Switching from a PTA to a PTO Questions and Answers Aren t we required to have a PTA? No. There are no Fulton County School System requirements that a school have a PTA, PTO or any kind of parent organization. Many of us have come to think that PTA means any parent volunteer group at a school. But actually, the PTA is a single specific nationwide organization, with a state, county, and local levels of supervision and organization. They are not a part of the government or the school system. The SAE PTA is just a local unit of this much larger organization. PTOToday.com indicates that only about 25% of parent groups nationwide are actually affiliated with the PTA -the rest are independent PTO-like organizations. In the metro Atlanta area, most school parent groups are affiliated with the PTA. However, the majority of school parent groups in Georgia are PTOs. Of course, we think it is essential to have a parent teacher volunteer organization at our school. Just like the SAE PTA, the SAE PTO would provide volunteers for the classroom and school wide activities as well as provide popular activities and programs at Sweet Apple like Rap & Snack, Fun Run, Spiritwear, Grandparents Day, Yearbook, the Directory, Literacy Fair, Science Lab, Social events, and many more things. We also will remain engaged in community initiatives like the Mimosa Valentine's exchange and the Batter Up Breakfast to support North Fulton Charities. What s so bad about the PTA? There isn t anything inherently bad about the PTA. The North Fulton, Georgia and National PTA work hard to help parents, teachers, children and schools. They provide guidance on fundraising, networking and school programs. Some schools are active in North Fulton, Georgia or National PTA programs and events. There are other schools that struggle with getting parents involved and don t know how to raise funds for their school. In some cases, there are also parents who do not know how to manage finances or run an organization. In these instances, the PTA provides helpful guidance and support. So, these schools feel they get a good return on the dues they pay. However, the SAE PTA does not need guidance in these areas, and we do not use their programs (except the art/poetry contest called Reflections). We do not participate in the networking or learning how to do a fundraiser events the PTA offers. We feel that we provide them with just over $1,600 in dues each year without an adequate return, and we would like to have more flexibility in how we use the funds that our parents entrust to us. (Including what we spend money on, and when that money must be spent. This is
described more fully in the section below discussing financial challenges). Over the 14 years that Sweet Apple Elementary has existed, we estimate we have paid at least $24,000 of SAE families money to the North Fulton, Georgia and National PTA groups. What financial challenges are caused by our affiliation with the PTA? The Georgia PTA does not permit a local PTA to fund anything that is the responsibility of the education system. This is in conflict with certain things that the administration would like the PTA to fund at SAE (i.e. providing paper supplies for the school, maintaining the grounds, updates to our school building, purchasing technology for the classrooms.) These needs are not being adequately met by Fulton County. Moreover, as the financial crisis in public schools continues, there certainly may be other areas which require private funding through our parent-teacher group because the school system cannot, or will not, pay for them. The Georgia PTA suggests it is merely the role of the PTA to remind the school system to provide these things. It is our experience and opinion at the SAE PTA that in this financial climate, reminding Fulton County will not necessarily result in improvements when the County s budget is too limited to satisfy all our requests. In addition, the PTA guidelines discourage any kind of substantial carryover from year to year. This would mean that if we as parents wanted to build up a general PTA cash reserve over several school years to use for ongoing work on a deteriorating building or to purchase technology for our classrooms we would be in violation of these guidelines. Having a PTO gives Sweet Apple parents the flexibility to assist the school in the manner we see fit. How do we switch to a PTO? The easiest way to switch from the PTA to a PTO is to have a membership vote to transfer the budget and assets of the PTA to the newly formed PTO once it has been designated by the IRS as a 501(c)(3) entity. Tax laws permit one charitable entity to transfer assets to another entity organized for the same purpose. If parents seem generally in favor of pursuing the PTO for Sweet Apple after tonight s meeting, we will submit the IRS Form 1023 to obtain the 501(c)(3) status. This process can take anywhere from 6 weeks to 6 months, but for a small parent teacher organization such as this one, the IRS usually can issue its determination in 6-10 weeks. Of course, we cannot transfer the assets without the approval of the current PTA membership. This vote will be taken via paper ballot on March 30, 2012 together with the vote to elect officers for the coming year. If the membership votes to transfer to a PTO the officers elected will be PTO officers for the coming year and the transfer will be completed as the PTO receives the IRS 501(c)(3) determination letter. If the membership does not vote in favor of the PTO, the same nominees that the nomination committee announces will run as officers of the PTA and the PTA will continue to exist for next year.
