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School-Aged Children
PTO: what do they do and what do you expect?
This is DD's kinder year, so my first experience with a PTO. There are some other parents who are unhappy and I have been invited a meeting...a mutiny of sorts, I think. I'm trying to understand what should be happening, or what is reasonable to expect to happen.
I'm trying to get an idea of how many and the types of events your PTO sponsors in a typical year from rest. Spirit nights to cookie dough fundraisers to Santa shop. Also, what do they do with the money playground equip., landscaping, etc.
Thank you!
I'm trying to get an idea of how many and the types of events your PTO sponsors in a typical year from rest. Spirit nights to cookie dough fundraisers to Santa shop. Also, what do they do with the money playground equip., landscaping, etc.
Thank you!
This discussion has been closed.
Re: PTO: what do they do and what do you expect?
DS is in K also so this is my 1st year involved with the PTA. They did a fall festival in Nov and a fundraiser in the spring where kids get sponsors and walk laps around the track. Sponsors give so much per lap walked. They also have 2 book fairs each year as well.
They have used the money for playground equipment, interactive boards for all the classrooms, funding the technology lab(kids have tech class once every 8 days). Those are the big things I know they have one in the past few years.
First, PTO is like PTA but without the National Membership and membership fees due to the national PTA. Beyond that it really depends on the school. I do agree with Auntie that ours has a small fund-raising mentality, I am not trying to put anyone down because I know that the few that run it spend a lot of time doing it but I find it frustrating to get a hundred fundraising flyers and then find out that they made $300 here and $300 there. Most of the PTOs these days are stuck supplimenting things that the school is no longer providing but that starts a cycle in my opinion because the Principals then rely on the PTO to pay for those things like field trips and assemblies. My son is also in Kindergarten so I do not know about all of the events like Field Day but my friend's kid's school in my town has a ridiculous field day with bouncy houses, we seriously think that is a waste of money and not what field day is supposed to be about which is really a big Gym class competition.
If I were to be involved in a mutiny I would want to know what our goals were, what do we want to do with the money that we raise and how will we raise it especially if you kick out the existing members who might not help you with information like which businesses have donated to gift auctions in the past which is apparently our largest fundraiser. Personally I cannot get behind planting trees like I could get behind planting a garden but I would only plant a garden if I knew it would be used by the science classes or cafeteria which in most schools would not really happen because it does not work with the curriculum.
As for the preschool PTO, this is our first year and it is a community preschool so our goal is help support the teachers and bring preschool families together. Being in the beginning stages of the PTO, I have learned so much about how expensive it is to file for non profit status. So a lot of our early funds went to this. We have lower income families so we try to donate funds back into the school with supplies, looking into a garden that can be used for the curriculum and to families, we provided gifts cards around the holidays to families in need.
We just had a wine tasting that brought in a lot of money, but more importantly brought the teachers together with some parents, but we do have smaller events such as getting a percentage at local restaurants for preschool families and friends that dine/take out. Our next big event is a fun run. All the elementary schools around here have a fun run, and they actually do not do anything else. Thankfully! It is very time consuming too!
I pay my dues and purchase stuff from fundraisers that I don't think are silly, but I do not attend meetings and do not volunteer at my kids' school's PTA. I happen to think they do a good job, but I don't want to be involved. They do a good mixture of social events for students and families (picnic, carnival, dance), fundraising, hosting educational programs for the students, and social action programs (environment, "green" school, charitable fundraising, etc.) The current officers aren't overly aggressive with fundraising, so it's nice.
The officers and "regulars" are a cadre of SAHMs for whom the PTA is a way of life. They're basically talented, organized parents who deeply care about their kid's school and way to be involved. However, there is a clique among them of disgruntled parents who are anti-teacher. Their main reason for participating in the PTA is to gain access to the school and to hold the school accountable for... whatever it is they think is a problem. This makes me uncomfortable because I'm also a teacher (but at a different school.)
Anyway, I'd be wary of anyone who was secretly meeting in order to take over the PTA through some kind of semi-organized mutiny. If there's serious discord in the parent community, there are ways to deal with it openly. I'd politely decline the "takeover" meeting and let the dust settle before getting involved any further.
My school has a very active and wonderful PTO. We have a monthly meeting that is open to any parents/teachers. In addition, the board has addititonal meetings as well as any of the event committees.
Our PTO does not do selling fundraisers but we send out a note in the fall asking for a donation to be made. We ask for $100 per family but some give less and some give more based on what they can do.
For fundraisers during the year, we sell coffee on election day (our school is a polling place) plus we do a "Joe to Go" event since we have a ton of families that drop off at school. We do a fun fall festival that is free to attend and at the event we do a coffee and bake sale and sell pumpkins, we do a bingo night which is again free but we have a basket raffle and bake sale at the event. We have a huge carnival in the spring which is a huge fundraiser. We sell tickets (one ticker per game) and have a plant sale in the spring. We do a number of restaurant fundraisers where a portion of the sales go to the school and do the same thing with a book store in the late fall.
Our main fundraiser is a parent event that is a silent auction. We have a cash bar and the cost of admission ($15 a person includes pop and some appitzers). The event has the silent auction (raised $19K last year) and music/dancing.
PTO members do a ton of volunteering in school to help the teachers - tons of parents volunteer every day. We help pay for field trips (we typically pay for the buses), we bring in special guests to school such as a great drummer and the local kids theater. We help plan and run class events like the spring sing and 6th grade end of year party.
This year we gave the teachers 2 (one in fall and one mid year) bonus of around $50 each to help them buy things for the classes. We also buy a ton of stuff for school in general. We have a grant process so the teachers or staff submit the information for whatever they need that is above and beyond what the school will cover and we go from there. We have these amazing school gardens which they use in the kids lunches and the PTO paid for them for an example.