Just like the president of a PTO can't do it all, the principal of a school can't do it all. Once my last school hired an assistant principal, the principal handed many duties over to her, including PTO advisor/liason. Our bylaws called for "the Principal or his designee. The asst was his designee.

WigWam, if that's one of the roles your asst is responsible for and he's managing things then the principal shouldn't necessarily have to be involved. You can bet that they're discussing it and helping each other but the public face is the asst's. I personally don't see anything wrong with that setup.

I can tell you for sure that if things got that sideways for the PTO at my last school, the school wouldn't hesitate to step in and take control. Bylaws are terrific and can offer guidance but if your team either doesn't have them or isn't following them and you fall under the school's umbrella then 'madam president' may not have a legal leg to stand on. I'm not a lawyer so I absolutely don't know for sure but she sounds like she's making threats to scare people. Great leadership skills, huh?!?!

I would welcome the asst's guidance here and be proactive in the kind of change he's trying to implement. Meet with him and let him know how you'd like to see things, which position you'd like to get/retain and how you will help the team move forward. It'll get ugly for awhile but if all eyes are on the future and everyone is behaving professionaly the dust should settle soon enough.

We've got a great board, except for our president who has bitten off a little more than she can chew in her personal life. Consequently, she's having a hard time keeping up.

Maybe when it gets that bad, you need to start reviewing your files on who's volunteered for things in the past and getting them re-involved in some of the big projects. After all, the board shouldn't have to do EVERYTHING. A strong support system is a huge help.

Meanwhile, I'd love to see your bylaws MUMS24KIDS. We are in desparate need of rewriting ours.

Thanks.

In the last 4 years, I've seen 3 different Presidents (at two schools) self destruct. Fortunately, they did it early enough in the school year that there wasn't too much damage done to the organizations, and all ultimately ended up working out fine. But in each case, there were three common factors--
1) There was a strong backup (VP) in place;
2) The principal was very supportive and intervened to both help the Presidents get the personal help they needed and talk them down; and
3) The bylaws of the organization were followed regarding the process to remove the people. As it turns out, two of the three ended up resigning on their own, and one of those in particular was pretty set that she didn't want to step down. It wasn't until she had the options laid out in front of her in terms of how it had to be done (which would have made the whole removal very public) that she came around and decided that it would be in the best interest of all concerned (her, her family, the school) for her to just step down. (The third just took a short leave of absence, got her act together and came back strong.)

It's interesting that the vice principal is taking care of this; is the principal not involved at all? Is your group independent of the school? And do you know what your bylaws say about removal of officers?

Where is your principal in all this? If this is as bad as you are saying it seems that person would be the one to make these changes as having a single parent do it seems to be asking for trouble. Just because someone thinks you can do the job doesnt speak for the whole school. Appointing???yikes. We went through the dissolving of a PTA and the startup of a new group but for the startup and first few months the principals decided what was going to happen, it was a godsend to us. Is your group incorporated, 501, ect.

Not quite, we had big problems with our treasurer and getting parents involved. But now that she is off the board we have had more parent involvement but no one wants to step up and be a officer. We had three new members and have lost two of the three already and the third is questionable. She isn't very realiable lately. It has come down to myself (the president), our new treasurer and just a couple parent volunteers. The tresurer and I are getting worn out but not giving up.
I wish I had some great advice to give you but I am new to alot of this as well. I am sure someone one here has some great wisdom to share.

We are a mess! Our president cannot follow through on anything that she says she will do. Two officers quit last month because they can't deal with her anymore. We haven't had a treasurer since school started because the president was treating her poorly. Our president now controls the books and we haven't been able to get a financial report in three months. We are a disaster ready to implode. Our fundraiser stunk, not one event has gone smoothly. Parents are not volunteering as much as previous years because we have no process in place this year to follow up with anyone. All the president does is complain that no one does anything. But, everytime someone tries to help, she only wants things her way, and she never does what she commits to do.

So here's the interesting thing. Our Vice Principal decided to basically "fire" our president and shake up our PTO. He is going to appoint capable parents into all of the officer positions and basically restart the PTO for our school. I am not an officer, but a chairperson and I think it is the right move. The current president is so mad and has been threatening the vice principal that she is going to sue the school corporation if he removes her.

Anyone going through something like this?