I am an active PTO mom to a 1st & 3rd grader, with a stepdaughter in high school, who lived with her mom during middle school years, so I haven't, yet, experienced Middle School PTO & fundraising.

Last night, I attended the (7th/8th grade) Middle School PTO meeting, though, to talk to them about the possibility of their allowing the elementary schools to have Market Day sales as well. For years, now (ever since we started Market Day in our district, I think), Market Day sales have been kept exclusive to Middle School PTO, since that is their only major fundraiser.

I went in with the idea that I would offer them a percentage of our sales totals, to offset any sales that they lost due to parents from our school changing their pickup from Middle School to our school.

Then, I sat through the meeting. It was the first meeting of the year - the one in which the budget is presented & discussed.

Yikes! I had no idea... They are broke. Literally. No floating/working funds to speak of. And, the proposed budget, even though it was almost 3 times their working capital, was bare-bones to begin with - a few hundred to each 'teaching team', a little bit for athletic scholarships, barely enough money to cover a few buses for field trips, etc. There is nothing to cut.

And, then, they discussed the difficulties of fundraising for PTO at that age/grade level. Kids just aren't as excited to sell & earn money for the school. Parents are burned out. Families are splitting their loyalties & contributions between schools. Student council takes on some of the usual fundraisers as learning experiences for the kids. Nothing from PTO makes it home in backpacks...

So, when it came to my turn to speak, I let them know what I had originally wanted to say, but told them that, after hearing their unique problems, now, instead, wanted to find out how we could help them!

Our elementary aged students will be at the Middle School before we know it (and, as we're making changes to our district & expanding Middle School to include 6th graders in a few years, it will be even sooner!). I would like for there to be a comfortable cushion in the Middle School PTO budget when I get there with my kids. I would like for the Middle Schol PTO to be able to provide well for the students who are there now. I would like for the Middle School PTO to provide well for & keep motivated the teachers & staff who will be teaching my kids in a very short time.

So, what I'd like to discuss here - what I'd like to hear from other involved parents are:

1) What fundraising issues are unique to middle school (junior high) PTOs?

2) How do you overcome them?

3) Have any Elementary school PTOs partnered with their district's Middle School PTO in some way to help fundraise for the Middle School under the idea that our kids will, one day soon, be attending the middle school, too? If so, how was that accomplished.

As it is now, I plan to propose that our PTO run a Market Day pickup at our school, with all proceeds going to the Middle School. It's an easy enough fundraiser to do and we may have more sales if the pickup is at our local school. And, I hope that our example would serve as one for the rest of the schools in our district or, at least, open up a dialogue about this problem.