Room Parent

The Room Parent is an integral link in the chain of communication from the teacher & PTO to all the other parents in the class. The primary responsibilities of a Calabash Room Parent are:

  • Be an advocate and partner for your class teacher

  • Create a classroom roster & keep current throughout the year; provide copy to school’s Lead Room Parent

  • Communicate with other parents on behalf of teacher & PTO (weekly emails)

  • Coordinate classroom volunteer schedule

  • Coordinate classroom parties (Holiday & Year End)

  • Collect money for teacher supplies fund, gifts, party expenses and other activities

  • Coordinate collection of class photos for the yearbook

  • Coordinate design and build of Spring Carnival classroom booth

At the beginning of the school year, there will be a meeting with the school’s Lead Room Parent (“LRP”).  This is primarily for first-time Room Parents. This initial training meeting will help you understand the responsibilities of a Room Parent and your LRP will continue to be your guide throughout the year.

Once you assume the Room Parent role, you should meet with your teacher to understand how s/he wants to utilize the Room Parent and to understand any preferences s/he has for classroom events & volunteering. Establishing an on-going, weekly dialogue with the teacher is a must. Maintain weekly check-ins with the teacher to see what s/he may need. This can range from parent volunteers to specific items that need to be purchased for a project.

It’s critical that parents be made aware of upcoming fundraisers and PTO events. Please forward any PTO emails along to your class, including all attachments. Be sure to BCC all parents on room parent emails; parent emails should not be shared without explicit approval.

MORE THAN ONE ROOM PARENT

 If it agreed upon with the teacher that TWO parents will share the responsibility of being the Room Parent, it is strongly recommended that one of the parents be the Lead Room Parent and that there is a clearly defined list of job duties for each of the Room Parents. This will alleviate confusion for the teacher and for parents in the room.

ROOM PARENT RESPONSIBILITIES:

TEACHER’S ADVOCATE & PARTNER

You are often the first line of communication and defense for your classroom’s teacher. Be prepared to field questions and help diffuse concerns as needed.

If teacher shares cell or personal e-mail address with you, please do not share with other members of the class.

 CLASSROOM ROSTER

At the beginning of the year, send out the roster solicitation form via your teacher to all students (LRP will provide the form). Once you collect all roster info, you should consolidate into one page and forward on to the school’s LRP. Roster template will be provided by the LRP.

Room Parents may not use classroom roster info for personal gain (i.e. real estate marketing and personal business solicitations).

COMMUNICATION WITH PARENTS

We suggest that you create an email distribution list to ensure all class parents are included in your communications. Alternatively, you can copy/paste your Excel contact list from your class roster provided by the LRP. Be sure to stay up to date regarding classroom & PTO events as you will be a source of information for the other parents in the room.

COORDINATING CLASSROOM VOLUNTEER SCHEDULE

Each class will have its own volunteer needs. Room Parents seek out volunteers for Square One Art programs, as well as weekly library visits, science lab, centers, and in-class projects.

COLLECTING MONEY FOR TEACHER/AIDE GIFTS AND TEACHER SUPPLIES

Room Parents coordinate the collection of donations for teacher/aide gifts from the class group. This is a great solution for parents, to give towards one large gift rather than purchasing individual gifts. LAUSD policy prohibits cash gifts to teachers; gift cards are ok. LAUSD also prohibits gifts of > $100 from a single source. Be aware before sending any e-gift cards through LAUSD email accounts.

We’ll provide a questionnaire form for the teacher’s favorite things, in case you wish to gift more personal items/gift-cards. Ask that s/he complete, take a picture and text/email it to you. As gift opportunities approach, please send a list of those favorite to your class parents, in case they wish to purchase their own gifts for the teacher.

You can choose to collect money for events as they approach, and/or to ask for a lump sum donation upfront to cover the four gift expenses (teacher birthday, holiday gift, end-of-year gift & Teacher Appreciation Week).

When collecting money, please ask that parents send to you via PayPal (no fees if they send directly from their checking account) or Venmo.  You can also provide the teacher with envelopes to send home in the homework folders (include inserts with instructions); envelopes are returned with $ and teacher puts in your child’s folder or gives to you directly.

Be sure to make note of all donations in tracking worksheet provided in roster workbook. Please be sure to be fully transparent with class parents about how much was collected and how the money was spent.

COLLECTING & CONTRIBUTING PHOTOS FOR THE YEARBOOK

Room Parents are asked to upload classroom photos taken throughout the year to the Calabash yearbook website, “TreeRing”, and encourage other parents to do the same. Each room has its own folder to which you can upload pictures. Doing this regularly will help your classroom parents as they design their custom pages and will help you if you choose to make custom pages in your teacher’s book.

SPRING CARNIVAL CLASSROOM BOOTH

Each Room Parent will be responsible for working with class parents to come up with an idea for a class booth, as well as coordinating the building of the booth and purchasing all required materials.

OTHER ITEMS TO NOTE:

  • Room Parents/volunteers/visitors may not bring siblings to the classroom.

  • Room Parents and ongoing classroom volunteers must have a TB clearance on file in the office.

  • Room Parents/volunteers/visitors must SIGN IN and SIGN OUT through the main office BEFORE going to the classroom during school hours.

  • Room Parents may not use classroom roster info for personal gain (i.e. real estate marketing/solicitations).

 If you are interested in being a Room Parent for your child’s classroom, please email calabashptopresident@gmail.com.