My daughter attends a combination arts and academics magnet school. It is a public school (most folks are under the impression magnet schools are private, not so) but because we don’t allow 'just anyone" to attend–you must be tested/audition to attend–we miss out on some state and federal funding. Thus the need to do fundraisers. My daughter is in the academic program but also takes an arts elective (dance). At the end of each year, the program puts in a recital. They have had the same costumes for years–as much as 12 years for one particular set of costumes! Last year I had to literally sew the costume onto my daughter because the seams were shot. We also had to borrow costumes from local studios and the magnet high school in order for everyone to have a costume. Anyway, at the beginning of the year I approached the dance teacher about doing some sort of fundraiser for new costumes. We decided to do a Piggybackr campaign because it’s geared toward kid’s teams/groups. It would be minimal effort for the dance teacher and absolutely NO work for the principal. I’m doing all* the work. I asked the principal if I could print out and distribute flyers to send home with progress reports. She said no, with the reason “kids don’t take them home anyway.” Oookaay. So we have this fundraiser sitting out there, not making any money because we can’t publicize it! I sent a letter home with each of the dance students, but it would be awesome if she would let me do more. It is really frustrating.
I am also the Box Tops for Education coordinator for the school. Guess what? Same thing. She won’t let me send home flyers because “parents don’t read them anyway.” At my daughter’s elementary school we made around $2000 a year. This year at this school we’ve made $122. It’s literally free money, for minimal effort.
I guess I don’t understand. Neither of these fundraisers require ANY effort on the part of the principal, and have the potential to bring in some big bucks. What am I missing??:mad:
I wonder if the principal has gotten complaints from parents about sending home too many flyers, so she’s disallowed all but the most critical ones to void complaints.
Or she’s depressed because, well, the response rate on flyers sent home with a kid from school is abysmally low.
Consider that the principal’s response was probably a lie designed to shut you up and make you go away.
Can you think of any other, better reasons why your request might have been refused?
To be fair, they would have to accommodate any other parent’s school-related initiative in the same way
It lends you the tacit backing of the school (and thus the public)
It requires the time and effort of a staff member to put one flyer with each progress report, or else requires giving you access to confidential information
I am sure there are other reasons. Set down the indignation.
There’s no reason that your pet cause should take precedence over the needs of other students/departments, and there’s only so much room in an envelope. Not to mention, the principal/admin staff are likely stupidly overworked as it is. My sister teaches band at a magnet school and easily puts in 60 hours a week. I know her principal does more. And admin support staff are hourly, so it would actually *cost the school money *to advertise for you. Use your head!
If I were you, I’d mock up a flyer on my own, print out a bunch, and stick them to telephone poles around the neighborhood. Taping them up around the school without permission risks having them removed. But on public property? Should be fine. Or do like we did back in the olden days (90s): send your kid around door-to-door.
Does the school publish any kind of newsletter in print or online? If yes, ask to place the information there.
Is there any kind of online community related to the school?
If not, maybe you could start one. Start a Facebook page and just pass the link around to anyone you know in the school group and have them do the same.
Assuming the school covers more than one town/city, ask the newspapers in your area if there is an appropriate section where you could place that type of announcement.
As people already pointed out, sending something home in progress reports wouldn’t be appropriate and would create more work for the office staff. And I’m sure they would be bombarded with every team/activity/group trying to advertise their events and fundraisers in the same way. You have to look at it from the principal’s perspective- she has to think in a more global way than just one group/one fundraiser.
My son attends math and music charter. We get the fundraising. First day of school the principal mentioned the box tops. We get flyers every week on a variety of things. Not sure what her deal is. Sounds like you’re going to need to be creative though. Maybe stand out in front of school at pickup and hand out flyers?
Holy crap, I get texts, automated phone calls, e-mails, flyers, Facebook notifications, brochures, and pretty much everything except a plane flying around with a banner for every bleeping thing that happens at my kids’ schools. With so many cheap or free ways to communicate with parents, why would the principal be such a barrier to your efforts? She sounds like an idiot, if you ask me.
This seems somewhat off base. The OP isn’t advertising for some pet cause. She’s trying to volunteer her own time to raise money for the school.
What’s the down side you anticipate from this? That the other parents are led astray by her example and they all volunteer to raise money for the school?
Maybe seeing that as a problem to be avoided is the reason why the staff at your sister’s school are so overworked.
Did you ever *go *to school? Her pet cause is fixing drama costumes. Any of a hundred other mothers could be concerned about new football helmets, or cleaning band uniforms, or fixing musical instruments, or new risers for choir, or chemistry supplies, or or or.
Serious, and maybe helpful, thought: Is there a PTA/PTO? Or some other group with either a newsletter, Facebook group, or which sends out email notifications? If so, can you ask their coordinator to add notices to their newsletter-type communication?
I get FB updates from my daughter’s school PTO, and emails from the Academic Booster Club at the high school to notify/remind me of fundraisers and stuff. Neither of those things are subject to kids losing flyers, and they’re both free.
If you can’t piggyback onto someone else’s news-sharing methods, perhaps start your own e-mail or Facebook group?
Sorry it took me so long to get back to this thread. You’re right about the dance costumes (not intended to be sarcastic!). I was just particularly frustrated that day because I was 0-2 in the fundraising permission department. (For the record, my intent was to pay for the copies and put them in the envelopes before the report cards went it. Literally no cost or effort on anyone’s part but mine).
I did take ddsun’s advice and it worked out very well! I made small flyers (4 to a page) and handed them out in the carpool line before the kids were released. The next two days we more than doubled Box Top donations! So I’ll be doing that again one more time before the blitz ends. Thanks for the idea!
We do have a PTSA but the principal has told them they can support the school in general but no one specific program so they can’t send out flyers for anything or put anything in the once-per-quarter “newsletter”. They can only announce the PTSA fundraisers (fruits sales and dances). The PTSA President is just as frustrated as I am. We don’t have any kind of email listing or Facebook page (another thing I’d be willing to take on that the principal won’t let us do). It just bothers me when I see things that need doing that don’t get done, or things teachers need that they don’t get, all because we can’t get support from the principal.
Anyway, bottom line is I came here to vent, ended up getting some good ideas, and I’m feeling better about things! Thanks!
ISTM that there is only one person stopping you from helping the kids get some needed supplies. If the princilple is out of line with other princilples in the district, could you go over the principles head? Ask the principles supervisor what the deal is. There may be a real reason for this, instead of the BS reason your principle gave. If there is no good reason, the supervisor may be able to help you with this issue. Good luck!
(2) In my experience (a mother of two college kids), you are seriously overestimating the number of parents willing to get involved! My kids’ schools did have a group of parents who put in many, many volunteer hours, but the number of parents who did that was quite small compared to the number of parents out there. Fwiw, I am not being critical of the parents who did not volunteer – many of them simply did not have the time. But the fact is, schools generally do not have parent volunteers knocking down the doors and using up all the school’s precious resources, as you seem to envision.
It is too bad that the principal also restricts the PTA. In my older kid’s high school, there was a Parents Association – not a Parent-Teacher Association. It was great, because we had a lot of freedom. We had a monthly newsletter and a website, and could send out email blasts. With that kind of set-up, you could publicize as much as you wanted. I realize, though, that that does not help the OP.
