PTO Today

We have a treasurer who's a hawk with the funds which is great. Pres is signor on acct. VP is not a signor on acct. Now director of preschool has demanded to be put on account as signor as well.. Is this ok? currently there are no bylasws which is now step one obviously but we need to nip in bud before it gets out of control.. We thought the PTO money was not for Pre-School board &/or director to have any access to ??? Need Help-- 1st timer here on & PTO.....

My first instinct is to say no. If you are handling money responsibly, there should be no need for an administrator to be on the account.

NO. Pres and Finance should be signor, not Preschool.

get your bylaws done!

Ask your Principal for insight.

d

VP like the others I wouldn't suggest you head that way...there is an independence that comes with the finances that is important to maintain. I often will defer however, to the principal to make decisions based on money--like who's request for support gets funded etc. This year we have asked her to pick the 2 classrooms we are adopting and have "given" her 2k to spend on special teachers requests. So it is working out that she is included and has a voice but we are the ones with the money access. Since Sept 05 we have put back into the school 31,000 dollars. So everyone seems pretty happy.

dlf

What is the director's reasoning behind her demand that she be able to sign on the account? Is she looking for ease at getting to funds or does she want control over funds being disbursed? Her reasons may shed some light on the direction to go with your by-laws in the disbursement of funds area. Not only should there be two signers for checks, but there should be a whole formal process of approval of purchases and a well-defined paper trail to every transaction. Some people look at being a signer on the checking account as a way to control the funds and that is NOT how it should be.

Also, most (if not all) banks etc will honor your wishes by not allowing a check to come in with only one signature if there are suppose to be two. I personly made that mistake!

I agree with Luv and would want to know what your director is thinking or conserns are before hitting the panic button.

That's definitely a good policy, but our experience has been that you can't count on the banks to honor it. Two I worked with would not take that responsibility. One refused to allow two signatures. I never did understand that one, but we had to change our practices (everything else about the bank was great). So for that PTO, instead of 2 sigs, the treasurer prepared, but could not sign, the checks. So a second person (Pres or VP) provided the signature.

On the original issue...my initial reaction is like those posted - not having her as a signer just because she demands it. (We always had our principal as a signer, but it was [B]our[/B] choice.) However, the fact that it's a "pre-school" throws up a red flag. Is this a public or private school? In either case ([B]especially [/B]if it's private) - is the parent group really independent? Or are they a fundraising and volunteer arm of the school. And whatever the answer to that question - do both sides (parents and administration) see it the same way? Those answers could change things.

If the parent group is raising funds for school operations, scholarships, and to keep tution down, then it's appropriate that the administration have a stronger role than if they are simply helping out with extras.