We have one fundraiser at the beginning of the year. The money the PTO has budgeted for programs and events comes off the top. The rest is allocated to the schools.

Teachers, staff, principals and even parents submit allocation requests to the allocation committee. The committee is made up of an equal number of parents and teachers. The committee decides what they think should be funded and makes a prioritized list of the approved items. This list is submitted to the general PTO for approval.

The first line item is always what we call a "teacher stipend," which is a designated amount of money each teacher can spend on whatever he/she needs for the classroom.

If the dollar amount of things approved exceeds the amount raised that year, line items are funded according to the order on the list.


Regular teacher "wish lists" for things like tp rolls or special craft items or whatever are posted by teachers on their websites or sent home in their classroom newsletters. The PTO is not involved in these.

I am replying here rather than in the 'Teachers don't volunteer' thread.

We call our disbursement system a 'Wish List'. We did this for 2 reasons -- first, so it's easier to say 'no' and second, to encourage people to ask for things even though they might think it is too expensive.

The request flows like this:

PTO Member (faculty, staff, parent, whomever) submits a request

FORM

Request is logged and classified by PTO (in budget or 'general' request)

Requests are passed to the principal. She approves or denies the appropriateness of the item. Sometimes, she denies things because she can make the purchase from the school budget.

Principal approved requests are discussed at the next board meeting

Items in-budget are OK'd for payment or reimbursement at this board meeting

Items outside of the budget are either added to the agenda for the next general meeting or held to be reviewed again at the next board meeting. We delay requests either for lack of information (we want to shop around) or for lack of funds (if we OK'd it, we could not buy it yet anyway)

Requests brought before membership are either OK'd or postponed to the next meting. Parents cannot deny a request, though we could postpone indefinitely if it came to that.

Once an item is approved at a meeting, we reimburse or make the purchase, as funds are available.

JHB - I would love to see a copy of the wish list you send home. We are trying to put one together at my school as well! Could you email it to me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.? Thank you!

Aside from whatever the PTO bought, we used to publish teacher wishlists and send them home. In our case, we gave them a form where they could check off commonly requested items and add their own - listing about 6.

Then we made up a chart. It was formatted sort of like a calendar with each teacher's name being in a block and about 6 bullets under it. 7 rows - one for each grade (K-5), then one for the areas like PE, Music, Art. (or 6 rows and we stuck PE, Music, Art wherever there was space).

It fit on one page front and back. We encouraged parents to look at the whole list, not just their child's class in case they had something laying around or destined for Goodwill.

This was usually smaller things like recyclables (egg cartons, fabric scraps, yarn), reams of colored paper, extra class supplies, stickers, etc. Someone might list a CD or magazine subscription, but not real big items.

Our first year, we did a wish lists for the teachers at both the schools we support. We basically told them to look through two catalogs and to pick what they wanted up to about $125 each. We did request that it be non-consumables, no pencils or glue, etc. The items also needed to stay in-class or school, which was good because we had two teachers retire at the end of that school year and they just passed along the items we had purchased for them. We just put the catalogs in the staff lounge with a note saying what to do. We gave them about two weeks and then put a notice up that they only had a few days to complete their list. It was a big hit!
We now have classroom grants as a line item in our budget. The only requirement is that a teacher come to our PTA meeting to ask for the money in person and prepare a few sentences telling us what their request is. Pretty simple and works nicely.

We do two wish lists. One is for the PTO to use and has big ticket items that will benefit the whole school or at least entire grade levels. The second is for individual teachers. They put down items that need to be replenished throughout the year like glue, kleenex, Clorox wipes, and other things like that. We these lists home with the students and parents can donate items if they are interested. It's a nice little extra and helps the teachers not use up their yearly allottment for these types of things. That money can then go for books and other learning materials.