Does your principal ask for donations to the school?

[Anonymous]

We have a new principal who is asking for donations directly to the school, not the school's PTA. She is running fundraisers as well, also for the benefit of the school, but it's looking like she will be deciding priorities and have oversight. Do you see this at your school? I thought that what she's doing was the job of the PTA. NB: not a title one school.

[Anonymous]

What does she say the money will be used for?

The only checks I ever wrote directly to my kid's MCPS ES were for things like field trips.

[Anonymous]

Some schools have Education Foundations. I was on the board of ours. The money gets used for teacher needs or projects around the school that the county doesn't pay for. They cannot be used to add staff as that would be inequitable, although we were able to use funds to keep the library open after school.

[Anonymous]

NO, we dont get asked to donate money directly to school. The PTA handles fundraising.

[Anonymous]

OP here. There's no mention of a foundation, ie your contribution is seemingly not tax deductible. She does give a list of things that she says the money will be used for but everything she lists is what I thought the PTA did. And our PTA has a ton of money.

[Anonymous]

One school, yes. It was annoying as we as the PTA did it and they were sabotaging us and zero accountability. Other schools, no.

[Anonymous]

Our principal has her own fundraiser that raises four times what the PTA membership drive raises. As far as I know, she gets to decide how to use the funds, while the PTA has a strict budget that is voted on by the entire membership.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. There's no mention of a foundation, ie your contribution is seemingly not tax deductible. She does give a list of things that she says the money will be used for but everything she lists is what I thought the PTA did. And our PTA has a ton of money.

OP what is on your principal's list? What do you know about your PTA's budget?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. There's no mention of a foundation, ie your contribution is seemingly not tax deductible. She does give a list of things that she says the money will be used for but everything she lists is what I thought the PTA did. And our PTA has a ton of money.

I guess the PTA has tons of money because they aren't sharing it all with the school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. There's no mention of a foundation, ie your contribution is seemingly not tax deductible. She does give a list of things that she says the money will be used for but everything she lists is what I thought the PTA did. And our PTA has a ton of money.

I guess the PTA has tons of money because they aren't sharing it all with the school.

Are the things the principal listing not things the district should be providing? Is there an accountability system that is open to the public? What is the PTA doing vs what community/school needs?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Some schools have Education Foundations. I was on the board of ours. The money gets used for teacher needs or projects around the school that the county doesn't pay for. They cannot be used to add staff as that would be inequitable, although we were able to use funds to keep the library open after school.

That's different from what OP is describing -- an educational foundation is still a third party. OP is saying that the principal is requesting donations directly to the school. I have never heard of that.

[Anonymous]

No. Ask them what the accountability mechanism will be.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We have a new principal who is asking for donations directly to the school, not the school's PTA. She is running fundraisers as well, also for the benefit of the school, but it's looking like she will be deciding priorities and have oversight. Do you see this at your school? I thought that what she's doing was the job of the PTA. NB: not a title one school.

Blair used to do this. It raised a lot of money that admin needed resources for in order to make up for funds that dried up from the school district. However, it competed with the PTSA and programs that the PTSA used to fund for the school could no longer be funded.

[Anonymous]

One of the high schools my kids went to did this. The Principal raised money to spend on school’s needs that the county was not funding like more school supplies. Inevitably MCPS never gives schools enough money for all the needed supplies. The donations were of course voluntary not required. It really helped allow the school offer more to its students. The PTA raised money for PTA Programs like pre-prom. The goal of the PTA is to enrich the student experience and advocate for the needs of kids not to fund essential school programs so there was not a conflict. High schools also often have Booster clubs that raise money for athletics and extracurriculars. Also you may not be aware that Principals can do other things to bring in more direct funds from parents such as raising school photo or yearbook prices and keeping the difference between what the company requires and what is paid by parents to fund school needs. I would rather principals fundraiser directly than do this. ——-All this said, there is of course inequity since lower income schools can not fundraiser as well as higher income schools either via the PTA, Boosters or by direct donation.

[Anonymous]

Elementary school, normal for her if it is who I think it is. Very passive aggressive.