My sister lives in Orinda CA and they purchase many things for the school. Last year her auction made over $160K. They purchsed PE teacher, art teacher, music teacher (and a recorder for every child in the school to learn to play music). Keep in mind she lives among millionaires so the income is exceptional. My other sister lives in Oregon and they do a Fund Drive ("just send in a check") to pay for PE teacher and a school nurse, as well as a few other things. Our PTO does an auction and Fund Run as well as a few small fundraisers throughout the year. We gave the school $7K last week to purchase a weather station to supplement our science curriculum. We have also hired a math & a reading resource teacher for 5 hours a week each. They are certified teachers who are now full time moms. It is legal as long as they are not school employees already. They must pay tax if they make over $5K in one year (and they won't). Another school in our district raises money though the booster club (lead by parents) and a Student Service Council lead by a 5th grade teacher. They purchase many supplemental curricula, playground equiptment and a chior teacher 3 x week.
As long as your pricipal and staff have a definate need I think there is no problem raising funds to help them achieve that item.
Geneva - No, no such Texas state law exists. Who told that? Anyone can solicit donations.
Whether the donation would be tax deductible to the donor could be an issue, depending upon if you are a 501(c)(3), but that still has nothing to do with legality.
Is anyone out there from Houston, texas. our parent group which is part of a charter school is planning a xmas party for our students. we are soliciting meat donations from Tyson foods but we were told it was illegal for us to be soliciting donations. is this true???
i dont understand why you need to be dealing with the pta. why not ask all your questions and get all your answers from the admin, ie the prinicpal, superinetendent, and or legal person for the district.
if your pta is dysfuncitonal, they are the last people that i would expect, would give you good advice. i mean, why would you expect anything more than 'thwarting your efforts' from them, if the situation is as you describe?
talk to the prinicpal, i have never heard of one that refused a donation of cash for the school, let alone in ca where budget cuts are far ahead of the rest of the country
jgkgnk;138978 wrote:
I am starting to think the excuse they gave us is just another attempt to thwart our efforts. Who knew that doing the right thing could be so difficult?
