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tiny_ninjaAs some of you may or may not know, I have been involved in my kids' PTO since Q started school. He's now in seventh grade, so we've been at this a while. When he moved up to the next school, Gabby started, and the cycle repeated.
During the pandemic, I ended up PTO president (and secretary, and very briefly, treasurer) because no one else wanted to do it, and I kept us together when times were really hard. I stepped down when I took the library position at the school, because it's a conflict of interest.
Every few years, there's talk about combining our PTO with the other, larger organization that runs the other two elementary schools in town. We used to be one organization back in the day, but split off when we did a lot of fundraising and then had our funding requests denied. Now, we're under the same principal and with current leadership moving on, the conversation got brought up again.
Listen, I am like, the least stereotypical PTO mom to ever PTO mom. I cuss like a sailor, I write the sort of smut that will make you blush, and my kids have better witty comebacks than you. I do the work because the kids deserve it. And now, having met the people running the other PTO... man, I never want to be that. It's not a flex to say that you've never missed an event going back to 2017. Or that you spent every weekend this fall selling raffle tickets for an ATV. (Yes, they really did that. It's weird.) Or that every event needs to be a fundraiser and you spend your breaks baking cookies and freezing them for bake sales. Like... do you not have other things to do? Like actually hang out with the kids you're fundraising for? Talking to them reminded me of being invited to sit with the popular kids, only they don't want you to be with them, they just want to copy your math homework.
It's also not a flex to deny a teacher's request OR to make them fundraise for their own supplies because you don't have enough money. And the reason you don't have enough money is because you're sitting on a $15k safety net you refuse to spend.
Yes really.
So after the shitshow that was last month's meeting, every classroom teacher at my daughter's school plus me the librarian showed up to this meeting ready for war. And we were polite but firm but made our point. We're not merging PTOs. We're gonna do our best with what we have, which is what we've always done.
Bonus? We shifted to a virtual meeting because it's snowing again, and the other PTO insisted on meeting in person, so they didn't even come. So... fuck 'em.
During the pandemic, I ended up PTO president (and secretary, and very briefly, treasurer) because no one else wanted to do it, and I kept us together when times were really hard. I stepped down when I took the library position at the school, because it's a conflict of interest.
Every few years, there's talk about combining our PTO with the other, larger organization that runs the other two elementary schools in town. We used to be one organization back in the day, but split off when we did a lot of fundraising and then had our funding requests denied. Now, we're under the same principal and with current leadership moving on, the conversation got brought up again.
Listen, I am like, the least stereotypical PTO mom to ever PTO mom. I cuss like a sailor, I write the sort of smut that will make you blush, and my kids have better witty comebacks than you. I do the work because the kids deserve it. And now, having met the people running the other PTO... man, I never want to be that. It's not a flex to say that you've never missed an event going back to 2017. Or that you spent every weekend this fall selling raffle tickets for an ATV. (Yes, they really did that. It's weird.) Or that every event needs to be a fundraiser and you spend your breaks baking cookies and freezing them for bake sales. Like... do you not have other things to do? Like actually hang out with the kids you're fundraising for? Talking to them reminded me of being invited to sit with the popular kids, only they don't want you to be with them, they just want to copy your math homework.
It's also not a flex to deny a teacher's request OR to make them fundraise for their own supplies because you don't have enough money. And the reason you don't have enough money is because you're sitting on a $15k safety net you refuse to spend.
Yes really.
So after the shitshow that was last month's meeting, every classroom teacher at my daughter's school plus me the librarian showed up to this meeting ready for war. And we were polite but firm but made our point. We're not merging PTOs. We're gonna do our best with what we have, which is what we've always done.
Bonus? We shifted to a virtual meeting because it's snowing again, and the other PTO insisted on meeting in person, so they didn't even come. So... fuck 'em.
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