Reasonable amount of time to volunteer at private school?

[California]

What do you think is a reasonable time to be asked to volunteer at a private preschool? And, what do you think would be a good "limit" to the number of hours one volunteer should be expected to contribute to an event?

I'm the head of our parent organization and want to work with the school director and board to come up with some guidelines. The minimum would go on the paperwork new parents to the school receive. The maximum would be to get the director to limit how much she delegates to her key volunteers (though this part is better suited for the bitching section...) and spread the responsibilities around. It's a Christian based school intended to provide a community service, and I'm seeing wonderful, caring parents burnt out by how much they are being asked to do. And their kids are only in preschool. Any insights into how other schools handle this would be appreciated.

[niccig]

Private pre-K to 12 school. This year it's 20 volunteer hours per family, next year it will be 30. There is a charge if you don't do your hours, I can't remember how much per hour. It's per family, so between DH and I, we can do the amount. DH volunteers at weekend events like the Jogathon, and I do the weekly events like field trips, volunteer in class etc. Most families at our school have both parents working, and I think most families do their hours, if not more. I'm room parent this year and they told me to not bother filling out the log, they know I'll do 20.

[graciebellesmomma]

We have to do 30 hours a year or pay 100.00 per hour that we don't complete!

Not sure if or how they enforce that. We get probably double the hours each
year. Dh does morning parking lot duty quite often, and I do reading time once a week, field trips, Fun Fridays and a few other things. Not sure how we'd do it if we both
didn't work from home.

[Kyras mom]

My DD went to a Montessori preschool. They asked the parents what kind of volunteer areas they would be interested in doing. No mention of number of hours, etc.
DD started K at a private K-8 last August. They asked at the start of the year which areas we wanted to volunteer and set a number of 80 hours per school year (10 mos.). We kept logs to keep track, then mid-year they said that we wouldn't have to keep a log anymore and the requirement was removed. They just say now to do what you can and reiterated how important volunteers are.

[LexyLou]

At DDs' preschool we have to pay $150 up front and we get it back if we do 15 hours of volunteer time.

It's only preschool so the $ and hours are pretty low, but I know in this area a lot of the private elementary schools have a 40 hour per family minimum.

[fumofu]

Went to private school grades 3-12. My mom volunteered at the school's consignment store for one day, or pay $50. It was also a tradition for 7th grade moms to make bouquets for the graduating 8th grade girls.

I think 10 hours/semester or year would suffice. My parents paid good money for me to go to that school. Tuition has almost doubled since I graduated.

[maestramommy]

I'm reading this post and a little appalled. Not that you have to do the hours, but that you get fined if you don't. What if you have other children at home? Are you expected to leave them with a sitter, or bring them along?

Dora's school is a Christian preschool run by a church. We filled out a form stating our interests/area where we would like to help out. But they state clearly that you can't bring your other children along. Which is fine, and I understand that. So I put down I would be happy to help on discrete tasks that don't involve my coming to the classroom.

There's just something off about requiring X number of hours from families, and charging them a fee if they don't comply/complete the hours.

[egoldber]

Well, I think it depends. Is there a way to make sure that non-school volunteering hours are available to working parents? Or is there an option to pay in lieu of hours? And as the PP ppointed out, is sibling care available for volunteers?

[Elilly]

I've never heard of such an arrangement unless it's a co-op. For example, DS's preschool has no such requirement. The tuitition is the tuition, end of story. We are asked to drive on field trips and maybe help with the seasonal parties, but that is it. Even this is optional.

[TwinFoxes]

I'm reading this post and a little appalled. Not that you have to do the hours, but that you get fined if you don't.

Most of the preschools I looked at around here (maybe all) had volunteer/fine requirements, AND they were double for parents of multiples. No break at all. :( One place I would have ended up being there almost as DDs were for a two-day a week program.

[egoldber]

This is one reason I didn't even consider co-ops. Just not what I wanted. But I think that many private elementary and higher schools have volunteer requirements or a "pay in lieu of" option. It is usually right in their informational material, so it isn't a surprise.

