I cannot believe that is the school's policy. If I was told I had to be a part of a voluntary organization like the PTO in order to support my son's education, any part of it, I'd be furious. I pay tax dollars to ensure I'm part of the education process. All that phone call will do is spread bad will. I would work hard to change the thinking of that policy and lift your group out of that sort of shadowed support.
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There are far better fundraisers than to charge volunteers for the privilege of giving of their own time and effort. I'm very surprised that your volunteers haven't banded together and staged a riot about this practice.
What are your thoughts if the classroom event is organizing a class party or field day (noninstructional events)? Again, a whole class event, during the regular school day. No PTO funds or materials are used during these events. I'm just having a hard time telling a parent who is ready to volunteer that he/she may only do so if he/she coughs up the dues money.
I'd stop charging dues entirely, personally. Failing that -- and there's been some healthy debate on that, strated by this column of mine (www.ptotoday.com/pto-today-articles/arti...-just-say-no-to-dues
) -- I certainly wouldn't require dues in order for a parent to volunteer in the classroom. Antithetical to best parent involvement -building practices. Not good. Principal shouldn't allow it, never mind the PTO or PTA.
I wouldn't like that either. Make me PAY to VOLUNTEER my time to help our children learn???
Our elementary parent group used to charge dues to become a PTO member, but we did away with that years ago, because we just wanted everyone to feel welcome. Now if they are charging the "fee" because there are costs involved in doing background checks, then I would communicate that to the parents. Most probably won't have a problem with that, but if the "fee" is just a means of making money for the group, then it should be eliminated.
What do you all think of requiring parents to pay dues to PTO in order to volunteer in the classroom during the regular school day? Our group currently does this. It seems to me we should encourage parents to pay, but not require them. I'm afraid it would come across as- if you want to volunteer at this school, you must pay $20. The volunteer positions in question do not require access to PTO funds. The volunteer interacts with the class during whole class activities. What do your groups do in these situations? We currently have a parent who is upset about being charged to volunteer in her son's room. How would you handle this?
