To question school spending £20000 on event space in school car park…

I don’t know why you (and a few others) are saying you don’t understand, seems pretty clear to me. The OP thinks the event space was a poor financial decision on the part of the PTA and that they will not see a good return on the investment. I can understand her concern as it does sound an odd little space and I would have thought there would be limited demand for it, but it would obviously depend on the OP’s local area and what other spaces it would be competing with.

Hopefully the PTA did some thorough market research and financial planning before signing off on this project, but who knows.

If you think something isn't right or are not happy / have questions about the way something is being done then speak to the head or govenors.

@OrangeCrushing
You have questions that need to be put to the Head/Governors/PTA. What do you hope to gain from sniping from the sidelines?

I’m sorry I don’t understand. Is it an outdoor classroom structure that children will use as well as outside groups?
What do the school say about keeping books for weeks? I have a few parents who would probably say their child doesn’t get a new book for a few weeks at a time, what actually happens is they don’t bring their child’s book in at all or on the right day so I don’t see it to change it!

If it’s any comfort, the PTA where I used to work paid for a radio station desk for the children to use. Total and utter waste of money. Took up space. Was used all of four times. (The head at the time had odd ideas).
It doesn’t take much money to set up a good school library. But it does need a dedicated member of staff to run it well - either as a voluntary or paid add on.

Could you set up a group who welcomes book donations to the school and organise some sort of set in the school library for reading? Some of these parent driven initiatives work very well.

@OrangeCrushing I will also add, that in my school our outdoor classroom ( your events space) was lottery funded. This included money for an independent specialist to work part time from it.

This was shown in our school budget and recorded in the publically available governors minutes.

I am trying to show you, that schools are very accountable. More so an LA maintained school, than some academies but nevertheless very publically accountable.
And if there are concerns, there are formal ways to address this.

Schools are auditied regularly too be an external auditor, though there is a whistleblowing procedure for use of tax payers money, via the LA.
Again MUST be evidenced, not local gossip.

But you don’t understand, that’s why you’re having to question it. It’s ok not to understand some things - no one understands everything. It’s important to ask questions and listen when you don’t understand.

Schools have different budgets for different things. They can’t just dip into one budget for something else, so your points about teacher’s salaries is the part that has created confusion.

@MarnieJADE’s post also explained a lot of the points that you don’t understand.

So they’ve used what seems to be valuable funds for a shed rather than actually on yhe needed books? And classes are straight by tas while qualified teachers swan about the school ‘managing’ presumably on 60k plus….. whoever manages the finances needs a shake!

I referred to you as stupid as an anonymous user of an online forum - which given some of your accusations was warranted.

It was not in my role as a school governor since that work does not happen on MN.

I am also a parent (another school) and there is an issue with parents who don’t seek to understand (which is absolutely valid and right) vs make accusations (which is what you did).

Is that a typo in the title, or is this glorified shed costing TWENTY THOUSAND POUNDS? Swanky log cabin prefabs come in about £8k, as far as I can see. How much more can a loo, plumbing and electricity add to the cost?

What do they plan to charge for the hire? Our village hall's £30 for a whole evening. It's hard to imagine Weight Watchers and Tai Chi classes would be able to pay more than that ... I suppose someone has done the maths, but it looks like a vey long haul to break even on this, let alone make a profit for the school.

Confusing!

@OrangeCrushing If you have concerns about the use of the event space, rest assured that the school will have regular Health and Safety visits and will be expected to have a Risk Assessment in place. Something like these.

https://www.rotherham.gov.uk/downloads/download/160/risk-assessments---in-and-around-school

These are completed to assess risk and put in place actions to minimise. The first stage of a school complaints policy is to meet and talk with leaders ( Chair of Gov, if it is about the headteacher), you could ask to see the Risk Assessment at this meeting. The safeguarding governor will also have oversight of this RA.

It's EXACTLY your type of parent mentality that is more of a problem in schools right now.

You might get more helpful replies if you explained the situation more clearly.
What is the "event space" and what do mean by 10/15 children?

@OrangeCrushing You are confusing different aspects of a school budget. PTA spend and staffing are not connected.

Have you looked at the school benchmarking information to see how the school’s spending sits when compared with other similar schools?
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/benchmark-your-schools-financial-data

Does this compare favourably or not?

Is this an LA maintained school or academy?

If there is a deficit budget (15% of all schools have), as a maintained school, the LA school’s finance team will be working with the school on their submitted plan to correct this deficit.
If it is an academy, the trust will do the same and ultimately they are responsible to the Regional Director through ESFA.

Have you thought about volunteering a a school governor when an opportunity arises so that you are able to support the school in its strategic planning?

If you really have concerns, raise them through the schools complaints procedure available on all school’s websites. Follow all stages. A complaint must be evidenced. This will give a fair and objective process, with timescales for a response.

Why not? It'll just be hired as indoor space and people will be required to supervise their children on the way in and out as they would any public space.

As for the book issue the majority of schools keep the same book for a full week to build fluency so an extra week isn't a massive deal. It's only in the past few years that schools have had to start using a validated phonics scheme and associated books. That's meant that many schools have hundreds of perfectly useable books that they're not allowed to give to children and simply can't afford to replace them. It cost my school 8k to replace the books. I'm sure it school had bought into an online library they'd have parents complaining they want proper books not screens.

Depending on the size of the school two non teaching SLT isn't necessarily a huge amount

What infuriates me is some of the accusations you’ve made about how a school can use PTA funds.

You 100% should challenge the PTA. There are likely a whole set of rules in its incorporation that make it distinct from school and where authority sits for allocating spending.

Just maybe stop making posts saying they’ll use it for another non-classroom based teacher as it makes you sound stupid when there’s a legitimate question to be asked.

Presumably it’s an under cover area that can be used by students. So it might give them chance to host more events for children. This sounds sensible. I think to have so many non teaching SLT in a small school is unusual. It’s unlikely any funds from this space would be used to pay their wages though.

Maybe suggest the next PTA fundraiser be for books

Meanwhile, suggest to the school they ask all parents to donate any books their child no longer wants - that should help quickly

If you have a community Facebook or Pay it Forward page - ask on there for donations

Look out for free books on Olio

Did you go to the PTA meeting where the expenditure was discussed and signed off by a quorate vote from the parents?