Sunnymont's Parent Participation Requirements

Participating at Sunnymont requires strong family commitment and a significant time investment. However the rewards are well worth it: your child will enjoy an affordable, high-quality preschool program, and you will have the benefit of a supportive community of parents and teachers to help you every step of the way.

Parents are the heart of a parent co-operative school.

Each family contributes to the running of the school, to the children’s experience, and to each others’ learning. At Sunnymont, we believe that parent participation is essential to a child's learning experience.

When you enroll your child in Sunnymont, you or your spouse/partner will agree to:

1. Take a turn working as an aide in the classroom each week.
2. Hold a “job” to help the school function. Some parents serve on the school board, others make playdough, do laundry, repair toys, make library trips, help care for school pets, help organize fundraising events, etc.
3. Attend parent education classes in the evening once or twice each month.
4. Take a turn helping to clean the school on weekends. 1-3 times/year
5. Assist at a “work party” or do a project to help maintain and improve our school.
6. Help to support school fundraising/community events.

Weekly Workday
Work one session per week in your child's class and volunteer for additional days to provide coverage in case of emergencies. If you are unable to work on your scheduled workday, you must find a substitute and notify your teacher. No experience teaching? Don’t worry; this is a first for many of our parents. Your teacher will guide you and you’ll discover how rewarding working in your child’s classroom can be.

Co-op Job
Each family is required to have a job in the school. At a co-op school, the parents own and literally run the school, doing all the jobs it takes to make a school “work.” Work completed doing this job serves to help the school function smoothly. Each job requires a minimum of 15 hours per year to fulfill (usually more and some of the jobs require much more time). Most of the jobs require work all throughout the year, some are seasonally intensive, some require work during the summer months. Included in the enrollment packet is a questionnaire will help the jobs coordinator find a job for you that will best fit you skill set.

Effective Parenting Classes
Each class meets once or twice a month (15 total for the school year for 2,3,4 Day classes, and 13 times total for the school year for the 1 Day class) to discuss parenting topics and classroom issues and socialize with other class parents. This is the class in which you, the parent, enroll when you join the school, and the nursery school classroom participation is your “laboratory” in which to observe and practice what is learned in the Effective Parenting Classes. Parents find that they feel more confident as parents and more prepared for the challenges of parenting as a result of these mandatory classes.

Weekend Maintenance
Each family is required to participate in cleaning, yard work, and other housekeeping duties to keep our school in great shape for our children. Families in the 4 day class work 3 sessions per year, families in the 3 day class work 2 sessions per year, families in 2 day class work 1 session per year. Families in the 1 Day class are not required to do weekend maintenance.

Work Parties
Each family is required to participate in 1 work party per school year to improve the facility's safety and do any big projects that we have planned to enhance our children’s school experience.  A minimum of 2 hours per work party is required per family.

Fundraising / Community Building Hours
It costs more than our tuition to keep our school running. Sunnymont holds several fundraising events through out the year to help keep our tuition lower. We also hold social events so our families can come out to play and get to know each other. These Events require planning, preparation, set-up and clean-up. Every family is required to participate at one of Sunnymont's fundraising / community building events. Most all school event jobs require 2-4 hours of work.

Fundraising Programs
Each family is responsible for enrolling in the eScrip and Schoolpop programs and selecting Sunnymont as a beneficiary. Information, especially credit/debit cards date of expiration, must be kept up to date for Sunnymont to continue to receive contributions.

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