Read below for updated Room Parent duties for the 2022-23 school year. Questions about room parent duties? Email president@millsparkpta.com. Questions about signing up as a room parent and accessing the message board? Email vicepresident@millsparkpta.com.
new for the 2022-2023 school year
When you have notified your child's teacher that you will volunteer as a room parent, please follow these steps to make sure you have access to our special Room Parent Community Board where our room parent coordinator/PTA board will post updates and important documents.
1 - Go to My Accounts --> My Forms/Paperwork
2 - Open the Family Information form and re-submit it with updated information - click on Yes when asked if you are a Room Parent.
Your email will then be automatically added to the room parent mailing list. You will also receive emails to notify you whenever updates are posted on the Community Board. Once you have subscribed to our message board, you can access it by clicking on Room Parent Community Board 2022-2023 which should appear under My Account once you are logged into your account.
Also, remember to be an active PTA member - complete the PTA membership form in your account and submit the $15 dues. While it is never mandatory to join the PTA, we recommend you join as you will be the PTA "representative" for your classroom.
learn more about being a room parent
New to MPE? Never been a Room Parent? No problem, keep reading to learn more about being a Room Parent.
What is a Room Parent?
A Room Parent is a volunteer with 3 main roles. Typically a classroom has 2 (sometimes even 3) Room Parents who split up responsibilities.
1. Provide support to your classroom teacher. This can include the following:
- planning of 2 or 3 Learning Experiences during the course of the school year (will depend on your teacher's wishes). Learning Experiences are about an hour to an hour and a half of fun for a classroom typically including a craft, a snack and a game. Formats vary according to grade and teacher. Room Parents come up with ideas then create sign-ups for parents to contribute materials and for parents to attend and supervise the Learning Experience itself.
- creation of a sign-up for parents to volunteer to run Character Education sessions. More information about this can be found here.
- additional teacher support (directed by your child's teacher; varies from class to class/grade to grade). Eg. creating sign-ups for classroom supplies that are needed, creating sign-ups for "mystery readers", organizing a parent directory early in the year, etc.
2. Act as a communicator between the PTA and your child's classroom parents. Our Panther Press updates and email blasts only reach families that have actively subscribed to our mailing list. Room parents ensure that the PTA information can reach all MPE families as each one of you will have emails for your classroom provided to you by your teacher. Pertinent and time-sensitive information will be sent from the PTA board to Room Parents who are then needed to forward this information onto their classroom parents. This year, the PTA board will post the info on the room parent board (you will receive an email when there is a new post once you subscribe to the message board - see above). To access the room parent message board, log into your PTA account and click on the Room Parent Community Board 2022-2023 under the "My Account" tab. If you are having trouble accessing this, please email vicepresident@millsparkpta.com.
3. Organize classroom collections for the following:
- donation collection from classroom parents for raffle baskets in the spring. Your classroom will be teamed up with 1 or 2 other classrooms to create a themed raffle basket.
- gift money collection for homeroom teacher's holiday or end-of-year gift
2022-2023 Timeline
Aug-Sept:
- sign up to be a room parent: tell your teacher you would like to be room parent; go to your PTA account, re-submit the Family Information form ticking off that you will be Room Parent (this gives you access to our message board)
- discuss with your child's teacher what their expectations are for Learning Experiences as well as any other type of support that is needed
- meet/email co-room parents and decide how you will share the duties
- create a mailing list for your classroom and introduce yourself to your classroom (you can do this when you are forwarding your first email from the PTA)
- attend Room Parent meeting - date TBD (mid to late Sept)
During the school year:
- forward emails to classroom parents about PTA events
- plan Learning Experiences according to teacher's guidelines
- make Character Education sign-up
Dec:
- consider/organize class gift for homeroom teacher and instructional assistant
Feb-Mar:
- organize class-specific gift/events for Staff/Teacher Appreciation Week
Mar-Apr:
- organize Spring Carnival raffle basket team with fellow Room Parents
- collect donations for raffle basket
May-June:
- consider/organize end-of-year class gift for homeroom teacher and instructional assistant
