There you have it, Why Can We: the two sides of the same coin.

On the one side, there are PTOs that allow parental issues a place on the agenda so to allow the parents with a place/time to voice their concerns. On the flip side, there are PTOs where parents are urged to seek out the principal directly regarding those questions or complaints that are outside the PTO's realm of authority.

In your situation, you are now aware that your PTO doesn't want to be a conduit or provide meeting time to discuss issues similar to those you described in your OP. Now, it's the parent's decision regarding how to go forward. Lots of changes are made through grassroots efforts. It just takes one or two parents to organize discussions.

(And, no, gj -- there's been no "bad" experiences; just an effective structure in place that has historically worked well for our board and our school families)

Wow ... sounds like you folks have had some really bad experiences. The original poster mentioned talking about the issue at one meeting (not "month after month"), and said the meeting went well.

What *is* a PTO about? I thought it was an organization for improving the school. A lot of that is fundraising, but certainly people should be able to voice their opinions. Maybe something strikes one parent as odd, but she wants to check with others and see if they agree. Maybe the principal doesn't know that there are lots of people with the same feeling who are on the fence about whether it's worth scheduling a meeting with the principal. Our school has a safety committee, with several parent members who report back to the PTO; we had a parent bring up a safety issue at one meeting, and the principal agreed and implemented some changes. Certainly, you don't want one issue to dominate, but that's true about anything on the agenda.

The rule of PTO's should be not to rule the school or bring parent issues to the meetings. Parents can go directly to the principal and voice their concerns. Also, a PTO member can advocate, if need to on behalf of the parent but not in the presence of a PTO meeting.
This is a cause for conflict, and a misguided direction as to what a PTO is about. PTO should go hand in hand with Administration of the school. Hope this helps.

Thank you all for your comments... Parents have already individually went to the principal with concerns with no reasonable outcome. Would it be inappropriate to form a group of parents, independent of PTO, to address issues and concerns? Does anyone have suggestions of the most diplomatic way of complishing this?

These types of issues are numerous and seemingly never-ending. To allow PTO meeting time to hear out parent complaints of this nature means that primary PTO business will consistently be given short shrift and/or meetings will be exceptionally long and cumbersome more often than not.

Also, when business of this nature is allowed on the agenda month after month simply for the ears of one board member out of many, the meetings turn into a waste of time for the remaining board members. Besides, there is no reason why these parents can't address the principal at any other time -- singly or as a group, by email or phone or in-person meeting.

Lastly, I think allowing these types of topics on the meeting agenda puts board members in a position where parents come to believe that the board has some kind of authority to make policy and procedure changes. I don't think that's reasonable or fair to subject board members to that kind of expectation from the parent group. Perceived authority where there actually is none would just make the volunteer gig that much harder than it already can be.

Jewel - I usually agree with your posts, but not here. PTOs may not have authority, but I'd say a PTO meeting is a fine place to discuss anything related to the school. Often, a parent will ask a question on policy, and the principal (who attends our meetings) can answer it. I'd even think it was a fine place to discuss how to bring concerns to the school board or superintendent.