Thankfully, no we haven't, but I will advise you NOT to take on any more than you have. As previously stated on this board, once you pick it up, where's the motivation for your school board to ante up the money again when (if?) it's available.
You do not know from year to year if you can successfully raise the funds to cover what, in essence, becomes "mandated" funding.
For example, at our school in September, just as we were in our big Fall Fundraiser push, we had this little storm called Hurricane Isabel come through. School was out for over a week. We did extend the sale but did not make as much as last year (other schools in our area did worse than we did and made much less than a year ago). On top of that, a new school opens next year, and our enrollment will fall from 650 to 400. Good news? Less need. Bad news? Less money from School Budget! Worse news? Less parents to do fundraisers and volunteers.
That's why we're killing ourselves this year to leave a nestegg for the future PTO once the lines are drawn and those left at our school take over leadership. They won't have the wherewithal to raise as much money; there won't be the manpower to do it.
We are looking at more cuts from our school district too and we are facing these tough decisions. Already our PTO pays for supplies, half the salary of the libarary aide (we don't even have a librarian), most of the PE program, an art program, and computer equipment. Now the principal is trying to set us up for paying for even more next year. We are worried that she will ask us to pay for salaries for more of the aides (counseling aide, nurses aide) and once we pay for those salaries we will never be able to stop. It will be a shame if we have to take away the few enrichment activities we fund in order to fund the basics. We frankly can't do any more fundraising - we do so much now people get upset. Has anyone else faced this dilemma?
MetzyMom said it well, but to elaborate, not only if the groups disbands but if you have a particulary bad fundraiser or if the dynamics of your parents changed and you couldn't afford it, what would they do then? It does discourage the schools being funded because as she stated, it does look like the school did fine with the budget cuts.
As for your mission statements, it doesn't really fall under them. But even the best of us have done it. Our PTA pays for our PE Aide and has done so since it's inception but we are also a very well to do school. How exactly is copy paper a benefit to the welfare of the children? More handouts? Will the copy paper you purchase be used exclusively for the classrooms or will staff have access? Will there be accountability for the materials?
Yours is a tough position and I think sadly we have all been there. I think the best that you can do is find out what your own group thinks is best because ultimately it is your school, not ours and you have to do what is right by them not us.
It's times like this I remember a bumper sticker I saw- "It's a great day when schools get all the money they need and the Air Force has to hold a bake sale to buy a plane"
We pay our school on a per copy basis specifically for copies that the PTO makes.
But getting back to the original question (I think?), regardless of whether its the "right" thing to do, or whether or not it messes things up later on, are PTOs supposed raise money/take donations for this sort of thing? Do they have to specify that it's for a certain thing like "paper donation" or can they just give it to the school to spend as they see fit? Or should the PTO keep their hands off these kind of funds and a separate fund/organization be created to handle it? Should that organization be a separate non-profit? Educational support organization maybe? Or is it a fund the school itself can and/or should create?
Reading everyone's posts I have to stop and thank my lucky stars our school's budget isn't really affected that much but the district persay. Awhile back our Principal/founder of our charter school (after much advise) made our school a business. Crazy (and we hear about how crazy we are!)but in the same way all the fundraisers that are 'normally' done through the PTO/As are done by our school. THIS IS how the income is suplemented. The school even holds a fundraiser to pay for the teachers training conference they attend.
Anyway, this is a fine tight rope dance we do. I do like Critter's idea with the paper (that could be a great hit in our school!)and kind of like Critter, we don't pay the school to do our copies but we do purchase our own paper.
Is there a way to see exactly what will be effected? I'm thinking like if the Honor kids won't get a gift like they usually do, the PTO can help with that. It's the little things that make a child's learning experance memorable are the line items in the budget that should be what you can see if your group can help with.
My children attend a small, private, non-secular school. The goal of the school is to keep tuition costs as low as possible. At the beginning of the year each child is asked to provide one ream of paper as part of his or her "school supplies." I'm not sure if this covers the entire year's needs or not. I do know the school purchases colored paper....
Regarding the question of whether PTO's should help with operating costs of the school, I believe that they should not. The question of what happens when the school district further cuts the budget is a valid one. How often will the PTO be asked to cover basic operating costs? PTO's should pay for supplies they use whether it be paper, envelopes, markers, poster board, whatever, but they shouldn't be asked to provide basic supplies for the school. (Paper is a basic need IMHO.)
