Class gift for teacher: help me understand

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:One year the room mom seemed kind of shady. I contributed $50 and spoke with three other moms who also contributed around $50 each. So that's at least $200 to the K teacher just from the 4 of us. Well, later on the teacher thanked the class for the gift and adding it up (ex. Starbucks tumbler and &50 gift card, a few snacks, gift card for $50 for lunch) it added up to $150. That was the last time I contributed $50. Now I contribute $10 to the group and anything more than that I have my child personally give to the teacher.

Wow.

[Anonymous]

My initial interpretation of OP's post was that the room mom pocketed most of the money. What's to stop that from happening?

[Anonymous]

Smaller contribution to group gift, plus your own gift. Even room parents do that in our class.

[Anonymous]

Do the best of both worlds. Give $10 to the class gift and something small on your own for 30 to $40

[Anonymous]

Serious question: in public school districts there is a formal limit on amt that can be given for gift cards per parent (in MCPS it's $20) - how are you all able to circumvent it in case of larger individual gifts? Just buy an item and remove the price? Ignore the limit?

[Anonymous]

Just to simplify things and minimize drama, I ignore the constant soliciting from the room parent. Once a year, I send a gift to the teacher only if she deserves it. I’m done sending gifts to careless, unappreciative people.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I usually give $10 to $20 (max) towards most group gifts. We attend public school. If my kids had a spectacular teacher I would give something else. We have only had one really great teacher with all my kids and I gave that teacher a really big gift card.

still waiting for that really great teacher…

[Anonymous]

One year the room parent spent the entire budget at Christmas on the teacher providing her with a two day stay at an expensive spa for her and the teacher’s husband. That broke the bank. Then in January, we were getting emails pleading that there was no money left for the Valentines party or future teacher appreciation gifts.

[Anonymous]

I give what I can and try to give on the high end of the range BECAUSE i know there are some who give less (or not at all). The teachers deserve all the money they can get and I'm not going to cheap out because others do so.

Because my child can have rotating teachers it would be hard to give to all individually and not potentially leave someone out. It's not important to me to get personal credit so I give as much as I can to the pool which is then distributed evenly among all the teachers.

[Anonymous]

I prefer when room parents calculate the various gifts throughout the year and ask for a suggested amount up front at the beginning of the year. That said, my mom was a teacher and I find it ridiculous that our teachers are regularly getting $500 gift cards multiple times a year - yes they work hard, but honestly the teachers in the less fortunate neighborhoods work harder, spend more of their own $$ and get much less (we have a family friend who teaches at one school, so I asked her). Maybe consider matching your annual gift to a less fortunate school?

[Anonymous]

I prefer to not gift teachers. Too complicated

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I prefer when room parents calculate the various gifts throughout the year and ask for a suggested amount up front at the beginning of the year. That said, my mom was a teacher and I find it ridiculous that our teachers are regularly getting $500 gift cards multiple times a year - yes they work hard, but honestly the teachers in the less fortunate neighborhoods work harder, spend more of their own $$ and get much less (we have a family friend who teaches at one school, so I asked her). Maybe consider matching your annual gift to a less fortunate school?

Do you work? Do you get a holiday or annual bonus? Is it at least $500? For many, many people in this area the answer to that is yes. Why shouldn't teachers receive bonuses as well?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Whatever doesn't make you resentful if yours turns out to be one of the only contributions.

This. Give what you want and don't have bad feelings if you find out what others gave.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This happened to me last year in K. We had always had a suggested contribution of $100 per child at our preschool for holiday gifts, so I contributed $100 to our K class fund which was to be split between lead and assistant teacher. The full gift amount collected was $800, so I had contributed 1/8 of it. I am also confused, and do not know what you're missing (because I'm missing it too!). To solve for it this year, I just contributed less to the class fund (I think I gave $25 at the holidays) but have taken other opportunities to gift to my son's first grade teacher (i.e. gift cards for other random reasons like "back to school", valentines day, "happy spring break").

?? Our county lists the amount that teachers are allowed to receive and it’s $20. I’m shocked that you gave $100. It’s almost at bribery levels. I give $20 at Christmas, $20 on her birthday and $20 on teacher appreciation day. Even if you gave $100, $700/$20 is $35. Still a lot per kid.

I give my nanny 1k so I’m not a cheap person but these are public servants.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I prefer when room parents calculate the various gifts throughout the year and ask for a suggested amount up front at the beginning of the year. That said, my mom was a teacher and I find it ridiculous that our teachers are regularly getting $500 gift cards multiple times a year - yes they work hard, but honestly the teachers in the less fortunate neighborhoods work harder, spend more of their own $$ and get much less (we have a family friend who teaches at one school, so I asked her). Maybe consider matching your annual gift to a less fortunate school?

Do you work? Do you get a holiday or annual bonus? Is it at least $500? For many, many people in this area the answer to that is yes. Why shouldn't teachers receive bonuses as well?

Don’t they? Do teachers receive no bonus or performance money or end of the year money from their managers?