Volunteering at LCHS
Liberty is built, governed and managed by parents. As a parent-led charter school, Liberty relies on parental involvement on matters small and large – from cleaning up after kindergarteners to planning school-wide projects and serving on governing boards.
A huge crew of parents showed up Saturday, September 21, 2010 to assemble and install the lockers at LCHS – and with only two-days notice. This is what love for children looks like.
It is the first obligation of parents to direct the education and upbringing of their children. Liberty exists to assist parents in this solemn responsibility.
Current Volunteer Needs:
Tutors - Our Academic Support Team needs help after school hours tutoring students.
Music Class Assistance - Our music teacher needs volunteer assistance in the classroom. Piano players are especially needed.
Grant Writing Committee - We are looking for volunteers (experienced or not) to research and write grant proposals.
Grandparents Day Committee – Our first school-wide Grandparents Day will be held on Tuesday, November 23rd. Contact Bob Schaffer, Director of Secondary Schools (CLICK HERE) to get involved.
Public Relations - We need volunteers to help develop our Public Relations outreach to the community.
Fundraising -- Liberty’s Fund-Development Committee is hoping to take our charitable-giving efforts to a new level.
Experts on hand – If your field of expertise lends itself to any of the academic disciplines taught at LCHS, please let our staff know they can call on you when needed.
Special projects – Occasionally, needs arise requiring “all hands on deck” from our parent community. Such occasions are announced with a school-wide email alert. Please keep an eye out for such emails.
Volunteer at the elementary school – One of the most significant things parents can do to ensure the success of our high school, is to help prepare our students at the elementary level. Our achievement of having the highest 9th-grade math and reading scores in the state are a direct function of superb elementary preparation, tutoring and academic vigilance at home.
Volunteers unloaded lockers from the truck on Thursday, September 19th and carried them into LCHS.
Liberty’s Volunteer Code of Conduct
Volunteers at The Liberty Common School shall:
- Be on-time and reliable in fulfilling volunteer commitments.
- Exercise kindness while volunteering for liberty common school.
- Respect and abide by the confidential nature of anything they might see or hear while volunteering.
- Be prompt and dependable for the times they agree to volunteer
- Conduct themselves in a businesslike and fair manner, without partiality to individual students.
- Motivate children to work and help them succeed in school.
- Graciously accept direction and constructive criticism from staff members for which they are volunteering.
- Acknowledge the teacher as the authority in the classroom.
- Not confront a teacher regarding disagreements or differences of opinion in the presence of children.
- Be respectful of the classroom by not disrupting a teacher’s instructional time or student learning.
- Schedule all in-classroom volunteer hours through the classroom’s volunteer coordinator (CVC) or the teacher.
- Dress modestly and appropriately for a school environment (i.e. Midriff covered, no short shorts/skirts, no spaghetti straps).
- Wear a current volunteer nametag at all times when volunteering at the school.
- Sign in and out at the front office when volunteering at the school.
- Record all LCS volunteer hours, including those worked outside of school, on the log sheet in the front office.
- Ensure each child in the car has a properly functioning seatbelt when transporting students.
- Provide a copy of a valid driver’s license and proof of insurance to the front office if transporting students.
- Ensure all children (e.g. Younger siblings, non-students) accompanying the volunteer on school premises are supervised at all times. Children may only accompany volunteers in the resource room, health office, lunchroom, hallways and at recess.
- Arrange for a replacement in the event the volunteer cannot meet their scheduled obligations.
- Call the school (Elementary: 482-9800/High School: 672-5500) 24 hours in advance and inform appropriate staff of any volunteer replacements via voice mail. (Voicemail numbers are listed in this Student & Parent Handbook.)
LCS Policy 6.2 Adopted 4-22-05
In early August 2010 a group of parents showed up to carry 160 new desks into the school, up the stairs and into the LCHS classrooms.
Parent Involvement, Observation, and Volunteering
The Liberty Common School is a charter school. As such, there are many new ideas being implemented. The classroom itself is the context for several of these innovations. There is great emphasis on parent volunteers in this school. There is also a need to establish a learning environment that best serves the students. At The Liberty Common School we have defined the general parameters for parents volunteering in our classrooms.
- Parent volunteers are an integral part of The Liberty Common School. Parents are not only welcome, they are crucial if we are to have high-quality teaching of the entire curriculum each year. Parent-volunteer activities are coordinated by Liberty’s Volunteer Support Team. All persons volunteering at The Liberty Common School must have a current, signed volunteer application, agreement form, and volunteer oath form on file with the School. Volunteer applications are subject to background checks. All volunteers are required to complete the volunteer application on the Poudre School District website found at www.psdschools.org .
- The teacher has primary responsibility for the classroom and student learning within the classroom.
- The teacher’s “individual teaching style” sets the tone for the classroom. This includes everything from delivery of the educational program to classroom management.
- Parents who wish to be volunteering in the classroom need to learn the teaching style of the teacher they wish to assist. If the teaching style conflicts with the parent’s volunteering style, the parent will need to either adjust his or her style or find a more compatible setting within Liberty to volunteer.
- There will be a classroom volunteer coordinator (CVC) for each primary and intermediate class. The CVC is responsible for organizing and delegating the volunteer needs of the teacher, classroom, and parents.
- Any grievance or concern a parent has with a classroom or a teacher will be handled by the procedures defined in this handbook.
- Under NO CIRCUMSTANCE is it acceptable for a parent volunteer to confront a teacher about an issue “in the classroom, or any other part of the school, when students are present.”
- Parents are responsible for their pre-school children. They must remain with you at all times.
- Liberty encourages every adult—parents, stepparents, grandparents, aunts and uncles—to take a special interest in the lives of Liberty’s students, to act as mentors and tutors, and to instill in every student a love of learning.
Parents work in conjunction with the staff to ensure the most effective education possible for their children. To this end, parents are responsible for knowing and understanding the contents of Liberty’s Charter, and are encouraged, but not required, to participate on school committees and provide other volunteer services, as they are able.
Parents are welcomed and encouraged to participate in the school, to reasonably observe and assist the teacher. However, any parent whose presence or actions are deemed by the teacher and Headmaster or Director to be a distraction, to exhibit hostility, or to interfere with the instruction or learning of the students, will be barred from the school.
In order to create a consistent school atmosphere for learning, parents wishing to observe a class must arrive before class begins. Each class will have two teacher-provided chairs for observers. Observing parents do not participate in classroom activities unless invited to do so by the teachers, and observers must not interrupt teachers or students.
Observers may take a few notes, however, computers, tape recording, etc., may be a distraction to students and are not permitted. Primary and Intermediate parents wishing to be active in The Liberty Common School and volunteer in various ways must go through procedures given by the Classroom Volunteer Coordinators. Parents will receive specific training in areas of interest to them so they may be the most efficient helpers.
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