We have a pizza by the slice dinner at our Open House for the families to enjoy and a couple years ago, we just had the restaurant bring a variety of pizzas about an hour before start time so the teachers could eat. They were thrilled since many had been working in their rooms all day and didn't have time to go home for supper. The restaurant gave us a great deal, and some of the teachers gave us money even though we did it as a favor for them. It also required no volunteer effort other than we filled some pitchers of pop from our dispenser so they could have drinks. Maybe a local restaurant might be able to help you out too.
I assume you have your dinners catered, which could get very pricey.
We run our conference week dinners much like fabug. We include cooking and baking for our dinners on our volunteer sign up sheet at the start of the school year. Then, whoever organizes it plans the meal and calls the volunteer cooks. We can usually get everything donated- lasagnas, desserts, drinks. We can usually convince people to donate paper goods, etc, as well. We have a nominal amount budgeted for these meals of $50/per grade (about 18 teachers at each grade level). We also invite any staff members who are in the building during conferences. Since very little is spent out of the budget, I suggested to the chairs that they might want to use the remaining money to buy gift certificates for school supplies or something to raffle off during the dinner.
Our organization supplies food for the teacher conferences, too. Last year we only supplied food for the first conference and tried to do away with the second one. We had many unhappy people on our hands. This year when we put together our volunteer roster we had a special sign up section for the conferences. We had so many parents to volunteer to make food and bring it in. We found two parents to make the phone calls and tell the volunteers what they could contribute to the conference meal. We instructed them to keep it very simple; finger foods, snacks, desserts, etc. We did not want to take away from the Staff Appreciation Week, brunch and lunceon held in May. That is the time we go all out for the staff. So, with the help of many volunteers, the conference meals are back on, and the cost is very low to us. I hope this helps in some way. Good luck.
Currently in our district, we supply and host a dinner during our afternoon and evening teacher conferences. Of course the teachers and staff love it. Each elementary school (4) pays out of their individual PTO funds (approx. $200-$300 each) and at the Jr. High level, approx. $700. We have been doing it for several years. Unfortunately, this year, some schools are finding themselves a little low on PTO funds and help and are questioning whether or not this is a practice that they should continue (next Spring). Some questions come to mind - Can one school not do it while the others do? Should we cut it out all together? If so, how do we slowly phase it out? I'm just curious if other districts/schools out there are doing this or are we the only ones "spoiling" our teachers? Any thoughts would be great. Thanks.
