Late last week, the PTA Thrift Shop responded sharply to the Chapel Hill Carrboro City Schools PTA Council’s claim that the store no longer represents local PTAs and shouldn’t use “PTA” in its name.

This came after the CHCCS PTA Council sent the thrift store a letter on June 4 demanding that it “immediately cease and desist the use of PTA in the name of all of its operations,” due to a slowdown in funding that the council says represents a shift in the thrift store’s mission.

The store, however, says its mission hasn’t changed, only expanded.

When the PTA Thrift Shop was established in 1952, it was the first organization of its kind. Created to support local schools, it ran exclusively on volunteer labor and donations from the community. Local PTA members comprised a significant percentage of volunteers, and PTA members approved all bylaws and board members. Supporting PTAs was the store’s principal function.

More recently, however, the store’s setup has changed. It stopped relying on volunteer support in 2012, shifting instead to a paid professional staff. And in 2014 it eliminated the PTA’s approval of its bylaws and directors.

But the root of the current conflict is that funding from the store to the council, which has historically been about 20 percent of the store’s revenue, has slowed in recent years; since 2011, it’s been less than 5 percent. The most the store has donated in recent years was in 2015, when it gave $85,000 of its $1.67 million in revenue to the PTA Council. Twice in the last four years, it has given nothing.

The thrift store attributes that decline to it beginning construction on its store in Carrboro—the existing store was torn down and then rebuilt—and on the YouthWorx nonprofit rental space in 2011. The thrift store board had warned the council that it would reduce distributions to schools to cover those costs but suggested that funding would pick up in following years.

The council says that it has been struggling since 2012 to replace the lost funding. Distrust boiled over, and in August, the council asked to see the store’s financial records. In the ten months since, the two organizations pursued mediation to settle their differences, but the PTA Council withdrew.

PTA Council president Lisa Kaylie says the council withdrew from the original mediation because “the PTA Thrift Shop was not forthcoming with financial information or a concrete plan to restore disbursements.”

In its letter last week, the council demanded that the store remove “PTA” from its name by July 15 so that customers know where their money is going—in other words, that not enough of it is going to the PTA, in the council’s view.

Kaylie says she sees this as a sad story.

“People always ask me how they can support the

PTAs

, and I always used to tell them to donate to PTA Thrift Shop,” she says. “It was this amazing resource that created a central funding source and made it easy for communities to support their

PTAs

.”

The council’s letter noted that “PTA” is trademarked; it told the store that using “PTA” in its name required compliance with certain rules and regulations, including an annual financial review. The council says that the thrift store has failed to follow these rules.

The PTA Thrift Shop responded to the council last week with its own letter, which disputed the council’s interpretation of trademark law. The thrift store said that “PTA Thrift Shop” is not a copyrighted name, and that after using the name for forty-five years it has a common law trademark legally permitting the use. The thrift store made no promises to cease using “PTA” but said it would take up the request at its June board meeting and continue discussions throughout the summer.

The store acknowledged the council’s frustration regarding funding, saying it is making every effort to re-establish the funding and reaffirming its commitment to supporting children, family, teachers, and schools.

Dawn Edgerton, the chairwoman of PTA Thrift Shop, says the store’s board of directors “acutely feels now that we have a fiduciary responsibility to think about the long-term viability of the organization’s assets—to think about ten years, twenty years, sixty-six years.”

Edgerton, who previously served as PTA president at Smith Middle School, points out that, prior to 2011, the thrift store had not invested in its own assets since 1989. The board put money into rebuilding the Carrboro store due to “structural issues” and built a rental space next door with the hope of generating more income. The board believed that investing in the spaces would secure the store’s long-term solvency.

The store took out a $4 million loan to finance the construction, and due to a recent string of tough years, repayments have been slow. Tax returns show that in 2016 the thrift store lost nearly $32,000 in revenue. As of June 30, 2016, the store owned nearly $4.5 million.

The thrift store has invited the council to rejoin mediation to pursue an “amicable relationship,” Edgerton says.

The PTA Council is waiting to see what the PTA Thrift Shop does at its June meeting before pursuing any further action.