You folks must have awesome fundraisers, or as I suspect smaller schools.
We as a PTO discuss giving the teachers a specific amount of money, but we have 90 teachers. $10 seems too cheap, but it ads up quickly. We would love to give $100, but... That would be more than 1/2 of our fundraiser!! :eek:
When we have excess funds, we let our principal decide what to do with it. Last year, we were able to give each grade $500. The teachers in each grade, as a group, decided how to spend the money. Any necessary approval was between the teachers and the principal. We let the pro's decide what they need...as parents, we don't think we are qualified to say "yes" to one teacher request, and "no" to another. We let the principal take the heat, if necessary, and we get the kudos for providing the money.
At the beginning of each year we give every teacher $100 for stuff for the class.
At the end of every year we ask each grade level to give us a list of things they would like. We divide up the money thats left over from the budget and we buy stuff for each grade level. If we don't have enough for each grade then we pick out of a hat for the grades and the next year the other grades get it.
Drawing names from a hat is something we are considering this year. We have funds from candy and ice cream sales that we want to disperse that is above and beyond our fundraiser money. We are thinking of asking teachers for requests that are around a couple hundred dollars that aren't of immediate need. If their requests falls under our guidelines, we would put their names in hat and draw a name once or twice a month. Everyone would get drawn eventually, it would be just the excitement of waiting. Also, no preferential treatment can be claimed.
We handle larger or more urgent requests by written request. The officers review and either send it to be presented at the exec meeting and on to the general meeting, or it is sent back to the requester.
I would love to be able to do what the other posters do but because our best fundraiser brings in only $5000, we are very limited.
What we do is take requests from the teachers and talk to them about what they need. I am also at a charter school that has grown from K-8 to having graduating Seniors from our high school the last four years! With this in mind we planned ahead and realized that to go by each request as we get it works for our little group. Sure we feel "nickled and dimed" at times but we also see who really wants money and who is just asking for the asking!
How do you decide? Well, the may sound crazy but how did you decide what college to go to, what car to buy, house to purchase? Same thing here, do your research, get the facts, talk to the teachers and if the Board is deciding you need to look at all the requests. If the membership is voting on it, they need to know all the facts, how much you have to spend; what this is for; will this issue be yearly (something you need to plan for?); is this something the PTO can get donated/or a parent can donate (art supplies-paper-you know the little things teachers need in a classroom) etc. I hate to offer this, put the names of teachers asking in a "hat" and draw names. Yeah, bad.
Our HSA gives teachers $6.00 per child in class and we are raising it to $7 I want to go to $10 per child but don't think that would fly.
Plus in our budget we have a line item for "cultural enrichment" and that would cover any program that the school district or grants did not approve. There we put a large amount $5,000 and found out next year we will be using it all plus some.
