PTO Today

There are a couple of elementary schools in our district that have what they call PTOs. These organizations are basically boards that raise money for the schools and appear to answer to the principals of those schools.

First, what is it that determines whether the organization is a under a separate umbrella and does not answer to the school? Is it the organization as a 501C organization? Likewise, if the school does control this group, where is that direction found? In the by-laws?

Are By-laws required in all cases?

At least one of these organizations seem to have appointed their own members/officers. Is there a way to control that?

Do these boards have to provide copies of their by-laws to other parents when requested?

Thanks

I don't think Bylaws are necessarily "required", though most definitely recommended. They provide guidance on how to run the group. They are often a way for an independant organization to tell administration that we "can't" do something they want. For example, many group's Bylaws indicate that an activity must benefit all of the children, so when a Principal or staff member request that the group fund a club, the Bylaws could be referenced as to why it is not permitted, if the group decides against supporting it...

In regards to independant status, that's the 501(C)3 thing. Being independant means that you "can" control your own group, but again it all dependa on what your group decides and possibly the Bylaws used.

I believe that the majority of groups are independant 501(C)3 and have a set of Bylaws indicating that they control themselves, with guidance from the school administration...

Also, usually, a group's Bylaws must be available to all possible members. So for a school PTO, all parents or guardians of children attending the school, or any school staff member, should have the right to view the Bylaws...

In regards to "controlling" members/officers, this is one of those things that would be controlled via the Bylaws. Most Bylaws indicate how often elections are held, who is allowed to run, who can vote, etc...

Hope this helps,
PresidentJim

Thanks for explaining it to me.

If they answer to the principal, then they may not be independent (I think the term used on these boards is "parent teacher committee" (PTC).

In our district, any donations to the schools directly must be approved by the town's School Committee, and expenses must be paid through the financial system. PTOs sort of work around that: we don't have to vote to approve accepting a check from here or there (eg, the $7 checks for t-shirts for the chorus, which the PTO aggregated into one check to the vendor). And at the end of the year, the PTO can make a donation to the school that then does get voted on by the School Committee. (The vote is a technicality for the PTO, I think, but you could imagine that if some controversial political group wanted to make a donation to support teaching of their views, the School Committee needs the ability to reject it.)

We are working on updating our PTO bylaws. Our PTO consist of parents, other guardians, teachers and principals from two elementary schools within the same school district. We have one secretary who has been the PTO secretary for numerous years. She is a paid secretary at one of the elementary schools who currently has no relatives within the elementary schools. She does a good job for the PTO but seems to be controlling at times to the point that sometimes it seems that the elementary school she works for is getting more benefits. Can/should this be allowed?

It's up to your organization and dependent on what your bylaws prescribe. (And you can change/update your bylaws if desired and if you get a proper majority vote.)

I belonged to one PTO where membership was open to all teachers/staff plus parents/guardians of current students. Any member could be an officer.

For another PTO, school/district employees could not hold one of the 5 elected officer positions (including secretary). There were several teacher/staff rep roles and many other positions such as chairing a committee or T-shirt coordinator where they could serve, but not the [B][I]elected[/I][/B] positions. Each way worked fine for the respective organization.