dawn - good for you for taking an active role. You may just turn the tide for parent involvement!

Let me play devil's advocate for just a moment. Without any facts to support my statements, I'm just guessing. But just suppose these two women, being the only two involved parents, are thinking "What the heck, nobody cares, nobody is here to help, it's all on us so we'll just do things our way." I can't imagine the difficulty of running a parent group nearly single handedly. Surely proper procedures aren't being followed because A). they don't have the time and . who's around expecting anything different?

I suspect that if you show up in support of the parent group and get like minded parents to join you and help these two women you'll see great changes in how things are done.

dlf and beignets offer great advice. Make sure facts are straight. Talk to the two active members. Offer help and support. Get more parents involved.

You are right and I am now in correspondence with the principal to get further information.

"I am pretty sure she wouldn't make accusations without proof to back it up" - one likes to think not BUT principals are only human and they too can misunderstand people and emails and hearsay, and do you know from where she got her info ie is it based on papers/data or word of mouth.
always best to get the data from the source - your parent group, and confirm what youve learned from the principal before assuming anything is fact, and go from there.

The least initial deviation from the truth is multiplied later a thousandfold. Aristotle

There is no part of the body which varies so much as the human ear. Sherlock Holmes

Thanks for your reply. I didn't want to post with too many details but, the person I got this information from was the principal so, I am pretty sure she wouldn't make accusations without proof to back it up, kwim? I don't think there is a president for the PTO unless one of those 2 appointed theirself president. The whole situation just totally stinks.

Dawn--first off bravo for getting involved. I would say the first step is to contact the "president" if there is one and tell them you are interested in when the meetings are...what the groups goals are, how they work within the school etc. Ask them if they are governed using bylaws and if so how can you get a copy. Ask to see if there are minutes for the meetings, and then how you can get involved. The answers to these questions (in a non threatening manner to the pres) will give you a lot of insight into the legitimacy of the PTO. If the are not legitimate, then I'd suggest you consider talking to the Principal about her thougths on the current PTO and how it serves to help the school community. Once you get that all under your belt--you can consider how you'd like to proceed. It is really investigative at this point because perhaps the one individuals impressions were wrong. You won't change things in a day but if you find a way to integrate then you can move from the inside and in the know. If your intentions are pure and you start to turn the lights on about how the PTO functions for the parents and the children, you'll be seen as a promoter of a stronger organization.
Careful what you ask for though, you may end up with the whole ballywick (is that spelled right).
Good luck--others will give you ideas on how to broach this and we can all work each step of the way with our thougths and "experiences".

d

I really need advice. I have never been involved with the PTO and never really understood what the organization was all about. I have been researching so I can have the *know*. But, onto the reason for my post...I was in a conversation with a member of the school and she told me about the need for a more involved PTO. Right now there are only 2 people running the whole show and there are questionable circumstances to where money is going. My first instinct is I can't ignore this, I HAVE TO GET INVOLVED! But, on the otherhand do I really want to get involved with a corrupt PTO and get entangled in a mess? My first inclination is to get rid of these people and start over fresh. How do I go about doing this being a newbie? Any advice/suggestions would be GREATLY appreciated!