I have a feeling that a lot of people may have a problem with PSG charging for the fun day. I like the idea of the flyer noting what we would like to do and asking for donations. Maybe a quick bottle drive to alleviate the costs. You can never please everyone, and this one might be sticky issue!:

The gym teacher organizes our Field Day. We can't plan anything that occurs during school hours. She chooses to offer shirts for sale, they aren't provided. With 700 kids, that would be over $4000. We don't do any ribbons, just for fun. PTO supplies the inflatable and a popsicle station.

I agree with the others, ask for donation to cover the cost and pick up the rest. List all the cool things that are going to happen during the day. At the bottom, ask for volunteers and/or donations. A lot of people who can't/won't volunteer will probably send money to alleviate guilt. Every little bit helps.

I agree with Serendipity's idea. We do a Craft Day each year around the holidays. We budget some money for it, but not always enough to cover it. We just send home a note that, along with giving the dates and requesting volunteers, ask if each child would bring $1 to help defray the costs of the event. We always end up a bit ahead, but we don't require the money in order for the child to participate. Some people even send extra!

Maybe what you could do is send a flyer home noting all the things you plan on providing for the children on that day and note that you will be accepting $5 donations to help defray the cost. Then you can just use whatever money you take in to lower the expenses and you have not required that anyone pay the fee.

Wow! I think our school would have a fit if we tried to charge kids for anything that happens on school grounds during the school day. How many schools have these kind of events?

We have a wide range of incomes at our school. It is an Independent Catholic school, with 50% funds from low monthly fees and 50% funds from the governnent. Our school pays the tuition for quite a few students and our PSG pays for those students to recieve pizza, milk, veggies, on our lunch days. Our PSG would make sure that everyone gets t-shirts and lunch, etc... whether they paid or not. I thought it would be fun to have those extra's instead of the same old same old, but asking for $5.00 per student may cause problems.