We have a School Planning and Management Team where all of the groups in the school come together by sending a representative and they discuss what they have done each month. This group doesn't really control another group but works to keep all of the groups on the same track. Parents nominate themselves for PTO and are voted into office every year. Staff members sign up at the beginning of the year to represent their area in the school-like one teacher for each of the 4 wings, someone from the the specialties, like music and others such as reading team, math team, and one from any staff that didn't fit in the above groups. These staff members are the non elected board members and include the principal. All elected positions are available to parents of students, this may include staff if they have a student at the school. This was set up this way to give parents a voice in the group. If our principal got to pick parents for PTO officers, I'm not sure any of us would be there.

Thanks for all your replies.

For those of you who don't know, SITE stands for Site Improvement Team for Excellence. Different schools use different acronyms, but it is a site-based management system that supposedly allows more imput into decision making for the school instead of only having the administrator making all the decisions. There's about 12 people on our school's team and it has the principal, staff- some teachers and paraprofessionals,and a couple of parents and a community member on it. It is a requirement in my district for each school to have a SITE team.

I have tried to acquire more knowledge on how things operate before asking questions and making any suggestions.

My job involves research, so I naturally have an inquisitive mind and I enjoy knowing how things operate. Even though I'm careful about stepping on any toes, I find it difficult to find out why certain things are done certain ways.

I have noticed some people are sensitive about answering certain question about why things are done the way they are. I try to be sensitive to this and am just biding my time for now.

Good point about why requests are run through the principal first, but I feel it gives the PTO little to vote on in way of funding for these requests. Maybe the teachers have just learned to be frugal in their requests. I know the school is in a financial crisis, so the staff would not be getting many requests funded directly through the school.

Who comprises your PTO nominating committees?

I understand that several schools have a principal that is very active in their schools parent group and I can understand why they would want to look at the requests ahead of time, but as a treasurer, I feel it is my responsibility to keep track of all requests and the reason if any they were denied. If a teacher requests something that could come out of the schools budget, which usually they don't, our principal is there to tell us that her budget can cover said expense but this has rarely ever happened. The whole SITE team thing seems confusing. My suggestion to you, do your part but give it time to see how it works before you try to rock the boat otherwise you might find yourself looking for a lifesaver! You might also find that there will be a time for you to ask why is it doen this way and then suggest something different. you wouldn't believe how many things are done because they were done that way before and not for any other reason and someone who is knowledgeable to that fact can question it and suggest a change without looking like they are being too pushy. I've been trying to get the same things accomplished for 4 years and am just now seeing the changes followed through and even some of their benefits. Hang in there.

It is common that a principal gets the requests, I know in our role it has saved us from saying no to some teachers and looking like the bad guy. We generally don't get any requests for money, the principal seems to try to handle most of that from her budget. I don't know why it would hurt that the request go through her first, sometimes you might have a teacher who hasn't use their yearly budget but is hitting up the pto. There could be numerous reasons why.
as far as Site, I am guessing it is very similiar to our site base team which I am a member of. The purpose of our site base is to go over what is happening at our school and make recommendations to the board on needs and wants. As far as why they control your bylaws I am curious to that. The one thing I do want to caution you with is that yes you are a seperate entity from the school but where would you be if they said no to flyers going home, fundraisers through the students, even building use. Communicate and find out your answers but be careful what you do with them. we are looking at a new principal next year and to protect ourselves we are getting backing from the district guaranteeing that our scheduled can not be touched for one year, during that time we need to prove ourselves to the new principal. It is all about working together=)

I should probably clarify that there are only 5 board members on the nominating committee and all of them are the SITE members. Also, it is written in our bylaws who comprises nominating committee and that SITE must approve our bylaws as well as the PTO board (2/3).

From a business view, don't know why any corporation would allow an outside organization so much authority over its bylaws.

Well, not real sure of what a SITE committe is, when the teachers but in a request at our school, they do go through the Principal because it might be covered in the budget. If it's someting that is not covered, then it gets past on to the PTO. The board will then decide if it can be done, if it's a big $$ item then they bring it to the next meeting.

Not much help I know, but hope that gives you some insight as to why it should go to the Principal first.