would have made sure their classes had a better showing, even if it meant they had to chip in themselves. Yes--she actually said this to parents--out loud, and with NO shame. So in other words had they known they wouldn't be anonymous cheapskates, they would actually have bothered to do a good job and encouraged the children to do the same. The whole thing, plus some other things she said blew my mind.

BELIEVE ME, we were of a mind to put it out there--hey, she was comfortable giving it to us that way. Becuase of the new "knowledge" that people are actually going to identified with baskets we were told to reissue a gentle reminder notice to the parents. WHATEVER.

It's late--I'm going to bed and keep myself up figuring out HOW to write my memo to the principal and BOE about this meeting without sounding like an utter bitc^ and disgruntled parent. [img]tongue.gif[/img]