We alot each teacher $200 at the beginning of the year for supplies, etc. None of that has to be approved by the principal. When we are ready to spend some big money (like after a fundraiser), we do take requests on a form but they have to be approved by the principal first

SHC

We normally do a "Gift to School' every year. This is a line item in our budget and is generally spent on whatever the principal thinks is a priority. How many of you have both teacher AND school requests on your budgets? I'd like to be able to support both but doubt that our fundraising would cover everything.

We like the grant process too because it's more fair. Otherwise, the teachers who ask first gets the money, until it runs out. With a request deadline, every teacher's ideas get to be considered.

I like both ways because you have choice of what make your memebrship confortable - not the school, not the teachers. (although they are and can be memebers) Its what the majority wants to run it thats important.

We also have at other schools allowed grade levels or classrooms combine for a larger ticket item or grant.

At our curretn school the teachers Rep brings items to Board and they vote- going to pass on info on Grant requests- I like that better than a "well the teachers need this"

I probably have Dlf and critters and PTOCES forms but could ya send 'em to me if you have time
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We had our grant meeting last night...we had 48 applications totaling $25K and "only" $15K to spend.
We started off by taking out any grants we didn't think were the type of thing we wanted to fund (the water cooler for the teacher's lounge, for example). We then took a look at those applications that, when we had read them before the meeting (our secretary made copies of each application and sent a packet to us about a week before the meeting), we thought, "wow, this is a great request." This approach was great for us because it immediately felt like we were accomplishing something and getting through that big list. Oh - I did a list of the grant application titles, with amounts, etc. that was a tremendous help during our discussions. After we got the two ends of the spectrum taken care of, we then tackled the other applications individually. In the end we did go back to a couple of applications and amended our decisions, but we actually got through it all in one night (3 hours).
One of our board members suggested that perhaps we could come up with a scoring system to initially evaluate grant applications, that would rank them in some way. I'd love to see other PTO's applications or evaluation systems, if you have any!

In our PTO, all teacher requests are voted on by the members that are present at the next meeting. For instance, when the head Kindergarten teacher asked us for a new electric pencil sharpener in late February, we voted at the March meeting amongst whomever was in attendance. This has always worked out for us in the past. If anything came up that was needed immediately, we discussed it amongst the board and the principals.