CIA - I applaud your efforts to balance the spending. Budgets are tight all over the place and its a common challenge for many of us.

My last team funded fieldtrips at $5 per student - period. The school provided their busses and drivers for transportation so the entire $5 was spent on the main activity. If teachers planned a more expensive trip or students wanted spending money, the extra came from home. However, the teachers strived to find trips within budget so parents wouldn't have to pay extra. Is a k-8 school and the 7th/8th students go to Six Flags for their trip every year. We still only pay $5/each. They take charter busses and thats included in the total that the families have to pay for. I should mention "off the record" that for the three for four students with true hardships, the PTO funded the entire portion of their trip.

There was nothing specific in our bylaws about it but we had a long standing tradition of funding only things that would benefit the entire student body and fairly distribute the funds. Individual requests were considered on a case by case basis. We continue to provide $100/teacher reimbursements because every teacher gets it and it is used to "enhance the learning environment" so all students benefit.

As for the principal requesting the budget and explanation, I say meet with him and go through it. He should, in my opinion, attend the PTO meetings and already be fully aware of the financials but obviuosly he's not. It's too easy for these parents who aren't regularly involved to see a large balance and think you're hording money because they aren't aware of all of the allocations. A spreadsheet listing cash balances minus allocated funds should make it all pretty clear.

Whether funds exist right now or not isn't really the question. Your team made a decision, openly and fairly voted on the outcome and now should stick by your decision. Change is difficult. Anytime policy is changed, those who feel the 'negative' impactof it will be the most vocal. If this is managed diplomatically, openly and cooperatively, these parents will get a better understanding of it and, hopefully, accept the decision.

Right now, it seems the principal is trying to handle all sides of the discussion diplomatically. He wants to show the 5th grade parents that he is taking their concerns seriously. Once he's talked with you he may very well go back to them and say now that he understands the situation more clearly, he fully supoorts the PTOs decision. I would recommend that the 5th grade students/teachers consider putting on a fundraiser or two so they learn how hard it is to come up with $2500 and would maybe plan a more responsible trip.

why on earth did the principal even discuss this issue with a few dissatisfied moms that walked (or stormed, sounds like) into the office?
the big red flag i see is this: your PRINCIPAL should NEVER have taken the matter behind closed doors to discuss, but steered those ladies to the proper audience, like YOU and the other co pres.
i think the main hurdle you have is right there, there is NO WAY you can fix anything if the principal is going to have side meetings with whoever walks inthe office door with a personal/grade level specific concern.
thats who you need to addres first, is the princiapl and gently remind her of the correct proceducres for pto busineess. and then revisit the matter with those concerned at a private meeting with the other co pres.
sounds like they thought they would get what they wanted if they addressed the principal and not you.....maybe there are other things going on like favoritisim, politics, who knows what, there is usually much more than meets the eye to these types of problems

Okay, long story that I'll make as short as possible.

Our org is 2 years old. Funraising has always been a problem, but it's been really challenging the past two years. We vowed last year (and voted) on a mission statement that reflects our purpose as being to provide experiences and tools to enhance the education of the ENTIRE student body. So, with that being said, we removed some things that were eating the budget and taking away from the kids as a whole, such as teacher start up money in the beginning of the year and the like.

In the past, class trip $ was usually doled out in a lump sum of $450 per class except for 5th grade which usually got a whopping $2500 for their trip (we're k thru 5). Last year the 5th grade class used $1600 of the money on charter buses, to travel somewhere that they spent a whole 2 hours, but that's another story. Anyway, this year, we broke down the cost of student trips to $7.50 per student, which makes it fairer to those classes that have more students. Money is tight tight tight so at the last PTO meeting, we voted on $1000 for this years 5th grade field trip. Mind you we had one 5th grade parent (who serves on the 5th grade field trip committee) there, and she was thrilled with the $1000, never asked for more. Needless to say there are others who are PTO members (who couldn't be bothered to come) are not so happy. There's been alot of sniping and backbiting about this, however none of it addressed to any of the membership team, nor has a request for a meeting been made.

This morning, these dissatisfied moms met with the principal about the money, took apart the budget with her, have determined how disposable cash they feel we have in the budget to spend and feel that they are entitled to at least $2000 for the trip. Now, the principal has gotten involved, I'm not even sure that's appropriate. And if they were having a meeting about PTO budget, shouldn't the PTO officers been invited to attend? Additionally, these moms have suggested that we take away a planned assembly for the rest of the school ($500) so that they can have the money for 5th grade. Our purpose is to support the school as a whole, not a specific grade more than another. I am SO angry I am about to walk away from the org, and I'm a co-president. These members never discussed their concerns, or bothered to attend meetings where this topic was discussed and then voted on. Furthermore, they don't have time for PTO meetings but yet can rearrange their schedule to meet with the principal before school hours to address an issue that could have easily been addressed last week at the meeting. Now, the principal is looking for a line by line budget explanation of our balance and what we have planned going out financially in the next few months. We absolutely can provide that information, but are we obligated to? This stuff is covered at length during our regular monthly meetings, and I feel that this is setting precedence for anyone else in the future who may not like the final outcome of a vote. I'd appreciate anyone's thoughts before I lose my mind.