Looking for feedback from parents....

[conorsmom2000]

of school age kids...

Last year I was asked (pressured! :blush: ) to join the Parents Association at Conor's school - so, for this past school year, I've served as co-President. This was a lot tougher than I expected as my co-Pres had been on the board for 5 years and really liked to run the show....I was really only utilized to be an errand girl and to do a majority of the work (which is fine, and I would have done that anyway), but I basically got the impression I was better off not making suggestions, offering opinions or trying to get involved as a regular president would! :noevil: While this woman is a very nice lady, she is a control freak and very....I don't know what the right word is...just has a very serious nature, so I just stayed in the background.

But, this makes me feel totally unprepared for next year, when I will serve as President on my own. (it will just be myself and two other's - a VP and a treasurer. We had our elections last night and not one person showed up to take on a spot. Well, not one person showed up for the meeting at all! :( )

First off, our school is no different than others - we have a very diverse community and it is impossible to get volunteers for anything. Though, I have learned throughout this year that some of that is probably due to the co-Pres and how she treated/talked down to parents - so, I'm hopeful that might change.

But, now to get to my point :blush: .... I'm curious as to what you guys like at your schools, and what you don't like? What kind of fund raising do you like, what are you sick of? We are the type of school that does a lot of little fund raising stuff and I think the parents are sick of it. We do one major fall fund raiser (a catalogue program) but I think our parents are tired of it....then we do several smaller one's, where we only make $100 to $300 at a time. Lots of schools in our district do a tricky tray as their major fund raiser (and raise triple what we do with our fall fund raiser) but our principal would never allow it - but, we did have a small basket raffle last year where we raised $850 on just 13 baskets, so I think he realizes that it might not be a bad idea. But, I'm not willing to take that on unless we get a parent committee going - it's not something 3 board members could run on their own. So, I'm doubtful that it will happen next year.

I guess what I'm saying is that we are looking for fresh ideas and things that are fun and interesting, that people will be willing to get involved in. So, I'm just looking for your feedback on what you wish your Parents association (or PTO, PTA, etc.) would do!

Thanks! :D

[murphy1]

Oh, Jen, you poor thing. You are such a go-getter and I know it's tough b/c you need the help and it's not there! We have a great PTA, I do stuff on the committees but not an officer and my main focus is to try to help in the classroom, plus with my two preschoolers classes this year, it was crazy. One of the schools in our district did something a lot of people loved, they flat out said they would just collect checks from people instead of a fundraiser. Some people gave $500!!! some a lot less, some none at all, but my friend at the school is a teacher and she said it was great for the parents with the big $$$ who didn't want to fool with fundraising and had the money. Just something I heard about anyway. We do a gift wrap thing as our big fundraiser and a couple of smaller ones.

[Jimenyfan]

Funny you should ask this question. We had an informal PTA meeting yesterday to plan our school calendar for next year. I serve as the Treasurer of our PTA. We kick off our school year with our Innisbrook(wrapping paper) fundraiser, this is one of our biggest and we raise about 19K. We are following that up with a fall festival which had been our spring carnival, this years carnival raised 10k, it also included an auction of classroom baskets(each class assigned a theme) teacher dates and class plates-this raised 6k. For christmas we have something called Toy Junction where the kids are able to shop for holiday gifts, last year this fundraiser raised just shy of 9k.

We will be having a family fun night in the spring, last year we did bingo with a local restaurant providing meals at a reduced rate, the PTA made a profit of $2.50 per plate and our profit was about 3k. Hope this info helps. PM me if you have any other questions.

Amy

[Womble]

Can’t help with fund raising ideas!
I just wanted to say I’m sorry you had a meeting where no people turned up.

[princessjojo]

Jen- that is really the pits that you were put in that position.

