PTO Today

Sentencing comes through for former PTA treasurer convicted of stealing $180,000 (yes — nearly 200 grand!) from her group over 5 year period. Appreciate the fact that other officers and school parents prosecuted and advocated for harsh sentencing. However, looks like the sentence will be one year of home confinement.

There are so many basic tips for solid money management for your PTO or PTA, but here’s one straight from the article: don’t have bank statements mailed directly to treasurer’s home. No way!

Is your group protecting its funds?

Have to give credit to Tennessee authorities for listening and responding to feedback about the 2007 “school support” regulations that came down last year.

Effective July 1, 2008, several clarifications and improvements have been made (Tennessee regs summarized here). The end result: common sense (and parent groupos and kids around the state) win!

In a nutshell, a needed distinction has been made between school funds and school events and parent group funds and parent group events. Parent groups aren’t required to be 501(c)(3)s and funds are not required to be run through the district. Financial best practices still encouraged. Nice.

Wow — $65k is definitely one of the biggest embezzles we’ve seen. This one from a middle school PTA treasurer in California.

Of course, our embezzle blog posts wouldn’t be complete without our plea: please use common sense, basic financial controls.

Had to figure this would happen. School Committee in Massachusetts in hot water after using the PTO-funded emergency phone system to blast a pro-budget override message to all school families.

Several issues: 1) non-profits not allowed to advocate for a certain vote; and 2) Massachusetts election laws may also have been violated.

Technology — these phone trees and email solutions like our PTO Manager tool — is going to make this kind of thing even more tempting. Important that we use it well.

The hits keep coming… and the need for putting common-sense financial controls in place remains as well as the need for the smart investment in parent group insurance.  It’s part of our leadership job to protect these funds.  C’mon folks… you can do this.  Don’t wait. 

Here’s one of our first cases with video.  A Kansas City man (and former PTA president) is confronted by a TV reporter about allegations of a $10,000 theft.  The frustrating fact here? This man was the successor to another leader who stole. Ugh.

And some more embezzle stories:  Maryland PTA treasurer takes $25,000 from her group as part of a larger, $185,000 conviction.  Here, it’s nearly $9,000 missing from an Iowa PTA.

Man, I hope that’s it for the month.

We won’t call it our monthly theft update, but sometimes it seems that way. 

Here,  a former Florida PTO treasurer is arrested and charged with theft of $15,000 from her group.  And right along with it is story of ex-PTA treasurer in Washington state getting jail time (good) for stealing nearly $8,000 from her group.

Worth repeating:  no group is immune.  There are best practices you can take to significantly reduce your chances of being victimized.  And, of course, getting insurance for your parent group is a no-brainer.

I’m surprised (because the PC police usually win) and happy that this PTA in Kansas is sticking to its guns and allowing alcohol at its off-campus, adults-only fundraising auction.

Let’s see… parents getting together, having a nice time, supporting the school.  Yeah, sounds awful.  Perhaps the lesson to the protesting kids could be that adults can have a nice time out, have a drink or two and be really responsible.  And when those kids get older, hopefully they will be just as responsible (and support our schools), too.

What would your group do in this spot?

This could be the start of a trend. First Tennessee sent down some rules from on-high this past summer.  Now the Alabama Department of Ed. is trying to codify some policies across all its many districts. The Alabama rules seem well done.  Groups need to have an EIN and follow strong accounting provisions and bond their treasurers.  All good advice and nice to see the state providing the guidelines (and not over-stepping in an effort to exert too much control).

Interested in your feedback on this one and if it’s happening in your state.

Hmmmmm…. hate to see this one. The Connecticut Attorney General’s office has opened up an investigation of a local Catholic High School and QSP/Reader’s Digest (the fundraising guys) over a Casino Night fundraiser.  Looks like group was using real casino-like equipment that may have been provided by QSP.  I’m betting that there’s more to this story and that perhaps the casino wheel was part of the reward at the end of a successful magazine drive, but we’ll see. 

Raffle/gambling rules are different in every state and often very hard to figure out.  Usually, good-faith efforts by good causes get a pass.  Clearly, though, groups can push it too far and wind up with some ’splainin’ to do. 

So I was interviewed for this embezzle story from an Arkansas paper. Reporter did a good job of capturing most of the basics (PTA dues structure, PTA membership decline), but missed one really key element of the story. Arkansas state PTA leaders make the really bold claim that being a PTA would have prevented this PTO’s embezzle loss. All I suggested was that reporter do a google search on “PTA + Embezzle” and another on “PTO + Embezzle” The clear conclusion: embezzlement is an equal opportunity challenge for parent groups. No doubt. Related link: All of these stories make it more clear than ever that your PTO should get insurance.