California State PTA does not recommend or encourage the practice of administrators serving as officers or check signers. This is because a unit that elects the administrator to any office:
- Forfeits the administrator’s important role of advisor
- Misses an opportunity to develop new leadership from the general membership
In addition, each member elected to a PTA position must be prepared to carry out all duties of the position. And, administrators, by virtue of their position, already serve as members with voting privileges of an executive board member (See: Unit Bylaws, Article VIII, Section 1).
School Staff Serving as Primary PTA Officers
There are a number of important reasons, relating to conflict of interest, that underscore why school staff should not serve as the primary PTA officers:
- PTA is a private membership association that is independent of the school and school district.
- PTAs that consistently elect school staff to serve in the primary officer positions of president, secretary, and/or treasurer or to a majority of the PTA officer positions risk becoming a school-related organization.
- School-related organizations are subject to school district financial audits and inspection of records.
While school staff members are an important and valuable part of the PTA, care must be taken that they are not unduly influencing the decisions of the PTA membership, especially relating to fundraising and financial support of the school or school district.
