<p>"School superintendents across the region are penning letters this holiday season to parents, cautioning them against going overboard with gift-giving to teachers, principals, and other staff members.</p>
<p>That means no pricey gift certificates to spas or fancy restaurants, no hard-to-get tickets to the theater or sporting events, no fine wine, or anything else valued at more than $50.</p>
<p>While acknowledging that parents gift-giving gestures may be well-intentioned, the superintendents say that the states new ethics law forbids public servants, including teachers on public payrolls, from receiving gifts with value in excess of $50. Violations are subject to civil penalties, the superintendents warn…</p>
<p>It used to be that many parents were satisfied showing their appreciation for their childs beloved teacher with a tin of homemade cookies, a coffee mug stuffed with chocolate candies, or maybe a pair of hand-knit mittens.</p>
<p>But in the competitive atmosphere in many suburban schools, some parents have been bypassing those economical options for something grandiose. In some cases, parents in a classroom pool money to buy one gift - another no-no under state law, if the gift is valued at more than $50…</p>
<p>I like what our fifth grade teachers do. They send out a letter at the beginning of December saying that in lieu of gift to the teachers (ours don’t get $50 gifts), they will collect money for a charity. It has gone over well with everyone including the students. They pick a local charity that the community relates to.</p>
<p>Years ago when D attended a small religious school the principal put a ban on teacher gifts. Instead the parents planned and served several luncheons for the teachers (they loved it).
Whenever I mention this to my teacher friends they tell me that they would much rather have the luncheons than a bunch of gifts.</p>
<p>momof3sons do people feel good about that? I ask because our golf club does the same thing and I hate it. I feel the business is asking me to bonus their employees. No one sets up a fund for my employees. I give a large cash tip to the one bartender who has a relationship with my family.<br>
(Just curious…not bashing your school).<br>
I like the idea of a joint charity gift or luncheon. I’ll have to remember that for the future. My D worked at her ballet studio and the teachers got so many gifts they couldn’t use…at the end of the big performance of the year the parents used to collect cash for a gift for the owners and we started having problems. People felt we shouldn’t have to pay for a vacation for a business owner. We started doing a dinner for the whole staff instead. That went over better.</p>
<p>Somewhere in the past, our elementary school’s teachers had a list of ‘wanted’ books for their classroom… books they wanted right there, not ones they had to borrow from the library. For many years, we’d pick out one or two or three books from their wish list as Christmas gifts. We knew they were appreciated, and with books, there’s a budget for almost everyone (many were paperbacks) and if you want to give more than one or two, you could.</p>
<p>Our elementary school requested that parent’s donate a nominal amount. Then one gift certificate was purchased for each teacher. I know that several parents gave seperate gifts after being asked not to do so. One rather wealthy parent said to some other parents that she will give whatever gifts she would like to her children’s teachers, and she did.</p>
<p>I used to like the policy at one school we went to where the teachers would have slips of paper with items they would like for their classroom. If you wanted to buy something you could take the slip and buy it. The teachers were delighted to get them as they would have to buy them out of pocket otherwise (and they didn’t end up with a bunch of knick knacks that probably get tiresome after the first year or two of teaching). I thought it was an excellent policy.</p>
<p>In Iowa the limit on gifts to any public employee is $2.99. And that includes public school teachers. Our elementary school principal would send home a reminder notice just after Thanksgiving and stated that teachers would return anything not allowed under law. She would also include a list of classroom items each teacher wanted – a much better bet. CD’s, books, art supplies.
The year my oldest son was in second grade one parent gave the teacher a $50 gift certificate to Starbucks and then gave every kid in the classroom a $10 gift card to McDonald’s. She thought that would make it all right. The teacher gave back the Starbucks card, but she let the kids keep their cards. She said they weren’t public employees.</p>
<p>Onward, that is a nice thought, but I don’t believe that is quite true for everyone. I was sitting with our principal when a child came in with a huge piece of cake for him from his birthday celebration. The principal thanked the child, but after the child left the room he threw the cake into the garbage. He explained that if he ate every piece of cake that came into his office he’d be larger than a house! It seemed like such a waste to that, but I understood too.</p>
<p>I used to do homemade, until I learned that many teachers are afraid of them, and toss them. I dislike group gifts, hate to be told what I “have” to give - happened a lot in middle school - teachers issued the request to roommoms who then had to get everyone else on board, and I don’t believe in giving money. </p>
<p>And of course, be careful that your student isn’t gifting something that is illegal! I remember a few years ago when a parent bought the French teacher a nice bottle of wine, and the student got suspended for bringing alcohol to school!</p>
<p>I was happy once my kids were done with middle school, since around here, students don’t gift HS teachers - too many of them.</p>
<p>My mom was a teacher, and we loved seeing what she got each year. It was back in the day that Avon made all the cute bottles, and we loved those. Later she moved to an inner city school and got nothing at all.</p>
<p>As a piano teacher, I get the occasional gift. I love everything I get, even the homemade cards and clay pots. (The local elementary school has kids make clay pots in art every year, and I usually get at least one.) I just got a beautiful box containing two luxury soaps. First gift of this year. I hope none of my parents ever takes it upon him/herself to coordinate a group effort.</p>
<p>In the newspapers a few years ago there was an article about parents giving Coach bags to teachers in one of the tonier suburbs (of NYC). I think it is nice to appreciate a teacher, but it is also appropriate to set limits for public employees. While nothing says I Love You like cash, luncheons or other group (or individual) purchased gifts for classrooms are nice. When I was growing up a close friends parents were both teachers, and the mom ususally got more cologne than she could use.</p>