How many people will be required to pass this vote? The vote will be taken via paper ballot on March 30, 2012 along with the election of officers. PTA bylaws require 20 members must vote to establish a quorum. A simple majority is then required to pass a proposal. No one can vote by proxy or email or phone per PTA bylaws. We have maintained this same procedure in the PTO bylaws. Who will oversee the PTO? During the Transition: Many PTO resources recommend setting up the PTO in the background so that it is ready to go as the PTA winds down. (This way, there is no gap in the funding or administration of programs.) We agree that is the most prudent way to proceed. Thus, we have already set up the basics of a PTO organization. At this moment, the SAE PTO is a skeletal incorporated organization, with a transitional board and by-laws. The PTO does not have any funds, nor is it providing any programs or services right now. For Elections: We normally hold our PTA elections for next year s Board in March. If the PTO is approved, we will be electing a PTO board instead in March. The new PTO board will have the positions we are accustomed to with the PTA, although there will be fewer VP level positions. The SAE PTO by-laws include a section that deems all members of the SAE PTA to be members of the new PTO from April 1, 2012 through the end of this school year free of any membership fees. That provision will allow our entire PTA membership to participate in the March 2012 elections for the new full PTO board for next year. Next Year and Years to Come: Unlike the PTA, there will be no outside governing organizations that oversee and direct the SAE PTO. Nor will any of our parent donated funds have to be paid to any such organizations. The PTO is governed solely by our members. The operations will be run by a board of elected parents, who must consult with the SAE principal (who serves on the Board), and must follow the by-laws of the organization. The PTO board must report regularly to the general membership, just as the PTA does now. While the PTO will not be controlled by any other organizations, there are several valuable resources for PTOs including guidebooks, websites, online document exchanges, message boards, etc. Remember, 75% of the parent volunteer organizations in this country are not PTAs. We would not be alone. There is a great deal of guidance and support out there if we needed it. Plus numerous parents that have experience running the PTA will remain involved in the future PTO.
Are the bylaws of the PTO and PTA different? Copies of both the PTA Local Unit bylaws and the Initial SAE PTO bylaws may be obtained by requesting them here at the meeting or by email request to friendsofsae@yahoo.com. In creating the initial SAE PTO bylaws, we pulled out all the PTA by-laws that we felt worked for our school, and consulted sample bylaws from other parent volunteer organizations for comparison. From these documents, we prepared a rough draft of bylaws for the SAE PTO. Our main goal was that the daily operations, strict financial responsibility, and procedures for voting/elections stayed very similar to the way the SAE PTA really operates now. The major differences are that, unlike PTA bylaws, our PTO bylaws can be changed by a specific voting procedure if the general membership finds it necessary. We also sought to streamline the board and provide for fewer VP level positions. Most of the work is accomplished at the Committee Chairperson level and we felt that over the years we have struggled to fill the available board positions, so we did not need 12 VP level board members. Under the PTO bylaws there will be up to six VP level positions covering three operational areas (Fundraising & Membership; Educational Enrichment; Family & Student Services). Another change you will see is that the SAE PTO will not charge dues for memberships. Instead, any parent or guardian that registers with the PTO will be entitled to attend and vote at general membership meetings (note that for corporate governance purposes and to ensure the integrity of votes all members must register in order to vote). The lack of membership dues means that all funds to support PTO initiatives will come from the Write One for the Wolf fundraiser. All the money raised by fundraising will be kept right at our school. Once we had a rough draft of SAE PTO bylaws that we thought were viable, the draft was circulated to several PTA current and former board members and then approved by the transitional PTO board in February. How many PTOs are there in Georgia? By their very nature, these PTO organizations are independent. There is no way to know how many there are. There is no central organization that registers and keeps track of them. Not all of them are incorporated and not all have IRS nonprofit status. The only way to find out definitively would be to check every school in every county. However, as we have noted previously, the article we have provided a link to in the email suggests about 55-70% of the parent organizations in Georgia are PTO s. If we become a PTO, will we still donate money to the Georgia and National PTA to support their lobbying efforts?
No, any political donations will be made on an individual family basis. The SAE PTO will not be involved in supporting political issues, candidates or parties. If we become a PTO, will we lose many programs that we use at SAE? If we become a PTO, we will only lose one program that we currently use at SAE. The Reflections Student Art/Poetry contest is the only program we use at SAE that is offered by the upper PTA organizations. Participation in the Reflections contest has not been strong at SAE, and we hope to replace this program with something similar but even more appealing to our students. In fact there are several options we are already considering to replace this program. Will it cost my family more to join the PTO than it did the PTA? No, in fact it will cost your family nothing to join the PTO. In addition, teachers, staff and administration can be members without having to pay dues out of their own pockets. The PTO will likely request that families donate to the Write One for the Wolf fundraiser at the beginning of next year (as the PTA did this year) because this manner of funding the budget was very well received by our families this year. Since we are removing the financial burden of dues it is our hope that each and every family at Sweet Apple will register with the new PTO and make at least a nominal tax-deductible contribution to Write One for the Wolf. The final determination on the suggested donation amount to Write One for the Wolf will be made during the budget setting process in June. Will donations to the PTO be tax deductible? We believe it is very important that the PTO have 501(c)(3) non-profit tax-exempt status from the IRS, so that donations will be tax deductible (just like they were from the PTA.) We don t want to take donations if we don t have that status. So, we have already prepared the lengthy IRS application form. If the vote to switch to a PTO is approved on March 30, we will mail the IRS application immediately along with the $850 application fee. It can take up to 6 months for the IRS to approve a 501(c)3 application, although we have heard that with PTO applications like ours, the wait can be much shorter. However, we want to plan for every scenario in this transition. We will word the March 30 vote so that if something happened and we didn t have nonprofit status by the planned transition time, the PTA can operate beyond May 31, 2012 without having to take a second vote. We don t actually think that this will happen, but we want to be prepared just in case. Who can I contact with questions? Please feel free to contact us at friensofsae@yahoo.com with any specific questions you may have.