25k in the bank

[supermario10]

I have joined the PTA at my twins school and at a recent meeting found out there is 25k in the pta bank account. They are at a small school and this seems excessive, shouldn't it be spent on the children rather than sat in a bank? They are looking for new fundraising ideas but surely they should be spending some too? How do I raise this or is it normal. Thanks in advance for any advice.

I don’t know why you are getting sarky comments. If you are new to a committee you don’t want to put your foot in it. My experience of committed is there can be those with strong views that lead the rest - and woe betide getting g on the wrong side of them. Now you have some idea of usual savings and likely spending uses you can ask away…

we have a similar amount - and really we are just at the whim of what the school asks us for - the previous head wanted to fit out class room as a STEM room, so we were working towards a goal of 25k - took a while as more urgent things come up - We were nearly there and were then asked for 3k to cover new iPads, 2k for a school trip, 500 for a theatre company visit etc - so topped the funds up again, and then the HT left and the new head has different priorities.

it’s really great when new people join though because they bring new perspectives and ideas - very easy to get cynical in the PTA / Parent Council game!

We fundraised once to buy a minibus, ended up leasing one instead but that meant a significant sum built up. Another PTA built up funds for a major enhancement to the playground. I think at another school they fund raised for solar panels (matching grant funding) but I wasnt involved in that and you can probably get get full government grants now. We still went on fundraising as we also wanted to be able to support the small stuff. Once a year head would put things forward for funding and we'd agree what we could fund that year. Apart from the minibus we generally worked on keeping a balance of a couple of thousand and spending everything we raised. It's good practise to have a small balance in case one year fundraising goes badly.

Btw there should be annual accounts and a treasurers report and that will probably say why there is a large balance. There were also newsletters where we and/or the head would remind people what we were saving for and tell them what else we were spending money on. Still used to get people who didnt bother to read any of it and started asking gotcha questions.

Ask what they are fundraising/saving up for?

How horribly unkind of you to say that.

OP is new to a PTA and clearly wants a bit of a knowledgable heads up - nothing wrong with that.

What a rude post.

We have around £20k in ours. Our pledges (subsidising theatre trips, IT annual budget, ice cream at end of term picnic, Christmas parties, having workshops in school, money for each teacher per year for one new thing e.g. carpet) is around £7-8k per year. Last few years we have made £10-11k per year so budget has steadily increased. We've spent some large sums on new play equipment but that was from Tesco blue tokens (which FYI, so easy to get).

However families are feeling the pinch and don't have as much to spend. We've been doing less money raising and more community based activities to foster the school community and make sure it's inclusive for all. As such, our events are raising a lot less. This year's predicted income is £4-5k but pledges £7-8k still.

Just ask. There will be a justifiable reason I'm sure.

When you say small school, what is the capacity and number on roll? Have you looked at information online on the financial position of the school itself?

I am.a trustee of a charity and there is no hard and fast rule here. The charities commission would expect to see an appropriate reserve. However, reserves are normally held for the purpose of carrying costs if the charity were to hit financial trouble. For example paying a salary or servicing a debt. In this case no such commitments exist so it's hard to understand the need for such a large figure. The only justification I can see is if the money is being saved towards a significant, high- value expenditure. My suggestion would be to ask of this is the case. If not, I think you need to approach the head for further discussion. Alternatively, the chair of governors. Good luck!!

It’s normal in my experience, it can fluctuate wildly though. Ours helped buy iPads and the put some towards sport equipment and then it was seriously depleted. I think it’s fine and they need to keep a bit of a buffer too.

We had a massive sponsored walk for a school minibus, and then afterwards they realised that it was more cost effective to rent a minibus from a local private hire as and when needed (which also meant we could have two when there were two clashing sports fixtures). I guess it would have made sense to earmark the money raised for the minibus to pay for the hires.

I think the charities commission recommends having one year's "running costs" in reserves - obviously some PTAs may not have "running costs", if they only pay for one-offs, but if they regularly fund specific things (eg coaches for trips, swimming pool maintenance) or regular fundraisers have an upfront cost (eg fireworks display) then it makes sense.
(I think many charities discovered the value of those reserves a couple of years ago!)

Would seriously expect a new member of a PTA to have the confidence to question other members as to how the PTA's finances work and what the funds will be allocated to.

This was the case when I was in the PTA at my children's school. My issue was that the money was raised by one set of children and their parents but they had left the school by the time it was spent. I thought it should be spent pretty well immediately after being raised.

@Joystir59 this is the PTA, not the Governing Body. The PTA relies on willing parents of all backgrounds and experiences and levels of expertise.

Do you have the same helpful response for other threads?

#keyboardwarrior.

We used to keep at least 1 year’s worth of ‘committed expenditure’ in reserves, so that the next year’s payments were definitely covered. This was pretty vital during Covid, for example, when hardly any fundraising could take place.

I’m in the PTA. There needs to be bids before anything can be spent.

It’s always good to have a buffer. We have £13k in ours, but fundraising is about sending out encouraging messages as well as raising money.

Read the minutes from.meetings in recent past for details on why the funds are in the bank and to establish if they are being raised for something, being kept as a buffer for a reason or it was a endowment for something and so is restricted funds.

Then read the constitution and objects of the PTA and see where the money can be spent.

Continuing to.fundraise makes sense as some purchases are very expensive and 25k doesn't go far nowadays. But I think parents are often more willing to give if there's a reason.

doesn't the PTA have some kind of induction process for new members?
not unreasonable to ask to see accounts, for the most recent year and pervious ones during that process.

£25k would be normal at our school. Funds are generally for large projects and will be carefully planned for.

A teacher at my kids school had to become a temporary head teacher as current one was suddenly very ill. She noticed thousands and thousands in the bank. She was gobsmacked and so she bought a bunch of iPads and laptops for the children to use in school. She said to me that people were not happy (governors?? Not sure who). She said she would never cover the head again after all the grief. But I think she did the right thing. The money if for the benefit of the children and its benefitting no one sat in a bank account

Depends if they’re saving for something big - eg, playground equipment, new IT stuff etc.

It sounds like more info is needed - are they a registered Charity if so then they will need between 3 and 6 months reserves which are not restricted to any specific project. Honestly though 25k doesn’t go as far as it sounds we have just been quoted 1830 for a coach for 53 people to go 2 hours down the road add on top the entrance fees and the parents in our area won’t be able to afford that :( we did a big day out last year and it cost over 15k for one day! If you chat to the chair they will be able to let you have more info so you can then see if your comfortable or not

Well, that's an informed opinion. NOT.

if the PTA are a registered charity check their articles on companies house (constitution) this sometimes states how much should be retained each year, very unlikely to be thus high!! Agree that this seems like poor management.

I taught in a large state secondary school and the school fund sat at around £150,000 (this was several years ago and fund likely to have increased). There was a lack of transparency and it was only because one of my staff audited the books that we knew how much was in the account. It was embarrassing when senior management came round classes trying to motivate pupils to participate in fund raising. I never understood why the Council did not insist that the money was spent or even that some of it was in interest bearing accounts. I think having a float or contingency fund is fine but money raised in a year should be spent on the pupils who contributed.