Knamom, Is your school a traditional middle school or a K-8 building? I think it's a little different in middle school PTA's. We only have PTA's in elementary schools in my district and then a parents group in the ms. In our ele. PTA we do all the fundraising and then disburse it for all the different events. Just about all the events that we give money to are school-wide things with the exception of some special things for the 5th graders.
In middle schools however, there's more autonomy because each group wants more control over what they want to do and how they want to spend the money. For instance, the middle school band and chorus goes on an adjudication and amusement park trip every year. The kids sell pizza to help offset the cost. If they don't fundraise, the cost is $25. if they do, they can get it discounted. I kind of like it because I wouldn't want to fundraise for athletic stuff but I'll gladly do my time for the music program. If your child is not involved in anything - then you don't have to fundraise for anything.
Our district policy says is one where there is no direct charge for any elementary school child to go on a field trip. The only reason that works is because all of our PTA's pick up a good bit of that cost. In ms and hs, the kids pay for many field trips.
Hi kma,
In our schools, the PTO does the fundraising. Then thru our annual budget, money is dispersed as needed. Items that go overbudget or aren't budgeted for that year require approval from the organization to get funds.
On occasion, a class will sell popcorn or baked goods to raise money for a specific function (like to offset student's portion of the admission cost of an aquarium).
I wasn't sure if I should put this one here or in fundraising, but since the question pertains more to the management rather than the fundraising itself, I chose this board.
A lot of background: Our school has a PTA which right now is unwilling to help the school with things like dances, a drama club, school newspaper, that sort of thing. They claim the stipends associated with those things would require more trouble and fundraising than the PTA should handle (we have a two nonfundraiser events for every fundraiser practice). As a result, our principal and VP are involved in handling the day to days of organizing trips, candy sales and the like, and other free-standing committees have been formed to handle things like the eighth-grade final dance. As a result, we have numerous fundraisers going on all the time beyween that and Girl/Boy Scouts, various sports teams etctera.
Finally--the questions:
Does this seem somewhat wierd? Am I wrong for thinking a more cohesive front is a better policy? When your PTO raises funds, do you do it in the name of specific clubs, the school newspaper etc., or do you do it in the name of the PTO and then disburse the monies to the various needs? Or do things like the French Club normally not fall under a PTO umbrella? I'm not sure how other schools handle these things, and would like to know what the norm is.
