PARENT HANDBOOK

PTA Information

 

Parents as Volunteers

Parents are encouraged to volunteer in classrooms (especially in the K/1 classes), however, advance planning with teachers must be done.

There are many ways for families to volunteer. Volunteers are always needed.

• PTA Committees
• Clubs: instructors or assistants
• Tour guide
• Class rep
• Recess: yard or lunch assistant
• Library: assistant/data entry
• Making copies at your place of work
• Make flyers/posters
• Video
• Photography
• Crafts person
• Fund raising
• Grant writing
• Volunteer coordination
• Carpentry/painting
• Delivery person with vehicle and without
• Stage/sound assistant for school shows
• Database/spreadsheet (MS Excel)
• Computer help in office or classroom
• Cultural Connection Celebrations

Parents are welcomed and encouraged to get involved.

Class Reps - Class Parent Guidelines

Midtown West is an exciting, innovative, multicultural, learning environment made so by caring and gifted administrators and teachers and by parents who understand that they too must have an active role in their child(ren)'s education.  Selecting such an excellent school is only the first step. We, as parents, must make a commitment to actively participate to ensure that the high quality of education that drew us to this school continues.

Serving as a Class Parent (also called the Classroom Representative) is an excellent way to fulfill this commitment. Class Parents serve to connect the parents in each class, the teacher and the PTA with one another by relaying information back and forth. This is a very vital role that each parent should envision fulfilling at some point in his or her child's Midtown West career.

These guidelines will give you an overall description of the roles and responsibilities. The responsibilities are tailored to allow full-time working parents

the opportunity to participate. Many of the tasks can be executed via telephone, fax or   e-mail. 

What to Expect:

Each class needs two (2) or more parents to serve as Class Parents. The more parents who serve, the lighter the load for everyone!

There are 7 important responsibilities for Class Parents as follows. These can be shared in any way amongst the class parents in whatever way they decide.

Class Parent Responsibilities:
Monthly Class Parent Meetings.  There will be a monthly 8:30am Class Parent/Coordinating  meeting held with our Director and PTA officers. These brief meetings will advise the Class Parents of the information that they in turn will be relaying to the parents in their class through the phone tree. They also serve as a venue for the parents to discuss their ideas and concerns.

Maintaining the Class Phone List.  A class list will be provided within the first two weeks of school. A Class Parent must make sure that the list is disseminated to each family in the class, the teacher and the Vice President of Communications. If there are changes to your class enrollment, phone numbers or addresses, the Class Parent must contact the PTA member responsible for the directory to inform him/her of the changes.  She will make the changes and provide you with an updated list to disseminate.

The Phone Tree.  The class list should be divided so that each Class Parent will be responsible for contacting 10 or fewer households. This creates the Phone Tree which may be activated by:

• the teacher who will call one representative of the class who will then call the others, or
• the Vice President of Communications, or
• the individual Class Parent who is responsible for a particular task.

Class Snack List.  The Class Parent should consult with the teacher as to how the teacher would like to organize the request to parents to bring in class snacks.  Some teachers prefer a sign-up sheet where parents can choose which week to bring in snacks. Other teachers prefer to assign each parent a particular day or week.  Whatever method

is chosen, the Class Parent must make the schedule available to all parents and ensure that it is followed by making calls to remind parents of their snack dates.

Class Trip Coordinator. Interesting and educational class trips throughout and beyond the city are an important learning tool at MTW. The safety and manageability of escorting 30+ children makes class escorts a necessity and a mandate of the Board of Education. A Class Parent should talk to the teacher about the dates for trips, length of time, and the number of escorts needed. Then the phone tree should be activated to ensure that there are enough escorts for each trip.

Class Fund Raisers. Throughout the year there may be the need to raise funds for a specific class event. For example, a bake sale may be conducted to defray the per family cost of a class trip. The Class Parent will consult with the teacher to determine fundraising procedures and organize assistance as needed.

 Participate in School-wide Fund Raisers. The fundraising activities implemented throughout the year are of vital importance to the school. Participation will include collecting, verifying and disseminating orders for the ever-successful Gift Wrap Sale, among others. There are also class projects created for some fund-raisers, such as the silent auction.