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

[Anonymous]

By the way, that budget above was if all 20 families have. 12 did and 8 did not and I still gave $100 to the pta. Your child will still have the pizza lunch and your family will still be recognized and thanked for the gifts from the class. I’ll spot you again this year.

[Anonymous]

Have = gave

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why do you have to give the teacher a gift out of that pot of money? Aren't most people individually giving teachers a gift/tip for Christmas?

We did one year at the day care/preschool and then it moved to the room mom collecting and giving a group gift. The concern was that kids whose parents gave more money would get special treatment and there were parents who could not afford to give a gift, our daycare had scholarships.

Ever since we have been at DS's ES we have contributed to a class gift fund. There is an email that goes out asking for contributions and we send money to the room mom, usually via a pay pal account. The email includes the words "Please give if you are comfortable and can, we understand that not everyone is able to contribute." and "You are more then welcome to give your own present if you would prefer." I think most parents donate to the group gift and some have their kids write a special card. We had 52 kids across the two class rooms and gave each teacher $500 in gift cards. That works out to $28 per teacher. I know that our family gave more then that, but we have one child. He had classmates who have three other siblings at the same school, I suspect that they give less.

And I am totally cool with that. We have one kid and are able to donate what we donate.

I like that it is a class gift and not an individual gift because it has to be hard to be the kid who doesn't give a gift because you can't afford to or don't know to or to give the home made gift when other kids give something store bought. I am sure the teachers prefer the gift card to whatever ridiculousness we might have bought them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:By the way, that budget above was if all 20 families have. 12 did and 8 did not and I still gave $100 to the pta. Your child will still have the pizza lunch and your family will still be recognized and thanked for the gifts from the class. I’ll spot you again this year.

Wow you seriously keep track of it. I've never keep track. I don't don't do class gifts and just provide what is needed for the parties as for some of these kids, its one of the few parties they get.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why do you have to give the teacher a gift out of that pot of money? Aren't most people individually giving teachers a gift/tip for Christmas?

We did one year at the day care/preschool and then it moved to the room mom collecting and giving a group gift. The concern was that kids whose parents gave more money would get special treatment and there were parents who could not afford to give a gift, our daycare had scholarships.

Ever since we have been at DS's ES we have contributed to a class gift fund. There is an email that goes out asking for contributions and we send money to the room mom, usually via a pay pal account. The email includes the words "Please give if you are comfortable and can, we understand that not everyone is able to contribute." and "You are more then welcome to give your own present if you would prefer." I think most parents donate to the group gift and some have their kids write a special card. We had 52 kids across the two class rooms and gave each teacher $500 in gift cards. That works out to $28 per teacher. I know that our family gave more then that, but we have one child. He had classmates who have three other siblings at the same school, I suspect that they give less.

And I am totally cool with that. We have one kid and are able to donate what we donate.

I like that it is a class gift and not an individual gift because it has to be hard to be the kid who doesn't give a gift because you can't afford to or don't know to or to give the home made gift when other kids give something store bought. I am sure the teachers prefer the gift card to whatever ridiculousness we might have bought them.

In MCPS, there are group and individual gift limits so doing a group gift that large violates ethics.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:$35 x30 = $1050. No you didn’t bring need that much and no I don’t trust your judgment in spending it. Especially after you bought that ugly art piece from your friend as a class gift. It’s not that I can’t afford it ...

We have 20 in our class. We have to give $100 to the pta for teacher appreciation week. (Mandatory from all classes) That’s $600. If I do $150 for Xmas and $150 for end of year that’s pretty reasonable. That’s less than $7.50 a person. We then have teacher appreciation week for the teacher $125, her birthday $50, that leaves $125 for the two class parties that take place over lunch. Pizza is about $50-$60 per party. I also get cards to accompany the gifts. Our gifts from the class are straight gift cards to places like amazon. I know you’re thinking I’m some thief or shifting money to my friend so she can make a shitty gift for the teacher. I’m actually trying to make it a nice year for the kids and help the teacher. No one else signed up to do the job so I stepped up. Did you? I can’t believe parents actually think not only are they not gonna give but they think I’m somehoe skimming off the top or having friends pocket a profit.

