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

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:+1 to both of the immediate PPs. Some of these room parents need to do a bit of self reflection on whether the root of the problem is that they’re bossy control freaks. Parties and gifts work wonderfully at so many schools without all of this stress. These room parents need to pop a Xanax and learn how to create signup genius accounts.

You sound really grounded and seem to know what to do. Step and and volunteer next year!

I would, except my kids' schools don't have room parents! Amazingly, parties still happen and things still manage to get done without any sort of neurotic, bossy, busybody SAHMs standing between the teacher and the other parents. The teachers create their own signup geniuses, and I happily contribute each time.

Then you really have nothing to add. You have no experience with this. Many schools and teachers require them.

If other schools operate just fine without all of the insanity, that is relevant to the discussion. Some schools and teachers may require room parents, but no one is requiring them to be over-the-top with it. Just let people give the teachers their own appreciation gifts, and do sign up genius for the parties. Why does it ever need to be more complicated than that? Actually, when my kids were in preschool, we did have room parents. And they just went with signup genius for parties. Nothing there was over-the-top.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:+1 to both of the immediate PPs. Some of these room parents need to do a bit of self reflection on whether the root of the problem is that they’re bossy control freaks. Parties and gifts work wonderfully at so many schools without all of this stress. These room parents need to pop a Xanax and learn how to create signup genius accounts.

You sound really grounded and seem to know what to do. Step and and volunteer next year!

I would, except my kids' schools don't have room parents! Amazingly, parties still happen and things still manage to get done without any sort of neurotic, bossy, busybody SAHMs standing between the teacher and the other parents. The teachers create their own signup geniuses, and I happily contribute each time.

Then you really have nothing to add. You have no experience with this. Many schools and teachers require them.

If other schools operate just fine without all of the insanity, that is relevant to the discussion. Some schools and teachers may require room parents, but no one is requiring them to be over-the-top with it. Just let people give the teachers their own appreciation gifts, and do sign up genius for the parties. Why does it ever need to be more complicated than that? Actually, when my kids were in preschool, we did have room parents. And they just went with signup genius for parties. Nothing there was over-the-top.

SOme schools require teacher appreciation gift money to not only be collected for the teacher but specials teachers, too. Some also require the room parent to collect for birthday gifts. You realize that changing it means attending the pta meetings, suggesting the change, getting it approved. This isn’t a snap your fingers type of thing and very likely wouldn’t be approved at our school since we implemented the required specials teachers funds. Going backward the specials teachers don’t get gifts. There were complaints that it wasn’t fair to them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
SOme schools require teacher appreciation gift money to not only be collected for the teacher but specials teachers, too. Some also require the room parent to collect for birthday gifts. You realize that changing it means attending the pta meetings, suggesting the change, getting it approved. This isn’t a snap your fingers type of thing and very likely wouldn’t be approved at our school since we implemented the required specials teachers funds. Going backward the specials teachers don’t get gifts. There were complaints that it wasn’t fair to them.

Are these schools public schools? It seems very wrong for public schools to require the parents to fund so many gifts for the teachers. I'm shocked that it's even legal for gifts to be required in such a manner.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
SOme schools require teacher appreciation gift money to not only be collected for the teacher but specials teachers, too. Some also require the room parent to collect for birthday gifts. You realize that changing it means attending the pta meetings, suggesting the change, getting it approved. This isn’t a snap your fingers type of thing and very likely wouldn’t be approved at our school since we implemented the required specials teachers funds. Going backward the specials teachers don’t get gifts. There were complaints that it wasn’t fair to them.

Are these schools public schools? It seems very wrong for public schools to require the parents to fund so many gifts for the teachers. I'm shocked that it's even legal for gifts to be required in such a manner.

The schools don’t require that gifts are funded. Some schools require that if gifts are given, they are shared with the specials teachers and the room teachers. For example, my child is in a language immersion classroom. There are three total teachers. The money we gathered for a holiday gift was split evenly between the three teachers. Some schools require that the money be split between the three teachers plus the librarian, music, art, PE and whatever other specials there are. I would have been fine if the money was split between the five first grade teachers, 3 language immersion and 2 general education first grade.

At my sons Preschool, they pooled all the gift money and distributed it equally across all the rooms after noticing that the rooms with the younger kids tended to have lower donations then the rooms with older kids. His school took ages 3 months until 5. This makes sense because the younger rooms are more expensive then the upper rooms so parents were more cash strapped and the teacher to student ratio was higher. The solution was one large pool for all the teachers.

Essentially, schools have different rules so that gift money is shared in an equitable fashion.

