Dear Fellow PTOers-

This will be lenghtly, and apologize, but there are many facts that I want to include so that you get the entire picture.

We have a very small PTO with the same core people for the last 6 years. The same people were instrumental in creating PTO. We wrote the bylaws, got our 501c3 status, are incorporated, and have a tax exempt certificate with the state. I have been the President since the beginning; been reelected each year, since no one else wanted the job.
The past two years have been difficult to say the least because the new principal and I have a personality conflict, for lack of any other way to describe it. I have been the SAC Chair, PTO President, preferred substitute, (almost had a completely booked calendar at this one school), volunteer and mentor coordinator, and served on any and every committee that was ever asked of me. I have been at the school for a total of 10 years, and planned to retire at the end of this year because my son will be moving on to middle school.
About a month ago, I was called in for a meeting with our school's administration and a couple people from the district because the principal had gotten a report from someone that accused me of asking a teacher to fill out a parent survey. It is important to note at this time that I did NOT ask this individual to do this. I instead went to the person for a grammar question about what I was writing on MY survey. He misunderstood and thought that not only had I asked him to do a parent survey, that I had actually "told him what to write". During this meeting with the "brass", all the issues from the past year that from my point of view were all worked out between the principal and me were brought up and rehashed. After going over each thing again, and my reaffirming that I understood and we all wanted to work together and move forward to get through the end of the year, the meeting ended.
One of the issues that arose was that I had a district email account that they said I wasn't supposed to have. I said that was fine, and I willingly gave it up. What I didn't know was that I would not have time to get all the important emails, documents created in googe docs, and other documents and forms that I had saved on my directory copied.
The next afternoon, I realized that I didn't have access anymore. I called the principal and left her a message and asked her to please find out if could have temporary access to these things. My message included that it was the end of the year and we were working on our biggest fundraiser of the year and I needed access to those documents so we didn't have to recreate them. After 3 and a half hours with no response, I sent her a heartfelt text. I just wanted her to respond to me. After the meeting the day before where I had been raked over the coals (this type of thing has been going on for 2 years-- she takes every opportunity to "put me in my place"- I was not a school employee even though for the previous 8 years I had been included as part of the family. I earned my place for all that I had done.) My text said that I didn't know why it had come to this, and that I just wanted to get through the end of the school year and leave with the dignity and respect that I had brought and earned. I ended it with "I don't want to be where I'm not wanted. You win. I'll quit". Of course, I still didn't hear one word from her.
The next day, she called a couple of the members of PTO into her office who are employed at the school and told them that I had resigned. Since they are very close friends of mine, they told her that my text was not intended to be a resignation. At some point, she has told at least one of these individuals that there will not be a PTO next year, that they will take off a year to regroup.
The following day, I was subbing and went to her assisitant administrator and told her that I wanted to meet with them again; that I had not resigned. She said that she'd let the principal know. Over the course of the next few days, I tried to speak to the principal 6 times. Meanwhile, she sends one of my friends, pto member, and district employee to the bank with a letter from her, authorizing the bank to take me off the bank account and put the other members name in my place. (Our PTO bylaws AND the district policy prohibit district employees to be signers on the bank account). Our treasurer nor any other PTO board member or general member knew of this. (The district and our bylaws, {which were written in accordance to district policy} requires 2 signatures on each check, but neither can be a district employee--the bank, however only requires one signature) Only the treaurer's and my names were on the signature cards at the bank.
On the 6th attempt to speak to her, I finally got a chance to ask her "How can we fix this". Her answer was pretty much that it was Friday afternoon, it had been a long week, and she just was "not doing this today". That was the very last time I spoke to her.
That night, I got home late after staying at school to hand out the cookie dough fundraiser ( was the very last one to leave) and there was a letter in my mailbox. It was "notes" from the infamous meeting with the "brass". They were grossly inaccurate! It was typewritten, and not signed by anyone. I immediately made a copy and started marking my copy up to reflect my accounting of what happened during the meeting.
For the remaining weeks of school, I was scheduled to sub 21 out of 27 days at this school. As I stated before, I have been the preferred sub for quite some time. My calendar was in the office and the teachers knew that it was there and sometimes fought over it!
On Monday, I found out that I would be able to work the days I had scheduled, but no more could be added. So I had the next 3 days off. I had arranged by this time to get access to my documents, so I spent one day doing that. Since I was concerned about many things... mostly the bank account, I made an appointment with the superintendent to discuss the many issues. I submitted about 20 pages of typed of my accounting of what had happened over only the past year complete with supporting documents before my meeting with him. When I entered his office, he told me that he hadn't had time to read it over, but he had made time for me and to just tell him what was on my mind. I went over much of what I wanted to, but pretty much did not get any resolution. He defended and made excuses for the principal, citing that it probably wouldn't be how he would've handled things, but she was a new principal and she was still learning. He told me that she didn't have to have a reason for me to not sub at her school, that she could take me off the list. I indicated that she had allowed for me to keep the days that I had scheduled, and I was grateful for that because the teachers booked me way in advance for a reason. The main reason I was there was about PTO's bank account though. I asked him if the district had authorized the principal to send a school employee to the bank with no other PTO representation. He said he didn't know, but he'd get back to me.
The director of human resources was also present during that meeting. When his next appointment arrived, he asked us to take the meeting to her office. In her office, I asked her if she would please talk to the principal so that we could please get back on the same page. She told me that she would, but she already knew what the outcome would be. She said very smugly that the principal "called my bluff" and had washed her hands of me. That my text to her was my resignation and that she was done. She also told me that I was not welcome at the school as a sub any longer and that if I wanted to visit, I could sign in the office as a parent. She said that all of my sub jobs had been removed.

