My kids have been at two elementary schools. One with a PTA and one with a PTO. They are run very differently - the PTA has to have monthly meetings and be fully transparent about planning and budget. The PTO can make its own bylaws and do whatever it wants - ours was run by a Board that met on weekday mornings and had only two meetings a year where the rest of the community was invited.

The biggest difference was how they spent their money. The PTA was required to spend all money down each year - so any money raised benefited the children that year. The PTO on the other hand, could roll money over, and had essentially an almost $100K endowment. I didn't like this - I want the money I donate each year to benefit my children that year and not someone else's children in the future.

We are at a Christian K-8 with a PTO. Our main meeting is once a month at 7pm on zoom. I went to the first couple but I’m solo parenting at night so gave up. No guest speakers though, they talk about teacher appreciation, needs of the school, spring going fundraiser, book fair etc. I have free time during the day so offered to help then. So I go in and serve pizza once a month ( it’s a fundraiser) and stuff like that even though I can’t attend the meeting.

Our PTA meeting usually has a principal’s report, teacher report and then the pta president and other board members report on their matters. Often we discuss upcoming events.

We have an executive board meeting a week before each general meeting and get our ducks in a row, figure out what will be presented, talk about the guest speakers, go over the financials and any upcoming events. That part is limited to the officers. The general meeting is for any parent, member or no. All are welcome, we have them on zoom. There are also weekly email communications to all members and important announcements go out in the weekly bulletin from the school. The board is mostly the same small group of moms who run their pta in every school leading up to high school. We put out calls for new blood every year but it ends up being the same people who volunteer for everything. Luckily for me, they see awesome women.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That's because you have a PTO and not a PTA. PTOs can do whatever they want and it's usually just a club for the rich stay at home mommies to have coffee and chat at 10:00am on weekdays and spend other people's money on things their teacher friends ask for.

This. A PTA is part of a national umbrella organization and there are a lot more rules they have to follow, but overall it is better run than a PTO. One of my kids' schools had a PTO that was just a club for some moms. They could never get much engagement from the rest of the parents because they operated like a stupid high school clique that turned off everyone but the clique members. After it was a replaced with a PTA, engagement increased 10 fold.

Our PTO wasn't a club for mom's at all. It was to provide support to the school, staff and students. PTA wouldn't allow us to be a PTA and PTO was better as we didn't have to fund the PTA organization.

Anonymous wrote:That's because you have a PTO and not a PTA. PTOs can do whatever they want and it's usually just a club for the rich stay at home mommies to have coffee and chat at 10:00am on weekdays and spend other people's money on things their teacher friends ask for.

This. A PTA is part of a national umbrella organization and there are a lot more rules they have to follow, but overall it is better run than a PTO. One of my kids' schools had a PTO that was just a club for some moms. They could never get much engagement from the rest of the parents because they operated like a stupid high school clique that turned off everyone but the clique members. After it was a replaced with a PTA, engagement increased 10 fold.

Ours had a specific format - went through what was going on within the pto, upcoming events, upcoming needs, upcoming fundraisers, did a financial discussion detailing how much money the PTO had/spent, request for volunteers, principal talked, then open discussion and sometimes a speaker.

If you want the real tea, you have to volunteer to be on the PTA board and it’s a BIG time commitment. At the monthly meetings open to the public, it’s usually just a brief discussion of upcoming events, what happened at past events in terms of $$$ raised and what have you, and what they’re planning to use the raised funds on at the school (ie buying new risers for the music department, a new fence gate for the playground, renting a bouncy castle at the Halloween festival etc.)

Sounds like you need to be on the board or hold a position (Secretary, Treasurer, VP, Fundraiser, etc) to make decisions and plan events (and be "allowed" in the closed door mtgs).

HOAs, Scouts, and other groups (even the govt) are similar.

To actually answer your question.

ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. Ours talks in general terms about what they're doing. Usually a teacher or a group of teachers makes a 15 minute presentation on curriculum. Then they talk in very high level terms about the budget, but refuse to answer specific questions. The money mostly goes to the school and the teachers, they don't do anything for field trips, for example. They sure do expect the parents to pay $50-75 to rent a coach bus though because god forbid the chaperones have to ride on a yellow school bus for 30 minutes to get to whatever nature center they're taking the kids to even though we live near one of the best cultural centers of America.

That's because you have a PTO and not a PTA. PTOs can do whatever they want and it's usually just a club for the rich stay at home mommies to have coffee and chat at 10:00am on weekdays and spend other people's money on things their teacher friends ask for.

Wow. Ours is a teeny tiny group of active parents (it's small school) and they are always looking for volunteers or people organizing stuff. Also review the budget every meeting, which is pretty closely tied to goals.

At ours the PTO officers talk about the activities they are doing (after school programs, events, etc) and also the principal comes and talks about what is going on at the school, e.g. testing, reading interventions and things like that.

Sounds about typical for a PTO

What is supposed to happen during a PTO meeting…? Ours occur monthly with a guest speaker every month. Never do we discuss what are the needs of the school, fundraising goals, events… we are just told via WhatsApp the “PTO” is holding this fundraiser or hosting this event. All the real stuff happens behind closed doors in an invite only clique that I clearly have not been invited to. I thought a PTO is supposed to be about community, engagement, bringing everyone in… but that is definitely not the case at my dc’s school.