[Elilly]

DD attends a private elementary school and there isn't even a requirement for volunteering. It is encouraged, but the volunteer base is so strong that it's not a big deal if you don't volunteer at all.

[SnuggleBuggles]

I think the one private school we looked at had a 10 hour per semester requirement. They had lots of ways the hours could count- attending PTA meetings, helping at school events, helping in the class, clean up days, doing projects from home... they tried hard to have evening and night things available for working parents. I really like the idea of "mandatory" volunteering and suggested it at my school and got met with a 50% totally for and 50% totally opposed. Maybe I'll hit them with a "suggested" volunteering idea and see if I get anywhere. There will be no fine at my school, just more an honor system that will hopefully get people to take the idea of volunteering more seriously and create a community that has a more distributed volunteer pool vs the traditional 10% of people doing 90% of the work.

Beth

[mikeys_mom]

At our private school there is a requirement for every family to "earn" a certain number of points for volunteering and/or fundraising.

There is a long list of all the various programs that require volunteers and how many points you get for volunteering. I think the idea is that not all hours are necessarily equal. It's far from a perfect system, but it's what they use.

As an example, if you are a chair of a committe, you get 100 points, if you participate in a committee, you get 50 points. If you volunteer in the classroom or on a fieldtrip, you get 25 points, etc...

For every dollar that you fundraise you get 1 point - selling raffle tickets, getting sponsors for golf tournament, donating $ for library books, etc... you get.

If a family chooses not to participate in the program, they can just make a donation to the school for the total points required and get a tax receipt for that amount.

DH and I both work so volunteering during the day is difficult but we get credit for both sitting on committees that meet in the evenings.

[crl]

For me, it would depend partly on the cost. Even if it's not a formal co-op, if the cost of the program is significantly less than other comparable programs, it seems more reasonable to require volunteer hours. If the cost is the same as other comparable programs and those programs don't have any volunteer requirements, then I would find any volunteer requirements unreasonable.

When DS was at a co-op preschool (but one designed for working parents so all the co-op jobs were non-school hour jobs), we were expected to provide fresh, cut-up fruit for approximately 20 kids for one week a month (not reimbursed for the cost of the fruit) and to clean-up the playground once per year by ourselves and to help with a bigger playground clean-up/improvement weekend twice a year. Everyone did the playground, the fruit was the individual job that was left when we were admitted.

So, for a great program with low costs, I suppose I'd think 40 hours a year would be the highest minimum volunteer requirement I'd even consider. I'm not sure how you put a cap on volunteering. If people want to do more, I don't know how you tell them not to. Maybe you could say that after someone has volunteered 50 hours (or whatever number, that's just what I thought of), the school will not make any futher requests because it's important to the community that everyone participate?

Catherine

[strollerqueen]

I'm reading this post and a little appalled. Not that you have to do the hours, but that you get fined if you don't. What if you have other children at home? Are you expected to leave them with a sitter, or bring them along?

Dora's school is a Christian preschool run by a church. We filled out a form stating our interests/area where we would like to help out. But they state clearly that you can't bring your other children along. Which is fine, and I understand that. So I put down I would be happy to help on discrete tasks that don't involve my coming to the classroom.

There's just something off about requiring X number of hours from families, and charging them a fee if they don't comply/complete the hours.

Yeah, it's tough. It's 30 hours here, or fined at $10 per hour not volunteered. People with other little ones usually just pay, because a baby-sitter is more $$$ (unless you have family near by. ) The Scrip requirement is even tougher. You have to buy $375 in Scrip per month, or get fined at a rate of 10 per cent at the end of the year. So if you only spent $2,000, for example, then you would have to pay $175 at the end of the year. We struggle with this one, because we don't always do business with the stores on the Scrip list.

[pinkmomagain]

I voted for 10hrs or less...but that's assuming that the private school is NOT a cooperative.

[mommylamb]

At DDs' preschool we have to pay $150 up front and we get it back if we do 15 hours of volunteer time.


I would much prefer this approach (a set fee paid up front that would be refunded if you do the volunteer work) to being told I had to volunteer a certain number of hours and if I didn't than I would be fined. That would really put me on the offensive as a FT WOHM with not a lot of time to spare. I would even prefer it if it was added to the tuition and could be billed as a tuition reduction if you do the volunteer work. I think I would look for other preschool options if I was told I must complete X hours of "volunteer" work or face a fine.