I loved being part of our PTA, but this year I have been too busy to do anything to help the school. I do agree that I hate the fall fundraisers. It seems really time consuming and if your area is like ours, it always seems that there are only 25 schools participating at one time and you often feel obligated to buy from those who bought from you. One thing we did that helped the school, costed little to nothing to do and was a great help to the families of the school was to have a school yard sale one saturday morning. Here in the south, people LOVE yard sales. You could potentially make a lot of money and takes just a few people to run. The hardest part would be getting the items from the students families. You could always have each family tag their own mdse. and send it to the school. Whatever is sent that isn't tagged could just be donated to a family in need or a local womens/homeless shelter. We made about $700, but also had coffee with us as well. And the greatest thing was the only cost involved was that for the ad for the newspaper and the signs we made for the street corners (about $10). It could be a lot of work, but with the right help, could be less work than the usual fundraisers where you have to distribute brochures, add totals, and collect monies, and distribute mdes. The parents only have a little time of their own invested in the fundraiser and get to clean out their closets at the same time. Often times, the teachers do a lot to help out as well. Afterall the fundraisers if for them as well.

It's just a thought. Good luck and remember, if no one shows, then you get to make all the decisions.

[Jimenyfan]

Jen,

One thing that we found to get people to show up for the PTA meetings was to combine it with something else: ex: science fair, chorus, family fun night, some event that parents would be coming to anyway.

Amy

[Momof2boys]

Jen, I can so relate to you ! Last year, the school was begging for a treasurer so I signed up with a friend of mine. I learned very quickly that it was really a 1 person job. So I've been handling all the duties for that job this year. Our 2 co-Presidents have been on the board for a while and work at the school. There are a lot of things that are being done because "that's the way they've always been done". People are afraid to make suggestions to change things.

Fast forward to March this year and I was approached to be a Co-President with the VP who is moving up. It's a 2 year term and we both have a lot of great ideas that we've been keeping track of to change for next year.

* We're going to have a drawing at each PTO meeting for a $10 gift card or such to try & increase attendance. Lots of parents volunteer but don't come to the meetings & then complain when they don't agree with something. Plus we're going to have a suggestion box at school and email to try to engage the parents more.

* Our fundraisers this year were the typical Kathyrn Beich stuff (candy, wrapping paper, etc) and Pocket Peelers. We're having our 1st annual golf outing on June 3rd with raffle, auction, and sponsorships. On sponsorships alone we've already raised $8000 !

* We have the Box Tops for Education contests twice per year. Winning classes get a prize - popcorn & movie, ice cream, etc. Those box tops really add up plus they're on almost everything.

*We do an Ice Cream Social in the fall & our Sock Hop w/raffle in February.

* We have Family Nights at 2 local restauants where we get a part of the profit sold that night - a pizza place & Culver's.

There's a website call ptotoday that has a lot of info.

Here's :pixie: for both of us for a successful transition & school year.

[princessjojo]

We're having our 1st annual golf outing on June 3rd with raffle, auction, and sponsorships. On sponsorships alone we've already raised $8000 !

* We have the Box Tops for Education contests twice per year. Winning classes get a prize - popcorn & movie, ice cream, etc. Those box tops really add up plus they're on almost everything.

* We have Family Nights at 2 local restauants where we get a part of the profit sold that night - a pizza place & Culver's.

WOW! That is a lot of money in sponsorships. We do the Box Tops for Education and Campbell soup lables, but I find I myself wait and turn in about 2 years worth at a time. I just have to keep an eye on the expiration dates. When we do the Family Nights, we usually to places such as Chic-Filet, but it gets so busy and many of the parents either forget to bring the "voucher" that night or reciept the next day. But it does have great potential for us.

[SodaPopMGK]

I just wanted to say that my favorite fundraiser that the elementary schools in my town do is when they take the student's art and you can get it made into ornaments, bookmarks, mugs, etc. I have no idea how much money our PTO makes off it, but I love seeing my child's artwork hanging on my tree.