[Anonymous]

The above is not correct for our Fcps school. Each room parent is required to give $50-$100 of gift cards to the pta for them to be given to the specials teacher. I am a room parent at a school like this. My friend is at another one like this. If you have more students or collected more money, they want 2 $50 gift cards. If you have fewer kids or collect less, you have to still give two $25 gift cards.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
SOme schools require teacher appreciation gift money to not only be collected for the teacher but specials teachers, too. Some also require the room parent to collect for birthday gifts. You realize that changing it means attending the pta meetings, suggesting the change, getting it approved. This isn’t a snap your fingers type of thing and very likely wouldn’t be approved at our school since we implemented the required specials teachers funds. Going backward the specials teachers don’t get gifts. There were complaints that it wasn’t fair to them.

Are these schools public schools? It seems very wrong for public schools to require the parents to fund so many gifts for the teachers. I'm shocked that it's even legal for gifts to be required in such a manner.

Yes, Fcps.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The above is not correct for our Fcps school. Each room parent is required to give $50-$100 of gift cards to the pta for them to be given to the specials teacher. I am a room parent at a school like this. My friend is at another one like this. If you have more students or collected more money, they want 2 $50 gift cards. If you have fewer kids or collect less, you have to still give two $25 gift cards.

I am assuming, but correct me if I am wrong, that the requirement is only in place when the class gives a group gift to the teacher. So if the class collects money for the teacher, then the class needs to give some of that collection to the PTA so they can give gifts to the specials teachers. Seems fair enough to me. The specials teachers don’t see the specific classes as frequently but work with all the kids so the gift is more of alarger school wide gift then a class specific gift.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The above is not correct for our Fcps school. Each room parent is required to give $50-$100 of gift cards to the pta for them to be given to the specials teacher. I am a room parent at a school like this. My friend is at another one like this. If you have more students or collected more money, they want 2 $50 gift cards. If you have fewer kids or collect less, you have to still give two $25 gift cards.

I'm still stunned by this. So, either the room parent or the classroom parents are required to fund gifts for teachers? I think it's fine for the PTA to fund gifts for teachers via donation or events. Or it's fine to encourage people to donate. But requiring parents to fund gifts for teachers just seems very wrong to me. There shouldn't be fees like this to attend public school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
SOme schools require teacher appreciation gift money to not only be collected for the teacher but specials teachers, too. Some also require the room parent to collect for birthday gifts. You realize that changing it means attending the pta meetings, suggesting the change, getting it approved. This isn’t a snap your fingers type of thing and very likely wouldn’t be approved at our school since we implemented the required specials teachers funds. Going backward the specials teachers don’t get gifts. There were complaints that it wasn’t fair to them.

Are these schools public schools? It seems very wrong for public schools to require the parents to fund so many gifts for the teachers. I'm shocked that it's even legal for gifts to be required in such a manner.

Yes, Fcps.

No, FCPS do not require people give gifts to the teachers. There are a variety of methods used to collect teacher gifts if a parent wants to participate. It is not mandatory.

Part of the discussion on this thread is because there are a few room parents who try and make donations mandatory which the vast majority of people on this thread disagree with.

My DSs room moms have been very clear that participation is voluntary. I have never seen a list sent out with the names of people who have not donated or participated. I have never had a room parent demand people provide a certain amount of cash. But that is my experience. Others have told of a very different experience. That is because FCPS does not have a mandated policy on anything associated with teacher gifts, room parties and the like. Different schools have different rules on how the money that is raised is distributed but that is about it.

Give if you want and hope that you ave a more low key room parent who is willing to organize some nice events for the kids and a gift for the teacher.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The above is not correct for our Fcps school. Each room parent is required to give $50-$100 of gift cards to the pta for them to be given to the specials teacher. I am a room parent at a school like this. My friend is at another one like this. If you have more students or collected more money, they want 2 $50 gift cards. If you have fewer kids or collect less, you have to still give two $25 gift cards.

I'm still stunned by this. So, either the room parent or the classroom parents are required to fund gifts for teachers? I think it's fine for the PTA to fund gifts for teachers via donation or events. Or it's fine to encourage people to donate. But requiring parents to fund gifts for teachers just seems very wrong to me. There shouldn't be fees like this to attend public school.

Again, the requirement is if money is collected, a percentage is given to the specials teacher. There is no requirement that parents donate money. At least, not at my school. Every email we get home about any event or fund raising is that participation is strictly voluntary and no one is required ot participate. But if the class does raise moeny for their class room teacher, some of that money goes to give gifts to the specials teachers.

So IF the room teacher collects money for the teacher THEN they MAY (depend on the school) have to give some of that money to the PTA for the specials teacher.

