Question about PTO Funds and Field Trips

[Aliceacc]

Our local elementary school has an active PTO that runs at least 5-6 solid fundraisers per year, and has a respectable bank balance.

Each grade takes one field trip per year. The PTO donates a set amount of money toward the field trip, with the intent that it be put toward buses. The amount does not actually cover the total bus cost. It also doesn't account for grades with higher enrollments that might need a second bus.

Parents then pay for their child to attend the field trip, and to make up any bus shortfall.

Additionally, parents who would like to chaperone are asked to pay their own entry fee into the location (zoo, museum, whatever) and to take their own cars to and from the location.

I'm surprised by this because I would have thought that the PTO funds would cover a more significant portion (if not all) of the field trip costs. Instead, PTO funds are largely used to purchase technology for the school. (white boards, elmos, etc)

How are field trip expenditures handled at your area elementary schools? How about large technology purchases?

As I understand it, here's the reasoning in my kids' schools:

Not every kid goes on most field trips, for a variety of reasons. As a result, PTO money is generally spent on things that benefit EVERYONE, not just "most kids."

So paying for a graduation party for the 5th graders is great, because the expectation is that everyone will attend graduation and will stay for the party. But paying for individual admissions to a trip that not everyone will attend (whether it be for medical or behavioral issues or something else) excludes those kids from benefitting from the PTO donation.

 

[FlightlessDuck]

I see no reason why the PTO should be paying for technology OR field trips. That should come out of the school's budget.

 

[DisneyCowgirl]

It's going to have to depend on your PTA's budget and the size of your school. At our elementary, the PTA raises a lot of money and, in addition to a lot of other things, pays the full cost of field trips, but until we got here, I had never seen that. I like it because no child ever has to worry about whether or not they will get to go on the field trips.

 

[firecracker725]

I see no reason why the PTO should be paying for technology OR field trips. That should come out of the school's budget.

So what exactly are the funds supposed to be used for? PTO/PTA is an organization that helps the school. Technology and field trips do exactly that.

 

[DisneyCowgirl]

I see no reason why the PTO should be paying for technology OR field trips. That should come out of the school's budget.

I'm glad our PTA pays for technology in the classrooms, field trips, book fair books for kids who cannot afford a book, salary for a teacher's aide, etc. Our school itself doesn't have the budget for it all and the PTA does. They work with the principal to determine how best to use the funds.

What do you think the PTA/PTO SHOULD pay for?

 

[aprilgail2]

The PTA does not pay for field trips at all, back when we were allowed to take field trips the parents paid the whole thing. But it has been years since they were allowed to go on any type of field trip so it doesn't even matter here anymore. PTA pays for assemblies, shows, movie nights at school, fall festivals, things like that.

 

[Unas]

I see no reason why the PTO should be paying for technology OR field trips. That should come out of the school's budget.

It would be nice for families with school kids if the school budget were sufficient for this. But it usually isn't . . .

 

[FlightlessDuck]

So what exactly are the funds supposed to be used for? PTO/PTA is an organization that helps the school. Technology and field trips do exactly that.

OK.. well maybe field trips. Maybe.

Field day activities, carnivals, teacher appreciation? Costs surrounded extra-curricular activites

Honestly, though, as far as I'm concerned, the PTA should be used to organize volunteers inside a classroom, not worry about paying for things that teachers NEED. It certainly shouldn't be funding the salary of aides. That's why there's a school budget.

 

[iheartdisney]

Our school has one fundraiser at the beginning of the year specifically to fund field trips. It is the jog-a-thon, so 100% of the funds raised goes to the class- there is no overhead. It is always in the first month of the school year so that the teachers have their budget and can plan accordingly. They recommend $10 per child, but have "rewards" for the higher amounts. At $25 you get to throw a pie at the teacher, at $50 you get to throw a pie at the principal.

We have a weird school district by DIS standards, the schools provide everything. Accordingly, they can't require that a student pay for their own trip. Last year one of my kid's teachers had a field rip opportunity come up hat she didn't budget for, and so asked for donations of recyclables to try and raise the money for the trip. The PTO was willing to grant her half the cost, but the class (as a whole) had to raise the money for the other half. I liked that idea because it really gave the class a sense of ownership and involvement in the activity.

 

[dawnball]

Our PTO pays for:
Curriculum enrichment
Classroom supplies
Field Trips
Community Building

They do a few fundraisers - book fair, yearbook, spirit wear and kid's art projects - but I think most of the funding comes from the "Join the PTO" push at the beginning of the year, when they ask for a flat amount.

The district education foundation pays for:
Teacher Prof-dev and recruiting
Instructor-led innovation
Technology (and technology staff)
Music
Art
Libraries
Science
and helps to pay teacher and staff (aids/counselor) salaries.

It would be nice if the school budget could cover all of that - it can't, and so the other organizations step in.

 

[pumpkinmomma]

OK.. well maybe field trips. Maybe.

Field day activities, carnivals, teacher appreciation? Costs surrounded extra-curricular activites

Honestly, though, as far as I'm concerned, the PTA should be used to organize volunteers inside a classroom, not worry about paying for things that teachers NEED. It certainly shouldn't be funding the salary of aides. That's why there's a school budget.

In an ideal world, school budgets would be large enough to cover all of the things that students and teachers need. It's not an ideal world.

Our PTO is much like the op's. They fund a variety of things, from technology to teacher appreciation. I wish that our schools had adequate funding for technology and other classroom needs and that our PTO funds could be used more for extras, but it's not reality. At least not in my state.

