I'm a little upset at the vote that passed at our PTO meeting tonight. It was decided that a little over $3,000 will be spent purchasing $25 gift cards to the local grocery store here for our teachers and staff for Christmas. This will leave less than $1,500 in our account for the remainder of the school year. We're a relatively large school with a very small PTO budget. (Our carnvial only made about $2500 last year). Is this a normal thing, for the PTO to spend such an outlandish amount of money on Christmas gifts for the teachers and staff?

We also comitted to paying for a luncheon the day before school gets out for Christmas break and helping to pay for the teacher's Christmas party.:confused:

I think spending that much of your budget is too much (in my opinion). We do spend about 3k per year on teachers but our budget is closer to 20k a year. If we were to spend 3/4s of our budget on teachers I'd have a real problem with that. Unfortunately if it passed, then it passed (unless some of our uber parlimentarians have something to add here). You may want to pursue a board position next year so you can have a greater impact on where the money goes.
If you vote on the budget at the start of the year that is a good time to start to petition that this particular line item be limited.

Good luck...

I'm with dlf, that's a huge percentage of your budget to put toward non-educational purchases. If your group wanted to put that money towards say, gift baskets of classroom supplies, that would be another story, and would probably be just as appreciated by the vast majority of your teachers.(A suggestion for next year.) Most of the teachers I know wouldn't want to accept the gift card, or if they did, they would spend it on items for their classroom.

Our school district has a $5 limit on gifts for teachers, so we couldn't give them that much anyway. Also, the students and their parents give gifts at the holidays if they choose, which in my opinion is how it should be.

Thanks for your input. I'm actually the Vice President this year and was the President for the previous two school years. I've never agreed with handing cash to the teachers. If they have needs, present me with a list and I am more than happy to buy anything on that list. This being said...the vote passed 3-1. I was the only hold out.

I honestly think that the part that aggravated me the most was that the teachers in attendance were told "this is money to spend on YOURSELF, NOT for your classroom".

Anyway, thanks for letting me vent here. LOL

I strongly think that giving a gift to your teachers is a wonderful thing. SOmething they can spend on themselves is great b/c most teachers spend there own money on their classrooms.
If you don't want to spend $ from your PTO budget then take a collection from each class.
The hardest part of that is for the MS and HS teachers. THis year we have taken a collection from each student and are giving the teachers a selection of stores to choose from. I DO want them to spend ot on themselves and movie night or dinner. THey work SO HARD!
Sorry if I offend anyone but what is the point of holding on to something when it can bless those who work so hard educating our children.

Spending 2/3rds of the remaining year's budget on teacher gifts when only half way through the school year is fiscally irresponsible.

In our school, each class takes a collection for the teacher gifts. The PTO budget is reserved for fundraising expenses and the purchase of educational materials/equipment and facility improvements.