PTO Today

Our PTO has always provided a welcome back breakfast and a gift. Last year we provided each teacher (32) a $100 gift certificate to a school supply store. This year our budget is a little bit tighter and cannot afford to do this again. What are some other ideas that might be given to our teachers as a welcome back gift? We would like to scale down to between $25-50 per teacher as well as breakfast.

Two years ago, we bought everyone a nice coffee mug from Big Lots, filled it with candy, and wrapped it in clear cellophane. We spent about $120. They were a big hit with the teachers & staff.

Each year we purchase cheap laundry baskets or something similar at a local dollar store or Wal-Mart and fill it with boxes of crackers/snacks, tissues, wipes etc. The teachers love it.

We provide cash before school starts for each teacher to use for class needs. We will also provide a breakfast for teachers and staff during one of the workdays before the kids start back. Later we have wish lists for them to fill out of items we can purchase for them. We also do small gifts throught the year of candy or items we leave in their mailboxes.
Cash or wish list item amounts can be adjusted to fit any budget.

I was invited to speak to the faculty on their administrative day today. After sharing with them what the PTO had planned for the new year, I gave each of them a bag of candy with a message attached. The clear celephane bag (bought in the Wilton section of Walmart's craft section) contained "treasures" candies. The tag attached was printed with the message "You are
Education's greatest treasure". They really seemed to appreciate it. I also had some postcards printed with a nice poem about teachers on it that I will give to them at the Back to School Luncheon that the PTO is sponsoring for them on the day before school starts back.

This year, I printed out a poem to use as a cover page for a calendar of events we have made for our teachers. I have bound them and now they have a month-by-month view of what all we are doing this year. They really enjoyed it and it only cost us paper to print it on.

We usually buy all staff members brand new Desk Planners for the new school year. We get them from Positive Promotions. Teachers are either on a certain committee or attend many meetings these days; so we felt that they could use these planners. They absolutely love them! It has become regular for us to purchase this gift for them to start the year.

We also used to purchase desk planners for the teachers. At one of the last meetings of the year we asked if this was something they used. Many said that in the day of Palm Pilots and Blackberry's, they were not using them. We have decided to instead get them a sticky note cube and pen for their desk. Perfect for quick reminders or notes home.

We gave our teachers $25 checks and a calendar last year. They wanted more money this year so they only got a $30 giftcard.

We do a goodie bag for the teachers. In each bag we put some cheap teacher supplies (motivational stickers, sharpie, etc...) plus a coupon for a free school T-shirt. Our staff are allowed to wear school shirts on Fridays, so all the teachers/staff want to have one. We found room in our budget a couple years ago to give everyone in the building one.