[Sillygirl]

Our private Montessori school requires 20 hours a year, without it you don't get back the $200 you have to give at the beginning as a "deposit." For a private school, I don't think there's anything wrong with requiring community involvement. DH and I both work full-time and I've lost count of how many hours I've put in this year, it's well over 100. And DH has shown up lots of times in the evenings and weekends to work on the computers. I try not to get too irritated at parents that don't volunteer, but I do wonder why they don't. A private school is really only as good as the community that supports it.

[niccig]

Well, I think it depends. Is there a way to make sure that non-school volunteering hours are available to working parents? Or is there an option to pay in lieu of hours? And as the PP pointed out, is sibling care available for volunteers?

Our school has weekend and evening events. Eg. Jogathon is this Sunday. Parents can volunteer to help with the set-up on Sat, and the event on Sunday. DH has done about 8 hours this year on weekends. Many things count towards the hours. They have several parent ed. sessions throughout the year and have a speaker on child development topics - attending these sessions counts as hours. I like that our requirement is PER family and not per child, per child would be too much if you have 3+ kids. All the private schools and many of the preschools have a volunteer requirement. I think they got fed up with the same people doing all the work.

I agree if there is a number of hours required, then you can't just have time during 9-5 weekdays.

[spanannie]

Both of my kids are in different private schools (one age 2 - K) and the other grades 1-12. There is no required volunteering or fining--I've actually never heard of that anywhere around here, so this is news to me. However, I easily put in 20 hrs. at one school this year and I consider myself sort of a volunteering slacker right now, since I have another child at another school + baby at home, so I don't consider that unreasonable at all. I do have to get a babysitter to volunteer.

[mikeys_mom]

I try not to get too irritated at parents that don't volunteer, but I do wonder why they don't. A private school is really only as good as the community that supports it.

:yeahthat:

I am involved in on the budget and tuition committee at our school. We spend many hours trying to cut costs and keep tuition down. In the end, it is the parents that volunteer the least that complain the most about how high tuition is. We need volunteers, especially for fundraising, or the tuition will be so high that most parents will not be able to afford it.

[Melbel]

Perhaps I am being picky, but IMO, the words "mandatory" and "volunteer" should not go together! If I had a mandatory requirement, I would prefer for it to be called a "mandatory commitment" or something to that effect.

At DS and DD1's PK3 - 6th grade private school, there is no mandatory requirement. The parents are generally very involved and there is a great volunteer base. That being said, there are certain big projects (i.e. the big fundraising gala) or undesirable tasks (i.e. lunch room duty) that is harder to fill.

I easily volunteer over 20 hours per school year now that I am a SAHM. It would have been harder to hit higher numbers if I worked FT.

[strollerqueen]

Our school has weekend and evening events. Eg. Jogathon is this Sunday. Parents can volunteer to help with the set-up on Sat, and the event on Sunday. DH has done about 8 hours this year on weekends. Many things count towards the hours. They have several parent ed. sessions throughout the year and have a speaker on child development topics - attending these sessions counts as hours. I like that our requirement is PER family and not per child, per child would be too much if you have 3+ kids. All the private schools and many of the preschools have a volunteer requirement. I think they got fed up with the same people doing all the work.

I agree if there is a number of hours required, then you can't just have time during 9-5 weekdays.

There are very few week-end hours at our school, so the competition to get them is fierce, lol! I feel very fortunate that I was able get those "volunteer hours", so I don't get hit with the big fines at the end of the year (which I will for the Scrip.)

[MamaKath]

Many schools here do the mandatory volunteering or you pay. Ours doesn't currently, many families have chosen to bring their kids here for that reason. Ironically, some of those are some of the families that volunteer the most time. I will say that I think havinge a very strict policy on what qualifies as volunteering is probably good. We have parents that "volunteer" nearly daily. They eat lunch with their kids, talk only to their kids (or their own friends kids), choose who the kids play with at recess and what they will play, etc. It is very discouraging to see going on. So discouraging that our school is now considering a mandatory volunteering schedule with mcuh stricter guidelines of when parents can be there, etc.

