Hello my fellow PTOers,
Here is a scenario that I'm sure you may all want to comment on. I hope this will help those who come into the same situation.
I am a Member of the Lipan-Apache Band of Texas and father of three girls and one boy. I was elected to my daughters' PTO back in May of 2005, and am the first Native American elected to the Board. My ultimate goal for our parent group was to align ourselves with the Accelerated Schools philosophy on utilizing our Community resources- and remove the burden from our parents, students, and school staff. I also wanted a place for Native American to be honored among the celebrations of Hispanic Heritage Month and Black Heritage Month. These were my only two personal goals I had.
Now I am accused of being Biased and withdrawn. I was asked by the VP of my group to resign my position. I laughed in her face and told her NO- I would not. She then states to me that she can remove me by a 2/3 majority vote by the members according to the bylaws. I inform her that when they accussed me of changing the bylaws, the Principal(not a voting member of PTO, by the way...) declared them null and void. She got irate and said then the board had the right to remove me- and I told them that the members are the only ones that can remove me- not the governing body. She threatened me that they would take it to the members and went on to state their case for removing me. The first was our Spiritwear sale, for which I had contracted informally with Heritage. I wanted a company who would carry the stock instead of us being bogged with old tshirts to have to sell later. Well, this was a new concept to everyone, and unfortunately everyone did not fall into it very well. There was numerous problems to begin with, but alot of them was due to the Treasurer withholding funds to order the shirts. She took as long as three weeks before I received a check for the shirts. But, according to the VP- it was my fault because I didn't have any profit coming from the Tshirts sale, I told them there were no Local Vendors for tshirts( a total lie- anyone with sense would no that isn't a true statement), and that T-shirts didn't get ordered( we had a deadline for orders, most came after the deadline and was stated on the order form itself. And I didn't receive the order forms till after the Parent Liaison gave me them to process.)or were ommitted. I was also told that we din't make any profit from our school "CultureFest"- that we only broke even. Earlier after this event I was also accused of making the event all about Native Americans, All I wanted was Native Americans dancers, That I played 2.5 hrs of Native Music NON-STOP, and I ignored other cultures. Now to explain this , we need to go back to June 2005. We, the Board, met for the first time to hammer out by laws and set the calendar for the year. I wanted to have a celebration of Native American Heritage Month, since I knew the school held celebrations of Hispanic and Black Heritage. The Principal stated she felt it was too much for the students( later I would find out her true motive for stating this), and maybe we could combine some type of event for this. I agree as well as my other officers, so we decided on a multicultural theme for our Fall Festival( this event usually falls in between Hispanic and Native American Heritage Months).It wouldn't be until August we decide on the name "CultureFest". Anyways, coming back to after the event, the Principal then stated to me that since the campus was more Hispanic predominate, I should of played MORE Tejano and other music(such as Hip Hop and rap- which she bans from the school because of vulgarity...hmmmm...)rather than Native American music. What a Racist statement!!!! Well, now back to the present. The Vp stated that the Board only had til April to make a profit. I just kept silent and listened to her speak to the others. It seems likely the Parents, Students, and School Staff will be funding PTO yet again. this is a scholl which has a 85% economic disadvantage rate- and they want to profit from people who can't afford to rub two nickels together? I find it a sad affair that the VP only see PTO as a money generating program and doesn't seem to really care about the needs of the students, Only about the image of PTO. she has stated numerous times she doesn't want PTO to be seen in a negative way, that Teachers were bashing PTO very harshly, and that parents are furious with PTO. I one day went to most of the Grade level teachers and asked them if they felt I should go- most thought I was doing an ok job and didn't feel Like they were informed enough. I agreed, our Secretary and Treasurer were not doing enough to inform our teaching staff and members. But, that's life in PTO.
Now, my question to all of you is this- Do you feel they have REASONABLE just cause to remove me as President? Can the Board, without the benefit of current written bylaws, remove an officer from office without consulting the body of members? How do you view this incident in reference to ethnicity/culture? Let me know you thoughts and comments. I applaud all of you for your dedication and efforts to help your fellow man...may the Creator bless you all. Go the way of the Creator.
Steven A Fernandez
