PTO Today

If you’re hanging around on ptotoday.com, then you likely already understand and value the work of PTOs. But it sure is nice when the regular ol’ media gets the story right, too. That’s what happened with this Ohio feature about all the good work being done and support being provided by the many PTOs in its region. Love it.

Thanks to Lowe’s (and the Toolbox for Education grant program in which PTO Today is proud to play a role), a ton of good work is getting done at schools all across the country.

Here’s another example, as this PTA in southern Illinois gets $5,000 for a playground revamp. Cool stat from the article: Lowe’s and the Toolbox program will give more than $6.5 million to schools and PTOs and PTAs through the program this year alone. Honestly, Lowe’s doesn’t get enough credit (and they get quite a bit!) for this commitment.

This stinks. This group saved for years for a new school sign, paid a (too) large deposit, and now the sign company is gone. Poof.

My read: yes,l I realize the local vendor was only a franchisee of the national Sign-a-Rama chain, but that parent company needs to do the right thing here. There is a connection.

Better news: we have some great, reputable school sign vendors in our School Signs yellow pages.

Jon Carson over at the cMarket blog shares some interesting early-returns data on school auctions this year. The upshot: no big surpirse — looks like the big, big donations and the big, big bids are down a bit this fall. But thankfully, broad support for the lower-level items seems to be holding steady.

How are your results going?

So I went off on this on the SchoolFamily.com Blog, but it deserves even closer attention over hear on ptotoday.com, because this kind of nonsense can do real harm to our groups. We have to make sure that the wellness regulations going on retain a sense of sanity.

Does it make sense to limit soda machine hours and make sure kids have water as an option? Sure. But the old traditional bake sale isn’t the cause of obesity. And a discussion of a wholesale banning of all kinds of foods (foods — like hot dogs and a slice of pizza and dessert after lunch and a cookie at a bake sale — that the vast majority of parents feel are fine) has to include a discussion of the harm that can and will do to the good works of PTOs and PTAs and similar good organizations.

Who better to be in that discussion than parents and parent group leaders? If the regulations have gone too far in your town, it’s Ok to re-open them. Talk to your principal. Make sure your school board knows that sanity is OK.

Like the community spirit of this local parent-serving effort. Local PTO partners with Visting Nurses Association to bring flu shots right to school setting.

We’re seeing this more and more these days from individual groups, and — as often happens — these good grass-roots ideas tend to bubble up into full-blown organized efforts. PTAs, for example, can do something similar through this program. I suspect we’ll be seeing more of these national-scale through-schools flu efforts coming, too. It’s the perfect place to reach high numbers of involved families.

This trend started before the economy cratered (though reporter makes the connection), but this Michigan piece is still interesting. More and more Michigan groups organizing major community events for their fundraising. Piece profiles several.

How’s your fall fundraiser going? This Lancaster (PA) feature takes a critical look at some early-return fundraising struggles for area schools. My take on the current situation included in the piece.

Will just add a bit to my quotes that made the piece: think one big challenge will be what groups will do if these lower returns continue. There will be great tempation to run another big fundraiser or two. Trouble with that, though, is that more groups than ever will start to suffer from over-fundraising-itis.

I’d rather adjust the budget down if we have to (or work even harder on our one biggy) than lose parents for the long-term by fundraising them to death.

How are your returns so far this year? And what are you doing about it?

Interesting ruling in Iowa, where state Board of Ed tells schools that they can not charge fees for school-day, curriculum-related field trips. Such fees are akin to tuition, rules the Board.

I can see the thinking here. Reminds me of a similar debate over during-school fundraising reward assemblies. I have no problem with all kinds of extra-curriculars, including those that might charge fees. But it does seem that — especially at a public school — that the school day should be open to all… and free.

You agree?

PS — Speaking of field trip funds, Target has a generous field trip grant program that’s worth a look.

This Washington Post column brings up an interesting issue — why are Principals fundraising (especially when they have an active parent group already doing so?

Talk about fundraising burnout! The parents at this school must be buying locks for their wallets. At most well-working schools the goals (and the fundraising) is shared. The idea of parents trying to differentiate between a Principal’s fundraiser and a PTO’s is just not realistic. To parents, it’s all just the school reaching into their pockets again, and — long-term — that’s a recipe for turned off parents and (ironically) lower fundraiser earnings. Not good.

This happening at your school? Why?