wow..must be a heck of a teacher apprecaition week! It sounds like your hands may be tied at this point but for next year when it comes time for your general membership to approve the budget I would make sure that it comes out, that huge amount of money that goes into the teachers. Overall there si $15,000 of your total budget spent on them, do you guys do any fun free things for families at night? Just curious because if you are giving so much to staff what are you giving families? If it isn't alot I would be very worried about what the feelings would be that the kids and families aren't seeing any thing back. What else do you spend money on?

Wow! I am amaized at your budget to begin with! How do you get a budget like that! We are begining next year with $5000. Our current PTO has spent down every cent and is carrying over the minimum amount. Being a new PTO President next year..I have got to figure out how I am going to work with that budget. This board did not get a budget approved by the membership...actually they did not get anything approved by the membership... for years it has been the same ladies and they have done things their way for years..never getting a vote from the membership on anything! It has been a fight just to get a "real" election this year. I look forward to all the new discussions of the new PTO boards and Presidents. I use this site faithfully to get answers to questions.

I can trully feel for you as well. I too am about to become President of our PTO, but have a much MUCH smaller budget to deal with. It seems to me that money is always spent in some gray areas that makes other things seem so much more important. Maybe instead of laying it out on the table as " stop spending on teachers this money is for the kids" find ways that teachers can still feel appreicated or " appreciative" of what the money is spent on.. such as extra supplies the classrooms may need or maybe new playgound equipment such as new playground balls or swings or maybe a new copier or extra copier for the teachers. Maybe a nice appreciation gift for the teachers could be something like a fresh look to the teacher's lounge that isnt a budget buster instead of lunch on the PTO every month. Some teachers may grumble a bit at first because they have grown accustomed to the spoiling, however in the long run if they see your groups interest is trully based for the kids and the school's enrichment they should put that grumbly attitude behind them.
By the way as an after thought the appreciatiion fo rthe matience staff... we do that too ( we have 11 lunch room people and maitence staffers) we host a small luncheon but for gifts we take up donations from the TEACHERS and split the money betoween them.. so far each year each staffer seems to get about $100.00 (all without PTO dishing money out).. just a thought good luck

I'm not an expert on this by any means, and I'm about to become president of the PTO at our school too. I think that one of the president's responsibilities is to make sure the group is moving in the right direction and focusing on the appropriate priorities. Perhaps if members were made aware of the actual numbers being spent on teacher appreciation in comparison with educational spending there might be a general uprising that the principal couldn't ignore. Even though the members approved the budget, how many of them really know what each line item means or have even looked at the budget? My guess is that the membership trusts the board to put together a good budget, and they just go with your recommendation. I have found that if you highlight an issue that has been just lying around, then people pay attention to it and want to fix it.

Is your budget meeting a closed door meeting with just the new board and the Principal, or is it a meeting where anyone can come? If others can come, bring a few like minded parents in who aren't afraid to speak up. Just for comparison, our teacher appreciation budget is $500 out of a $25K budget. That's only 2% of our budget compared to your 8%. Even at 2% of your budget, $1500 could go a long way to make your staff feel appreciated (although the $100 gift certificates would have to go away.) We have a fantastic teacher/staff appreciation chairperson. She puts on a lunch or breakfast at least every quarter, and she does something nice for them every month. The difference is that for meals, parents volunteer to donate food items and prepare the food. She did a baked potato bar lunch in March, she is planning a breakfast of casseroles and muffins in May, in October a couple of ladies made some really cute Halloween treats, and she is a very thrifty shopper.

In short, I'd say that getting a group of parents together with you as their spokesman can help your principal see that the people raising the money are not happy with the way it is being spent, and perhaps that will convince him to go along with a change. Also, with a thrifty chairperson, a reduction in funds does not have to mean a reduction in services. Good luck!

I am about to be elected Pres. after serving on the Board this year. I will have two new and two returning Board members under me. The two that are returning, and myself, have struggled all year with the way our organization spends $ for teacher recognition etc. We have about a 75k budget with almost 6k designated for stuff like teacher breakfasts & lunches during conferences, national education week recognition (gifts, food etc). We are also for some reason expected to put on a big luncheon at the end ofthe year for our business partners. (This is annoying because their "contract" is with the County, not the PTA!! I think the County luncheon is plenty of thanks, but I digress.) Teacher Appreciation week is also separate from this 6k budget. (re: more $$!!) The "Committee Chair" (I say this becaue she does everything herself with no committee) is pretty much allowed carte blanche with this money and refuses to do anything "cheesy". Well to her saving money is cheesy. She recently gave each of our 4 custodians $100 GCs for Custodial Appreciation Week- without our prior knowledge, because it was in her budget & if the Board asks any questions of how she is spending $$ the Principal jumps all over us. (The Committee Chair does not ever give us a breakdown of exactly what she is buying, she just says that "So and so was recognized last month".) The Principal is part of the problem. She met with the "Committee Chair" alone at the beginning of the year and told her what the PTA was to do re: teacher recognition. And anytime there is a question about the spending the Board gets yelled at. The Principal also thinks she needs to be at EVERY Board meeting and gets upset when we communicate without her input.

I am very frustrated that many things are going un-done so that we can feed teachers a couple times a month & buy them gifts & gift cards. I do not think that the general membership would take kindly to this knowledge but whenever I bring it up I am told that "they approved this budget they must be okay with it". No one wants the membership to know specifics like the fact that the Committee Chair just bought $275 worth of McDonalds biscuits in for the teachers because it was conference day & teachers couldn't get out. Umm hello...can they not pack their own food like everyone else would have to do? That money is supposed to be for the KIDS!!!

(BTW we have a 5k teacher request fund for materials etc. and a 4k fund for educational prgramming if that gives you any idea of the scope of the problem.)

I am appalled that I am going to be dealing with this and I need any and all advice that you have for me. I don't want to start WWIII or have every teacher in the school angry at me, but enough is enough. Please help. We have a budget meeting after the May election and I need to figure out how to scale back without making the Principal really, really angry. (I am sure the Committee Chair will just quit which will be fine.) Thank you so much for your help.