Parent Responsibilities

As a Cooperative School, Cherry Hill Nursery School is owned and operated by the Parents' Association (all of the parents of current students). It cannot function smoothly without the full participation of each family. It is the responsibility of all parents to read and comply with the bylaws, school policies and procedures, class and school notices, as provided at the beginning of the school year. Each family is responsible for co-oping in their child's classroom on a rotating schedule, contributing to school maintenance, participating in the fundraising projects, attending Parents' Association meetings, and serving as emergency substitues, if needed.

Co-oping

Each family helps in the classroom 5-10 times a year depending on the class size and frequency. On your co-oping day you are responsible for providing a healthy snack for the class, assisting the teachers as needed, including cleaning up before and after snack time, and setting up snack. Other duties may range from reading stories to helping with the art project of the day to pushing swings on the playground. Co-oping is a wonderful opportunity to observe your own child among his or her peers, and to get to know your child's classmates and teachers.

Parents' Work

Each family contributes three (3) hours a year per enrolled child toward maintenance and repair of school equipment. Two work days are scheduled during the year for large clean-up and maintenance projects, but numerous opportunities are also available for individual projects. The three-hour commitment may be bought-out at the beginning of the school year.

Fundraising

Each family is responsible for eight (8) hours a year toward fundraising for each enrolled child. Money raised is used to offset tuition increases as well as to fund/support special programs, new supplies and equipment, financial aid and other needs. Fundraising events have traditionally owed their success to the enthusiastic support of all parents. The Fundraising Chair coordinates these events with class representatives. In addition to providing funds for the school, events provide a wonderful excuse for getting acquainted and accomplishing something together. This year our major fundraising projects include a Fall Gift Wrap Sale, Book Fair at Barnes & Noble, and Spring Silent Auction. Our ongoing fundraising projects include the sale of supermarket certificates and collection of McCaffrey's Receipts. Those who choose not to participate in a Fundraising project are required to pay a maintenance fee.

Meetings

All parents are members of the Parents' Association and are expected to attend the two Parents' Association Meetings during the year. In addition, many of our parents serve on the Parent-Teacher Board which meets twice during the year. Guest Speakers are typically invited to two of these meetings, an everyone is invited to attend the Speaker's talk. Parents' Association and Parent-Teacher Board meetings are generally held on a Tuesday night.

Substitutes

In addition to other responsibilities, each family is assigned 2-4 days during the school year to serve as an On-Call Substitute. If a substitute teacher is needed, and the personnel chair is unable to find a substitute from the volunteer substitute list, the on-call parent of the day is responsible for coming in as the substitute (and is paid the substitute teacher rate.)