Hello everyone,

First, I am loving this message board and I have learned a ton already so thank you to everyone!

I am writing to ask everyone's opinion on this. For the past years the PTO gives the seniors $1000 toward the prom. I was wondering if this is normal? The leaving exec board mentioned the senior the senior gift and I thought it was the seniors giving the school a gift however I was wrong it is the PTA giving the seniors a gift. Then they give them another gift at gradation. This seems very backward to me. The PTA and school have been giving to thse kids for years should they be encouraged to give back instead of or at least in addition to receiving yet again?
What are your thoughts? Am I right? Am I being a scrooge? Am I right AND being a scrooge? Should I bring it up to talk about? Should I leave the gift alone but try and get the seniors to start doing a gift to the school too?

We are a private K-12 school with 300 students with a financially mixed parent body. (we offer many full and partial scholarships 25-30% of the kids).

Thanks in advance.

Here, we have two major events per high school (4 high schools): prom and Project Graduation (the lockin party the night of graduation).

Prom is funded by the students with class officers leading fundraising efforts throughout their four years of high school. They raise about $20,000 which covers prom, some funds for a senior trip/outing, and a gift to the school. The PTA doesn't contribute to this.

Project Graduation is funded by a parent committee that does 4 years of fundraising. The target is about $30,000. That group does send request letters to all the PTAs/PTOs of the schools feeding into the high school requesting a donation. Some don't contribute; some do. The biggest amount I've heard of is $250.

There is no wrong or right here. Each school has its own traditions. If you do decide to push for a change, you may need to phase it in if the class has every reason to expect those funds.

As far as our PTA, it's pretty small and probably only has about $3000 per year to work with. We focus primarily on teacher appreciation activities and scholarships, typically awarding three $500 scholarships each year.

I don't see anything wrong with giving the kids the money for the prom. We give our 5th grade class $500 for t-shirts and a field trip, and we buy them a small gift for graduation and provide flowers and refreshments as well.