Emphasis on IF.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Again, the requirement is if money is collected, a percentage is given to the specials teacher. There is no requirement that parents donate money. At least, not at my school. Every email we get home about any event or fund raising is that participation is strictly voluntary and no one is required ot participate. But if the class does raise moeny for their class room teacher, some of that money goes to give gifts to the specials teachers.

So IF the room teacher collects money for the teacher THEN they MAY (depend on the school) have to give some of that money to the PTA for the specials teacher.

Emphasis on IF.

That makes sense to me, and I have no problem at all with that policy. I'm baffled by this PP, though, who seems to be implying that the gifts are required at her FCPS school. Gifts should never be mandatory, and room parents should never be in the position of either trying to make them mandatory or feeling as if they're on the hook for the difference if others don't pay. I feel like the following PP either has a very messed up school or is misunderstanding the policy and then over-stepping as a room parent.

[quote = Anonymous]
The above is not correct for our Fcps school. Each room parent is required to give $50-$100 of gift cards to the pta for them to be given to the specials teacher. I am a room parent at a school like this. My friend is at another one like this. If you have more students or collected more money, they want 2 $50 gift cards. If you have fewer kids or collect less, you have to still give two $25 gift cards.

[Anonymous]

Parents shouldn’t be expected to give money. This is crazy. No one should feel obligated to give a teacher gift and I wouldn’t want my child’s work day interrupted with constant parties and junk food. The teacher can use holiday themed exersices for their school work, but schools don’t need to celebrating holidays with parent-planned parties. Totally unnecessary.

If the PTA as a whole wants to put out a request for monetary or volunteer upport for various programs during the year (carnival, book fair, school wide teacher appreciation lunch, etc.) then they should send a detailed letter on what they want and what it would be used for and I’d support that. But for individual classes to be asking for money for crafts, pizza, teacher gifts, parties that take away time from the school day is not something I would support and would actively discourage this type of programming.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The above is not correct for our Fcps school. Each room parent is required to give $50-$100 of gift cards to the pta for them to be given to the specials teacher. I am a room parent at a school like this. My friend is at another one like this. If you have more students or collected more money, they want 2 $50 gift cards. If you have fewer kids or collect less, you have to still give two $25 gift cards.

I'm still stunned by this. So, either the room parent or the classroom parents are required to fund gifts for teachers? I think it's fine for the PTA to fund gifts for teachers via donation or events. Or it's fine to encourage people to donate. But requiring parents to fund gifts for teachers just seems very wrong to me. There shouldn't be fees like this to attend public school.

As a parent, I do a small gift card to each specials teacher just for the holidays. I would not fund the PTA as the PTA gets money and should use the PTA money for that if that is what they choose to do. That is absurd.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Parents shouldn’t be expected to give money. This is crazy. No one should feel obligated to give a teacher gift and I wouldn’t want my child’s work day interrupted with constant parties and junk food. The teacher can use holiday themed exersices for their school work, but schools don’t need to celebrating holidays with parent-planned parties. Totally unnecessary.

If the PTA as a whole wants to put out a request for monetary or volunteer upport for various programs during the year (carnival, book fair, school wide teacher appreciation lunch, etc.) then they should send a detailed letter on what they want and what it would be used for and I’d support that. But for individual classes to be asking for money for crafts, pizza, teacher gifts, parties that take away time from the school day is not something I would support and would actively discourage this type of programming.

In certain school class gifts (typically a gift card) for teacher appreciation and holiday gifts is expected. As a room parent, I put in extra $ on behalf of the group so the group gift would look bigger. You can dislike this practice but it exists and as long as you don’t contribute others will have to give more on your kid’s behalf.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Parents shouldn’t be expected to give money. This is crazy. No one should feel obligated to give a teacher gift and I wouldn’t want my child’s work day interrupted with constant parties and junk food. The teacher can use holiday themed exersices for their school work, but schools don’t need to celebrating holidays with parent-planned parties. Totally unnecessary.

If the PTA as a whole wants to put out a request for monetary or volunteer upport for various programs during the year (carnival, book fair, school wide teacher appreciation lunch, etc.) then they should send a detailed letter on what they want and what it would be used for and I’d support that. But for individual classes to be asking for money for crafts, pizza, teacher gifts, parties that take away time from the school day is not something I would support and would actively discourage this type of programming.

In certain school class gifts (typically a gift card) for teacher appreciation and holiday gifts is expected. As a room parent, I put in extra $ on behalf of the group so the group gift would look bigger. You can dislike this practice but it exists and as long as you don’t contribute others will have to give more on your kid’s behalf.

People can 'expect' anything they please. That in no way obligates me or anyone else to produce anything. Their disappointment can remain their own.