Her birthday? Mandatory PTA contribution? Absolutely not. I think group gifts are a bit much and parents should do what they are comfortable with. I can easily do a Pizza/cake party with $125.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why do you have to give the teacher a gift out of that pot of money? Aren't most people individually giving teachers a gift/tip for Christmas?

We did one year at the day care/preschool and then it moved to the room mom collecting and giving a group gift. The concern was that kids whose parents gave more money would get special treatment and there were parents who could not afford to give a gift, our daycare had scholarships.

Ever since we have been at DS's ES we have contributed to a class gift fund. There is an email that goes out asking for contributions and we send money to the room mom, usually via a pay pal account. The email includes the words "Please give if you are comfortable and can, we understand that not everyone is able to contribute." and "You are more then welcome to give your own present if you would prefer." I think most parents donate to the group gift and some have their kids write a special card. We had 52 kids across the two class rooms and gave each teacher $500 in gift cards. That works out to $28 per teacher. I know that our family gave more then that, but we have one child. He had classmates who have three other siblings at the same school, I suspect that they give less.

And I am totally cool with that. We have one kid and are able to donate what we donate.

I like that it is a class gift and not an individual gift because it has to be hard to be the kid who doesn't give a gift because you can't afford to or don't know to or to give the home made gift when other kids give something store bought. I am sure the teachers prefer the gift card to whatever ridiculousness we might have bought them.

A $500 gift for a teacher is crazy. I don't spend that much for my kid's Christmas gifts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:B/c at the beginning of the year we get an email from the pta that says:

- send your teacher a questionnaire like this (sample attached) asking certain questions so you know what to get her for the holidays (don’t forget to celebrate her birthday or half birthday)

- we require a $100 contribution per class for the specials teachers for teacher appreciation week.

Next questions?

PTA and room parents are two separate things. PTA should collect for their own needs. I would not hand over mandatory contributions for that. And, same with specials teachers. As a parent, I do for all the teachers at Christmas and sometimes teacher appreciation but that's not ok for them to demand that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:$35 x30 = $1050. No you didn’t bring need that much and no I don’t trust your judgment in spending it. Especially after you bought that ugly art piece from your friend as a class gift. It’s not that I can’t afford it ...

We have 20 in our class. We have to give $100 to the pta for teacher appreciation week. (Mandatory from all classes) That’s $600. If I do $150 for Xmas and $150 for end of year that’s pretty reasonable. That’s less than $7.50 a person. We then have teacher appreciation week for the teacher $125, her birthday $50, that leaves $125 for the two class parties that take place over lunch. Pizza is about $50-$60 per party. I also get cards to accompany the gifts. Our gifts from the class are straight gift cards to places like amazon. I know you’re thinking I’m some thief or shifting money to my friend so she can make a shitty gift for the teacher. I’m actually trying to make it a nice year for the kids and help the teacher. No one else signed up to do the job so I stepped up. Did you? I can’t believe parents actually think not only are they not gonna give but they think I’m somehoe skimming off the top or having friends pocket a profit.

So, most of the money just goes directly to the teacher in the form of 'gifts ' and only $125 benefits the kids at all? And you think that is ok?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why do you have to give the teacher a gift out of that pot of money? Aren't most people individually giving teachers a gift/tip for Christmas?

We did one year at the day care/preschool and then it moved to the room mom collecting and giving a group gift. The concern was that kids whose parents gave more money would get special treatment and there were parents who could not afford to give a gift, our daycare had scholarships.

Ever since we have been at DS's ES we have contributed to a class gift fund. There is an email that goes out asking for contributions and we send money to the room mom, usually via a pay pal account. The email includes the words "Please give if you are comfortable and can, we understand that not everyone is able to contribute." and "You are more then welcome to give your own present if you would prefer." I think most parents donate to the group gift and some have their kids write a special card. We had 52 kids across the two class rooms and gave each teacher $500 in gift cards. That works out to $28 per teacher. I know that our family gave more then that, but we have one child. He had classmates who have three other siblings at the same school, I suspect that they give less.

And I am totally cool with that. We have one kid and are able to donate what we donate.

I like that it is a class gift and not an individual gift because it has to be hard to be the kid who doesn't give a gift because you can't afford to or don't know to or to give the home made gift when other kids give something store bought. I am sure the teachers prefer the gift card to whatever ridiculousness we might have bought them.

In MCPS, there are group and individual gift limits so doing a group gift that large violates ethics.

