Powell PTA theft and other DCPS schools with large PTA budgets.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There was a thing where some of the wealthier PTAs made donations to the Washington Lawyers Committee and that went out as grants to new PTAs, along with some pro bono legal work to get set up as a 501(c)(3). Not sure if that's still happening. But I was on one of the recipient PTAs and found it extremely helpful.

Interesting. I wonder if the schools that participated did dedicated fundraising for their contribution. Looking at our PTA's bylaws, I think donating money outside our school would violate them (if not raised explicitly for this purpose).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There was a thing where some of the wealthier PTAs made donations to the Washington Lawyers Committee and that went out as grants to new PTAs, along with some pro bono legal work to get set up as a 501(c)(3). Not sure if that's still happening. But I was on one of the recipient PTAs and found it extremely helpful.

Interesting. I wonder if the schools that participated did dedicated fundraising for their contribution. Looking at our PTA's bylaws, I think donating money outside our school would violate them (if not raised explicitly for this purpose).

Not sure, and also this might have predated whatever version of your bylaws you're reading. It was like 8-10 years ago for me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I thought DCPS decided to pool the PTA money a few years back, did that not happen? The idea was that a few ward 3 schools were basically supplementing the budget with fundraising and that didn’t seem fair.

It did not happen.

Because that would be illegal.

Some versions of sharing resources has happened - but it is not as simple as just pooling resources. This article touches on a few examples https://hechingerreport.org/should-rich-families-be-allowed-to-fundraise-a-better-public-school-education-for-their-kids/

The article is an interesting read. It references studies that donations do not go down after sharing begins, which is hard for me to believe. It's a hard enough sell for our PTA to get parents to donate X dollars that they could be spending on Mathnasium or whatever just for their kids to help their kids' school collectively -- I can't imagine if we were trying to get them to donate the X dollars with them knowing a percentage of it is going to an entirely different school.

I'm willing to donate to our PTA because I trust them to offset DCPS's bad decisions and deficiencies in funding. No way would I donate to a pooled fund managed by DCPS or some other people with perspective similar to DCPS.

[Anonymous]

There are not enough donor PTAs and too many donee PTAs to make this work. There are probably 5 schools wealthy enough to donate $10-20K each, and another 10-15 schools wealthy enough to donate $1-5K each. And then there are 25-30 schools with basically no PTA money, and if the pool were divided over all of them, it wouldn't make much of a difference at any one.

The Washington Lawyers Committee thing was great because it was paired with certain types of pro bono legal work and advice, plus the law firms donated cash too. Donations from schools were only a small part of it.

[Anonymous]

But I will say, when I was at an EOTP title I PTA that was just getting on its feet, parents at other PTAs were more than generous with their time and expertise. That was worth far more than a few thousand dollars cash.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone know how PTA funds are audited and regulated? My daughter goes to a ward 3 school and they have many fundraisers but the teachers never seem to have everything they need. I’d the use of the funds up to the principals discretion? PTA?

I just wonder if it’s worth donating to the larger cause or specific classrooms. I fear misuse of funds.

Because you see fundraisers and some teachers not having everything they need you jump to PTA theft? You do know that PTAs are run by volunteer parents, for the most part parents who do this thankless job while balancing work and their own families.

Instead of leaping to conclusions, you could ask the see the budget. You could attend PTA meetings where budgets are presented, and voted on by PTA members in good standing. Then you'd know how much is expected to be raised at each fundraiser how much the fundraisers costs, and, what they intend to do with the funds raised.

Maybe the fundraisers don't raise tons of funds. Or maybe they choose to use the funds for other items (for a grade or class rather than for individual teachers), or maybe there's hungry children and the school asked for the PTA to buy snacks for the students rather than items for teachers

[Anonymous]

Former PTA President, not from DC, but our school was fairly well off, and we partnered with a less well off school - a sister school so to speak. We raised funds for them, held a winter cost drive, etc. We were clear/transparent with our families that xx fundraiser was for our sister school and to support their children and families - it always did well.l, and did not take away anything from our school, where we had what was needed

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone know how PTA funds are audited and regulated? My daughter goes to a ward 3 school and they have many fundraisers but the teachers never seem to have everything they need. I’d the use of the funds up to the principals discretion? PTA?

I just wonder if it’s worth donating to the larger cause or specific classrooms. I fear misuse of funds.

Because you see fundraisers and some teachers not having everything they need you jump to PTA theft? You do know that PTAs are run by volunteer parents, for the most part parents who do this thankless job while balancing work and their own families.

Instead of leaping to conclusions, you could ask the see the budget. You could attend PTA meetings where budgets are presented, and voted on by PTA members in good standing. Then you'd know how much is expected to be raised at each fundraiser how much the fundraisers costs, and, what they intend to do with the funds raised.

Maybe the fundraisers don't raise tons of funds. Or maybe they choose to use the funds for other items (for a grade or class rather than for individual teachers), or maybe there's hungry children and the school asked for the PTA to buy snacks for the students rather than items for teachers

+1. PTA needs to decide what is the best ROI for the limited money they have. School supplies is not it when parents can buy supplies from a list given to families. Also some schools like ours supplies the school supplies. Some teachers use the allocated funds efficiently and some do not.

The much better use of funds is for bigger ticket items that benefit the whole school like after school enrichment programs, field trips, etc…

I know of school who used funds for an amazing playground.

Lastly, correct. The PTA is run by volunteer parents and it’s a thankless job. If you don’t want to donate to whatever they are fundraising OP, don’t. Buy whatever supplies your kids teachers need instead.