I am co-pres for a new PTA at our school. There hasn't been one there in 4 years, and they never had bylaws or anything official before to track things, all they did was run lame fundraisers selling things nobody wanted to buy.
We have a new Principal this year, and he's great - not from here (small town attitude - nobody likes change around here) and open to all sorts of new ideas. Refreshing - it's about time!!
Anyway, we started with no money, obviously. Borrowed from the school to buy prizes, and ran a raffle.
The secretary (school secretary) was insistant that we didn't need to number them (overheard the conversation between me and the principal through his open office door the day after the meeting, and yelled her opinion into our conversation)
The day of the draw, I came to find out that the Secretary counted the last batch of money that came in on her own, the Friday before, and deposited it with no witness. Our treasurer went in that morning for the final count (as we had arranged with the Principal, and he knew it was supposed to be her (our treasurer) + a witness whenever money was counted to keep it honest) and she (the treasurer) was told by the secretary that it was all already counted and deposited on Friday - by her (the secretary). She should not be touching that money.
None of us parents trust her, but we have to deal with/be nice to her because she's the Secretary.
Why don't we trust her, you ask? She ran the local baseball league this summer, (among many other kid's sports over the years) and lots of money went missing, and she refused to show financial statements to any parents that asked. I wonder how much money WAS there before she had her hands on it - both for the kid's ball league and for the raffle.
Normally, we could have gone back and counted the tickets and got an estimate that way, but they were sold at $2 or 3 for $5, so different prices, and on top of that, the other co-pres decided to write up her own note to parents to go with the tickets and put the wrong price in the note that went home with students ( 5 for $3) It was corrected with a correction notice I sent home the next day.
The treasurer (who seems to think the other co-pres is the only one in charge) said she was going to talk to her about it, and get her to bring it up with the Principal.
It's now a month later.
The treasurer has spoken to the co-pres, but the co-pres has not brought it up with the Principal. She likely doesn't want to get the secretary in trouble, as she's the secretary's sister in law - the treasurer didn't know this, neither did I until recently.
So what should I do?
I've already spoken to a PTA at another school and got a copy of their money handling procedures and roles and responsibilities, and plan to alter them for our school, and present at the next meeting.... but should I speak with the Principal as well? He's not from here and doesn't know the Secretary's past... and may not think twice in asking her to do something for us in the future, where she is the school secretary after all...
How do I phrase it, if I do speak to him about it?
