Wow! I only dream of having a budget like those mentioned here. This year we have $150 to spend on Staff Appreciation Week. We supplement our luncheon with food donations from parent volunteers. We give little "Poem" gifts each day that week. We used Box Top Funds to purchase classroom supplies such as crayons, markers and construction paper the second semester since many of our students have depleted their back to school supplies. While they deserve so much more, our PTA has few parent members and fundraising in this area is difficult. We do the best we can and are appreciated by our staff!

I agree that seems to be very generous. Not knowing what your budget is, it is hard to compare what is being spent on the kids vs. the teachers. At our school, we have around 325 students and about 52 teachers and support staff. Our yearly budget is around $15K, and we have budgeted for them around $400 for Christmas Gifts, and $700 for Teacher Appreciation Week. We did go over this year on Christmas Gifts, but we knew that and planned that it would come out of the TAW funds. We bought Umbrellas for each of the staff, which was a little over our per person amount for each of them (our teachers and staff are all included in these $$ amounts).
For Teacher Appreciation Week, we bring in a coffee cart one day at the beginning of the day, and they get their coffee and we also do some muffins or fruit to go along with it.
We also do a little candy with a saying how much they mean to us, and we have something special planned for them each day of the week.
By far their favorite is the Car Wash that we do at the end of the week. We have parents come and wash each of their cars while school is in session, and the teachers just think that is the greatest thing.
We have a mission to spend as much of the PTO funds on the kids - on Spirit Shirts for each and every student (and staff) every year, a classroom amount for each teacher to use for their kids, Field Trips, Field Day, Drama Club, and raising funds for some playground pieces, free popcorn on Popcorn Friday, Family Nights and more.
While I realize that our teachers and staff do deserve to be recognized, those kids (and parents) work awfully hard to raise those funds, and I feel like it should go to them and the things that they need and if we had extra money, we would definitely put it toward technology and other things to benefit the children. The teachers have really appreciated the time and thoughts we have put into their gifts each year.

That seems like a lot but is this the only time you do a teacher gift? We give teachers $125.00 to start the year, $25.00gift card at holiday break and then a luncheon for all staff and a gift with a budget of 1500 total for that.

Wow, those sure are handsome gifts for the teachers. I look at your situation two ways: 1. If you have the funds and are able to afford to purchase and spend that much money on the teachers - go for it. But in my opinion, it is too much. You're spoiling them. Most teachers are simple and would appreciate the small, thoughtful gifts and a luncheon. 2. You mentioned that the money being spent on the expensive stuff could be used elsewhere like, technology, equipment and software. I agree and think that's where the money should be spent. Parents work hard to raise or donate the money to be used primarily for the children. Anything extra or leftover could be used for the teachers.