[mouseaddict]

I would like to add my two cents on fundraising. I remember the day when there were spaghetti dinners and bake sales etc. I HATE this whole catalog fund raiser issue. In Septemeber at work there would be 10-12 catalogs out and everyone wants you to buy the over-priced gift wrap. I do not like the way the school entices the kids to go out and solicit, giving them prizes and ice cream parties etc. A little boy here in North Florida went out to try to sell without his parents and wound up at the home of a sex offender who molested him! I absolutely refuse to participate in these promotions. I am more than happy to send a check for $20 every year in support of my child..that way the school gets every penny of it.
I wish you all of the best. I can only imagine how hard it can be to run a board where parents are so uninterested. I imagine that being a Disney fan will be a bonus for you because you will have a great imagination! Good luck and let us know how it goes!

[ElenitaB]

Jen, and I thought it was bad being a boy scout leader. I'm sure that you'll have more people participating once you assume the Presidency.

As for fundraisers, it's gotten to the point where I no longer ever open up the Reader's Digest catalog. The last thing I need is more clutter in the form of chatckes or overpriced wrapping paper.

I'd make the following suggestions (and have already made them to my DS's school): UPromise.com now has a program though which part of the money you accrue for your child's 529 college fund (we have a few hundred saved this way) can be channeled to the school of your choice. You "earn" this money by clicking through to online sites (such as Sears, Lands End, etc.) from their site; you can also link your grocery store cards to UPromise and certain products will add to your account.

Certain restaurants also have fundraising programs, at no cost to your school or organization. The one that I've suggested to our school is Pizzeria Uno (no vouchers needed... you just show up on the date selected and say that you're with the XYZ organization).

You can find information about both programs online. We also do BoxTops for Schools and have gotten equipment for the school through it.

I've also heard of scrip programs (some of which even allow you to access "stuff" at WDW)... anything has to be better wrapping paper and (bad) chocolate bars!

Good luck, Madam President! :thumbsup:

[Christine]

Jen, our school also has done the catalog fund raisers....I HATE THESE! Most of the stuff is junk (who needs a $14 plastic resin rooster paper towel holder, honestly???), and it is a pain to sort and deliver.

Back when I was in school, we did the big thick chocolate candy bar sales. I can sell 50 $1.00 candy bars way faster than I can sell $50 worth of catalog junk!

Raffles are good, but make it a BIG item! Like a plasma tv, a two night stay at a nice hotel...something that will really make a big draw!

I don't like bake sales, b/c I don't know how clean the person's kitchen is who made the stuff...sorry but it's gross to think about how some people live (cats on the counter, wiping their nose while cooking and not washing their hands, etc).

Good luck to you!

My BIGGEST feedback regarding fundraisers is that it is rediculous to have to do in the first place! Parents buy all the school supplies for their children (and the teachers...we bought sharpies, ziplocs, etc for them). We pay unheard of school ISD taxes, the school is constantly sending home notes for more money that is needed (send $4.00 for this, $2.00 for that, etc). But I guess it's just never enough...

[quicksand]

My kids go to a very small private school. Every year they have a tuition raffle. Each ticket is $100 and the winner receives a free year at school. We also have a silent and live auction. Many businesses and individuals donated different things or services such as house cleaning, hair cuts, lawn care, painting, interior design consult, toys, puppies... last year I baked a cake and it sold for $40. I think we raised about 10K last year. Best of luck to you.

[PrincessEmmasMommy]

Hi! I teach in East Orange, NJ. We are a title one school with 72% being on free and reduced lunch. Our school does way too many fundraisers but we do it to help make other things more affordable. As lead teacher for my grade level, I'm responsible for picking our fundraisers. I'm also on a self funded committee that fundraises.
Some things you could look into: Joe Corbi's Pizza and Cookie Dough (We make tons of money on this), we also do Pizza Days once a month. We work with Pizza Hut to get a cheaper rate and charge $1.50 a slice and $0.50 for a Capri Sun (which are 40 for less than $7 at Sams or BJ's). We make like $500 a month on this. Another good one is Market Day if you can get support for it. The food on Joe Corbi's and Market Day is so yummy and hey, people have to eat!