The MCPS gift limits aren't that low. It's 20$ a time (up to 200$ per family), and then the group gift limit I believe is much higher. (We gave a 200$ gift card last year as a class and we were under it.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why do you have to give the teacher a gift out of that pot of money? Aren't most people individually giving teachers a gift/tip for Christmas?

We did one year at the day care/preschool and then it moved to the room mom collecting and giving a group gift. The concern was that kids whose parents gave more money would get special treatment and there were parents who could not afford to give a gift, our daycare had scholarships.

Ever since we have been at DS's ES we have contributed to a class gift fund. There is an email that goes out asking for contributions and we send money to the room mom, usually via a pay pal account. The email includes the words "Please give if you are comfortable and can, we understand that not everyone is able to contribute." and "You are more then welcome to give your own present if you would prefer." I think most parents donate to the group gift and some have their kids write a special card. We had 52 kids across the two class rooms and gave each teacher $500 in gift cards. That works out to $28 per teacher. I know that our family gave more then that, but we have one child. He had classmates who have three other siblings at the same school, I suspect that they give less.

And I am totally cool with that. We have one kid and are able to donate what we donate.

I like that it is a class gift and not an individual gift because it has to be hard to be the kid who doesn't give a gift because you can't afford to or don't know to or to give the home made gift when other kids give something store bought. I am sure the teachers prefer the gift card to whatever ridiculousness we might have bought them.

A $500 gift for a teacher is crazy. I don't spend that much for my kid's Christmas gifts.

You don't spend $29 on your kids Christmas present? It was money contributed by 52 families. That doesn't strike me as excessive. We would have give a $25 gift card per teacher if we gave a solo gift so the amount strikes me as not all that out of line. Now, I have one child and both of us work good jobs so that amount is perfectly comfortable for us. No one was assigned amount to chip in, people chipped in what they wanted to and that was the final total. (shrugs)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:$35 x30 = $1050. No you didn’t bring need that much and no I don’t trust your judgment in spending it. Especially after you bought that ugly art piece from your friend as a class gift. It’s not that I can’t afford it ...

We have 20 in our class. We have to give $100 to the pta for teacher appreciation week. (Mandatory from all classes) That’s $600. If I do $150 for Xmas and $150 for end of year that’s pretty reasonable. That’s less than $7.50 a person. We then have teacher appreciation week for the teacher $125, her birthday $50, that leaves $125 for the two class parties that take place over lunch. Pizza is about $50-$60 per party. I also get cards to accompany the gifts. Our gifts from the class are straight gift cards to places like amazon. I know you’re thinking I’m some thief or shifting money to my friend so she can make a shitty gift for the teacher. I’m actually trying to make it a nice year for the kids and help the teacher. No one else signed up to do the job so I stepped up. Did you? I can’t believe parents actually think not only are they not gonna give but they think I’m somehoe skimming off the top or having friends pocket a profit.

So, most of the money just goes directly to the teacher in the form of 'gifts ' and only $125 benefits the kids at all? And you think that is ok?

In my kid's school, parents bring the food and crafts for the parties. Class dues go to a few big ticket items (like a standard gradewide activity that one parent wouldn't pay for) plus teacher holiday and year end gifts. I'm not seeing how this is detrimental to the kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why do you have to give the teacher a gift out of that pot of money? Aren't most people individually giving teachers a gift/tip for Christmas?

We did one year at the day care/preschool and then it moved to the room mom collecting and giving a group gift. The concern was that kids whose parents gave more money would get special treatment and there were parents who could not afford to give a gift, our daycare had scholarships.

Ever since we have been at DS's ES we have contributed to a class gift fund. There is an email that goes out asking for contributions and we send money to the room mom, usually via a pay pal account. The email includes the words "Please give if you are comfortable and can, we understand that not everyone is able to contribute." and "You are more then welcome to give your own present if you would prefer." I think most parents donate to the group gift and some have their kids write a special card. We had 52 kids across the two class rooms and gave each teacher $500 in gift cards. That works out to $28 per teacher. I know that our family gave more then that, but we have one child. He had classmates who have three other siblings at the same school, I suspect that they give less.

And I am totally cool with that. We have one kid and are able to donate what we donate.

