So glad to hear that you have supporters at your school. I'm sure that has taken so much weight off your shoulders and has given you a lift in spirits. With your Principal's support, I'm sure that this will all work out well & more quickly since he has more pull (backing of the board of ed).
You still may want to take a trip to the bank to speak to the manager and get copies of bank statements though. Just so you can begin to see your financial situation as of now. If there are any surprises, you can be prepared for your meeting with the present Treasurer & the Principal.

GOOD LUCK

Thank you, WFS and Crewchief, your advice and support after my last rant was needed and deeply appreciated!
My co-pres and I did have a meeting this morning with the principal and we did keep it professional and didn't talk badly about the treasurer, we simply explained what had happened and what was going on. He fortunately was aware of the spot we were in and has put his full support behind us. Word had gotten to him about how we were being talked about at the school and he advised us that he will put an immediate stop to it. He told us he is so happy to have us and loves what we are doing to turn the PTO around. He said that he will do whatever he can to make sure we don't step down and has told us he will mediate a meeting with the treasurer, and if she refuses he will have her then turn the books over to him, and he will then turn them over to us.
We were also approached by several teachers who told us they had heard what was going on and wanted us to know that they are so greatful for what we are doing and to let us know they will be supporting us however they could. It was so nice to hear!!!!!!!!!
Its sad though, that these lines have to be drawn in the sand, it shouldn't be like this. I wish that everyone could remember that its for the kids and the school. This is a fight that we shouldn't have to have.
Oh well...stay tuned!

I agree 100% with WFS.

This is a tipping point for your group.... the last chance for things to go either way. If the ex-pres "'wins", the group goes back to square one ~ or worse. If you keep working hard and stay focused on your goals, all of your efforts will be rewarded and next year will be oh so much easier.

The treasurer and ex-pres are fiercely holding on to their last remaining ties to the PTO. They know once those ties are severed then they no longer have any real control over things.

Now is the time to double your efforts to move forward positively. Meet with the principal because you have nothing to hide. Keep all personal comments about these ladies out of your discussion and talk only about what your team is doing and needs to have done in order to keep making positive changes for the future.

If she is the one he always has to "deal with" while you are the one who just keeps on working to improve things, it won't take long for him to realize who his 'partners in education' are.

My heart goes out to you. I fully understand your frustration & situation as I work FT and managed to hold the President role for 2 years as well. My board and myself were accused of not following the bylaws, while we were 100% of the time. It was those that we said 'no' to that were hurt and started the ugly rumor mill. So I've been there.

You should go to the bank where your account is held and speak to the manager about how to remove the old treasurer from the account since she is not cooperating and essentially holding the account hostage. You need to find out what you can legally do at this point since she is still writing checks.
Also, not returning the bank books could be seen as stealing since you have pointed out that it is the PTO account, not theirs and they have no right to keep it. A meeting with your Principal ALONE should help to figure out how far you will both take this in order to restore the order of your PTO. After you have your one-on-one meeting, then you can have a joint meeting. However, the Principal needs to ask the exiting Treasurer to bring all bank books, checkbooks, statements, etc. to the meeting "for review". If she doesn't then she is clearly not behaving in an ethical manner and you will have to take it to the next level.
As far as the ex president making false statements in school, ask the Principal to attend a staff meeting. Prepare a statement of how the new board will assist the teachers, events planned for the new year and basically just introduce yourself & other board members to the teachers. Come clean and state that presently there is an unfortunate situation with the transition process, but it is being handled by the Princial and yourself (if that is the outcome of your meeting). Then, it will squash all rumors the Ex is spreading. Take questions from the teachers so they will know that you have nothing to hide and you are there to partner with them for a great school year.

Keep your good intentions in mind (the kids) and when it all is behind you, you will be able to concentrate on your objectives for the year. I know it will be difficult getting through this, but it WILL BE worth it once you see the smiles you get on the faces of students from the programs you will bring to the school!!

