MCPS Room Parent Question

[Anonymous]

I'm thinking of volunteering to be a room parent this year in MCPS, but before doing so, I am wondering what exactly they do. Is it a ton of work? Are there more than one per class? Thanks!

[Anonymous]

We always try to get two, sometimes three room parents. I was a room parent this past year. It involved planning the two parties, one was Halloween and the other scheduled for Valentines Day (but cancelled due to blizzard and rescheduled as a spring party). That included sending requests for small party donations out to parents. I'd say it was a good bit of work at party time and otherwise not much at all. For our class I found that a good percent of parents didn't want to involve themselves much and the other room mom and I did the bulk of it ourselves, including funding it since we didn't get much in the way of donations. Also I thought the teacher made it more difficult than it needed to be since she was a control freak who needed to sign off on all our plans. So we couldn't just get on with it. That said, I'd do it again. The parties themselves were fun and I got to know my child's classmates better than I would have.

[Anonymous]

In our school, we also try to do two or three room parents per room. But, it seems that even where we have more than one, there is always one that does all of the work. In our school, in addition to the parties and securing donations and volunteers, our room parents take care of teacher gifts (Christmas and end of year), special events (pregnancy/maternity parties and gifts and then visits from the teacher during the period of leave as well as coordinating special events for the long term substitute teacher), and coordinating field day and career day activities. As a WOHM that works during normal business hours, I find that this is not a feasible way for me to volunteer because you have to commit too many leave days to school activities. But, if I were a SAHM or had a more flexible schedule, it seems like a great way to be involved.

[Anonymous]

Our school has three per room and one of them is the "communications room parent." This person sends out emails and calls parents who prefer not to or can't receive emails with announcements from the teacher, requests for volunteers,party info, etc.

It doesn't require an appearance in the lass, so it's great if you don't have a flexible schedule and it can be a big help to the teacher.