Has anyone evr heard of this??

I was on the PTO board a couple years ago for 2 years. I served as Treasurer both years, along with a teacher, so that if a situation came up and funds were needed in an emergency, there was someone there authorized to use our account. We never had any problems working it this way and managed to do a lot of good things for our school. Last year I was not on the board, I had another child and took a year away to keep from carting a newborn everywhere, and basically our PTO was ran by the principal and a teacher, and what few parents were involved, did whatever they were told without questioning anything.
I guess the principal liked having things going her way, SO she has devised a new plan.
All of the PTO money will now be managed by the school. The lady in the office that mananges the school budget, accounts and money, is now also in charge of all PTO funds as well.
Is this allowed? There will be NO parent with any authority or access to these funds AT ALL!!!!

I am shocked to discover this and not sure how to go about stopping it, because it just does not seem right to me!

Well I would say you are not a PTO at all but a supplementary money making group for the principal's fund. So many of us advise that you keep your group and your financials separate for just this reason. It isn't about the group that it is working for (i.e. the year the teacher was signing checks) it's about keeping the integrity of both groups so that they can compliment each other independently and also get direction from one another that suits both groups effectively.

d

Mary Liz--is this a public or private school? If it is a private school, it's not unheard of. If it's public, I'd be very surprised..

PMCW

With so much in the news lately about people making off with thousands of dollars in school funds, nonprofit funds, and so on, the original idea of having two or more people handling the money is a great idea. It protects the funds and the people who are handling the money with the checks and balances system. In my city, the middle school bookkeeper was just arrested for embezzeling thousands of dollars over about 5 years. Yikes!

It is called a PTO for a reason. P=Parent T=Teacher

Gather a group of active parents and schedule a meeting with those involved. Site some "fundraising funds gone missing" episodes in the news, and say that you would like to protect the teachers, the principal, and the school by making sure they could never fall under any undue suspicion.

For more school fundraising ideas check out my Fundraiser Help website.

Good Luck and keep us posted!

What do you by-laws state?

I agree with PatO, we need to hear what exactly your group's Bylaws read. If your group is a non-profit, 501C(3), then it is more than likely that your Bylaws indicate that the group's funds are to be controlled by the directors or officers of the group. It seems (though we need more info) that the Principal has not actually tried to be voted into a position, such as President, but just controlled the group for a year.

Let us know what your Bylaws state and everything will come from that. If you don't have a copy of your Bylaws, but your group does have them, then you, likely as a member, have the right to be provided a copy of them. If your group does not have Bylaws then I would start focusing there.

Let us know.

PresidentJim