Has anyone funded a teacher's salary through PTO funds? I'm researching this possibility for our schools, though I hope we are able to avoid such a drastic step!

Many years ago when my kids were first in school, our elementary was sharing a part-time art teacher with another school and the PTOs were paying for it. From what I remember, we just gave the money for her salary to the school and they handled her employment through their HR department. Could get a bit more tricky if your parent group has to operate as the employer.

**we just gave the money for her salary to the school and they handled her employment through their HR department. **

That's how our PTO funds a part time teaching position as well.

We actually have a strict policy in place prohibiting this. There are some other parent groups in our district who do, and now with the budget crisis they are in a position where they need to "fire" a staff member (Even though they are not technically the employer, they know that if they don't pay for this then the teacher won't have a job).

The big reason we don't allow it is because the members who make this decision today aren't going to be members at our school forever, and it seems unfair to leave future members in such an awkward position if their priorities are different from the current group's.

Hi Critter-
We have heard of Parent groups funding teachers. The way it often works is that the principal makes a request to the PTO for contracted services funding.
At the point where the principal makes her request, the PTO votes to gift a certain amount of money to the principal to use at her discretion. This represents a bit of a trust/power game. No one can tell the faculty/principal how to use the money once it is gifted, but the understanding is that the priorities expressed by the PTO members weigh heavily in the final allocation toward contracted services. This way the paychecks to the contracted services positions come from the central office, not from the PTO's treasurer's check book.

Hope this helps,
Lisa

**The big reason we don't allow it is because the members who make this decision today aren't going to be members at our school forever, and it seems unfair to leave future members in such an awkward position if their priorities are different from the current group's. **

That philosophy would seem to prevent your PTO from making *any* plans that couldn't be fulfilled under the auspices of the same board within one school year.

With this constraint, how does your PTO handle projects/improvements that need multiple years to fund before implementation?