What your board should be doing right now

Every month of the PTO year, by role — the tasks, the deadlines that bite, and the things to start now so they're ready later. Assumes a July–June fiscal year; adjust if yours differs.

May: Appreciation week and the handoff

May runs on two tracks: Teacher Appreciation Week (the first full week of May) and the transition machinery for the incoming board. In May a PTO board should execute TAW at full effort, hold a joint old-board/new-board meeting, get every handoff binder updated while the year is fresh, queue the bank signer paperwork, and chase outstanding reimbursements before the fiscal year closes.

President

Execute Teacher Appreciation Week

The first full week of May. Daily themes coordinated with room parents, paras and office staff explicitly included, favorites collection put to work.
Hold the joint board meeting

Outgoing and incoming together: the calendar, the hard-won lessons, the introductions to the principal and the bank.
Collect updated handoff binders from every chair

Contacts, vendors, what worked, what to skip — written in May, not reconstructed in September.

Treasurer

Queue the bank transition

Signer-change resolution passed, documents assembled, branch appointment booked for early July. New treasurer shadows the June close.
Announce the reimbursement deadline

A hard date in early June, repeated everywhere. Stragglers after June 30 roll into next year's budget and must be minuted.
Schedule the July financial review

Committee recruited in April, date on the calendar now, so the books close into a review instead of a void.

Secretary

Compile the year's minutes

One archive, chronological, in the shared drive — the single most useful thing an incoming board inherits.
Inventory digital access

Every account, who holds it, where credentials live. Transfers happen in June; the list happens now.

Events & volunteers

Run TAW day by day

Room parents lead rooms, PTO covers school-wide (paras, office, specials). Nobody appreciated twice while someone's appreciated zero times.
Run field day support

Water stations, equipment delivery windows, volunteer checkin — and shade for the volunteers too.
Thank the year's volunteers

A reception, certificates for the kids' résumés someday, names read out loud. Retention is next year's recruiting.

⏰ Deadlines that bite

Teacher Appreciation Week

Nationally, the first full week of May — confirm your school observes it then.

📅 Start now, thank yourself later

Summer contact plan

Collect personal emails for board members before school addresses go quiet.
Draft August's launch

Back-to-school plan sketched before everyone scatters — July-you will be grateful.

Prefer the readable version? Read the May guide · or see the whole PTO year at a glance.

Get next month's list before the month starts

One email a month with exactly this — what your board should be doing, by role, before it's urgent.

One useful email a month — what your board should be doing right now. Unsubscribe anytime.