One of the keys to a great day will be understanding the role of the team members listed below and connecting with them leading up to the event.
Site Leader (You!)
You are the point person, communicator, and overall coordinator for your school for Community Serve Day. Ideally, each site leader will work with 1-2 co-leaders to share the work of communicating with the school, PTSA, volunteers and the community. You don’t need to be the strongest, smartest, or most skilled… just get the people listed below involved and mind the key dates and you’ll have a great Community Serve Day.
Northshore Church – CSD Project Manager
Kathy Flugstad at Northshore Community Church (kathyf@northshore.church) is the overall Project Manager of Community Serve Day. She communicates with the school district, sets-up online volunteer registrations, runs the monthly site leader meetings, handles training of new site leaders, orders supplies for CSD, and is your go-to person for any questions or concerns. You’ll be seeing regular email communications from her to help in all the planning for CSD.
Principal
The principal makes project requests for Community Serve Day and works with the site leader to prioritize those projects. They communicate with teachers and school staff about requesting volunteers for individual teacher/staff requests. The principal will field requests from the custodians and the school district facilities team and include them in the project request.
Community Serve Day projects can include
Teacher classroom set-up – having volunteers help teachers is the first priority
Landscaping – this can include mulching, play chips, weeding, and light pruning
Campus clean up and projects – can include touching up existing playground court lines, painting school maps, pressure washing sidewalks or other project not requiring a district work order
Principals are busy people and may pull in a co-principal or office manager to work with the CSD site leader. Be aware that the office manager at your school may be the key to getting in touch with the principal. The principal or one other designated school staff is required to be onsite for Community Serve Day.
PTA/PTSA President
Your PTA/PTSA president will help you to reach out to families in the school to get them registered as volunteers for Community Serve Day. Remember, Community Serve Day is a community event, not a church event. We want to give students and parents in the schools the opportunity to help teachers prepare their classrooms and make the school look great before the first day of school. The PTA/PTSA can also be a source of funding if there are special projects outside of the Community Serve Day budget.
Teachers and School Staff
Teachers, librarians, nurses, and other staff can request a team of 2-4 people to work in their classrooms. The focus this year for Community Serve Day is to support the teachers with volunteers – teacher requests are the top priority over all other work. Participation in Community Serve Day is optional for teachers but they are required to be onsite for Community Serve Day if they want to participate.
Some examples of work that we’ve seen the teachers request include:
Cleaning desks
Hanging bulletin boards
Organizing educational supplies
Making copies
Configuring iPads and laptops
Watch this 1-minute video story of Kari Stokes, a kindergarten teacher at Woodmoor, to find out what a huge impact Community Serve Day makes for teachers!
School Custodians
Don’t forget to involve the custodians in the planning process, they literally have the keys to the school! Custodians are required to be onsite for Community Serve Day to open the gates, unlock the building, open hose spigots, and provide you with guidance throughout the day. They can also set-up tables and checks for volunteer check in and project assignments.
Project Leaders
On the day of the event, you can’t do everything on your own. Your 50-100 volunteers will have many questions that day! It’s good to pick 2-3 others who can answer questions that day. Each site leader and project lead will get a brightly colored shirt, so people know who to ask if they have questions.
You’ll want to identify some people who are willing to take the lead in certain areas. The type of project leaders you need will depend on the projects at your site and how you structure your day. Examples of ways that you can share the responsibilities are:
A volunteeer lead to run the check-in process
A team to quickly get volunteers to their first assignment and reassign during the day
A supervisor for indoor classroom projects with the teachers
A supervisor for outside landscaping and/or painting projects
A coordinator for snacks, water, and lunch
Friends and family members make great project leaders. Check your volunteer registration – some may have already offered to help beforehand. Also, the first volunteers to check in are often eager to jump in and help. Ideally, the site leader doens’t have an assigned role and can float between team leads and sort out any adjustments.
Volunteers
You will be assigned a group of 50-100 volunteers for the day of the event. Volunteers register at www.communityserveday.org beginning May 15. Northshore Community Church will recruit volunteers for every site, but we encourage you to promote this opportunity to parents/students at the school, your neighbors, and anyone else you are in contact with. This is a community event and it is a great way to get friends, neighbors and co-workers together to support our schools. CSD yard signs are available to put in front of the school or nearby intersections to get the word out.