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 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 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 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 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.

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 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 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 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 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.