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 – Kathy Flugstad
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, places the paint orders, 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.
Some examples of projects you are likely to see from the principal are:
Landscaping
Applying bark chips on the playground and other areas
Repainting existing basketball courts and bus lines
Pressure washing sidewalks
Building parent-packets for the start of school
Cleaning the staff lounge
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 spruce up the grounds and classrooms 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. For example, they may be willing to sponsor a lunch at the end of Community Serve Day for all the volunteers.
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
Sometimes teachers will have custom requests that will need to be vetted by the site leader and the CSD Project Manager. Painting a classroom is a good example. Let us know if you spot any of those requests.
Watch this 3-minute video story of Kari Stokes, a kindergarten teacher at Woodmoor, to find out what a huge impact Community Serve Day makes for teachers! https://vimeo.com/582638544/2fdbd657d1
School Custodians
Don’t forget to involve the custodians in the planning process, they literally have the keys to the school! Custodians are invited to submit maintenance projects that will be reviewed and prioritized by the principal. 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.
Project Leaders
On the day of the event, you can’t do everything on your own. Your 100 volunteers will have at least 1,000 questions that day!
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 team to run the check-in process
A team to quickly get volunteers to their first assignment
A supervisor for classroom projects with the teachers
A supervisor for landscaping projects
A supervisor for painting projects
A volunteer coordinator to cover a “zone” like the playground, east side of the school, central courtyard, etc.
A coordinator for snacks, water, and lunch
Friends and family members make great project leaders. You are also welcome to email all of your volunteers to see if any of them would like to step up to this role.
Volunteers
You will be assigned a group of 50-100 volunteers for the day of the event. Volunteers register at www.communityserveday.org beginning June 1. Northshore Community Church will actively 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.