NORTH KANSAS CITY, Mo. — In the past years, three school districts in the Kansas City Metro experienced theft from their parent-teacher organization or association funds. Two of those scandals happened this month in the Blue Valley and Olathe School Districts. The third happened last August in the Fort Osage School District.
Michael Atchison, president of the Park Hill District Parent Teacher’s Association Council said it can happen anywhere.
“You always have to be cautious when there are big sums of money and there are people who have access to it,” he said.
He believes recent PTO/PTA thefts could have been prevented if certain safeguards were in place.
“PTAs dont raise money simply to have it,” he explained. “They raise money to use on programs, so as long as the fundraising is tied to the spending, that’s one thing that helps control your money and give you some comfort it’s being used to the right reasons.”
Besides a detailed budget, Atchison said a two-signature requirement on checks helps combat theft, as well as yearly financial audits. Parents should have access to all this.
“You should be able to go meet with your executives from your PTA and see the finances,” he said. “Every month you should be able to see a detailed report of what you have and what was spent.”
However, Tim Sullivan, the founder of PTO Today, an organization which provides resources and learning tools for parent group leaders said often parents don’t ask, and that too much trust can lead to trouble.
“One of the struggles that PTOs face is that accusation of, ‘oh they’re just a click, or that’s the group of moms and dads who are just running everything in their own way.’ You wanna combat that, and the best way to do it is to have no secrets at all,” he said on his video blog.
Atchison looks at this month’s theft involving Valley Park Elementary and the PTO treasurer and said he finds a fault in their system.
“When you hear about a group losing $30,000 through one embezzlement…most dont need to have that much money for the most part. You are raising money to do specific programs and when you have excess money sitting around it’s a tempation for people,” he said.
According to Atchison, checks and balances always are in order and everyone should always ask about what is happening to the money meant for the kids.
“If you cant get straight answers, that ought to be a red flag,” he said.
The difference between PTA and a PTO is that PTAs are part of a national organization and have state and national guidelines they must follow, such as conducting yearly financial audits. PTOs are independent of the national PTA and operate under their own bylaws.
