If 20 members were there, those motions don't mean anything without a vote. A president shouldn't even be making a motion at a general meeting.
Your examples show an abomination of Robert's Rules. What would have happened if you'd made a motion to strike out 'playground materials' and replace it with 'multimedia learning stations?' The president is required to acknowledge your motion, as long as you are a member.
I wish I'd have understood Robert's Rules before I was a president. Members have a lot of power.
I am curious to know the group's structure and how it came to be that way.
If you don't expect too much from me, you might not be let down. <img src=images/smilies/smile.gif>
There were about 20 parents and/or grandparents there. There was some dissent about the purchase of playground equipment but the principal quashed that talk pretty quickly.
Since this was my first meeting, I didn't know what protocal was or flow of the meeting. If I knew then what I know now......
I have also been considering the school based descision making group as well as the PTO. But I will only have time to join one group. I'm just trying to decide which.
No, you need to join up because this ISN'T how a typical PTO works. You don't have a PTO, in my opinion, you have a principal's fundraising committee.
Not every PTO adopts a formal budget at the start of the year, but many, many do. We define ours in very clear terms, with about 30 categories, where are $ is coming from and where it will be spent. The budget is presented to the members for approval at the first meeting of the year, and then we stick to it all year long. Subsequent spending votes are taken only if we have a surplus or a budget shortfall.
Get involved. You can make a difference at your school to build parent involvement and make good things happen for the kids. If the principal wants to lead a major fundraising effort for new playground equipment, so be it. But don't call it a PTO project unless the members of the PTO approve it.
by the way, the checks that GM distributes for Boxtops for Education are written to the schools directly. PTO's help collect the boxtops, but the money belong to the school per the program rules. Not to say that school shirts is the best use of the money.... [img]smile.gif[/img]
No, that is not how most PTOs operate. Where are the parents in this group? Is it one of those situations where there are no parents who want to take charge of the group so the administration has control?
The only way to change this is to speak up. That's right, you're going to have to keep going to meetings and voicing your opinions and concerns. Maybe even run for office(do they have elections?).
Like you, I'd be really upset if a school day was replaced with a carnival. If they want family involvment in the school, then they need to do things during the time of day that families can be there. I can't believe the school board would allow it either, but who knows, I've heard stranger things.
Get in there and ask questions, voice your opinions and ideas, and find like minded parents who will go with you!
My question is on the proper usage of funds raised by the PTO and the scope of power the PTO has in the school system.
The meeting I sat in on was tied in with a student project which is why my wife and I attended. We have 4 kids in the school system, 3 of which are in the elementary school whose meeting we attended(one in 3rd grade and twins in kindergarten). The elementary school has approx. 300 children pre K-4th grades.
The president of the PTO is a kindergarten teacher, vp/treasurer is her teacher's aid, the principal was the only other school administrator at the meeting. Some of their ideas on how to spend fundraising monies really struck me as odd.
Our children had been saving box tops for all of the first semester to "raise money for the school". The treasurer gave the report that they had raised $600 from boxtops and spent it to buy school sweatshirts for the teachers.
The second motion was by the principal to raise $40,000 for more playground equipment. We have a very small playground now with fairly new playground equipment and little space to cram more into. Most of the kids spend their time running, playing frisbee, or walking and talking. There are 2 huge slides, monkey bars, 2 huge sets of swings and a separate fenced off section for the pre K and kindergarteners with all sorts of new equipment. We were also told that new playground equipment would be good for the community so that non-students could come play after school. Even though we pay the highest school tax in our area, our kids are now selling tubs of frozen cookie dough at $13.00 a tub for playground equipment.
The third motion was by the president, stating that since the prior year's spring festival didn't draw much interest, they want to have the spring festival during school hours. Previously it was held on a Friday evening at 5:00 pm. The vp seconded it and then it apparently become law. It was surprised that’s all it takes to be able to cancel school for a day and have a spring festival. Having first hand knowledge of the schools academic problems, I would think that preempting school hours for a festival would be the last thing they would do.
So, now with all that said, here is the question. Is this how a PTO works and is this a general “normal†usage of funds? Shouldn't there be a vote before fundraisers go into motion? There was much disagreement by parents about the usage of money for playground equipment, but the principal brushed it off and said she really felt we needed new playground equipment, no vote. Shouldn't the school board have to agree to preempt school for a festival?
If this is how a typical PTO works then I need to join up. I can rattle off at least 5 hopefully better ways this money, time, and effort could be spent.