I like that it is a class gift and not an individual gift because it has to be hard to be the kid who doesn't give a gift because you can't afford to or don't know to or to give the home made gift when other kids give something store bought. I am sure the teachers prefer the gift card to whatever ridiculousness we might have bought them.

A $500 gift for a teacher is crazy. I don't spend that much for my kid's Christmas gifts.

You don't spend $29 on your kids Christmas present? It was money contributed by 52 families. That doesn't strike me as excessive. We would have give a $25 gift card per teacher if we gave a solo gift so the amount strikes me as not all that out of line. Now, I have one child and both of us work good jobs so that amount is perfectly comfortable for us. No one was assigned amount to chip in, people chipped in what they wanted to and that was the final total. (shrugs)

For 52 kids, ask for $2 per kid, that gives you $104. Give each teacher $50 and spend $2 for each card. That is reasonable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:$35 x30 = $1050. No you didn’t bring need that much and no I don’t trust your judgment in spending it. Especially after you bought that ugly art piece from your friend as a class gift. It’s not that I can’t afford it ...

We have 20 in our class. We have to give $100 to the pta for teacher appreciation week. (Mandatory from all classes) That’s $600. If I do $150 for Xmas and $150 for end of year that’s pretty reasonable. That’s less than $7.50 a person. We then have teacher appreciation week for the teacher $125, her birthday $50, that leaves $125 for the two class parties that take place over lunch. Pizza is about $50-$60 per party. I also get cards to accompany the gifts. Our gifts from the class are straight gift cards to places like amazon. I know you’re thinking I’m some thief or shifting money to my friend so she can make a shitty gift for the teacher. I’m actually trying to make it a nice year for the kids and help the teacher. No one else signed up to do the job so I stepped up. Did you? I can’t believe parents actually think not only are they not gonna give but they think I’m somehoe skimming off the top or having friends pocket a profit.

So, most of the money just goes directly to the teacher in the form of 'gifts ' and only $125 benefits the kids at all? And you think that is ok?

In my kid's school, parents bring the food and crafts for the parties. Class dues go to a few big ticket items (like a standard gradewide activity that one parent wouldn't pay for) plus teacher holiday and year end gifts. I'm not seeing how this is detrimental to the kids.

I don't know that it is detrimental to the kids, but it sure doesn't help them. Out of $600, $475 was given directly to the teacher as a 'gift', 'bribe' whatever you want to call it. $125 was spent on the kids. I don't like the aesthetics.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:$35 x30 = $1050. No you didn’t bring need that much and no I don’t trust your judgment in spending it. Especially after you bought that ugly art piece from your friend as a class gift. It’s not that I can’t afford it ...

We have 20 in our class. We have to give $100 to the pta for teacher appreciation week. (Mandatory from all classes) That’s $600. If I do $150 for Xmas and $150 for end of year that’s pretty reasonable. That’s less than $7.50 a person. We then have teacher appreciation week for the teacher $125, her birthday $50, that leaves $125 for the two class parties that take place over lunch. Pizza is about $50-$60 per party. I also get cards to accompany the gifts. Our gifts from the class are straight gift cards to places like amazon. I know you’re thinking I’m some thief or shifting money to my friend so she can make a shitty gift for the teacher. I’m actually trying to make it a nice year for the kids and help the teacher. No one else signed up to do the job so I stepped up. Did you? I can’t believe parents actually think not only are they not gonna give but they think I’m somehoe skimming off the top or having friends pocket a profit.

So, most of the money just goes directly to the teacher in the form of 'gifts ' and only $125 benefits the kids at all? And you think that is ok?

In my kid's school, parents bring the food and crafts for the parties. Class dues go to a few big ticket items (like a standard gradewide activity that one parent wouldn't pay for) plus teacher holiday and year end gifts. I'm not seeing how this is detrimental to the kids.

I don't know that it is detrimental to the kids, but it sure doesn't help them. Out of $600, $475 was given directly to the teacher as a 'gift', 'bribe' whatever you want to call it. $125 was spent on the kids. I don't like the aesthetics.

I wasn't that poster. We collect 10$/family. Maybe 15 of a class of 21 contribute, so 150$. We spend 125$ on a teacher holiday and year end group gift, and 25$ for random supplies for parties (supplemented by room moms who kicked in extra as needed). Parents provide the rest per sign up genius requests.