I agree with the suggestion about combining meetings with other things. People will always come if their children are performing.

Good luck and pm me if you have any questions.

Jen

[kakn7294]

Jen, I feel so bad for you! I'm not involved to the point of being an officer with our PTA but I can give you an idea for a few fund-raisers. Our school has a Jog-a-thon each fall. The kids get people to sponsor them by either pledging a rate per lap or a flat rate - say $5. no matter how many laps. They set up two areas for the event, a smaller "track" for the K - 2 graders and a larger "track" for the 3 - 6 graders. Most kids can complete about 15 -25 laps. The PTA gets local business to sponsor T-shirts and prizes. All kids who participate and bring in at least $8 get a T-shirt. The top 3 kids in each room get 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place ribbons. There are "prizes" for reaching certain levels - $25, $50, $75, and $100 and prizes for the top so many money earners. The level prizes in the past have included binders, seat cushions, sports bottles, and backpacks with the school logo on them, and a $3. gift cards to a local ice cream parlor. It's easier to get parents to participate because they don't have to sell anything and many will just write a check and be done with it. The PTA keeps all of the profits above and beyond what was spend on prizes. The second fund-raiser that our school utilizes if Market Day. If you are unfamiliar with this, it's a pre-packaged food sale. It happens once a month - the food is delivered to the school and sorted by the PTA. Parents pick it up at a set time after school. We've also used Box Tops for Education and in the past we've used the Campbell's soup labels. We have a local grocery store that sponsors computer donations - all receipts donated to the school from grocery store sales can be converted to money for computer equipment. Maybe there's such a program in your area. Good luck to you!

[RedSoxFan]

Jen: At the elementary school Kourtney attends in NY and the one she attended in VA, they have a Scholastic Book Fair. It's a lot of work to set up and take down; but I believe it does raise a lot of money. They run it differently here in NY, but in VA it would be held twice a year (fall/spring). It would run the week and be open 1 night for parents to attend. They would have books for all ages and kids love to get new books.

[Sean Riley Taylor's Mom]

Our school also does the Scholastic Book Fair twice a year, Box Tops (ongoing through the entire year with a reward for each class that brings in the most once a month, they get a pizza lunch), and a Fall Fair which is our biggest fund raiser. The PTA also sells drinks/snacks/light dinner at all family fun nights that are held at the school. Movie nights, magic shows, bingo night, all are free to attend but the food and the raffles they hold at each are great money raisers.

The biggest problem we had here in regards to getting parents to meetings was babysitting. If their spouse was not home, single parent, etc, it made it very difficult for parents to go. I was one since my husband is a 911 Dispatcher and works all 4-12's. We came up with a great babysitting program with a group of Jr High kids that are called Natural Helpers. They will watch kids 4 and up at the school for the duration of the meeting. It really made quite a difference in attendance.

We do one wrapping paper/candy fundraiser at the beginning of the year and I hate it. My children never go door to door and asking family is always a pain. So, I buy one small item from each of the kids and that is it. I know I am not alone in that.

Our PTA is really great in regards to the things they do for our kids. If a grade is going on a field trip that is more then a 30 minute drive away they pay for a charter bus for the kids. They also provide a bagel/juice breakfast for the kids. All at no extra cost to the parents. They pay for half of all field trip admissions that will cost a parent more then $10. (Field trips do not cost that much often).

They really do a lot for the kids and it makes the parents want to volunteer and help out in whatever way they can.

Good luck!!