I am feeling so beaten up right now!!!!
Well, the stuff hit the fan so to speak this weekend. (Before I begin let me say that I know that you are only hearing one side of this story, and there are always 2 sides I know, I am going to try very hard to stay as neutral and equal as I can in my telling of it, but I am also a little emotional after all of this.)
After attempting to talk nicely and calmly several times with our treasurer to no avail as she flat out refused to step down, we sent her a letter that was kind and explained why we were requesting she step down. We explained that while the way she had things run in the past with other PTO's sadly no longer worked with us in place. We explained that we simply could not do EVERYTHING any longer. We need a treasurer who would do the job of a treasurer, not just someone who balanced the checkbook and left all of the other financial stuff like shopping, depositing, paying bills etc. to us.
(we did put it nicer than that in the letter)
Well, on Saturday my co-president got a screaming voice mail basically stating that she would not hand over the checkbook, that we need to get our act together and we have no idea how to run a PTO.
I will say it got a little ugly, and to be fair I will say my co-chair got a little (alot) angry and called back and told our treasurer that the checkbook and money wasn't hers it was the schools. She also told her that if she were so concerned on how things were being run she should have made sure she was at all functions that any of the money was involved in.
Alot more was said on both sides, but needless to say it was ugly, on both sides.
So fast forward to Monday morning, I go into the office to check PTO mailbox and out of the principals office walks the old PTO president, (who has nothing to do with any of this other than being friends with the treasurer!)who yells, "Shes here" to the principal. I am called in to speak with him, and he says that he doesn't like being in the middle of all of this, but he is willing to mediate a meeting between us. Which is fine, I'm happy to do this and tell him so. But I have a really bad feeling about this, I am feeling so attacked right now.
Then this evening I am driving home from school and a teacher calls me and asks if its ok to cash a check the PTO had given her because while she was in the teachers lounge the past pres was in there (she now works at the school) making comments about us and how we were very free with writing checks to everyone and anyone.
I was appalled! And as I said in the begining of this post, feeling very beaten up! I just want to say to heck with this, I quit!
We literally took on the PTO after years of the past pres and the treasurer running things, and it was not an easy job to take over. Parents didn't want to help, didn't want to get involved because of how they did things and were very negative. We have had so many comments on how we are turning the PTO around to be something positive, slowly more parents are becoming involved again, we have worked our butts off this year.
I am a single parent with a full time job, I've taken days off work to do stuff at this school. My 2 days off are during the week and I spent 90% of them at the school doing things. My co-chair is a full time student and a very busy mom at home with her kids and hubby, she would come to the school early to get things done before she went to school, or came after her classes to get it all done. We are exhausted, but we really felt like we were doing something so good. We were turning something kind of negative around. And now we just feel like we've been kicked in the teeth. I am so angry and hurt right now. We are seriously considering stepping down once this situation is resolved and the school year is over. We know we have to see this treasurer situation through, we have an obligation to do that, but after that, who knows. We have decieded to put off making that decision because we are feeling quite emotional and thats not the right time to make this kind of decision. But honestly, right now I'm feeling like I'm done.
Lesson learned....By-Laws!!!!!!!!!! We have written them (with alot of help from you all) and they are ready to be implemented. Elections....hopefully will be in place within the next year once we get more parents involved and if we're still around...and they are part of the by-laws!
Oh well...thanks as always for letting me vent! This has been an awful day!

Hey all! Thanks for ideas on the bylaws, I really apprecite it!
Still haven't gotten an answer from the treasurer about the checkbook and stepping down, but we are feeling alot stronger about stuff right now, we have made it very clear that unfortunately this is not negotiable. Its been done very nicely, but firmly. We have asked if she would like to help us with the transition for the next treasurer, that would be great but the decision is hers. We have made it clear that it is not because we are not greatful for her many years of loyalty and dedication.
Not sure how this will play out, but it will be what it will be.
I'll keep you updated.
Thanks again!