i don't think $15 per student is too much. we budget close to $12 per student for our cultural enrichment committee and that is close to
1/2 of our total budget. parents still pay for some field trips to off set expenses and to allow the kids to experience more. one way to offset bus expenses is to bring the field trip to you. we have people come in and speak about various topics that coordinate with the curriculum. our school sets limits on out of school trips, 2 per grade, per year. some of the upper grades rent coach buses for important field trips and they require parents to sometimes pay up to $35 per student with the PTA still footing most of the bill. however the PTA will cover the cost of any child not able to pay for the additional funds for the field trip. this is not that many kids, it is amazing how the free/reduced lunch people can come up with the funds. many people on those programs do not/should not be on them. apparently anyone can apply and the paper work is often approved with the information provided never verified. the free reduced lunch data is skewed, possibly criminal data in our school district. it bears no weight on the ablility of students to participate, that is evident with the amount of kids on the food program paying for everything else asked of them.

Well here are my suggestions take them or leave them.

The field trips maybe only pay for the buses and limit each grade to certain amount. We are a pre k -2 and only pay for 2 per grade level.

We don't pay for school supplies in any way thats a parents responsiblity.

The teacher/staff Luncheon(next week about 80 people)$250.00 we pay for deli sandwiches, drinks and have the parents/restaurants donate side dishes, desserts et. We have way more than
enough.

For the carnival we only spend about $2500.00 we rent bounce house, games, have snacks, sno cones and pizza.

We do many of the same events you listed but for a lower cost. You might have to review what your spending it on. Like someone said decorations and all that stuff may have to go.

Good Luck

This thread was really helpful to see where the PTO's are putting there money and cutting costs.

Cindy

My PTO gives the teachers $5.00 per student for field trips. They raise whatever funds they need by bake sales and popcorn sales. I've known other grades to sell candy bars, water bottles, mini cookbooks to help pay for the field trips. $600. is alot to pay for bussing.(too much) We operate on a $10,000. budget and don't have a lot of carry over. We are in the process of purchasing a laminator for the school. The teachers would like to see more projectors,elmos, mimios... for the school.

do you have a link for those awful stories? i am unaware of them,,,,,,and , i DID approach the pricncipal, her mouth is shut tigth, refuses to discuss PTO matters beucause says they are 'independent' and dnt report to school. and i went to the supt, and he too had the same line. so,,,,,,thre is no where to go if the parent population doesnt care if tehre is funny business going on...they just keep on doing whatever they do behind the scenes using our money.

volunteer: RUN to the principal and ask for an audit. Our financial report is posted every month, and parents always have access to income and expenses. As a PTO, every parent is a member and deserves information and a voice. If the principal doesn't seem to care, I might just nicely remind her/him of all those terrible PTO stories in the news recently involving money. Hmmmm. Wasn't that embarrassing for those schools.

Wow. I'm stunned. We operate with about $15,000 to $20,000 a year, and it's like pulling teeth. We're planning to cut back on our costs more next year -- we'll pick projects that don't cost as much. But we're cheap here, I guess. For instance, our teacher luncheon costs $0, because we have a coordinator call the PARENTS to bring in stuff. We scrounge for donations for our carnival, and usually get all the hot dogs and hamburgers and soda donated. We spent our money this year on 2 shade structures for the playground, die cuts, room money for new teachers, the big party for kids who met their reading goal, and little incidentals throughout the year. Most of our events pay for themselves with a small profit (pictures with Santa, Grandparents Day, School Supplies, etc.) The school pays for field trip costs for the kids who can't afford it; the rest just pay for their own field trip. The facts of life are that we all have to be frugal and make sure our hard-earned dollars are being spent for real academic enrichment programs. Our parents freak about the fundraising we do already -- can't imagine if we were looking for $70,000. Yikes. Our principal would never approve such expensive activities and put the burden on the parents. It sounds like you need a parent meeting to lay out all of the previous obligations, then have parents vote on the priorities. Just like if it were your budget at home. That way they'd be on board about fundraising for those events, but they wouldn't feel like the school was using them as a bottomless pit of money. Of course, maybe where you live, people are unwilling to economize. If that's the attitude, it's hard to change it.
By the way, we tried that "donate money instead of doing catalog sales" thing, in response to parents who said they'd rather just give. Well, they must have been home sick that month, because what they were willing to give was really small. We're not going to repeat that hassle again!