PTO Today

We have been incorprated this year and she a new principal. We voted on officers had our exative meeting and set a budget set dates for all of our fund raisers. we meet on the first thursday evening of the month. We had our pumkin party the very next day, she asked us to sit down with her she canceled out meeting and our chilli supper. Why she said she thought it was too much for the parents. with halloween only two days before and she cancelled out thursday meeting she said we had nothing to talk about. This is the first time I have ever had to deal with this!! WOW! this was within 6 days of our supper! I had all my dontations set up a resturant gave us the Chilli. The crazy thing is all money went to the Teachers app. day. We give them a lunch and gift card the rest to them! Could yo let me know can she really do this and what should we do. We still thought about having a excutive meeting on the day of our meeting was suppose to on.

Wow, that sucks!

Well, did anyone ask her for more specifics on why she did this? There must be more to it...

The tough thing is, even though you are now independant (congrats!), the event/meeting is at her school and she is in charge of that school. At the same time she has a boss and as such answers to somebody. If she makes drastic changes of this nature, without giving a suitable reason, there is recourse...

Of course upsetting her can make things even worse.

If this had happened to me I would, as President, set up a one on one meeting to discuss the situation. I would have tried to keep the meeting scheduled, even if she was unwilling to allow the event. If she would be unwilling to allow you to meet then you could let her know that you would likely be holding the meeting off of school grounds to discuss (whatever).

Is this a private or public school? The reason I ask is that if this is a private school there is not much recourse. If it is a public school usually certain rooms, such as the cafeteria, can be scheduled with the town (not with the Principal). For example, my daughter's cheerleading team needed a place to practice for Regionals as the local basketball team was already using the gymnasium on Mondays. I talked with the Superintendant's office and found out that anyone can fill out a request to schedule use of a certain area of the school for pretty much any day/time (after hours). Once scheduled it "belongs" to that group, even if the Principal doesn't like it. You may want to (if a public school) ensure that your non-profit organization has the area of the school booked for that first Thursday every month, as well as for all of the events that you wish to run.

of course I have to caution you to be careful as you need to maintain a positive relationship with the Principal in order to do good things for the kids.

I've heard nightmares of Principals who would not allow fliers to go home in backpacks, or would not allow the parents into the school. Hopefully things don't get to this point. While things are still somewhat positive you may want to try to get an e-mail/mailing list going with all of the kids at the school. That way if things continue or deteriorate you have a recourse and can still try to do positive things, even if it ends up having to be off school property.

Lastly, I must again stress that the President needs to talk with the Principal. Maybe explain how by cutting the event the teacher appreciation will not be possible due to insufficient funds. You may need to ensure that the staff understands that the Principal canceled the event that would fund this important program so as to not negatively affect your relationship with the staff.

Good luck and let us know what you find out.

PresidentJim

I think I would take the time to sit down and go through your calendar with the principal. If it was planned without her input as to the dates this may have been a bit of "flexing" to make sure you knew who was in charge of activities at her school. You can regroup and save the rest of the year by a sit down and reassessment of what's going on the rest of the year...
d

Make an appt to sit down and talk in her office. Let her know that although the meetings are in her school and she is supposed to be present, before a decision was announced, she should have asked since there were items on the agenda to discuss. (make sure you have a copy of the planned agenda to show her). Also, let her know the arrangements that were set up with eateries in town and that it may jeopardize the future relationship the PTO has with businesses if there are last minute cancellations. On the other hand--didn't she previously approve this event with you when you went over the schedule of events for the year? If you didn't clear the event with her, then you were going over her head to plan an event without her approval.

However, as President, you could have pushed back stating that plans have been made and advertisements were already distributed. It is not for her to say what is "too much" for the parents since there were already volunteers to work the event.
Having a discussion with her may help to open lines of communication with her and you'll be more likely to check with eachother first.

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Doing it for my one and only ~~ my son!

She did appove this and it was voted on and accepted. She didnt ask she just let us know she did this. we our a public school. I will do this and see if this will help. she is about to lose her whole pto. we are tring to keep a postive attuide.
thanks hope to get more input,
Stephanie

If she is uncooperative and her cancelling has jepordized your relationship with area businesses, you can always speak to her boss. Remind them of all the support the PTO does for the school since their budget doesn't cover such items. All you are asking for is respect and a joint collaboration.

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Doing it for my one and only ~~ my son!