PTO Today

We are a small Catholic school in Ohio and our priest unfortunately is a non-school supporter so we are facing the possibility of being closed next year. The papers to close the school have been filed with the Archdiocese and we are awaiting on word from him. Our PTO parents plan to fight every step of the way...our concern is, Can the priest come in and take our checkbook? We have a substantial amount of money in our account, around $11,000. This money was raised by the kids, for the kids. Does anyone know the legal rights of a Catholic School PTO? Our first meeting will be this Wednesday, Sept 3. I am worried that Father or someone from the finance committee will be at this first meeting and demand what belongs to the kids. We have many events scheduled throughout the year...to make it a great last year, but we are still praying and trying to be positive that maybe the decision can still be reversed. Please pray for us too. Any info that you can share with me would be greatly appreciated. Has anyone experienced this before? Can I fight for our rights? Do we have any rights? Our parish has given this priest everything from a newly constructed home, new furniture and anything else you can think of. We just want the kids to be able to keep the money they worked so hard to earn.

Thanks, and blessings to all you and all that you do for the kids!!

First, you need to find out if this will be your last year, and why!!
If this is your last year, I would spend ALL the money on the students! Assemblies, field trips, field day, evening family events, etc. IF, there is any money left over, donate it somewhere.

I would not have any fundraisers this.

Sounds like your priest is being greedy. A newly bulit house, new furniture... our pastor gets a housing allowacne and buys his own furniture!

At our school, the money raised by the parent group belongs to the parent group and is used to benifit the studnets. We are our own group, with our own account.

Good luck!

If you are your own 501c(3) with an EIN number then you are your own entity and he has no legal standing to take your money. If you operate under the school--(i.e. they write the checks, hold the account etc) then I suspect they can do whatever they care to with the money in the account.
That's why so many of us recommend independent status.

d

We have our own checkbook separate from the school. I am not sure about the 501c(3) with an EIN number, but I will check on that. Is that something the bank would be able to tell me? This all started last year when we were forced to go to the Finance Committee and report to them everytime we spent anything over $250. The last president did this each month, because the bills were always higher than $250. I do not want to do this this year and am hoping that I can research our account and find out that I don't have to. Yes the money is for the kids, but unfortunately I am afraid it is not going to work that way. As for the fundraisers this year, we are doing candy sales because the kids look forward to that one. The rest we have put on hold until we find out the future of the school. We are a school of 85 kids and it is going to be difficult spending $11,000 this year, but we sure are going to have a good time trying. Thanks for your input and please keep praying for a miracle for us! Iam sure it is not God's plan to close our school!

I hope this works out for you.

What I've heard repeatedly from friends with children in Catholic schools is that the PTO is not usually an independent group. It's usually more of a specialized committee firmly under the umbrella of the church. And while many of the activities are the same as a traditional PTO, often their fundraising efforts also go towards operating expenses, repairs, tuition supplements, etc.

Your situation could be different, but I'm afraid it's not based on your details about past reporting and scrutiny.

But remember, the parents of any school have the right to be heard. Your power is probably in harnessing that power. I would imagine many of the parents are also church members. If they raised funds for a specific purpose, they have a valid expectation of how the funds are then used.

Good luck!

Does your group have Bylaws? If so, what do they indicate regarding control of the group and/or finances.

But in the end, dIf has explained the realty of it. If you are independant, then he likely can't just take your $. If you are not independant, but instead fall under the control of the "school", then you might have issues. The Bylaws point could work for you, even if under the school. If your Bylaws indicate that the Executive Committee controls the funds, then you can fight.

My best recommendation would be to run the year as you normally would, but with the possible plans of having one amazing end of year event in the case that the school will be closing. The idea would be to go crazy and spend all of the funds. I'm talking jugglers and magic and music, etc. You get the idea! If the "Principal" would not be supportive, then hold it away from school. See if an organization would be willing to provide the use of their grounds for free or a minimal fee. You could have a huge cook out, have a petting zoo, water slides, etc. I'm sure we here could come up with a great way to spend $10K to have an amazing event. This way it goes to the kids, as it should, and not to the "non-school supporter", as you wrote.

Good luck,
PresidentJim

The bank can tell you want EIN/tax id number was used to open the account. In some cases, a PTO officer used his/her own SSN (bad idea!). If not, then you can ask the IRS whose EIN it is; hopefully, it is a number assigned to your PTO, not one for the diocese.

You may or may not have 501c3 tax-exempt status for that EIN, but that's probably not important for this discussion (whether you should have filed to request 501c3 and/or filed non-profit tax returns for the last few years is a separate question).

It may be one piece, but unfortunately, simply having your own EIN doesn't make you an independent organization. Anyone can get a new EIN with a phone call. It's going to depend more on your mission and how you are set up to operate. Your originating documents (constitution, bylaws, charter, etc.) are a key factor. But also the policies under which you operate.

If you have your own EIN, formation documents that support your independence and are a 501(c)(3) in place -that's very strong evidence you "should" be an independent organization. However - even then other factors come in to play, because it's not like there's some magical enforcement police out there who will tell the diocese you are right and they are wrong. This is going to be seen as an internal issue that you must solve yourselves.

You are not without power if you have the support of the parents, but it's unlikely to be a black and white situation.

Good luck!

You don't have to have 501c3--get incorporated and get the EIN, which doesn't take so much to do. You need bylaws to say what happens if the school closes. Update bylaws you have or make your own. Then no one can shut you down, but they can shut you out of the school.

Make sure his name is not on the account. You should have signers for your account.

Yes his name is on the account and they also had me put my name and social security number on the same paper. Does anyone know why I had to put my ss on account? That makes me nervous. When I checked the bylaws it states that any amount over $250.00 that we spend we have to seek finance commitee approval. Sounds like we are going to be SOL...thanks for all your help