I agree with JHB on the fundraisers. We usually get more participation from the K through 3 and less from the 4th. I don't see this as that big of a concern. You may need to restructure your fundraiser to something else that isn't affected by age/grade.
The tough part is those parents that are actively involved in your group and will now be leaving because their child moves to the new school. You lose their help that you were expecting to have, but also there are questions, such as...
- Will there be a PTO at the new school?
- If so, should any of your funds be provided to this new PTO for start-up? Afterall, some of your funds came from this group and was planned to be used on them, at least somewhat, next year.
Wow, I'd be interested to hear if others have similar experiences. Our elementary was K-5th grade and we found the older they got, the less they participated.
Our school district is changing very rapidly. With extreme growth looming the county decided to restructure the grade levels and open an intermediate school to house the 5th and 6th graders before the get to middle school. This unfortunately means we (the middle school) are losing our 6th grade.
As most of you know, traditionally the 6th grade is the bulk of the participation when it comes to sales fundraisers. For years now my son's middle school has used Cherrydale for their fall and spring fundraisers. After reviewing the records it seems to be that more than 1/3 of the profits come from the 6th grade parents. I have been working for a couple of weeks now to come up with ideas to suplement the income without overwhelming our parents with fundraisers.
Now that our wonderful children have been replaced by these things we call teenagers we all know how much they like their familes around. I am afraid that family nights, carnivals and event fundraisers like that may not work. But on the other hand we do not want to sell everything in site.
What do we do?
