What follows is an overview of the responsibilities involved in being a member of the Preschool. As a parent cooperative, enthusiastic participation on the part of both parents and staff is crucial. It’s helpful to parents who are deciding on the type of preschool experience that will work for their family to know what will be needed in terms of time.

1. Working in your child’s classroom. Parents who select the ‘Cooping’ option, and all toddler parents commit to working in their child’s classroom two mornings per month. Their role is to assist the teacher by helping to supervise the children, helping with clean up, and facilitating play. Parents commit to specific mornings by signing up on a calendar that is posted by the fifteenth of the prior month. Parents are needed in the classroom from 8:45 till 12:15.
2. Holding a school job. Each family is matched with a job or project that supports the preschool. The School Jobs Committee looks at parent’s skills, schedules, and interests in matching parents with a school job. A school jobs handbook, which describes each job, is distributed to each family and is available in the Preschool office. Types of school jobs are quite varied, and can range from moving furniture on floor waxing days to serving on our Parent Board. Commitments can be monthly, such as selling scrip for our fundraising program, or yearly, such as helping to organize preschool events.
3. Room Cleaning and Work Party. Keeping the children’s environment safe and attractive is everyone’s job. Parents help by signing up to thoroughly clean their child’s classroom once a year. Typically on a weekend, this cleaning usually takes from two to three hours. In addition, each family contributes four hours of labor at our annual work party, scheduled for a Saturday in June. Work Party is a fun event where parents sand, paint and repair the children’s equipment indoors and out. Child care is provided. Parents who are unable to participate in Work Party, may choose to pay a $75.00 fee, or take home a project as directed by their teacher.
4. Parent Meetings and Parent-Teacher conferences. Mandatory parent meetings take place four times per year. The first is a whole school orientation, held in your child’s classroom shortly after the beginning of the school year. At this meeting, the teacher talks about her program, outlines her goals for the year, and answers questions. The next three are held at the homes of parents who volunteer to host. These meetings offer the opportunity to discuss the developmental stages of the children and the various activities in the classroom. Parents find these meetings a valuable opportunity to get to know the other parents in their child’s class and to share the concerns they have as parents of young children. Parent teacher conferences are scheduled for mid-year. These are an opportunity to talk with your child’s teacher about your child’s classroom experience. The teacher shares her observations and discusses any concerns you may have.
5. Fundraising. After trying several ways of raising funds for school improvement, we have settled on the Scrip program as the one that is the easiest and most profitable with the least time investment. Scrip is certificates that work as currency at local stores. Parents purchase scrip for the stores they commonly shop in. We currently carry Ralphs and Whole Foods scrip. In addition, we stock stores such as Barnes and Noble and Gap Kids. The amount you pay for scrip is the amount you receive - there is no out-of-pocket expense. Each store contributes up to 5% of the value back to the school, i.e., if you purchase $300.00 worth of scrip, the school receives $15.00. We typically earn about $7,000.00 per year with the scrip program, which is spent on the preschool in various ways, such as purchasing materials, upgrading play equipment, and helping to compensate staff.