Ok, let's stop the teacher bashing. Yep, sometimes they don't do everything that we want them to do as a PTO but that's not their job. And with the new legislation of "No Child Left Behind" they have been hammered by the President with so many additional mandates, concerns and paperwork items. They have a full time job, are exhausted by the end of that day and then have families and lives of their own.

As far as appreciation activities, gifts, class money, that's what we do as PTO members. If you expect the teachers to have an equal committment to your extra curricular activities you are missing the point. They have lives. They do a full time job. They deserve thanks for all that they do for your children - not because of how they help your PTO.

Support your teachers unconditionally. Not, if you attend our meetings we will give you money. That's just wrong. It's not the teachers that you are funding, but it is your children. The money that you raised is paying for things for your children. The people who know best about their needs are the teachers - not the PTO board!

So grant them the money to use for their classrooms and when they give you a receipt you give them cash. Buy the risers - depending on the design of risers, that sounds a bit high - find out the number and style the music teacher is looking at, then contact Wenger about their risers. They are for your students, for your school, not for their home.

I am a PTO President. I have about 8 teachers who stop by our meetings on a regular basis and receive regular communication from 30 teachers in our building. I also have a unique perspective in that I am a teacher who works in another building in the same district - a music teacher.

So, give your teachers a break. Celebrate education week. Treat them whenever you can. Always communicate with them.

Hope you don't mind my rant, but you decided to bash teachers - and I'm sorry, but that is not why we are part of the PTO.

We have a teacher who is on the board (faculty coordinator). Last year's teacher was a dream! She scheduled teachers to attend each of the meetings, was always a huge help, and you could tell she really wanted to make a difference. This year last year's teacher wanted to be the faculty coordinator as well, but since another one of the teachers wanted the position, she stepped down (although she still makes it to MOST of our meetings).

This year's teacher is a COMPLETELY different story. The only time teachers come to the meetings are because they want something. We did have several come to the first meeting who gripped about almost everything we were doing and held their own private conversation when (I guess) what we were discussing didn't interest them.

That's when we set up our meeting guidelines. Last year's teacher helped us through this Baldridge method of setting up our guidelines a few meetings ago and so far it has seemed to really work, however the only teacher showing up lately is the fac coord.

Our last meeting consisted of the fac coord and the music teacher who just 'popped' in to ask us to buy risers ($3100!!) and then left again.

We've just voted in a new set of bylaws where it states that any and all allocation forms (this is a form teachers and staff have to complete before asking the PTO for money) must be turned into the office 1 week previous to a meeting so I can review and allocate the needed time to review them during the meeting. I overheard her telling the principal that there wouldn't be very many allocation forms this year.

After I asked the principal about it he said he thinks the teachers feel like we don't trust them. This is because the PTO asked, and the princpal agreed, to have the books and supplies that the PTO buys marked as such so if a teacher leaves the school/district, they'll leave the books and supplies we purchased for the school.

We also, sigh, hurt one of the teachers feelings when we decided to get the ball rolling on the schools website when a parent stepped forward at one of our meetings with the skills. This was all agreed with the principal but apparently one of the teachers was trying to work on it but didn't have the time. We thought we were helping and asked for her input with the project but apparently we offended her.

By the way the principal is also on our board and does attend all meetings. He's the second vp and advises the board on school issues. We haven't had a problem with him at all.

Anyway, I know I'm rambling but you hit a spot when you were complaining about your teachers.

I believe the PTO really, really, really needs a good relationship with the teachers. You need the teachers' cooperation for just about everything you do as an organization.

Have you tried sending out a questionaire just to the teachers to find out what the problem is? Maybe they feel the PTO isn't meeting "their" needs. I've discovered that, as a group, teachers can tend to be gossipy and clique-ish . . . just like the PTO :}

The first step is to find out why they won't support your group, and then do whatever you can to get both groups working together.

To include the "T" in PTO at our school is a joke. The teachers NEVER come to the meetings, barely participate in any activities we plan and covertly badmouth various ideas we have. We are trying to get a gift basket fundraiser off the ground for the Holiday season. Each student donates an item for his/her classroom's themed basket, we raffle them at the music programs and the proceeds go right back to the teacher to spend on classroom supplies. Most teachers just dragged their feet, complaining the whole time. There is no work for them and they get the money! I don't understand. As President, I just grit my teeth when I have to host appreciation dinners for them, give gifts to them for teacher appreciation week, etc. I don't think they deserve it. Would it look bad to just "forget" these recognition days or just make matters worse? Does anyone else have big problems with teacher involvement like this? I'm really getting disenchanted with the professionalism of ur teaching staff.