I have a question that maybe some other PTO's can help me with. In my district, we are having a lot of trouble doing any type of fund raising event, ex. snack sales, chinese auctions, supermarket bingo... the problem being District Office has required us to "apply" for each and every fund rasier we wish to do ~ and will get either rejected or approved by them. (we are being rejected to do all these things) I always thought PTO is a seperate organization with our own by-laws and guidelines. We are being micromanaged by our DO and I would like to know if this is in fact wrong and if anyone else is having these issues. Do any other school PTO's have to answer to their District Office??? What should we do??

We fall under our school districts heading on some things-- but they let each school kind of run their own things--- there are some guidelines that we have to follow--
There is a start up form that we have to fill out and send over to the DO-- and we do everything by computer-- so they can check anything that we are doing-- all schools in the district all work on the same pto manager software, so that works out well for us.

[FONT=Verdana]Can you develop a relationship with your DO and learn what their vision is, what they want PTOs to do, what kind of fundraisers are approved?[/FONT]
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[FONT=Verdana]Many districts are struggling with how much oversight to have over parent and campus groups. The PTOs, band boosters, athletic boosters, etc. are often independent - theoretically. But the fact is each is heavily linked to the school, uses the school name, and affects the school/district reputation. [/FONT]
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[FONT=Verdana]Parents complain there are too many fundraisers, that they are badly run, that they compete with one another. Instances of mismanagement, even embezzlement arise. Groups raise huge sums of money but ignore local laws because "it's for charity" and they discover groups are using the school's name to run a well-intentioned, but illegal, raffle or unlicensed bingo game, or failed to pay sales tax.[/FONT]
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[FONT=Verdana]So the district must weigh these real and potential problems against the groups' need to raise funds and their independence. School districts are reacting with different approaches from free rein to heavy regulation. [/FONT]
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[FONT=Verdana]Our district currently only has minimal guidelines, but there's been a committee assembled to develop and publish district-wide requirements for next year. It will be interesting to see how far they go. Sounds like yours came down on the "heavy regulation" side.[/FONT]
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[FONT=Verdana]Rather than continuing to blindly suggest event after event, see what guidance you can get from your DO. Once you develop relationships and are seen to be working within their plans, maybe it will go easier. or maybe you can negotiate easier restrictions. But you need to know more about their intent and goals.[/FONT]
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[FONT=Verdana]P.S. If your PTO is an independent organization, yes, it could theoretically proceed regardless of district rules. But doing it that way - without the school support would not be practical.[/FONT]