Our school suffered a $15,000 budget cut this year. Our PTO can't replace that much without having to put aside it's own priorities. Our school created a new 'department' and now we have Manzanita Fundraising. I ran a cookie dough sale (our PTO veep has never liked the cookie dough promotion as she feels it competes with her Girl Scout Cookie Sales - so our group doesn't run the dough sale, I do it and it goes straight into the General Fund for the school) and also a Santa Shop. The PTO ran their catalog sale first, then I ran the dough and followed up with the S.S. Between the two I ran, $9000 of the budget cut has been replaced into the General Fund, and it didn't interfere at all with our PTO. Come early Spring, I will run a pre-Easter sale and then they will run their year end fundraiser (they haven't decided on what to run yet - I am running a Ghirardelli promotion). The worst thing is that by our school being able to run comfortably after the cut (Thank You Cookie Dough and Santa Shop), we will probably take another cut next year... Can't win for losing...

Our school is preparing for a 5% budget cut. One of the proposed ideas is to cut supplies (copy paper, etc.) altogether and ask the PTO to pick up the cost. I'm all for helping out the school when times are tough, but is this okay to do with PTO money? Our group doesn't have a mission statement but does have an objective listed in the bylaws. 1. To foster closer relationships between home and the school so that parents and teachers may work together for the children's benefit. 2. To promote the welfare and the growth of children in school, home and the community.

Hopefully the budget cuts won't be as bad as predicted and this will never come to pass. I would like to be prepared with the information before the next scheduled meeting to be on the safe side.

Does anyone have any information they could share? Thanks!