[conorsmom2000]

Thanks so much for the great feedback everyone!!! :mickey:



Good luck, Madam President! :thumbsup:
:funny: :scared:


My BIGGEST feedback regarding fundraisers is that it is rediculous to have to do in the first place! Parents buy all the school supplies for their children (and the teachers...
Actually, that's not really the kind of stuff we fund - while we do gift the teachers in the beginning of the year for $100 each to use for their classroom, the rest is just extra's, like....
We pay for 2 assemblies throughout the year - our fall one was a children's book author and our spring one will be a jazz assembly. Then there's Field day t-shirts, HS scholarship, scholarships for the summer programs, we pay $5 for every child for their class field trip, read-a-thon prizes, school pride day gifts...etc. We do gift the school with something each year, if we can (last year we couldn't) - this year was color printers.

I guess I should also mention what we do currently for fundraising:

Book sox sales, school store (during lunch, twice a month), Cherrydale catalog program, halloween bake sale, Holiday shop for the kids, Thanksgiving Day pie sale, crunch-a-thon, Display my art (like what SodaPopMGK mentioned), Scholastic Book Fair (just once a year, but we do well with this one), Family night at IHOP (we used to do Pizzera Uno but the only one near us closed), Mother's day plant sale, Bake sale on field day, Box tops for education, Tyson A+ labels and pennies for education....this year we did try a Scrip program as our Spring Fund raiser, which is going on now, but as we feared, our parents don't really seem interested. Oh, we do have free babysitting at our PA meetings.

We do also do a Pizza lunch twice a month, but those profits go to the 5th grade fund (yearbook, their graduation trip, etc.)

So, that's all a lot of work, with little profit - and I hate constantly asking the parents for more. With the Cherrydale catalogue, our letter to the parents specifically says not to go door to door - we definitely don't want that! But, yes, all the schools do the same sale, at the same time! :shake:

And not only do the parents hate being asked for more money, we can't get anyone to chair these events - which becomes a nightmare for us trying to run everything! We are a relatively small school - about 260 kids. So, some of the bigger things mentioned would be hard - like the golf outing.

I think all the PA's in the district might do a joint garage sale/yard sale this fall - at least the subject has been mentioned...

A lot of you mentioned Family Fun nights - guess what? Our principal won't let us have them. :( One Mom has been trying to have a movie night during the winter, where the PA woud sell popcorn, drinks, etc. - the Principal says that he will not promote sitting in front of a TV screen! Mike offered to run a car wash fund raiser - he said no. So, as you can see, he's rigid and set in his ways as well, which makes things hard. :shrug: He can be supportive, as long as it doesn't go against his beliefs.

I love the idea of just collecting checks - I've heard that called a booster program. It would be so nice to just do that, then all the stuff we do could be the fun stuff, not the fund raising - but, I'm not sure how well that would go over.

Your feedback about the catalogue program is exactly what I expected - definitely the thing parents dread and are sick of. Believe it or not, as our biggest fund raiser, our profit is still only $3,400! I wish I could find something that would replace it all together, but it's hard to know what to do, and what the parents would be willing to participate in.

Thanks for the ideas for the meetings - I think the raffle is a great idea and something I'm going to do. I can't believe come September I'm going to be the one leading these meetings!! :hide:

And good luck to you, Anmanda, and anyone else who takes on these kinds of roles!!

[Mickey'sGirl]

I thought about this last night. The four most successful programs at our school are:

Hot Dog/Grilled Cheese lunches the first Thursday of every month.

Pizza Lunches the last Thursday of every month.

Fun Fridays -- Selling popcorn in the winter, and freezies in the summer (Popcorn and freezies are donated by parents, then sold for 100% profit during recess and lunch)

Basket draws. Each classroom combines its resources to create wonderful gift baskets. Harry's class has "Outdoor entertaining" as the theme. There are 22 kids in his class, and each child is asked to contribute something if he/she can. We sent in a gift card for a local boxed meat store, and some fruit punch crystals. Another family sent in a set of barbeque utensils. Another family sent in a Bocce Ball set.... So by the time it is done there is a fabulous gift basket that people buy raffle tickets for. It raises a ton of money.

Chocolate covered almonds always sell immediately.