[maestramommy]

We have parents that "volunteer" nearly daily. They eat lunch with their kids, talk only to their kids (or their own friends kids), choose who the kids play with at recess and what they will play, etc. It is very discouraging to see going on..

Yuck, really?? Kind of defeats of the purpose of sending their kids to school!

I think the reason why the schools here don't seem to have volunteer hours is because they don't have things going on during afterschool hours. They don't have events or jobs. At Dora's school there is a pizza party/bike parade next month to celebrate the end of the year (I think), but you bring your own kid, their bike and their helmet. They will have some fun activities for the kids, and I assume will ask for volunteers for that (I haven't heard anything though), but that's it. They had one fundraiser this year, but it was run by the church, so no volunteers were asked for that either.

One question I have to ask: If your school has a high hours/fine requirement, doesn't that sort of leave some parents out? I mean, if you can't afford a babysitter so that you can fill these hours, you might also have a hard time affording the fine. Or is it assumed that every family that sends their kids can technically afford this, whether they are happy about it or not? And what does the fine pay for, someone from the outside to come in and do the work? Or is it merely and incentive to get parents to volunteer?

[niccig]

One question I have to ask: If your school has a high hours/fine requirement, doesn't that sort of leave some parents out? I mean, if you can't afford a babysitter so that you can fill these hours, you might also have a hard time affording the fine. Or is it assumed that every family that sends their kids can technically afford this, whether they are happy about it or not? And what does the fine pay for, someone from the outside to come in and do the work? Or is it merely and incentive to get parents to volunteer?

At our school the parents leave the children with one parent and the other goes and volunteers. Eg. I'm helping with the set-up of the bake sale at the Jogathon this weekend. I'll go in at 8am and DH will bring DS at 10am for the jogathon. DH is running the basketball toss game from 12pm-1pm, so I'll have DS for that hour and have him play the other games/watch as he plays with his friends etc. We'll probably go home after 1pm. So, we'll have done 3 hours on that one event.

I think money is an incentive to get involved. Same reason the library I worked at started to fine money for overdue books, as it was the only incentive that worked. We used to stop borrowing privileges until the books were returned, and the students couldn't care less about that. Money was the only thing that worked to motivate people. You would think that people would want to be involved in their kids school, but not everyone is equally motivated and I think many schools found it was the same few people time after time and they got burned out. If the OP does start up a volunteer requirement, it does need to be a reasonable amount of time and there has to be plenty of opportunities at different times so everyone can participate. DS's school has many things that you can help out on during the year.

[niccig]

There are very few week-end hours at our school, so the competition to get them is fierce, lol! I feel very fortunate that I was able get those "volunteer hours", so I don't get hit with the big fines at the end of the year (which I will for the Scrip.)

This isn't right. You need to have opportunities for everyone. And that Scrip requirement of yours is CRAZY. That's a lot of money per month to spend.

[maestramommy]

At our school the parents leave the children with one parent and the other goes and volunteers. Eg. I'm helping with the set-up of the bake sale at the Jogathon. I'll go in at 8am and DH will bring DS at 10am for the jogathon. DH is running the basketball toss game from 12pm-1pm, so I'll have DS for that hour and have him play the other games/watch as he plays with his friends etc. We'll probably go home after 1pm. So, we'll have done 3 hours on that one event.

I understand this, as we just did that for a community egg hunt. But I mean if you have other children, and you only have available times during working hours. Do most schools have options outside of those hours? I'm asking because I don't think our school asked for any.

[mikeys_mom]

One question I have to ask: If your school has a high hours/fine requirement, doesn't that sort of leave some parents out? I mean, if you can't afford a babysitter so that you can fill these hours, you might also have a hard time affording the fine. Or is it assumed that every family that sends their kids can technically afford this, whether they are happy about it or not? And what does the fine pay for, someone from the outside to come in and do the work? Or is it merely and incentive to get parents to volunteer?