Over the weekend, based on what has happened so far, I composed a note to the PTO executive board Dear PTO Executive Members and Committee Chairs:

[

I regret to be contacting you under these circumstances, but you should know what's going on, and you should hear it from me. The bottom line is that Ms. ___ and I are failing to communicate. Our relationship is, regrettably, beyond repair. To be clear, I did not resign. She is not accepting that and is treating the situation like I have, by:
She sent ____ to the bank to take my name off the account and put hers on (Bay district policy and our By-Laws state: District employees should not be authorized signers)
She has removed my name as a contact for pto and sac information.
She has canceled all the sub jobs at __ that I had booked until the end of the year (21 days) and banned me from subbing at __.
She has also told___that there will not be a PTO next year
None of the above have I heard from her or administration
These unfortunate events have been a humiliating experience for me. Because of this, I do not feel welcome and do not have it in my heart to participate in anything more to help _______. It is a sad realization that it all will end like this, after 10 years of giving it all I've got, and more.

Due to recent happenings, I would like for you to consider dissolution of the_________Parent Teacher Organization, Inc. and cease all Fundraising by _____.


I would like to request a general meeting to be held 14 days from today, May 11th. Subject of meeting: Dissolution of ________Parent Teacher Organization, Inc.
The time and location to be determined. (see Article V, Meetings, Item C, Special Meetings)
Article V

Attached is an up-to date list of our members, including voting members, provided to me yesterday by our Secretary, _________. See below for relevant By-Law excerpts.

From Page 6:
Article VIII, Monetary Policy/Banking

7. Two authorized signatures shall be required on each check. Authorized signers shall be the Treasurer in addition to another signer designated by the Board. District employees shall not be authorized signers.
7.
From Page 6:
Article VIII, Monetary Policy/Banking
10. Upon the dissolution of the organization, any remaining funds shall be used to pay any outstanding bills and with the membership's approval, any remaining funds shall be spent for the benefit for the students at ________Elementary School

From Page 8
Article XII Dissolution
The organization may be dissolved by 2/3 vote of active members present at a general meeting. Fourteen days written notice of the dissolution shall be provided to the active membership.

Also in the letter, I proposed what to do with the funds that we had in our account. In my mind, I was still the acting president, but just in case the EBOARD didn't see my as their president anymore, I could call a special meeting as a general member.

That was on a Friday. That afternoon, my friends got called in again (fellow PTO Board who are also employees of the school). During this meeting, they were told that the superintendent was dissolving our PTO and that an auditor would be in the following week to take over the books. The following Monday, I got a call from the superintendent asking if it was true that I had called a meeting to dissolve the PTO that afternoon. He said that he had been sent a copy of the email that I was dissolving the PTO and someone thought that he needed to know about it. He said that he had not even looked at it. I told him that no, our regular (insert biggest fundraiser of the year--Festival) meeting was scheduled, and our already scheduled general meeting was that afternoon. I told him that I had written my "official letter of resignation" for PTO and planned to give it to PTO that afternoon. I told him that I did not want to dissolve PTO, but if there was going to be no PTO next year, then I felt that the money needed to be spent on the kids. I told him that I had presented the idea to the EBOARD and it was up to them to make that decision.
I had also spoken to the MAIN sponsor of our festival because someone had also called him anonymously to tell him what had been going on and that he may want to pull out completely and cancel the festival.
At the FESTIVAL meeting that afternoon ( we had them every Monday), we all agreed that we were there for the KIDS. I was asked to help them transition into next year and I agreed with the stipulation that it was okay with the principal. They went and asked her and came back and said that she had agreed. Our general meeting went on as planned, we agreed that the next meeting we would hold elections and I officially resigned.
The next week, I found out that the same person that was sent to the bank to change the records, was sent back to close PTO's bank account. Again, with no other PTO representation or knowledge of the occurance. The money was then placed in the school's internal accounts.
The Festival took place the following Saturday. At the end of the day, the administrative secretary had and was counting the money that was raised that day, without the knowledge of any PTO member, except the ONE that they had sent to the bank.
By last Thursday, a lot of people had come to me asking about the money. I simply stated that all I knew was that our account had been closed and it had been put in internal accounts. I was asked what to do. I said that everyone just needed to be at the last general meeting so that elections could take place and the money could be discussed. A reminder had not been sent out about the meeting since I usually did it previously and no one else had stepped up. I asked the secretary to send out a reminder. She ended up calling the office to ask what time the PTO meeting was. I had told her what time it was, but she wanted to verify. She was told that there would be NO PTO meeting. I sent out a text to the EBOARD. None said they knew anything about it. I saw the VP a few minutes later and asked her. She said that she was told that elections would just be held at the beginning of next year. Our ByLaws state that elections will occur at the last general meeting of the year unless otherwise arranged. The PTO EBOARD did not "otherwise arrange". That meeting was scheduled to be this afternoon at 4:30. At the beginning of the year, SAC and PTO scheduled their meetings to be back to back (consisted of many of the same members). On Friday, admin sent out an email that SAC would meet at 4 (was originally scheduled by the SAC to be at 3:30)-- I was not included.
I sent the SAC sec and ADMIN to please excuse me from this last meeting of the year, as I would be out of town (had two graduations on consecutive nights in neighboring states). I also attached my "official letter of resignation" from SAC.

So, as I said, I'm so sorry that it is so lenghtly, but if you've managed to get through-- WHAT WOULD YOU DO?