We are an elementary school of 447 students. We set our budget each year and give each student $10.00 towards a field trip. If the cost is more they may ask the parents or try to raise the extra money via bake sales etc. $2000.00 really taking advantage of your PTA. With the cost of everything today including gas it is not possible to maybe give all the money you used to give. I think seytting a dollar amount works out much better as everyone knows whatthey will get per student and they can go from there. Good Luck!

I agree - set a budget and convey this to the teachers.

But field trips are getting prohibitively expensive and sometimes also difficult due to the lost academic time (even if they are educational). It may get to the point where the money is better spent bringing programs in to the school and arranging special activities on campus.

No matter what you choose to do -- coordinate with your principal, communicate (nicely, but firmly) what the limits are to the teachers, and stick with your plan.

I would recommend that your President provide a letter to all of the teaching staff, of course after running it by the Principal, regarding the PTO support of Field Trips. If your President explains that $800 has been allocated for each grade, it should hopefully deter the teaching teams from coming to you and asking for more. And if they do your President will be able to say, "Back in April I sent a letter to the teaching staff regarding the $ allocated for Field Trips, unfortunately we cannot provide more than that due to our budget being set earlier in the year.

The budget is very important and is something that I set at the end of each fiscal year. That way come next year it is known that $700 is allocated for each grade's field trip, $2000 is allocated for in-school Enrichment programs, etc. I try to use that as a baseline, and anything new needs to be discussed with the PTO members and approved.

In years past when the teachers decided they wanted a Field Trip they would have to come to the PTO meeting and present their idea.

This year I changed things a bit because I found that only two of tyhe five grades were going on field trips, and I felt that this was important. I actually made it one of my priorities for the year. I created an Enrichment Committee with a chair. As President I am on the committee, but not the chair. The idea was, with buy-in by the Principal, to create standard yearly field trips for every grade. That way the first graders know that next year they get to attend the Planetarium and Science museum, the second graders know that they will get to go to Plymouth Plantation next year, etc. We met with each grade teaching teams and explained what we were trying to do, how we have allocated $700 per grade and that any additional costs would have to be covered by the parents, that all children, no matter their financial situation, would be able to attend, etc. There were some concerns by the staff. What about medical needs, and we explained that a nurse could be hired for the day. What about the financial issues and we explained that we would front the money and have it paid back to us when the checks came in from the parents.

So, by having this Enrichment Committee, we the PTO are in the know of what each grade is going to do, when they are going to do it, etc. We set up the bus for the teachers and even talk with the site that they will be visiting to define the trip.

First field trip is coming up in two weeks. Hopefully everything will work out.

So, I would say that your President should have a talk with the teaching staff that is requesting $2000. That's a big part of a PTO's budget for just one grade. What are they doing, eating lobster for lunch? It's possible that this is how it was done in the past, but as dlf indicated, the precedent need to change, and that really should be up to an Enrichment Chair or the President.

Good luck,
PresidentJim

I would suggest the first step is to get your plan together os a board on how you'd like the teachers to request money. Perhaps put together a request for support form (we did one our first year) that must be routed through the principal and preapproved before an event. This is a good time of the year to set a precedent for next year. Before you implement the form however, talk to the principal about your thoughts and your desire to expand your horizons, formalize a request process and negotiate with her how much money is reasonable per child for you to fund. You can let the teachers know up front that they will be gifted say 15 dollars per child per year to cover costs (or perhaps you'll pay for the bus but entries are on the parents) and see what the principal thinks. The only other option is to perhaps charge for the other things (an entry price). We do dinner and a movie for 2.50 per person which is highly affordable and really we end up making money.

Anyway--resetting the path will be a challenge but it'll only get harder as time passes and there is always goodness in implementing procedures that outlast an individual on the board. The rope for you to walk is making the process more reasonable without snubbing the teachers.

good luck
d

We are having some issues with our PTA/PTO. First of all we are a small elementary school with about 400 students, and no help from parents or faculty. We raise a nice amount of money with our fund-raisers, but our field trips are killing us. We had a recent teacher give us bill for $2,000 (they were budgeted for $800) and told us that it was due in a couple of days. In the past our old Pres just handed money over like a ATM machine, and this year we are all new in fact most of us officers have been in the school for only 2 years. How do we approach the teachers about down-sizing the trips so we can afford other things like movie nights, bingo, christmas gift (like hats or scarfs which are much needed). We don't want our whole budget going to field trips. In the past we were able to afford it but with the rising cost of buses and admissions we can't. If anyone has any ideas I would greatly appreciate them.
Thanks,
Vice Pres Mom