Parent Roles & Responsibilities at Glacier Way
Curious to understand the specific parent commitment for Glacier Way families? Here’s the big picture (more details below):
Assisting in the classroom: each day, two or more parents assist the teacher in the classroom (it’s a ton of fun).
Parent job: every family plays a small role or two outside the classroom to help keep our school running efficiently. Examples include organizing field trips, making play dough, posting pictures and videos to our social media, or even serving on Glacier Way’s board of directors.
Fundraisers: families participate in school fundraisers (e.g. our annual holiday poinsettia/wreath sale) as much as possible — as a not-for-profit school, this helps offset Glacier Way’s operating costs.
How classroom assist parents work
Two or three parents/caregivers assist our teacher in the classroom each day. Each wears a special apron to designate them as today’s helpers to the children.
The Glacier Way Secretary sends out a calendar at the start of each semester for caregivers to sign up for dates (usually 2-3 per month, but this varies based on enrollment.) If conflicts arise later, families work together to swap dates or find coverage.
All of the adults who assist in the classroom have completed a fingerprint/background check.
In addition to the official apron-wearing adults each day, other parents/caregivers are welcome to stay and participate in some or all of the class activities.
The job of classroom assist parents
The job of both assist parents is generally to help the teacher in the classroom and interact with kids as they play and create. Assist parents help encourage play and creativity, and handle ‘work’ like writing kids names on their art, wiping down tables, and shepherding toy clean up at the end of Free Choice time.
Each of the assist parents on any given day also has a special duty to help class run smoothly, including bringing a daily snack, taking pictures throughout the day, playing with kids on the playground, and washing up at the end of the day.
Parent Jobs
In addition to helping out in the classroom as Assist Parents, each family takes on a small role outside the classroom. These parent jobs allow Glacier Way to run smoothly and be entirely run by the enrolled families.
The list of parent jobs changes from year to year, but some examples include:
Laundry
Playdough Provider
Fundraiser Coordinator
Field Trip Coordinator
Marketing & Outreach
Special Events Coordinator
Toy Cleaning
Another option is to become a member of the Board. By becoming a member of the board you are exempt from taking on a Parent Job, as well as Deep Cleans and other benefits. You can learn more about our Board, by exploring The Board.
Parent testimonials about Glacier Way co-op