Parent Involvement

One of our most successful strategies for parent involvement in our middle school involved having a list in advance of all the opportunities available.  Each item on the list was made into a separate sign-in page along with a brief description.  All of the sign-in sheets were placed on tables (near the refreshment tables, of course) at the first Open House.  Parents were encouraged to sign up for as many areas as they wished.   The sign-in sheet requested basic information - name, student's name, grade, and contact information.  A few examples of volunteer activities are beautification committee, academic team calling list, academic team parent chair, clerical help, library helper, dance supervisor, lunchtime helper, etc.

After Open House, the pages were copied and distributed to appropriate teacher sponsors, parent leaders. This gave everyone a pool of people to contact and also helped us get organized quickly with our parent volunteers.

A big event was the annual landscaping event.  One of our volunteer activities was a school grounds/landscaping committee.  During the year, the committee worked on various projects as needed.  However, the big event was scheduled for summer when everyone was out of school.  The date was announced in the spring so that everyone would know when it would be held well in advance (and before everyone headed off to summer break).  We had a large turnout that included students, parents, service employees, teachers, counselors, administrators.  Everyone would bring their own tools and maybe a flower to plant.  The school would provide supplies and have an overview of what we'd like to accomplish.  Everyone worked in small groups on projects all day.....painting/cleaning signs, cleaning out flowerbeds, digging up weeds, refurbishing picnic tables, adding plants, etc. - whatever we needed to prepare a nice environment for the first day of school.  The principal (me at the time) would order pizza for lunch. 

We enjoyed working together and developed great relationships across our school community.  We also ensured a great looking (albeit older) building to greet students that first week of school.

Special Note:  It's important to build a positive relationship first.  It's much easier to discuss problems with parents if they already know you and know that you care about kids and the school.