I too hate the magazine and wrapping paper subscriptions.

I'll keep thinking....:mickey:

[gueli]

Hi, Jen-
I am a father of one DD who is in preschool. I Know this doesn't qualify me compared to the rest of the people who have replied, but I would still like to offer my comments. (I know I am on the start of a wonderful ride (the school years)...
Even in preschool we got 'hit' with a few fundraisers, and found the stuff to be, well horrible- who wants pizza that does not need to be refigerated, or cookie dough filled with so many preservitives (that it makes me sick)...I can only imagine what it will be at the next level. At the start of the last fundraiser we sent the people in charge a note with a check- our thought (My wonderful DW & myself) was that I would rather directly fund them, then end up paying for ... Anyways they sent us a nice thank you note (the fundraiser was for graduation stuff), and that they appreciated the donation.
I guess what I am trying to say is give parents an option...especially for those of us who get tired of all the fundraisers.
Thank You,
Have a nice Day :D

[Tinkerfreak]

I just wanted to say that my favorite fundraiser that the elementary schools in my town do is when they take the student's art and you can get it made into ornaments, bookmarks, mugs, etc. I have no idea how much money our PTO makes off it, but I love seeing my child's artwork hanging on my tree.

I also love this. I have had my two daughters art work done into ceramic tiles every year and we are going to incorporate them into our new house so we will see them every day. I'm thinking a backsplash for the sink or something.

[Tinkerfreak]

I would like to add my two cents on fundraising. I remember the day when there were spaghetti dinners and bake sales etc. I HATE this whole catalog fund raiser issue. In Septemeber at work there would be 10-12 catalogs out and everyone wants you to buy the over-priced gift wrap. I do not like the way the school entices the kids to go out and solicit, giving them prizes and ice cream parties etc. A little boy here in North Florida went out to try to sell without his parents and wound up at the home of a sex offender who molested him! I absolutely refuse to participate in these promotions. I am more than happy to send a check for $20 every year in support of my child..that way the school gets every penny of it.
I wish you all of the best. I can only imagine how hard it can be to run a board where parents are so uninterested. I imagine that being a Disney fan will be a bonus for you because you will have a great imagination! Good luck and let us know how it goes!

Our school has a policy that the kids are absoutely not to sell door to door and they have done away with giving away prizes. I like to order the gift wrap and so do some of my family. I do have a problem with any child being made to be pushy about selling or feeling like it is a competition.
Our school also accepts monetary donations. DH and I donate alot of things, books, recreational equipment and school supplies. DH has spent many hours building the playground and building sturdy benches for the baseball fields etc. I know not everyone has the time to donate or the money but it can be frustrating when you know someone has the time and just won't make the effort.
Jen good luck with all of this and I applaud you for being one of the parents willing to step up to the plate and put in such great effort.

[princessjojo]

Hey Jen, just a thought...

Like someone else mentioned, we are also a title one school where a lot of the children are economically deprived. But there are also a lot of older adults in our area who have a lot of money and enjoy helping our schools. Like you, our principal isn't big on raffles, because of the degree of "diversity" in our school, but my sister goes to a private school where this idea worked. Some of the more fortunate in our community have vacation properties in the mountains or beaches around here. They donated a weekend or a week to the school to be raffled off with dinner or a show included. I want to say that when they had the Myrtle Beach trip offered with Alabama Theater tickets the school made $15,000. they sold the tickets for $5ea/5 for $20. The gentleman who made the property donation received a tax break also.

[c&d]

There are 2 things we do at my son's school that have been very successful. The first is a silent auction and wine tasting, it raised $14,000 this past March. We're a small school ~300 children so this is impressive. We hold it at our Memorial Hall and it's alot of fun. Being a small town (~28,000) some of the "live" auction items include principal for a day, mayor for a day. DS's class had lunch with the superintendent. It's a very enjoyable evening for everyone.

