Queen of Angels School relies heavily on parent involvement and participation in school activities.  Parent volunteers support, manage and maintain over thirty (30) school activities and events throughout the year, totaling close to 5000 hours of assistance.  Being a room parent or playground aide, chaperoning field trips, and helping with the School Nurse program are ways in which parents directly support staff and students.  Many of our activities are extra-curricular programs, like hot lunch, basketball, chess club and yearbook, which are not available to our children without the dedicated service of many parent volunteers.  Certain events help to build community and foster a sense of Christian growth.  In addition, parent-sponsored fundraisers – most notably the BASH Auction (Building a Scholastic Heritage) – bring in thousands of dollars for the operating budget of the school and consume about 60% of the parent time commitment (i.e. over 3000 hours).   In order to continue offering the variety of programs we currently have available we expect each parent to commit a minimum of One Day toward the success of our school.  One Day per parent means a school-year commitment of 24 hours for single-parent households and 48 hours for double-parent households.  (Preschool parent commitment is 12 hours per parent.)  As a result of the significant cost benefit for the BASH Auction, 1/3 of the parent commitment (8 hours) is to be applied to assisting with this fundraiser in some capacity.  There are a number of volunteer opportunities associated with BASH, many of which appeal to those looking for “behind the scenes” volunteer hours.  If a family situation makes fulfilling the parent commitment difficult, please make an appointment with the volunteer coordinator or principal to discuss options.

Responsibilities of the volunteer

• To be prompt and reliable.
• To prearrange the times with the teacher if volunteering in the classroom and keep commitment or let the teacher know of any changes.
• To sign in and out in the school office and wear a visitors badge while in the building.
• To be aware of the school’s emergency plans for fire, earthquake, and lockdown.
• To complete the task you begin.
• To respect the policies of the school and contribute to maintaining a smooth working relationship between staff and volunteers.
• To respect the school office as a place of business.
• To interact with all students with equality and fairness.
• To protect the confidentiality of any information either shared to do the job or observed while on the job.
• To arrange for childcare, when necessary, so that full attention can be given to the job at hand.
• To record volunteer hours on the front of the Wednesday envelope.
• To enroll in the Safe Environment Program if the volunteer position requires ongoing, unsupervised contact with children.

Rights of the volunteer

• To earn the respect and acceptance of the paid staff as a working professional albeit without pay.
• To be provided with working conditions equal to those of paid employees doing similar work.
• To be given appropriate information concerning skills, discipline, and procedures as the volunteer assumes responsibility and is accountable for the results.
• To be trained on the use of the workroom equipment before using.
• To be trained sufficiently to enable working with confidence.
• To be given a reference when requested for another volunteer position or a paid job.