Volunteer Opportunities
In the classroom
Parent participation is fundamental to the ongoing health and development of our school. Parents can help support the class teachers in many ways, both in and out of school. Your class teacher may ask for help in a variety of areas, from making phone calls to organizing class trips to helping keep the classrooms clean. Parent support will be organized and projects needing helpers will be announced at class meetings. Each class has two designated Class Coordinators, whom the teacher can call upon for help. Parent and family phone numbers will be made available shortly after the start of the school year, when enrollment for the year settles.
In the School
Village School parents volunteer! We are all part of establishing a school, a huge task. Steps toward accomplishing this task will be achieved on a daily basis, with your contribution of time and creative spirit. Without the support and help of a dedicated body of volunteer parents, our School could not provide the high quality activities and programs that it does. Volunteers are instrumental in many of the functions of the school.
Some of the innumerable services that parents provide to the school include classroom help, special events, festivals, fundraising, communications, conflict resolution, lunchroom aids, specialty classes, playground supervision and much more. Parents may work directly or indirectly with students, teachers, other parents and administrative staff.
Volunteer efforts are guided and coordinated by the School’s two Volunteer Coordinators. The Volunteer Coordinators seek out and organize the volunteer opportunities, and maintain a database of parent availability for different school tasks and needs. The Volunteer Coordinators see to it that all volunteers who work directly with children undergo the appropriate criminal background checking.
At the beginning of each year, all parents will receive a Volunteer Sign-Up Form, that they can use to provide information about their interests and availability for volunteer activities. It is important that parents return their completed forms to the office. We request that families contribute a minimum of 40 hours of volunteer support to the school each academic year. Single parent households are requested to contribute 20 hours per academic year.
Each family will have a card in the office on which they record their volunteer hours each time they perform a service for the school.
Here are some answers to the question, “I want to help the school – how do I go about doing that?”:
• Fill out your Volunteer Sign-Up Form and return it to the office. The form is full of volunteer ideas.
• Contact your Classroom Coordinator for information about what you teacher may need.
• Check the Volunteer Bulletin Boards across the hall from the School offices or outside the classrooms
• Look for requests for volunteer support in the School’s our weekly newsletter, The Village Voice
• Contact the Volunteer Coordinators.
• Talk directly to your child’s teacher
• Join or assist a School committee
• Participate in the Parent Council
• Sign up with the Administrator to be a Crossing Guard
Remember, the quality of our children’s School depends upon the quality of its volunteers. Your help is invaluable!
School Committees
On the wall opposite the School office, there are a series of clip boards. There is one for each committee. Check these clip boards for the most recent news of each committee’s work. Parent participation is needed to make committees successful. We encourage you to support the School through your active participation in committee work.
The Festivals Committee
The purpose of the Festivals Committee is to organize and implement major seasonal and cultural festivals. Festivals afford valuable opportunities for building community within the school and the larger Eugene community. Festivals also offer more expansive opportunities for the children to have multicultural experiences.
The Finance Committee
The Finance Committee serves to help with the financial affairs of the school and provide recommendations to the Board of Directors in this regard. It may help to prepare annual reports on the school’s financial history and develop proposed policies in the area of finance. The committee could very much use the membership of parents who have experience in fundraising or finance, or who would like to learn.
The Development Committee
This committee holds responsibility for organizing and implementing fundraising activities for the school. The Development Committee coordinates the fundraising activities implemented by various groups within the school, works to develop new fundraising strategies, and leads the Annual Giving Campaign. We also work to promote the school by developing effective communications materials that reflect the richness of our curriculum and our community. A dynamic and productive group!
The Site Committee
Though the current school site is adequately equipped, the Site Committee members are responsible for planning and coordinating the construction and upgrade of the school grounds and related materials such as playground equipment. In the event that The Village School moves to a new site in the future, members of the site committee would oversee investigating new potential sites for the school. Site concerns also include beautification of our site, such as gardening or landscaping projects. They also are often called upon to do handyperson work as needed at school.
The Ombuds Committee
Facilitation of constructive problem-solving and healthy communication are the areas of concern in the Ombuds Committee. Its main goals are to inform and encourage the use of already existing lines of communication within the school community; to serve as a listening post for community members (parents, faculty, administration) with various interpersonal concerns arising from community related issues; to facilitate problem solving; and to mediate in situations, when required, for satisfactory resolution of conflicts. This committee has a chairperson and is supported by several facilitators. New membership in this committee is limited to those who have experience in counseling or a related area.
