You should check out the parent involvement program that myself and another gal put together at our school. It recently won Midwest Living Magazines Champions in Education contest and a $10,000 award. It's called Three for Me. Check it out at
www.three4me.com.
We went from 4,000 volunteer hours at our school to nearly 10,000 volunteer hours in one school year. Parents sign a promise card to volunteer 3 hours - for the entire school year. It's simple, it's non-threatening, three hours is easy for everyone to promise. The key was to bring in hundreds of parents that NEVER volunteer!
We made hundreds of new connections. Most parents did far more than 3 hours! Building parent support and involvement is great for your school. The children do better in school, the teachers workload is lessened, and parents feel more and more connected!
Something we did that really worked well, was we designated a bulletin board as the "helping hands" board. Teachers and the parent group post "things to do." That way, if a parent dropped in to help for even 15 or 30 minutes, they could go to the board and pull off a job that THEY LIKED!
This is our 2nd year of creating the program and it already has gone nationwide. We have more than 200,000 parents that have signed promises at their schools! Check out our website. We really tried to put a complete package together to help schools. We even customize the promise card and certificate. It's all free!
)was a volunteer box - teachers fill out a form and place materials they want copied, laminated, etc in a box placed in a common area. Volunteers come in and pick what they like out of the box. This year we organized a Room Parent strategy, too. A parent coming in from a private school suggested the idea, and after a few months it caught on. It still has a few kinks, but I think by next year it will be stronger. 