 

[ceemys]

Since we use School busses, that part is covered. All students and chaperones pay their own admission fee. The chaperones ride the busses also....that is part of their duties. Watching the kids on the bus.
For our 4th graders, they take a charter bus to the caves. It is a 6am to 9pm day. That cose is about $50...I think. We do have to pay for that bus in addition to the adimssion fees. Neither the school nor the PTO pay for that and I don't think they should. Going on a field trip is a privilege not a right.

Our PTO funds the bigger ticket items for the school, teacher appreciation days, dinner during Parent/teacher conference..etc.

 

[barkley]

this is interesting reading-always amazed how different schools operate. much of this is totally alien to our experiences.

when I went to public schools (60's-70's) there was never a fee for whole class field trips. if in jr/sr high a club was going then there was-but the clubs always did fundraisers on their own.

when my kids went to private schools there was always a fee. I remember parents begging every year for the schools to just budget in a flat amount so it could be included in the tuition costs but for whatever reason it never happened so it seemed like we got hit up for $30+ every month or two. the pto's in those schools raised massive amounts of money but it never seemed to go towards field trips.

my kids returned to public school in recent years-their district only does no fee field trips. to do a field trip it has to be pertinent to the approved curriculum, so the school's position is no child can be excluded from instruction in the curriculum by virtue of a fee (access to free education). the district has very limited funds so the parent organization does help fund field trips.

I don't know, maybe our parent organization is able to help with these kinds of things b/c the school doesn't do allot of what I see listed here-teacher appreciation is a special but small event, no carnivals, movie nights, fall festivals or the like. I think elementary does a 'muffins w/mom' morning and a 'donuts w/dad' once a year, they had a field day last week (I think each kid got a free t-shirt and a popsicle) but that's about the extent of it. I have to say-having had kids attending a previous school that had lots of events to try to get families to attend, while our school has much fewer the percentage of families that attend is much greater (I suspect it's because they are much less frequent and intrusive on people's limited availability).

 

[Dizneefamily+4]

Our PTO subsidizes a certain amount per grade per field trip. If the grade is taking a field trip (or more than 1) that is over that amount, parents are asked to make up the difference (our district has a cap on amounts the school is allowed to ask families for money.) Depending on the trip (and also on how many parents are chaperoning,) sometimes parents are invited to ride the bus and sometimes they're asked to take their own cars.

Our PTO holds several Scholastic book fairs each year. A couple of years ago, they used the proceeds in Scholastic dollars (along with accrued proceeds from a few prior years) to purchase Smart Boards for every classroom and specials teacher (those that needed one - music, art, etc.) Last year, the PTO bought each classroom a few iPads.

So our PTO uses their funds in a myriad of ways. They don't often keep a big balance on hand either (unless they're saving up for a big purchase,) they tend to use the funds pretty quickly.

 

[elaine amj]

I've been active in our PTO for years now and every year the new committee decides on what to spend money on.

A few years ago, we were focused on building a new playground. It took a few years and lots of grants, but we eventually got it. Then it was to argue for a new addition to our building. a LOT of work when into convincing the board we were overcrowded and it would only get worse. We got what we wanted.

In the last few years, we have been buying iPads and AppleTVs for the school. We started by buying 3 of them and now the school has 10-15 of them (I lost track as we buy more every year). We are going to keep buying more so the kids don't have to share as much.

This year, I started a project to cover our playground with stencils. We spent $3k on stencils. It will make everything look awesome and give our kids stuff to do.

We used to pay for buses for field trips but I think the school fundraises themselves for that now. The kids still pay a portion of bus fares and admission fees for each field trip.

We also fund whatever requests the teachers have. T-shirts for a program, a new laptop for the robotics club, new reading curriculum for the Grade 1s, and whatever else the teachers can dream of. We have money but unfortunately not a lot of teacher requests at present. They often forget to come to us for money.

 

[Embel]

Thank you for all of your responses. I feel better now. For some reason I thought it was uncommon for field trip costs to be paid out of pocket. It's helpful to know that it not the case in many places.

 

[nugov2]

Our school PTA(which goes by another name) pays for assemblies, school beautification projects(outdoor classroom flowers and maintenance), playground upgrades, teacher appreciation activities The biggest portion going to school parties and equipment for the parties. They have purchased skee ball machines, hire djs and refreshment companies to come in to give the kids snow cones, smoothies etc. This year we had photo booths at the parties that were super popular. We have a district foundation that provides money for teacher grants and large technology projects. I agree with pp where the PTA should go for things all students will enjoy and field trips aren't for everyone.

 

[Southernmiss]

Like other posters have said, our Pta funds go for playground equipment, smartboards and other capital items. There was a heated discussion a few years ago at our elementary school about what $$ can and can't be spent on according to some national Pta rules. Something about needing to spend $ on items that benefit all students, not just a few classes.

We haven't had a Pta this year-someone embezzled $2500(facepalm). So it was disbanded for the year. Dd is moving on from the school so I've distanced myself from it all anyway.

I've always paid something for field trips.

 

[Aristocath]

I'm thinking a lot of this boils down to the size of the school district. We are in a large urban district and if kids had to pay a fee for a school field trip most of them would not get to go. We use school buses for most every field trip and there is usually not a cost associated on the many field trips we go on. The PTA budgets for a "big" trip for the fifth grade every year at our school. This year the kids will go to the Perot museum in Dallas.

In middle school I have never been asked to pay for a field trip except for the NJHS day- usually involving paying for food. The only field trips in high school have been for athletic events and that's a whole nother conversation!