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

[Anonymous]

Between two kids I've been a room parent six or seven times at this point. If you are running out of money midyear then you clearly are not operating within the budget that you were given. That budge is essentially whatever money you received in September. Families have a range of reasons for not contributing, but as a room parent you work with what you've been given. Period.

I don't do a beginning of the year fund drive. I use sign up genius to get in-kind contributions for the four school-assigned parties, and then ask for cash for a holiday gift and a spring teacher appreciation gift. That gives plenty of opportunities for families to do as much or as little as they'd like.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yeah, if people aren’t contributing for parties it’s because they don’t prioritize them. Just because you want them doesn’t mean everyone else has to subsidize your desires.

This. And where in the world are you getting pizza that it's $135?

[Anonymous]

I know you are trying to do good, but you are massively overspending, OP. I would not give you more money, either.

I give money for school parties, and I help out, but I would feel pretty irate if they were as lavish as you say. Definitely not for teacher gifts (we’ll do our own) and what is the pizza for? The kids had lunch. A juice box, a cookie, maybe some fruit, a game and a craft is enough.

My kids go to two different elementary schools and one of them has way less parties than the other... an occasional school party is fun, but constant sugary parties is really not what most parents want to send their kids to school for.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yeah, if people aren’t contributing for parties it’s because they don’t prioritize them. Just because you want them doesn’t mean everyone else has to subsidize your desires.

This. And where in the world are you getting pizza that it's $135?

And PS - I have never in over 10 years of kids in 3 different schools been asked to contribute $ for parties. It has always been a sign up genius. Any monetary contributions were for teacher gifts only.

[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 wish to add that at my kids' school, parents are asked to donate $25 to $50 a year to the parties, etc. It depends on the teacher suggestion and room parent.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am a room parent and we ask for each family to contribute a certain amount at the start of the year. This covers teacher holiday and end of year gifts, costumes for the school play and all crafts/food for parties. Pizza alone runs roughly $135 per party. We have about 55% participation yet 100% of the kids get crafts, fed at the party, and costumes for the play. We sign the teacher gifts from the class. It's January and we are out of money once I set aside for end of year gifts ($25/teacher). That means no more parties for the rest of the year. Do I email the class asking again for those who haven't donated to step up? For those of you who don't contribute, how do you feel about your child taking part in the parties, etc when you've not helped? And for those in a financial hardship, I get it.. but I'd venture in our school that is not the primary driver.

How much are you asking families to contribute? Your spending seems a bit excessive. If people feel your request is unreasonable, they may be less likely to respond.

[Anonymous]

SignUpGenius.

And say you need X amount to do Y, and would 3 families consider sending you Z to make that happen?

Be specific. Stop being nebulous. And scale back/simplify.

I get irritated because honestly, it's too much. There doesn't need to be a Halloween party on top of a Halloween parade on top of Halloween itself.

[Anonymous]

Genuine question: What are these parties? My kids are still in PK, so I have not run into this yet, and did not experience regular school parties growing up. Do all schools do regular parties? For what purpose?

[Anonymous]

When I was room parent, I also found that parents rarely have cash, so they forget. In your email have a link for PayPal or Venmo, so they can just send it and be done with it.

[Anonymous]

I have been a room parent. I have had two kids go through these years. I have never once been to a class party with pizza. As someone else said, why? They have lunch at school.

Ask for people to bring specific items via signup genius. This should be snacks, not a meal.

Ask for money at the beginning of the year for teacher gifts. Send out two follow-up reminders. However much money you receive, divide up the money among the necessary gifts.

Done.

[Anonymous]

My kids schools have never asked for party money-they asked for specific things like juice, cookies, cups ect..

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I know you are trying to do good, but you are massively overspending, OP. I would not give you more money, either.

I give money for school parties, and I help out, but I would feel pretty irate if they were as lavish as you say. Definitely not for teacher gifts (we’ll do our own) and what is the pizza for? The kids had lunch. A juice box, a cookie, maybe some fruit, a game and a craft is enough.

My kids go to two different elementary schools and one of them has way less parties than the other... an occasional school party is fun, but constant sugary parties is really not what most parents want to send their kids to school for.

+1 to all this.

[Anonymous]

Because my kids have food allergies and can't eat the party food.

Because I generally think class parties are completely useless and a waste of time.

I don't recall having class parties as a kid (other than Valentine's boxes) and have no idea why every tiny thing has to be celebrated with a party and food.

[Anonymous]

I'm more than happy to be the mom that goes to Costco and adds on a 40-pack of Goldfish or a huge box of festive paper cups for the occasional party.

But something rubs me the wrong way about forcing me to contribute money to things like teacher gifts and costumes. And forcing parents who don't have the money and time or interest. I do it because I want to and I can.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have been a room parent. I have had two kids go through these years. I have never once been to a class party with pizza. As someone else said, why? They have lunch at school.

Ask for people to bring specific items via signup genius. This should be snacks, not a meal.

Ask for money at the beginning of the year for teacher gifts. Send out two follow-up reminders. However much money you receive, divide up the money among the necessary gifts.

Done.

This. The people who donate things pay for them.

If I sign up to do crafts, then I expect to run to the $1 store and get 20 crafts. If someone does a game, I expect they spend about the same or less on game supplies. Usually three people do snacks— one food, one drinks, and one plates/napkins. And usually someone bakes cookies to decorate. That costs probably less than $10/person.