I designed one for our school. I don't think it is being used right now but when I was were I could cooridinate the volunteers it seemed to be working out. There were still a few kinks.

The first proposal I made was to the principal. I thought I would hyperventilate. I had just become pres. and I didn't know what she would think. She said, "OK. Teachers Meeting at 3:00 today come and tell the teachers about it." I was really freaking out.

I sent a survey out for the teachers and one for the parents to see what direction I needed to go.
Everyone was very supportive. I sent out info with and had interested parties to fill out a form such as:

Name
Child(ren)'s name
Child(ren)'s teacher
phone #
email.
Areas you would like to volunteer (I listed our areas below and allowed for them to check it)
Days you are able to volunteer
Special interests you could share

I put these forms in a special folder where teachers could access them. I also made lists of phone numbers for the teachers and listed the vol names with the teachers so I could send them bi-monthly updates and thank yous.

I also made task sheets for task boards. Teachers won't hardly use these but the volunteers I had checked the board often. At first I had a white board. The task sheet/board consisted of teacher's name, task, and date. For the white board a volunteer could erase or sign by the task. This cut back on classroom disruptions if one or more volunteer was there. Now they can take down the task sheet off the bulletin board. I mentioned putting a daily sheet by the sign in book for the teachers to use if they wanted a volunteer that day, they didn't like that idea.

I also provided a training. This was to ensure confidentiality training was done (district rule) and that new parents could become familiar with the school and machines. I made a handbook with a map, teachers schedules, lunch schedules, and drill procedures.

That is all I can think of right now. I am not sure what all I have saved. If you have any questions you can email me: carmieb93ATyahoo.com.

Originally posted by C. Brooks:
Is the lunch lady childless? I don't see any different in her being in there than another parent.

Have you proposed a Parent Volunteer Program? It is easy to get reasearch on the positives of Parental Involvement. Then you could take that to a general meeting for discussion.

Do you have a PVP program at your school? I want to help start one at my school, and need lots of info.

Thanks

I all to well know exactly what you are going through.My daughter is in 3rd grade now and I have always been the room mother since Kindergarten. I have been able to become friends with most of the staff and teachers.However I encountered an incident last year that left me somewhat bitter.
Each Christmas K-5 take 3 buses to a larger city 1hour(68miles) away from our school to watch a movie then play at the park(this takes the place of the class party).Along with the permission slips there was an attached note that read:
Chaperones are limited and each teacher will pick one parent from each class.If you are not chosen and plan to attend the field trip you will be asked to leave.But you may come to the park but younger siblings cannot attend.
It gets worse this was also the same note that was sent at the Easter field trip also.
Even worse at the very bottom in smaller print:
*If your child does not come to school that day
he/she will be marked absent*
Due to block scheduling our students are only allowed to miss 10 excused days per year. What's worse is that 1 month prior to this field trip a
6 year old girl was kidnapped, raped and murdered in this same nieghborhood that the park was located in. And what's even more disturbing despite parents view's in wich were discussed amongst ourselves.No one went to the principal with this except for me. When it came face off time nobody came in my defense. So you tell me what's wrong with this picture :confused: and when did being a concerned parent that wanted to be involved in thier childrens school become an annoying parent.
Since then I have developed a better relationship with our principal and I am a Sub. now but even though I may fit in that teachers cliche. I still have no reserve in expressing my views with them on excluding parent's and as much as I fight for parent involvement with PTO I still can't get parent's to take charge and address thier issues openly.In fact I can't get any involvement. :confused:
Anyway my advice to you is the same in wich my Grandmother give me years ago. [img]redface.gif[/img] "If you don't stand up for what you believe in ,
you might as well not even believe it,because no one else is going to do it for you."


**Since talking to the principal more parent's are able to attend some of the field trips,and we do not recieve the sh**ty little notes anymore**

Good Luck
Rememember somtimes 1 person can make a
:eek: diffrence

[ 01-07-2005, 03:13 AM: Message edited by: PREZonPAXIL ]

Our school actually has to submit a monthly (I think?) report to the superintendent's office on how many volunteer hours we've accumulated, broken down by categories to show which were clerical, classroom, fundraising, etc. I don't know which person in the bureaucracy compiles that info and where it goes, but obviously they're interested in promoting parent volunteerism in the schools and tracking which schools are falling down in that department. You might check with your sup's office to see if they have similar reports.

We do have a few teachers who resist having parents in their classrooms, and that's a problem I'm continuing to bring up with our principal in hopes of gradually effecting a behavior change. Our principal is a GREAT supporter of parents in the classroom, thank goodness. And really, anyone even remotely in touch with educational research would be. If our school had a policy of prohibiting parents from the classroom, I would be up in arms.

We have not been on a list for NCLB but we do have some difficulties with all the ESL students coming in around 4th grade and not being up to speed with reading. This is where a large part of our volunteers come in to play. They come and listen to children read. It's not exciting but it helps so much and it gives the students more confidence. In a school of 466 we logged like 400 hours last month in volunteers reading to or being read to and considering we only had 10 volunteers, that's a big deal. Also we are meeting our goals every semester for NCLB since this got priority.

You guys are the best! Michelle--let your husband have his fantasy--I'll have to email you a picture of myself that you can torment him with later--there's nothing like finding out your "dream girl" could cause you to run screaming from your house! BTW--LUV I live in northern NJ. Please--FEEL FREE to come on by!

OK--communications I can do. TO be quite honest I have never heard NCLB EVER being discussed at my school, other than we were on a "warning list" for a brief period of time about a year ago. My school in particular has problems with test scoresPeople blame the ESL, but I just don't see the numbers to support that.

The funny thing about my school is that it seems to have been less than stellar for years--the general culture just sucks. We did have promise in a ball-busting principal prior to the one we have now--but as he accepted no mediocrity from the staff, and was doing things NOT heard of in this town like visiting homes of "troubled" kids, he got no support and was denied tenure, so he split. I've talked to graduates from YEARS (and I'm talking 20 or so), and they said it's just always been that way. No school pride, poor morale, half-assed test scores.

I so want this to be a better experience for all the kids involved, and to be able to take pride in where my kids go to school, rather than cringing and apologetically having to say, "my kid goes to

---

." I've actually had people in town who live in my district, but send their kid to the "other" town in school ask me why I would even consider sending my kid to school there.