The Diversity Committee
The purpose of the Diversity Committee is to review policies and practices of the Village School in light of becoming a more hospitable school community. The review process is intended to highlight what we are doing to affirm diversity and offer recommendations to move our community closer to being in solidarity with those people and groups in greatest need of affirmation and inclusion.
We recognize that our school’s mission statement already addresses the task of educating and affirming those who are in greatest need in our society: children. The Diversity Committee’s role in supporting the mission of our school is to provide a forum for review that encourages all stakeholders to:
Cultivate an atmosphere of constructive criticism,
Offer alternatives,
Become allies with one another,
Work together,
Educate each other, and
Believe in unity.
About the COBWEB approach:
This “COBWEB” of support is like the orb weaver spider’s approach to weaving its cobweb. The spider weaves a tighter web when it is really hungry. I have heard the various concerns of our school community in the hallways, during personal conversations and in various meetings over the course of our school’s young life. There is a hunger in our community for a tighter web of support for one another. It is time to spin our web of support rather than poison the potential of our school with negativity and blame. Please sign up below if you would like to be a part of this work.
The Safety Committee
The Village School believes that emergency planning and procedures, safety education, and accident prevention are essential to the success of the school environment, not only as protective measures during school hours, but also as an instructional means of developing an appropriate mode of behavior or minimize accidents at all times. School wide safety is a community matter and requires support form parents, students and staff. Ideally, every class should be represented on this committee. Please consider joining.
Playground Supervision Policies
As Village School parents, you may on occasion volunteer to help with playground supervision. The following policies supplement the School’s disciplinary policies as well as offer some additional guidelines.
Our playground rules are based on the School’s Core Values and exist to maintain safety and respect during outdoor activities. These rules include:
• Delineation of and respect for clear physical boundaries for outdoor spaces
• Clear communication of behavior expectations in common areas such as bathrooms
• Ways to resolve conflicts that may arise during outdoor activities.
Information will also be made available about what to do in the case of emergencies
Playground Boundaries
Children are to remain within the visual field of supervising adults. Play is not permitted in the areas between the classroom buildings. Children are permitted to play in the lower field and blacktop area by the gym only when an adult is present.
Playground Conduct
• Above all else, the rule “Hands are for Helping” applies to playground behavior. Hands are not to be used to push, pull, or express aggression toward another child.
• Language must be respectful and inoffensive to the other people on the playground.
• Taking turns is required on playground equipment, with the general rule being one turn at a time per person.
• Jumping out of swings or off equipment is not allowed.
• Running on play structures or climbing UP the slide is not permitted.
• When sliding down the slide, children must go one at a time.
• Jump ropes are to be used for jumping rope only.
• Balls are not to be kicked unless as part of a supervised game.
• Use of sticks or personal toys on the playground is not allowed.
• Games that exclude others are not permitted.
• Oppositional games are permitted only when they are directed by an adult.
• Children are to follow directions given by the supervising adults.
Consequences
Consequences for problem behavior should coincide as completely as possible with The Village School Core Values described on page 5 of this Handbook.
Bathroom Use
Students are encouraged to use the bathroom before going out to the playground. Children needing to use the bathroom during outdoor play must have permission from an adult to leave the area.
Other
The outside doors in the classroom buildings are to remain closed and locked at all times. Getting drinks will be limited to before and after outdoor play times.
Staff and Volunteer Expectations
A ratio of 1 adult per 20 children is required during outdoor activities. Recess will begin for individual classes after the respective teacher leads his/her entire class out to the playground. Adults supervising the recess areas need to be focused, physically and mentally, on the children. This includes following the “flow of traffic” and always moving with the children as their play takes them from one location to another. Adults must mindfully balance individual needs while maintaining an awareness of the entire group. Safety must always be kept in mind. Be watchful for such potential dangers such as untied shoelaces or unsafe games, etc. An occasional head-count is recommended and should be the regular practice of all teachers or supervising adults before returning to the classrooms.
When a supervising adult senses an escalation of a problem situation, (s)he must not hesitate to approach the problem area to better access and direct the situation. Supervising adults must be proactive in helping to mediate and resolve conflict situations between individuals or groups of children. Teachers and supervising adults must be actively observing playground behavior, not playing with the children, unless the ratio of adults to children exceeds 1:20.