The other thing we have is a "giving tree." Teachers are given 3 apples and they put them on the tree in the main hallway. Parents can come by and take an apple and purchase the request. The requests are usually small, markers, glue sticks etc. What's nice about it, is that you are giving to the school without having to buy wrapping paper, etc.

[Mom to a Princess and a Prince]

Our school sells "Spirit Wear" which consists of t-shirts, sweatshirts and sweatpants all sporting the school name and mascot. The products are good quality and the prices aren't that bad. And once a month, the school holds School Spirit Day and the kids are encouraged to wear their Spirit Wear. I like it because I would be buying my kids sweats anyway and my kids like it because they are showing their school pride.

[conorsmom2000]

Basket draws. Each classroom combines its resources to create wonderful gift baskets. Harry's class has "Outdoor entertaining" as the theme. There are 22 kids in his class, and each child is asked to contribute something if he/she can. We sent in a gift card for a local boxed meat store, and some fruit punch crystals. Another family sent in a set of barbeque utensils. Another family sent in a Bocce Ball set.... So by the time it is done there is a fabulous gift basket that people buy raffle tickets for. It raises a ton of money.

Jenn, that's what we tried in December, for the first time - we asked each class parent to coordinate a basket from their class, plus the teachers and the PA each did a basket. It was succesful, but stressful - for example, my class (yes, I'm class Mom too :blush: ) did a scrapbooking/craft basket - there are 22 kids in Conor's class....I gave the parents a list of items needed, stores they could purchase them at (all local) or gave them the option of just giving a few dollars and I would shop for the basket. Well, I had no items donated and I only collected $15 from the class. I ended up going to friends for donations and I got my father and brother to donate cash so I could go buy a gift card to AC Moore. The rest? I paid for - probably about $50. So, it was a success for the PA, but not so much for myself! :D Most of the classes had the same problem. :( In the end, though, the parents loved the baskets and we did raise over $850. We're hoping that now that the parents realize what the goal was, and how great the baskets were, they will be more willing to donate next year. We're going to expand it a tiny bit and see if we can get one or two big ticket items donated - hopefully that happens and will get people to at least buy the tickets!

[Jimenyfan]

We have also done class baskets, class plates and teachers dates. We included these items in an auction that we had during our spring carnival and they raised over 6k. One thing that I have learned from serving on our PTA board is that our school district provides very little to the schools in our county. I would encourage people to look into what is provided to your schools from your school district, most of the extras at our school have been purchased by our PTA organization and the fundraisers that we do.

[Cinderelley]

of school age kids...

This was a lot tougher than I expected as my co-Pres had been on the board for 5 years and really liked to run the show... but I basically got the impression I was better off not making suggestions, offering opinions or trying to get involved as a regular president

Though, I have learned throughout this year that some of that is probably due to the co-Pres and how she treated/talked down to parents - so, I'm hopeful that might change.

Thanks! :D

This is exactly why I never joined our PTA after I went to one meeting.

Our kids' schools used to have some great activities - great from a parent/family perspective. I don't know about behind the scenes.

1. Father/Daughter Dance- a DJ in the gym, a photographer and snacks/drinks.
2. Father/Son Sports Night- My DH & boys really loved this night. There was tug of war, various ball games, 3-legged races, etc.
3. Mother/Son "night"- they did various things for this night, one time it was country dancing and the photographer had a bale of hay with horns attached to it, to make it look like they were "bull riding" in the picture.
4. Mother/Daughter night - this changed also. It was always centered around crafts though.
5. They always had a "carnival" once a year. Some of the games were picking a rubber ducky and winning the prize that had the corresponding number on the bottom of the duck, hackey sack toss through the clown's mouth, cake walk, throwing the dart at the balloons. I believe it was 1 ticket to play each game and a ticket was 50 cents or $1. A local company provided some simple rides. I don't remember how much they charged for those. They also charged a $5 for two pieces of pizza and a soda. One year they had a dunk tank and the kids loved trying to dunk the teachers.