We have such a wide range of volunteer opportunities that I find it hard to believe that someone has zero time to help out. DH and I both WOTH and have various other time commitments but still manage to fit in time to volunteer on committees. Yes, we are super busy and get little sleep, but that is part of what we committed to when we registered for the school.

Many parents in our school can't afford tuition and we have a fair bit of tuition assistance. This is why fundraising and volunteering to keep costs down is so crutial. If you don't have a lot of time to volunteer and don't want to pay, you can fulfill your obligation by fundraising. As an example, the school has a huge list of people that are willing to buy raffle tickets. We need volunteers to solicit them on an annual basis. Many of these donors are never contacted because there are not enough volunteers. By selling 5 raffle tickets, you meet your entire volunteer/fundraising obligation for the year. This can be done from home, on your own time. Really, someone can probably make 10 calls and be done with volunteering for the year. Not a huge time commitment IMO.

[niccig]

I understand this, as we just did that for a community egg hunt. But I mean if you have other children, and you only have available times during working hours. Do most schools have options outside of those hours? I'm asking because I don't think our school asked for any.

I agree that only having volunteer time during work hours, which sounds like what StrollerQueen's situtaion is, is not ideal for any family. I can't volunteer week nights as DH isn't home until late, and like others I would try to avoid paying for a babysitting. Our school does have many options for time, and some can be done during work hours. One mother in DS's class is a cardiologist, she called me on her lunch hour to remind me of a school event that was coming up. That was her parent participation to call people.

Now if a school doesn't have a variety of volunteer options, then I think they are just after the money from those that can't meet those times.

[California]

Thank you everyone for your replies. (And for the private message, I did get that!) This is all helpful information and will definitely help our discussion along. At this point there is no volunteer time requirement. Most of the preschools in our area have one. Not sure how they track the volunteer hours. I think we'd start off with an honor system, and the minimum would be listed more to remind everyone that their help is truly needed and important to the functioning of the school.

[smilequeen]

I've never heard of required volunteer time at a non-coop school either. I have no idea what I'd think was appropriate. I suppose I'd err to the lesser side b/c there are single parents and working parents and volunteering is not always easy for everyone. I mean, I'd expect a requirement at a coop, but not a typical private school. That said, we chose our school because of how welcome we are to volunteer and how numerous the opportunities to be involved are. I enjoy doing it and a *requirement* would probably diminish the value to me. If it's required, it's not really volunteering IMO.

[niccig]

Thank you everyone for your replies. (And for the private message, I did get that!) This is all helpful information and will definitely help our discussion along. At this point there is no volunteer time requirement. Most of the preschools in our area have one. Not sure how they track the volunteer hours. I think we'd start off with an honor system, and the minimum would be listed more to remind everyone that their help is truly needed and important to the functioning of the school.

Our school has a folder at the reception desk. You fill out a page for your family and note date, hours worked and project. The receptionist tallies it up.

[hellokitty]

The only private schools that have mandatory parent volunteers in our area is a place where those who receive financial aid are supposed to help make up for it by extra parent volunteering, I do believe they keep track of the hours. Everywhere else in our town, it's basically you volunteer if you want to, but you aren't forced to. DS1 went to a private preschool and I was only able to volunteer 2x, b/c you are not allowed to bring younger siblings, so unless my DH could watch him, I had no childcare. If it wasn't for the younger sibling issue, I would have volunteered a lot more. I do see their point though, b/c younger sibs can be an extra distraction. I also offered to do take home projects, like cut up stuff for the curriculum if the teacher needed it as a way to help out. I think it would be hard for working parents to have to take time off of work to do mandatory volunteering.

[kerridean]

I'm reading this post and a little appalled. Not that you have to do the hours, but that you get fined if you don't. What if you have other children at home? Are you expected to leave them with a sitter, or bring them along?

Dora's school is a Christian preschool run by a church. We filled out a form stating our interests/area where we would like to help out. But they state clearly that you can't bring your other children along. Which is fine, and I understand that. So I put down I would be happy to help on discrete tasks that don't involve my coming to the classroom.

There's just something off about requiring X number of hours from families, and charging them a fee if they don't comply/complete the hours.

I completely agree. Especially since you are paying so much to go already.