They have said they are not going to continue as the board. At the end of the last school year, they stated that they would be dissolving the PTO if they didn't get a full slate of new candidates by July 31st. We were able to provide them with a full slate of nominees well before that date.
The bylaws state that if you have the exact number of nominees for each open position that you don't have to hold a formal election, you can just submit the minutes to present the new candidates to the new roles. They planned to submit this on Back to School Night, the day before school started, however they canceled on attending back to school night.
The President called me to cancel the meeting he had scheduled with me that night, of back to school night, in which he was to present the minutes declaring the new candidates elected. He stated that he would just submit the minutes - he didn't actually have to be there and we didn't have to meet.
The following morning, on the first day of school, we were to meet to file the state paperwork for the new board members, however he canceled that meeting as well.
I attempted to follow up with him for 2 days after that, and was told to stop contacting him for now, because their family is stressed. So I asked if another board member could handle the transferring over to the new members, because our first fund raiser was scheduled that following week (now tomorrow) and in order to take money, we need to have things squared away.
Last night, the Principal let me know that the treasurer was going to attempt to get the last outstanding bill paid and close out accounts payable and then contact me today to set up a time to complete all the paperwork and transfer the account. If he did not contact me to do this, we would have to cancel our event tomorrow, because they do not want money going in the account while they are working on the transition (which in all honestly they have hardly spent any time working on, since its been going on starting in May - they just keep avoiding handling things or returning calls or making it to appointments).
He has not reached out to set up a meeting time with me, and our first fundraiser is tomorrow, which I will now have to cancel, with no guarantee of when they will actually take the time to complete this transition.
The fundraiser happens to be an ongoing event every Thursday. We have volunteers scheduled to come in and announcements sent home for students to bring their money in.
This entire time the board and administrations has encouraged me to proceed as if I am already elected in the role; setting up the PTO table at back to school night, addressing the school during the opening speeches and making announcements, and sending fliers home and scheduling events. I have kept the old (technically current) board informed of everything I was doing with dates and times.
Initially, it was like a bandaid because they couldn't get around to completing the paperwork. Now it's put me in a really bad position, because I am the face of PTO to the school, and have this event scheduled that we have to cancel and despite all the options and availability I have given the board, they are determined to continue to delay the transition.
The reasons stated, are they all have family medical issues and/or are too stressed/busy to handle this right now. Please note that we have been working on this since May, though. And there has been a full slate of nominees since July.
My concern is, we will keep having to cancel events, and lose momentum of parent involvement because the current board, who states they want nothing more to do with the PTO, keep putting up road blocks and delaying the transition, while also causing us to cancel all events until they have completed the transition.
Is there nothing I can do to move this process along? No other board members can meet or help, since the 4 board members are two families of husband and wife and all four have stated they are too busy and stressed to handle the transition at this time.