[Jen0610]

Jen - Our school here has several all year fund raisers.

One night each month, Burger King donates 5% of the our purchases to the school. There are coupons that we take in and give the cashier and they write down how much our order was. We get enough coupons that the grandparents and friends can use them. We also do the same with a local pizza place.

The biggest fund raiser we do though is Market Day. I don't know if they have this in your area, though. I know that there are several parents who would much rather spend 20-50 bucks a month on Market Day items then try and get family and friends to buy wrapping paper and such 1 to 2 times a year. We have friends who's kids who have moved on to middle school, but since the middle school doesn't sell Market Day they still order through our school.

Target has a rebate program that runs all year long, if I am remembering correctly. Also, the Meijers stores have a rebate program that you can join.

The 2 book fairs, which are held at the same time as fall and spring parent/teacher conferences, are big for us. We have the sparkel shop at Christmas time, spirit wear sales, Friday popcorn sales and I know there are a couple of others, but I can't think of them right off the top of my head.

[Riri529]

Jen,
I am 2nd VP of our PTA. We are lucky to have great participation in all of our fund raisers. Our school runs a variety of fund raisers-- some no brainers and some very labor intensive. We do a wrap sale which brings in quite a bit of money. We also run a Halloween fair complete with crafts, games, concessions, prize redemption, and a haunted house. The fair requires over 200 volunteer hours, but most parents were willing to give some time and we pull it off every year. This brings in thousands of dollars!
A few no brainers for us are boxtops for education, a printer cartridge rebate program through an office supply company, and a kickback from our local privately owned supermarket (parents have their receipts validated at check out, we collect them and send them back to the supermarket. They then send us a percentage of sales.)
As with most schools, I'm sure you will find a core group of people who do most of the work, but it has been my experience that with some friendly outreach most parents want to be involved. Good luck to you next year as President. You sound like you're on top of things, and I'm sure you will be successful. :thumbsup:

[Mickey'sGirl]

Hey I thought of another HUGE success last night as we were reviewing Harry's homework.

Each March, the whole school participates in a Spellathon. Each grade is assigned a list of 20 grade appropriate words to learn about 2 weeks prior to the actual event. Each child is encouraged to seek pledges for their efforts -- and for every $10 pledged, the child's name is entered into a draw (for gift cards or movie passes etc). Every day, the Principal would have a special "loot bag" draw. He gave one word from the list to each grade to spell -- (just as practice) and everyone who spelled it correctly was eligible to have his/her name pulled for the "loot bag" for the grade. The kids all get into it -- and do really well on the Spellathon test -- the top students then move onto a big spelling bee in the gym for a larger prize. The profit is well over 90% and the participation is almost 100% -- The children average $100 in pledges -- That's $4,000 easy fund raising dollars!

[Momof2boys]

I've jotted down a few new ideas that were listed on here to present at our first meeting this summer.

Good luck to you too, Jen, and let's see if we can't bounce ideas off each other to make both of us succeed.

[BronxTigger]

Parents buy all the school supplies for their children (and the teachers...we bought sharpies, ziplocs, etc for them). We pay unheard of school ISD taxes, the school is constantly sending home notes for more money that is needed (send $4.00 for this, $2.00 for that, etc). But I guess it's just never enough...

Wow! I can't get my parents to bring in ANYTHING! I asked for FOUR months for the kids to bring in 3 composition notebooks at the beginning of the year, and here we are at the end of MAY and I still don't have supplies from some kids!

Every supply in my classroom was bought out of my wallet. I get reimbursed for $250 of that from the school district, but that doesn't go far when I also have to make my own copies, buy the paper, ink, pencils, markers, scissors, glue, crayons, etc.....*sigh*

Maybe I should come work in your district. At least then, if the kids break the pencils and waste the supplies I wouldn't get so mad at them!

As for fundraising ideas, I have no idea. I don't think we do them at my school!