PTO Today

we just recenlty had a switch in our playground committee with chair people and all of us decided to raise funds for one more year and purchase something next year well i was talking to the princible and he told me he had went to a meeting and they decided to go ahead and purchase a piece of playground equipment well the new chairperson had no idea about this decision and the meeting they had was with the old chair person.so my question is how can the old chair person make this decision when it is not her job anymore and they are going to the board monday to approve it what can we do to stop this or fix it we really believe it should be held off for one more year and being the a new president for the pto i am not sure about what to tell them.any info would be great thanks

There could be many things affecting the principal's decision so I think your first step would be to have a meeting with him, especially before he goes to the school board meeting.

Right now you are working with hearsay and, boy, have there been plenty of discussions about that on these boards!

Variables to consider:

*Outgoing chairman may like to see the funds she worked so hard to raise be used.

*Item being considered may be exactly what the principal wants and, now that there are enough funds available, thinks it's ok to purchase.

*If this is a great item and the school would love to have it, don't hold back on the purchase because you weren't part of the original meeting.

*Our principal always makes the decision about which playground pieces he would like but they all have to approved by the school board before they're purchased. This makes sense since it is a permanent part of the property and will be there long after we're gone. The only thing our group does is raise the money and keep the princial notified of the balance so he'll know when we finally have enough for the next swingset, slide, basketball net, etc.

__________________
“Some people come into our lives and quickly go. Some stay for awhile and leave footprints on our hearts. And we are never, ever the same.”

The playground equipment the principal wants might be on sale. Having researched playground equip. He may be getting a great deal. Another factor is rising costs. The same piece of equip. may go way up in price next season.

[b]As CC said, talk to your principal.[/b] You have to keep open the lines of communication. With playground equip., the principal should have the final say of what piece is bought because once purchased and installed, it becomes the property of the school. Good luck!

[ 06-22-2006, 12:48 PM: Message edited by: Renee S ]

well the old chair person is the onethat decided to hold off buying anything and the new chair person feels upset because if we would have waited one more year we could have got something better and that we all decided on waiting and then she took over and was setting up some new fundraisers and all of sudden the old chairperson took it upon herself go ahead and get something .and it is not hear say because the new chair person called little tikes them selfs and he said he is expectiong to recieve a po from them tuesday the day after the board meeting and he told her who all attended the meeting and her thing is why she was not told about this because she is the one in charge of the playground committeand the old chairperson is not anymore but i agree with you that she should get ahold of the princible before the meeting and i think she has planned to call him tommarrow .thanks for you advice

renee i agree that he should have a say in this as well but it should have been done a little diff and but he did say they will get it cheaper which is nice i just think that it could have been handled different because the new chair person did not even no what was going on no one bothered to tell her and all this took place after she was elected so she should have been at the meeting as well . thanks

and she would never hold back because she is not part of something just that she is confused on why it happend like it did.but her best bet like u said is to talk to the princible because there may have had a certain reason for doing it this way who know lol guess i will find out tommarrow after she talks to him.i let u guys know thank you

OK, sure, I see your point. It would have been courteous to include the incoming Playground Committee Chairman. When do your officers/chairmen begin their term? For my group, it starts July 1. Either way, whether she's official or not, she should have been included.

It sounds like she has no problem jumping in and getting the right info from the right folks. Good for her!

I'll be anxious to hear the outcome.

__________________
“Some people come into our lives and quickly go. Some stay for awhile and leave footprints on our hearts. And we are never, ever the same.”

The old chair and the new chair both should of been in the meeting and the principal should of made sure of that, too. Let us know the outcome. Good luck.