At Franklin Elementary, the fruits of student fund raising are visible in every classroom.

Each has a television and VCR, paid for by the school’s parent-teacher organization. Outside the building, children play on new blue and yellow playground equipment, also purchased by the PTO.

Each year, local PTOs and PTAs (parent-teacher organizations and associations) earn thousands of dollars through student sales of candy bars, discount cards, pies and frozen pizzas. Those funds are put back into the schools, paying for many of the extras — outside the standard curriculum — for which the school district cannot or will not pay.

With students from more than a dozen public and private schools vying for community dollars, PTOs must plan fund-raisers carefully to guard against donor fatigue. They also know many students and their parents are busy fund raising for other organizations, too.

Arn Kind, a sixth-grade teacher at Franklin, said the dollars flowing from PTOs provide students with educational opportunities they may not have otherwise.

When Kind’s students participate in the state History Day program, they have thousands of dollars worth of video equipment available to them for making documentaries. The Franklin Elementary PTO purchased 35 mm cameras, digital video cameras and computer editing equipment.

PTO dollars also go toward more run-of-the-mill school activities, like the annual field trip to the state Capitol or a new set of atlases.

At a time when state budget cuts are limiting the dollars flowing to school districts, Kind said student fund raising plays an important role in schools.

“The PTO, they’re picking up the slack,” he said.

‘Burnout’

For many parents, the schools are just one group asking their children to raise money. Sporting programs, scouting organizations and many other groups hold their own fund-raisers.

Waiting for her son to finish hockey practice outside of All Seasons Arena Tuesday, Sherry Stagg said the fund-raising cycle can be hard on families.

Stagg’s son, a Garfield Elementary student, just finished selling butter braid bread for his fall fund-raiser. By signing up her son for hockey, Stagg also signed up for another round of fund-raisers.

“You go back to the grandparents how many times, the aunts and uncles how many times, your coworkers how many times,” she said. “You hit up the same people over and over.”

“I think a lot of families choose to do one or the other,” either fund raising for sports or school, she said.