The cooperative preschool model relies on parent involvement to keep the school running. Each Explorer family is assigned to a team to support and further this model. Children benefit from the opportunity to see how important their school and education is to their parents, while parents get the chance to use their individual skills and talents to improve the school for their children.
Families express their team preferences during the enrollment process and the Board President does their best to create the optimal match between each family and team assignment. The team requirement may also be fulfilled by serving on the Board of Directors or as a Class Representative.
Business Management (Purchasing)
This team is in charge of purchasing and ordering classroom supplies on behalf of the teachers. The business manager updates, maintains, and restocks school inventory - everything from tempera paint to toilet paper. School purchases are made at local stores and/or online. Occasional donations may be requested from local businesses.
Team size: 1 Chair plus 1-2 team members
Meeting details: Team members typically meet once at the beginning of the school year to divide up tasks. Team communication and coordination is primarily done via e-mail. Some purchases are made online while others require in-person trips to local stores; timeliness is important.
Children’s Education
The Children’s Education team supports the teachers by taking on many of their prep activities. Duties may include activities like preparing materials for class projects, cleaning toys, making photo copies, organizing school pet care, creating child name tags, cooking up batches of play-dough, set up/clean up at the annual spring art show etc.
Team size: 1 Chair plus 9-12 team members
Meeting details: Team members will meet once in late August to help the teachers prepare for the new school year. Once school begins, the Children’s Ed Team meets one evening per month at Explorer (Thursdays, 7-9pm) during the school year. This requirement may be reduced in exchange for take home assignments such as coordinating school pet care or facilitating the monthly Scholastic book club program.
Fundraising
The Fundraising team organizes easy and fun fundraisers on behalf of the school. Many of our most popular fundraisers such as Dining Nights Out and See’s Candy are set up in advance and run themselves so most of the work happens at home on your own schedule. Explorer’s biggest fundraiser of the year is our Annual Live and Silent Auction in March and the fundraising team organizes donations from local businesses and large companies to prepare for that event (Don’t worry! Requests are primarily made online so no door to door solicitation needed).
Team size: 2 Chairs plus 9-12 team members
Meeting details: Team members meet together once per month during the school year to work on upcoming fundraisers, divide up tasks, and prepare items for the spring auction.
Health and Safety
The Health and Safety team oversees all safety procedures and emergency preparedness within the school. Using our school database, this team reviews all in-class working parent and student health files to ensure that they are in compliance with state licensing law. The H&S Team also restocks emergency supplies and performs monthly safety checks of the school site.
Team size: 1-2 Chairs plus 3 team members
Meeting details: During summer, team members assist the Health and Safety Chair with organizing and checking parent and student health paperwork for the upcoming school year. Team members typically meet again in August to prepare for the start of classes. Monthly safety checks require an in-person school walk-through (scheduled at your convenience).
Maintenance
The Maintenance team makes sure our school is safe, organized, and sparkling clean - inside and out. Team members take turns leading other parents during the Saturday parent maintenance days throughout the school year. They may also take on special projects such as making minor repairs, painting, gardening etc. as needed.
Team size: 2 Chairs plus 5 team members
Meeting details: Team members meet for one Saturday maintenance orientation/training day in late-August to prepare for the school year. Team members lead and participate in approximately four parent maintenance days (9 am to 12 pm on Saturdays throughout the school year), which counts toward your family’s annual Maintenance requirement. Special projects vary from year to year but may require visits to the school site during non-school hours.
Membership
This team is often the first point of contact for prospective and newly enrolled families. The Membership team facilitates the application and enrollment process for current and prospective families, responds to inquiries and answers questions, leads campus tours, and processes enrollment paperwork. 1+ year experience at Explorer is recommended.
Team size: 1 Chair plus 3 team members
Meeting details: Team members respond to inquiries from prospective families and host campus tours once per month. The Membership team also assists the Publicity team with hosting our annual Open House.
Parent Education
The Parent Education team supports our high quality parent education program. This team hosts the monthly evening PECs and is responsible for researching speakers, set up and clean up before and after the PEC, coordination of evening refreshments, speaker evaluations, and monitoring of parent attendance and participation.
Team size: 1 Chair plus 5 team members
Meeting details: Team members meet once in person at the beginning of the school year to prepare for All School Orientation in September. Team members arrive 15-20 minutes early to evening PECs and stay approximately 15-20 minutes afterward for clean up.
Publicity
The Publicity team represents Explorer Preschool’s public face to our outside community. This team manages Explorer’s social media presence, orders and stocks Explorerwear, and handles all print media including flyers and brochures, annual school portraits, and class memory books. The Publicity team hosts Open House with support from the Membership team.
Team size: 2 Chairs plus 6-8 team members
Meeting details: Team members meet once in the beginning of the school year to divide up tasks and then as needed throughout the school year leading up to Open House.
Secretary
The Secretary team manages all internal school communications (e.g. weekly e-letter, all school announcements etc) as well as the school website. Timeliness, attention to detail, and reliability are essential skills for this team.
Team size: 1 Chair plus 1-2 team members
Meeting details: Team members meet once at the beginning of the school year and conduct all other business primarily via email. Team members handle the formatting and distribution of the weekly school e-letter via the school’s MailChimp account.
Social
The Social team plans and hosts all of Explorer’s school-wide social events.
Team size: 1 Chair plus 8-12 team members
Meeting details: Team members meet as needed during the school year to prepare for upcoming social events. This team arrives early to social events to help set up and stays afterwards to clean up. The primary social events are the Back to School Picnic in September, Holiday Breakfast in December, Annual Auction in March, and Art Show in April.
Treasury
The Treasurer team supports the financial health of the school. The treasury team member must be detail oriented, reliable, and organized. Under the guidance of the Treasurer, they will utilize the Jovial Parent Portal (our preschool management software) to provide admin tasks and data entry. A financial background is helpful but not necessary to be on this team.
Team size: 2 Chairs plus 1 team member
Meeting details: Team members meet once at the beginning of the school year and then conducts business via email and online.