FRAMINGHAM – District 3 School Committee member Scott Wadland, a former Town-Wide PTO President, is proposing some Framingham school PTOs donate a portion of their fundraising to offset schools that struggle with fundraising, as a way to deal with inequities in fundraising amongst the district’s schools’ PTOs.
He made a motion, which passed Wednesday night, for the School Committee’s policy subcommittee to consider solutions to the inequities among the PTOs.
One proposal suggested was a “policy that would prohibit fundraising event or school property.”
Another proposal suggested was having school PTOS that raise a lot of money to allocate a percentage of net revenue to other schools.
Wadland said in the public school district there is a “wide variation in the ability of PTOs to raise funds for student and staff activities beyond what is provided by the district.”
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Within the district, some elementary school PTOs raise $8,000 to $10,000 annually and some raising in excess of $25,000 annually, said Wadland Wednesday night.
The School Committee can not tell PTOS how to fundraise or how to spend their money, as PTOs (Parent-Teacher Organizations) are separate legal entities. Many are 501c3 organizations.
Wadland said he heard when he was TWPTO President that if some PTOs were forced to share their fundraising efforts without schools, they would fundraise less or that some parents would not be inclined to participate in the fundraising.
Wadland, who no longer has children in the Framingham Public Schools – his daughters graduated in 2020 – said the inequity needs to be addressed.
The School Committee voted unanimously 8-0 to have the policy subcommittee review options to submit to the full School Committee to vote on at a later date.
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