Room Parent / Art Enrichment Oversight
PTO Executive Board Room Parent/Art Enrichment coordinators oversee:
- Beginning of the Year event (usually end of August or first week of September)
- Room parent volunteers and 3 class parties (Halloween, Winter, Field Day)
- Kindergarten Hootenanny dance in February
- Art Enrichment projects throughout the year
Optional: by mid-August, distribute a Teacher “Favorite Things” Wishlist to all Kindergarten and Pre-K teachers (mailboxes) and have them complete and return to PTO mailbox by the beginning of the school year. The wishlists help in planning for parties and class gifts and is a great way to get to know your teacher. These completed wishlists should be distributed to your individual head room parents/class liaisons (and keep copies for yourself just in case!)
The PTO Communications Officer will open up sign-ups for room parent volunteers in August. This may be competitive as parents are sometimes jockeying for position to volunteer. Never a bad thing to have interested volunteers!!
- For every kindergarten and pre-k class, there should be openings for a Liaison (head room parent), a Class Photographer and a few general party volunteers for each class party.
- To be fair and give parents a chance to volunteer, sign ups are USUALLY initially restricted to ONE class party per parent (except for twins, etc...) This will hopefully deter parents from signing up for Halloween, Winter and End of Year party---they can only pick ONE. If, after sign ups have been open for a while and classes are struggling to fill volunteer positions, then go ahead and open up the sign ups to parents again. At this time, they can sign up for additional class parties.
- Make sure all your liaison slots are filled by mid-September. Plan to meet with all liaisons shortly thereafter to distribute info, discuss guidelines and give them the low- down on their responsibilities. Shoot to meet with your liaisons by beginning of October so they have enough time to plan their class Halloween parties and contact their parent volunteers. (FYI: La Grange Park library has a nice-sized room you can reserve for free! Big enough to fit all your kindergarten and pre-k liaisons. You must reserve online ahead of time.)
- If you are having trouble filling open liaison slots, don’t hesitate to contact the teachers. They can reach out to their class parents and beg for volunteers. Get a jump on this early.
- Sometimes, parents don’t want the full responsibility of being a solo head room parent. Liaison positions can be shared and responsibilities can be split!!
- Remind all liaisons to keep an eye on their sign-ups. If there were previously open slots for volunteers, they may have filled up and there could be volunteers they didn’t know about!
There are only 3 class parties that involve room parents. Please see below for guidelines specific to each of the parties.