Being a parent on the Board of a preschool
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Anonymous
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The preschool that my children go to has a Board and it consists mostly of parents of current students. I'm considering joining next year because I want to help out to a greater degree, but I've heard a lot about what this board does and I wonder how it compares to the board of other preschools in the area.
If you are on the board of your child's preschool, can you weigh in on what kinds of things you do, how much time commitment you have to make etc. Thanks! |
kaybn
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You should talk to someone who's been on the board at your preschool (maybe an alumn, if you don't want to tip them off that you are interested!).
I'm on the board at my cooperative nursery school (Rockville Community Nursery School www.RCNScoop.org). For the most part the "board" part of the job doesn't take too long- just once a month evening meetings, plus occasional email chains, BUT the people who sit on the board usually have other substantial responsibilities- which is why they are on the board to begin with, so even though the actual board meetings aren't a huge commitment, they are in *addition* to other hours. We're a coop school, so every parent does some kind of task to help run the school. I'm the type of person who would rather be in a leadership position or helping make real decisions, rather than pitching in by just buying snacks or whatever, so I like it. Board members also tend as a general rule to be the people who volunteer for other committees -- like setting up a salary structure for the teachers at our school, revising our bylaws, things like that-- which are all self-selected committees, but the more you do the more you know needs doing, so it expands for some of us. The range of hours spent is very wide. It's a super way to really learn how the school works, though, and to build all kinds of skills about collaboration and leadership; at least that's been my experience. It would definitely depend on your school. From what I hear, some schools have parent boards who don't actually do too much or have real responsibilty beyond nominally - those jobs probably don't take much time, but that also seems like a bit of a waste of your time to me. If your board is a real time committment, it's also probably more worth your time, if that makes sense. |