Class fund non-participants: where do you think the party food comes from??

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm the room parent at a public school. I end up paying for most of the food for kids' parties. We don't get pizza for parties, but it takes a lot of effort to put together a table of healthy food for these parties.

Before the holidays, I asked parents to vote to decide if they wanted to have a group class gift, then 1/2 backed out at the last minute, so I end up fronting 100s of dollars for that (instead of the 20 per family).

I have a serious illness and I lost my job this year (I have a temporary, lower paying one now). I still did the right thing.

I have no sympathy for the shirkers who don't even give a thought to the burden they're placing on a VOLUNTEER who is trying to make sure things are nice for all their kids and the teacher who takes care of them 8 hours a day.

Do better shirkers.

$20 × 20 kids? That's $400 for a teacher gift. Nope. If you choose to do that, it darn well should be on you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is nothing like this at our affluent public school. School only allows 3 parties per year: Halloween, Christmas/Holiday, end of year. No money collected. Room parent does sign up genius for food/games/crafts. No pizza, just snacks.

Teacher gifts are by family, not whole class.

This seems to work well. You should try it OP. I’m and active participant (send something in every party) and spend nowhere near $135, even including $30 teacher gift card 2x a year. I think you are doing it wrong.

+1
I’m a room parent. No beginning of year collection of money - just sign up genius for each party.

Same at our affluent WOTP school. Sign up genius for all parties, always filled quickly. Small voluntary contribution for teacher holiday gifts, capped at $30 pp (or so) by school policy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I didn’t have parties in school growing up I don’t think. Just a Halloween parade and Valentines card exchange. I don’t even remember “room parents.” Is this a new thing or a rich school thing?

From what I gather, both.

+1. When I growing up, our parties were 1 cupcake for a classmates birthday.

Kids don’t need this. Sounds like an unnecessary activity planned by “room parents”.

[Anonymous]

I did not want to run after people to get money from them, so I made sure that all the funds were collected during the first few weeks of school. I sent emails every week for the first few weeks listing the names of people who contributed and those who still had to. It was easy to write the reminder emails at the beginning of the year.

OP, being a room parent is a responsibility not a popularity contest. You need to be blunt and make sure that everyone contributes at least a minimum agreed upon amount. If people want to contribute more it is up to them, but the fixed amount contribution is mandatory.

This is horrible beyond words and, fortunately, this never would be permitted to do this at my kids' schools. Contributions are voluntary and anonymous unless the parent pays be check. The money is put in an envelope with the room parent's name on it only. This is a much better system. People who can't afford it, people whose kids don't participate for religious or other reasons, and people who choose not to give for their own reasons should not be bullied.

[Anonymous]

Holy crap you people are cheap. And you wonder why nobody wants to volunteer to be the room parent.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm the room parent at a public school. I end up paying for most of the food for kids' parties. We don't get pizza for parties, but it takes a lot of effort to put together a table of healthy food for these parties.

Before the holidays, I asked parents to vote to decide if they wanted to have a group class gift, then 1/2 backed out at the last minute, so I end up fronting 100s of dollars for that (instead of the 20 per family).

I have a serious illness and I lost my job this year (I have a temporary, lower paying one now). I still did the right thing.

I have no sympathy for the shirkers who don't even give a thought to the burden they're placing on a VOLUNTEER who is trying to make sure things are nice for all their kids and the teacher who takes care of them 8 hours a day.

Do better shirkers.

$20 × 20 kids? That's $400 for a teacher gift. Nope. If you choose to do that, it darn well should be on you.

It sounds like you are working really hard on behalf of the kids, PP. And, I'm sure it's frustrating to have parents not come through with the resources you would like to have, however, I think you are coming at this the wrong way. You get the resources, and then work with what you have. If that means the teacher gets a $200 gift instead of a $400 gift that is okay. If it means the teacher gets a gift card instead of a gift that you carefully picked out and ordered ahead, that is okay. You are putting too much pressure on yourself to have things a certain way, when it doesn't match the reality of the resources other families are providing.

[Anonymous]

I am an active member of the pta and help out in the classroom too. What school allows you to bring in pizza for class parties?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
The experienced room parents send one last email, after all the ones asking for money, saying:

"THIS PARTY WILL NOT HAPPEN UNLESS THERE ARE ENOUGH FUNDS TO FEED EVERYONE AND HAVE A FEW ACTIVITIES."

Or words to that effect.

In my 13 years of school parties, not one has ever been cancelled after such an email

I hope you don't actually send the note in all caps. I'd consider that rude and ignore your request.

[Anonymous]

The experienced room parents send one last email, after all the ones asking for money, saying:

"THIS PARTY WILL NOT HAPPEN UNLESS THERE ARE ENOUGH FUNDS TO FEED EVERYONE AND HAVE A FEW ACTIVITIES."

Or words to that effect.

In my 13 years of school parties, not one has ever been cancelled after such an email

That wouldn't work in our school. Room parents only put you on their email chain if you donate. If you don't, then you don't get their messages.

Of course, that always struck me as shooting yourself in the foot because if yo skip out on adding parents to the email chain, then you miss out on the opportunity to solicit volunteers and additional donations throughout the year.

[Anonymous]

Haven’t read through responses, but why are kids getting pizza? In addition to lunch? Too much food, OP. Ugh.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Haven’t read through responses, but why are kids getting pizza? In addition to lunch? Too much food, OP. Ugh.

135 dollars worth of pizza is 27 medium one-topping pizzas at Pizza Hut. One medium pizza per kid. Lol.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am an active member of the pta and help out in the classroom too. What school allows you to bring in pizza for class parties?

FCPS.

[Anonymous]

People are generally not expecting pizzas and costumes at a school-day party, based on what I'm reading here. And based on what other schools do and what most people's own experiences in school were.

Parties should match what is generally expected by the group and what the rest of the school is doing.

[Anonymous]

Pizza meals, group costumes/uniforms, and group gifts are for sports teams, not school.

[Anonymous]

As a parent, I find all of the PTA emails annoying. I contribute but think they create lots of work for everyone. Less is more. The kids don’t care about half of what you do and most parents think you are giving us more to do to make yourself look busy. I’m also a teacher and feel the same way. My children’s school has a very active PTA and some parents treat it like a full time job. Where I work does not have a PTA that is as involved. Have less parties, stop ordering pizza and ask parents to bring in bulk popcorn in individual bags. That’s all they need.