Draconian PTA Fees?

[Anonymous]

Arlington--$5 to join. Everyone who doesn't opt out is in the directory. Every family gets one. We manage just fine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm lost here. Why is 40 an issue ? Do you really not have $40 for a full year ?

Westland poster here. No, it's not a big issue for us, but I'm sure it is for some families. Or school has a 17% FARMS rate -- that's almost one in five kids, or 240 kids. Many of those families aren't going to spend $40 in order to get a directory, and they may not have smartphone access either. I feel that the PTA can and should change their policy to make this a more inclusive situation.

Will my child soon be excluded from PTA sponsored activities if our family does not pay up?

No, they are not allowed to do that. Although interestingly, I haven't been notified of any PTA sponsored activities like assemblies, etc. The PTA runs the FLEX program, which consists of after school activites for a charge.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is $40 at WESTLAND MS too and only those that join PTA get a directory. They say you can still have access to the directory on your smartphone. Really???? I don't have a smartphone or any other fancy gadget for that matter and I am certainly not going to approach other parents who call themselves the PTA to plead poverty. Many Westland parents feel this way too. You can see how out of touch the PTA is.

This must be the new thing to force parents to join the PTA. I find it obnoxious. Soon they will be excluding non-PTA families from their activities.

Yep, Westland parent here too. It's appalling. They also maintain that they know who the kids are whose families can't afford this and will make arrangements. REALLY? How do they know this -- is the front office sharing info about free and reduced price lunch applications, which should be confidential?! And what about people who don't, for various reasons apply for free and reduced or qualify but for whom $40 might be too much?

The entitlement and cluelessness of these people just blows me away.

When I worked with a different PTA, the solution was simply to give a stack of directories (or whatever needed distribution) to the counselor or front office to distribute to those who need it. No one knew who got the free directory except those staff members who are allow to have this information.

And if you really want to make a difference stop complaining on DCUM, join the PTA, become an officer and change things.

[Anonymous]

OP,

I'm the poster from BES who told you directories were freely handed out.

I have just now received an email from the beptanet yahoo group saying this year directories would be available only if we joined the PTA!

Ridiculous. I will ask if we can go back to the old way.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Promethean boards are sooooo overrated, and the technology will be outdated soon. Schools brag about the dumb boards, but the reality is that most parents would prefer that schools separate kids by ability for math and reading (ie: send the high kids to one teacher for the math block, the on level kids to another, and the kids who are struggling to another) and work on the basics. If they did this, then perhaps they could scale back the math and reading blocks (which are currently super long so the teacher can cycle through three levels working in groups) and actually have time each day for science and social studies....which are essentially not being taught in elems in MCPS.

I totally agree.

Our PTA dues are pretty low, but I was a little annoyed when they told a parent she could charge everyone who wanted to do an afterschool activity $25 for "registration" (on top of any fees for the activities themselves).

[Anonymous]

At our red zone school, there are tiered levels of PTA membership, with different dues. So if you can't pay much, you can still join (and they'd probably let you join for free if you plead hardship), and if you have the means to give more and want to, you can do that as well. There is no difference in the "benefits" of the different member levels.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

OP,

I'm the poster from BES who told you directories were freely handed out.

I have just now received an email from the beptanet yahoo group saying this year directories would be available only if we joined the PTA!

Ridiculous. I will ask if we can go back to the old way.

This is OP again. Thanks for bringing this up on the listserv, but the discussion there rivals DCUM and it's not anonymous! I think part of the problem is that there is a perception that either you "can't afford" $40 and you're FARMs or you can afford it. What about federal workers who are afraid the govt will shut down? Have gone without a payraise for 3 years? Or those who were laid off and accumulated credit card debt? Why should a "free" public school charge $40 for this?

And frankly if it's divisive, why not do away with it? When I was a kid, my friends gave me their phone numbers and I called up!

[Anonymous]

OP, what if you avoided the issue of who supposedly can and can't afford $40, and just said that you think more people would join the PTA if the dues were lower? Which would serve the purpose of having more people join the PTA (unless they don't want that...) AND might also increase the total amount of dues (because 300 people times $20 is more than 100 people times $40 -- I'm making up numbers here).

Or did you try that already?

[Anonymous]

No, I didn't but that is a great idea.

[Anonymous]

Lowest level of membership is $20 and only way to get a directory. Seems to be the norm from this thread.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Lowest level of membership is $20 and only way to get a directory. Seems to be the norm from this thread.

Our school is $5 and a free paper directory whether you join or not-- and I don't think we are the only ones.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I hesitate to list the name of the elementary lest I influence the responses, but I'd like to do a poll. I've had kids at two other MoCo elementary schools, and the PTA membership fees were nominal -- $15. At my kid's new school, membership fees are $40! What's more, the only way to get a school directory is to become a PTA member. I'm now convinced this school's reputation for elitism is deserved. I just checked out the PTA budget, and while it shows they ran a deficit of $25K last year, they also spent $7K on landscaping!!

Thoughts?

Wow, you covered this topic well across all forms of local list-serves!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Lowest level of membership is $20 and only way to get a directory. Seems to be the norm from this thread.

Our school is $5 and a free paper directory whether you join or not-- and I don't think we are the only ones.

Ours too - $5, and everybody gets a free paper directory, PTA member or not.

[Anonymous]

Anything more than $15 is excessive in my opinion. And anyone who thinks that $40 is normal or compare it with private school fees are delusional and should be on the "Real Housewives of MOCO".

A nice professionally printed and bound directory is great and we have it for the PTA members but in my MS we also printed it out on the school copier (the PTA covered the charges) and stapled it and handed it out to everyone.

We had a confidentiality clause in our directory to prevent misuse, and both members or non-members could request a PDF file of the directory for $5.

[Anonymous]

The fees may depend on how much they are rolling into membership. At our school the fee for a family is $25. This includes two adult memberships. The Maryland PTA counts each adult separately and collects $10 back from the school for a 2 adults. This leaves $15 for the directory and general PTA fund.

There is an option to pay an additional amount of $10 per child for class parties - 2 a year. For a 2 kid family, the check would be $45 unless they opt out of funding class parties. At the schools charging a higher amount they may simply be adding the class party into the fee. I don't think that the PTA can collect money from parents who are not members. If they could, then they could solicit for class party donations separately.

It doesn't bother me because my kids really enjoy going to all the sponsored events. If your PTA collects a large amount and doesn't offer a good amount of activities then you should say something. Our offers around 12-15 big events and then does a bunch of staff appreciation, community service, and general things for the school/classrooms.