Noooooooooooo way! Unless of course your membership votes to approve a slush fund for the principal. Chances are they will prefer an itemized list and I think they deserve one. I think itemized list gives members the opportunity to be sure the items being purchased truly benefit the student body and is in line with the goals of your PTO.
If your principal feels she needs something for the school she has to present each item at the next board meeting. It should be discussed and voted on. If your pto feels comfortable with a specific expense, put it into next years budget as a fixed expense for the upcomming years. Our PTO does supply certain things to our school each year such as notebooks, pencils, folders, etc. for the kids as well as teacher resources, but NEVER in a form of money directly to anyone including the principal.
Yikes! That's a hefty amount of money. Our entire budget isn't even 20K.
If you have that kind of money available, perhaps you could fund a program or supplement the amount that teachers are given to order supplies each year. This way, the money is spent directly for the school and you know exactly where it is going.
Nope...WAY too much to not know where it is going. What in the world is the motivation to raise that kind of money without an expressed understanding of how it will be used to benefit the children....
Our principal is requesting $20,000 from the PTO funds for discretionary usage. She says that she needs an extra pool of money to help pay for supplies (pencils, paper, towels in the bathrooms, teacher supplies like Lippincot readers, etc.) that are not covered by our school district. Do any of your PTOs allot "discretionary" money to your principals?
