I noticed that Kathie mentioned they send their homeroom parents guidelines. If anyone has written guidelines I'd love a copy.
Thanks,
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We ask for volunteers for room parents, but do NOT allow a parent to be the room parent in their own children's rooms. The teachers like this a lot better. (I don't think the teachers like having a parent of one of the children in the class "looking over their shoulder".) This way, we don't have parents who sign up for room parenting just so they can "help" their kid, and it also helps us make sure that t hose who volunteer for this really want to do it! We sometimes use co-room parents if there's a lot of interest. We have used two teams of room parents who switch off every other month, when people complained that they had too much to do and wanted to quit being room parents.

We have tried not having a Lead Parent, having a Lead Parent and everything in between. This year instead of calling them the Lead Parent, I'm going to refer to them as the Contact Parent. Which means that is who I (PSO President) Homeroom Parent Coordinator or the teacher will contact, and they will spread the word to each of the other Room Parents. The teacher and I picked the parent that we thought would best communicate with the other parents. So their job isn't any different then the other parents, they are just my contact. Hope it works!

This topic is sore spot for me, so be prepared for my "$0.02" read: my diatribe! [img]tongue.gif[/img]

I too have been class mom, and the one relegated to the sidelines (gee--a LITTLE bitterness there? ). Our PTA board comes up with a "committee" of volunteers who choose and coordinate from the volunteers who offer to be class mom (read, "they have their friends or people that bullied their way into the position run the show"). Naturally, usually the committee members are class moms for their children, and EVERY year you see the SAME moms being class parent, regardless of how many kids they have, how many times they've done it or how many "newbies" would like to be involved. YES, I know myson's school is blessed to have a surplus of parents wanting to help!

While I understand the rationale of "experienced" mothers, my general attitude is if the same people do it every year, how will ANYONE else get to be "experienced?"

I find the class parent thing time can be a VERY eye opening experience to see what REALLY goes on in a school (given there something that's not acceptable), AND to be a WONDERFUL way for parents to be involved on an intimate level with their children, the school and teacher.Unfortunately, it can also be a useful tool for people with esteem and control issues.

I feel EVERYONE is a class parent. Of course you can't have EVERY parent involved in the class ALL the time -- it would be mayhem! BUT I feel EVERY parent should be given the opportunity to be involved. Of course not every parent wants to be involved either--but I feel in the interest of their child they should at least come in ONCE. The kids are so proud (YES, even the older ones!)when their mom or dad comes in and helps out, and if the SAME moms do things EVERY year, I KNOW this sends the message to the kids that either only certain moms care and/or that the system is unfair because their mom isn't ALLOWED to be involved. Either way it's not the best message you want to get across to your kids! I'm all for contacting the class moms to offer help, but don't expect them to necessarily be welcoming (sad, but true)--for some this is "their" moment to shine, and they DON'T want anyone blocking their lighting!

That's why I feel the title should be changed to "class parent coordinator." This person calls every parent in the class, asks how involved they can/want to be, finds out from the teacher what activities are planned and goes from there. If you've got no takers, well, it sucks to have to do everything by yourself, but you also have so much time with the kids and teacher! If you get a lot of takers it can be a really rewarding experience--that's how as a "newbie" (I got lucky my year I guess) I made some of my best friends that I still have today.

Naturally you need to find someone willing to do this, so you couldn't arbitrarily pick. But if you lay it out in your volunteer sign up sheet it shouldn't be a problem.

BTW - 4my3 - welcome to the boards!

[ 08-19-2004, 08:54 AM: Message edited by: kmamom ]

Hi Everyone! I am a first year pres. and we have decided to do away with the dues this year...we are off-setting the loss of income by selling "sponsorship" ads on our calendar and everyone will get one. What this has to do with room parents is that since EVERYONE is a member, there is cohesion now between the PTO and the room moms. We use our Grade Person Committee Chair to organize the Grade Persons who in turn organize the All Room Persons in their respective grade. It is a very helpful tool for the teachers because we are working to get all of them room moms through our recruitment. Thanks for all your great suggestions!!

We have a sign up form that we use at Open House. There is one in each classroom. On the sheet you can sign up to be Head Room Parent, send treats or other items for parties, help with yearbook pages or our spring carnival or even just put your name down as "willing to help with whatever". There are two lines for the Head Room Parent spot so two parents can do it together. We've used this method for years and I have never heard of a problem, except for a few people who like to "hog" the treat spots!