Great News! I posted earlier that we have been storing items in our homes. Well, due to the reconfigurations of our schools, a storage area has "opened up" and we now have a good sized closet to use! My husband was thrilled to see the 4 totes in our basement leave our home!!!

Our school recently built a new art wing which included a new library. The old library was turned into a professional/parent center. This year we were provided with a computer/printer and table in the parent supply room and couldn't be happier. My co-president and I spend Wed and Fri at the school and really need a place to spread out all of our work. We also have a locked closet in the technology lab were we keep all of our supplies, etc. We are also very fortunate that the school really promotes parent involvement and supplies us with almost everything we need.

Not to make any of you jealous, but at our school we have a tiny classroom for our office. It is 230 square feet and we have a nice big closet in the room as well. The room is also used by MG and their supplies are locked in a seperate closet. The room is used for meetings and all types of events we have.

Every summer though, we always seem to have to worry about our space being taken away from us. Space is tight at our school and sooner or later, our room will come up. Some teachers bring it up at times, but the principal tries to keep that room for us. The teachers at our school are "pompous and childish" and do not hesitate to belittle some of the things we do for the school. They do not mind when we honor their requests though.

Wow!! Everyone has had wonderful ideas. I wish I could find a room for us (PTO) and use part of it for a family room/ parent room. I plan to speak to our principal on Monday about our space.

Our PTO set aside a few thousand dollars to help get ourselves straight this year. Previously, we had about 1/3rd of a small room and the rest was used to store items for the aftercare program. We spent about $1500 on locking cabinets for the aftercare people and put them in the cafeteria where they spend the most of their time anyway. We then gave them about 3 feet of storage space just inside the door to our room (with another wall and locked door behind it - to our room) to store their television carts. We made our room into a family room, new carpeting, shelves everywhere. We now have space to store the TONS of stuff the PTO is in charge of. We had the electrician fix the wiring so we would stop blowing fuses and installed a children's area with a few shelves of toys and a rug. With a TV and the computer, parents can bring even their smallest children and spend the day volunteering with us. The principal loves it so much she always beggs to use it when we have guests in to the school or an accredidation.

Our district board office has a large basement and our super has made cages there and included one for us, as we have many large items from our carnival. Our super and principals are very helpful and supportive of our group and attend as many of our meetings as they can. Is your superintendent involved with your program also?