Parent Participation Requirements

Each family contributes to the running of our school, and Sunnymont-Westside families find that the rewards of participation are well worth the effort! The children enjoy an affordable, high-quality preschool program with a high adult/child ratio, and the parents become members of a vibrant and supportive group of families who help each other with difficulties large or small.

Parents are the heart of a parent co-operative school!

When you enroll your child in Sunnymont-Westside, your family will agree to:

  1. Work in the classroom once a week.

    In the 1 Day Class, your classroom job as the parent is to support your child in the activity they are doing! It may be narrating their actions to build their vocabulary and understanding of the task, or facilitating them as they work out a challenging task. All the parents work together to clean up and put materials away at the end of class.

    In the 2 and 3 Day Classes, parents are required to work one day per week in the classroom. Once the workday schedule is assigned at the beginning of the year, parents work on the same day each week, with the flexibility to swap with other families to cover sick days, traveling, etc.

    When you arrive on your assigned workday, you will grab a work-card with written instructions for your area including setup, activity time, cleanup, and other details. When you are working in the classroom, you will be working with the children that come to visit you, which may be the art table, cooking experience, blocks/dramatic play area, motor area, outdoors, or special project! This gives you a chance to interact with all the children in the classroom, in addition to your own. You are expected to work at your station and complete the work-card for the entire classtime. This will help your child practice separation and give them a chance to bond with other adults while playing, and making connections with their classmates. Depending on their interests, some days you may see your child a lot, and other days you might not see them at all!

    In the 4 Day TK Class, it is similar to the 2 and 3 Day Classes, with the addition of off-site Nature Days! After spending about the first few months of school settling into the routine of 4 Day TK Class and getting to know the other students and working parents, Nature Day begins a few times per month at a local park or hiking trail. Everyone meets at the park or trail, and the working parents help the teacher run a special nature-inspired morning together! Non-working parents are invited to stay or drop off as needed. Nature is the classroom!

  2. Hold a “job” to help the school run smoothly.


    At a parent participation school, the parents run the school. Each family either holds a job or pays a monthly job buy-out fee, which is used to pay for getting the job done. Some of the jobs require work evenly spread throughout the year, and others are seasonally intensive, with down time between tasks.

    For example, some parents serve on the school board, others make play dough, do laundry, , help care for school pets, perform maintenance tasks around the school or organize fundraising events. Families will receive a questionnaire in their enrollment packet where they can share their preferences and skills, and the jobs coordinator helps find an appropriate job for each family. You can also request to buyout of this parent responsibility for $95 per month.

  3. Attend a parent education training each month.

    For 1 Day—

    1 Day families attend only 4 meetings per school year in September, November, February, and April, along with a 1 hour class orientation before school begins.


    For 2, 3 and 4 Day TK Families—


    Parent Education Training sessions meet in the evenings. Each class has a meeting in September, October, November, January, March, April and May, along with a class orientation at the start of the school year. We may meet as a individual classes to discussion topics specific to that classroom or all together as a whole school to discuss parenting topics and to connect with other parents.

    As parents act as teacher’s assistants in the classroom, these meetings serve as our “staff meetings” as well as a time to share and hone our parenting skills and understanding of child development. The parent meetings are an important part of our program and attendance is required. We prefer that the parent who works in the classroom attends the meetings, as it more helpful to classroom environment.

    You will be allowed 1 missed meeting per school year. If you miss a 2nd meeting, the family will be required to make it up by helping with a special project, helping at an additional clean up weekend or work party, or other equivalent assignment to be determined by your teacher or the director.

    You will be provided with the school calendar in advance, so that you may plan around these times and dates.

  4. Take turns helping to clean and maintain our school.

    For 1 Day Families — Volunteering at a Saturday Work Party or Clean Up Weekend is optional.

    For 2 Day, 3 Day and 4 Day TK Families —

    As part of their contribution to our cooperatively-run school, each family helps with maintenance of our school by signing up for two weekend shifts during the year.

    Each family assists at one Maintenance Work Party each year, where adults from several families come together to work on large projects, repairs, and so on. These happen on a Saturday morning a few times each year. You will be asked to sign up for the date that fits your schedule at the beginning of the year.

    Each family also comes in once over a weekend to do routine clean up of our school. Families can come anytime during the weekend, and do the clean up chores on one of the worksheets left for them in the Weekend Clean Up binder. You will be asked to sign up for the weekend that fits your schedule at the beginning of the year.

    There is also the option to “buy out” of one ($190) or both ($380) maintenance commitments for the year.

  5. Help to support school fundraising efforts.

    Our tuition is kept lower to make school more affordable for our families, and that means we all help raising the additional funds we need. Just a little bit can add up to a lot!

Each family is asked to:

  1. Consider a voluntary, tax-deductible donation to the school’s annual fund, and to participate in fundraising programs as works best for them.

  2. Each family is responsible for a 4 hour shift at a community event (fundraising, marketing, or social) during the year. With the exception of the silent auction (adults only!), all community events are family friendly and your child is welcome to attend with another adult, so that the whole family can have fun!