Room Parents
What is a Room Parent?
Room parents are the magic ingredient of every elementary school year. Without YOU helping our teachers, planning celebrations and communicating with parents in the classroom, school would be a much duller and less organized place. In general, you will be responsible for the following:
- Collecting a suggested $60 donation from each student in your class at the beginning of the year.
- Planning and executing 3 parties throughout the school year for the classroom
- Gifting your teacher (using the money donated) during the Holidays, their birthday and at the end of the year.
- Being the liaison and a smiling face for your child’s teacher. You are their “go to” point of contact. Some teachers will ask for help in communication for their class, organizing volunteer opportunities, etc.
- Help organize a classroom/grade level parent social
- Upload classroom photos for Yearbooks
Meet with Your Teacher
Plan to meet with your teacher asap and share the “all about our teacher” form. Their answers will help guide you in knowing what 3 parties you will plan (and budget accordingly), any particular needs your classroom has that you can help fill, as well as help in gift giving ideas when the time comes!
Collecting Money/Communication
At Back to School Night, you will introduce yourself and explain the suggested donation. Parents will need to understand what the suggested donation is for and how the money collected will be spent. (*You, as a Room Parent, should not be obligated to spend more of your own money than any other parent.)
Suggested Donation Amount
This year our Room Parent suggested donation amount is $60 per student. The breakdown (per student) is as follows: $25/classroom parties, $25/teacher gifts and $10 staff appreciation week
- Payment can be made to you via cash, check or Venmo (be sure to instruct Venmo payments be made as “friends/family”)
- Receipts - Keep a record of EVERYTHING! Keep your receipts and track your donations/spending on a spreadsheet.
- You will be asked to turn in your receipts to the office at the end of the year.
Parties
You will plan/execute three classroom parties per year (specified at the beginning of the year by your teacher). The most common parties are Halloween, Valentine’s Day and the End of the year.
- Budget for the parties AT THE BEGINNING OF THE YEAR
- Talk with your fellow grade level Room parents! Collaboration often times benefits ALL! Be willing to share your ideas and buying in bulk often times saves money.
- End-of-Year party that is not at school – There is a liability issue if party money collected to be used at school is used off-site. You may not use money collected for parties on-site at an off-campus event. You may collect for an off-campus event separately (this happens most often in 5th grade).
- Off-campus party: All students to be invited.
Gifts
Gifting our teachers is FUN! These are the people that spend A LOT of time with our children and should feel appreciated all year long. Again, budget for your gifts AT THE BEGINNING OF THE YEAR! You can use the answers from your teacher surveys to guide you in your purchases (i.e. gift cards to their favorite restaurant, nail salon, bring in their favorite flowers, leave their favorite candy on their desk, etc.)
- Usually parents are very grateful for a teacher organized gift. It is convenient for them and enables a more substantial/larger/combo gift to be given.
- Teacher gift timing: Holidays, Birthday, End-of-Year
- It is good to remind/tell parents at gift times what is being/was purchased... send out a quick email describing how the money was spent.
HELPFUL HINT: Some teachers have Summer birthdays, so you can plan to celebrate their “1/2 Birthday”
Staff Appreciation
$10 per student will be collected from the $60 donation for the PTA to fund Staff Appreciation Events. This is collected at the beginning of the year by the Room Parents and passed on to the PTA Staff Appreciation Coordinators.
- Once you have finished collecting, you will take $10 from each donation and write a check to the Alamo PTA (memo: staff appreciation)
- For example, if 22 parents donated the $60.... 22 x $10= $220 check written to Alamo School PTA. This covers your class’ contribution toward the school wide Staff Appreciation events.
Parent Social
Please help plan a Parent Social Mixer toward the beginning of the year. It could be a potluck at the park, potluck hosted at someone’s house, happy hour at a restaurant, bowling, bocce at a park, etc etc.... really anything! It’s nice to get the parents together outside of school and if the first one is a hit, you can continue with more throughout the year! These do not need to be stressful, Pinterest worthy events, these are simply to help build community and friendships. Please coordinate with class level room parents to plan joint socials, if possible.
Yearbook Photos
The yearbook staff cannot create a yearbook without classroom pictures. Please instruct parents to the following information: Pictures can be uploaded 2 ways: visit “HJESHARE.com" or download the app “ESHARE” school code: alamoyb
Have fun in this role! It is a special opportunity to form a relationship with your child’s teacher and allows you to get to know them better. I have been a Room Parent multiple times so please don’t hesitate to come to me with any questions you might have!
Erin Brooks
Room Parent Coordinator
erinraziano@yahoo.com
