TGFP: Thank God for Parents

Private School Parents Volunteer their Time, Money and Hearts to Further Their Children’s Education

Unlike public schools that are funded by tax dollars and governmental assistance, private schools rely on parents to keep the educational motors humming.

They attend endless meetings and parent-only fund-raisers. They help out in classrooms, libraries and lunchrooms. They buy wrapping paper, beauty products and other things they likely don’t need. They decorate gymnasiums, run student festivals and, at times, function as substitute landscapers, teachers, bookkeepers and custodians.

Without them, local private school administrators say, nothing would be the same.

With no public dollars in their coffers, Charlotte County’s private schools rely almost solely on student tuition to form the bulk of their budgets. The importance of parent volunteerism and fund-raising ranges from “vital and absolutely necessary,” to being “the icing on the cake,” according to administrators.

As for the fiercely loyal parent volunteers, they say their efforts are self-rewarding because their work directly enhances and enlarges their children’s educational experiences.

With the 2008–09 school year now underway, HARBOR STYLE takes a look at three of the area’s private schools, the parents who offer their time, money and hearts to their children’s future alma maters and how their efforts are impacting private education in Charlotte County.

St. Charles Borromeo Catholic School

By the time her third child graduates from St. Charles Borromeo, Mayte Peet will have spent 14 very active years as a volunteer parent and Parent Teacher Organization activist. By her own estimation, she worked about 300 hours last academic year on school fund-raising projects and graduation festivities.

Peet is just one of a number of the school’s dedicated parents who continue to astound St. Charles Principal Dr. Jeff D’Amico.

A relative newcomer to St. Charles, D’Amico was amazed at the level of the parents’ effort in helping the school build a more technologically advanced educational setting. High on the list was their goal to purchase a Smart Board for each classroom, an interactive “whiteboard” screen that works with a computer and a projector.

“We wanted to be a very technically up-to-date school, and when the parents saw what a Smart Board could do, they went and raised the money to get one for every teacher” D’Amico said.

“Everyone is aware of the economy, and the financial situation here in Charlotte County, and it’s particularly felt by any private Catholic school like ours,” he said. Tuition covers the school’s annual budget, but the extra funds raised by parents “are the icing on the cake.”

“Our parents are just awesome fund-raisers, but it’s not just about that. They’re doing all sorts of things for the kids,” he said, citing the parent-hosted annual Back to School Picnic and their volunteerism in the classrooms.

Aymee Martinez, mother of two St. Charles students, is chair of the PTO’s ways and means committee, a group that brainstorms new ways to raise money for the school.

“We don’t ask our kids to sell anything,” she said. “We look for other ways to raise money. We do golf tournaments, fashion shows, luncheons and dances. Basically, we’re partying for a cause.” Their philosophy, she said, is “fund-raising with a focus.”

“A few years ago we raised $8,000 to re-sod the school field and fix its sprinkler system,” Martinez said. “And then over three years we raised $20,000 more,” which funded a number of student activities, allowed the school to purchase a high-powered microscope for the science lab and met the teachers’ “wish lists” for additional classroom equipment and teaching aids.

Peet’s most recent — and most ambitious — project is a plan to sell memorial paving stones that will someday form a walkway from the main building to the Family Life Center, a building the school hopes to construct for its physical education program.

With the blessing of school authorities, Peet and nine other parents organized a St. Patrick’s Day party last March to raise seed money for the project. The goal, she said, is to sell 10,000 pavers at $100 apiece. “So far, we’ve sold 105,” she said, with just 9,895 to go. But we’ll do it.”

Good Shepherd Day School

Good Shepherd Day School was organized in 1963 as a preschool program to meet the needs of working families belonging to the Church of The Good Shepherd, an Episcopalian parish in Punta Gorda. In 2000, the school began adding a grade or two each year and now offers instruction for preschool through eighth grade.

With the additional classes came the need for additional funds. And without the assistance of parent, grandparent and parishioner volunteers, “I don’t even want to think about it,” said Dr. Rae Konjoian, Good Shepherd’s head of school.

“They give us so much. We don’t have the resources to hire more staff or spend our staff’s time on all the fund-raising and special events,” she said. “They’re just invaluable.”

The school’s heavy reliance on volunteers, she said, is necessary because it receives no financial support from any source other than tuition and fees. Its budget is separate from that of the parish, and the school receives no church funding.

“Parents and grandparents are very active volunteers, but many [volunteers] are also retired parishioners or neighbors,” Konjoian said. “The entire library and media center was set up by parent volunteers and is staffed by an unpaid, retired professional along with parent assistants,” she said. “We couldn’t do it any other way.”

A parent volunteer and Internet technology specialist, Jerry Dupper offered his expertise to install the school’s state-of-the-art wireless Internet system, Konjoian said, while another parent, Jerry Rose, volunteers several days a week to work on the school’s building and grounds.

Parents also contribute funds and take part in many of the cultural and educational activities, she said. “They run the Spanish Festival, Shakespearean Day, Roman Day and so many other events; it’s all organized by parents. They come in and set it up, volunteer during the day, find sponsors, donate food or find donors, locate guest lecturers. Most of them are volunteers, too.”

Konjoian said that she and her staff “are the educators, but we’re not here to take exclusive responsibility for the children’s time here. It’s a partnership between home and school, and that’s why it works.”

Volunteering is not mandatory. “No parent is required to do anything except pay tuition,” she said, “but most people are only too happy to help out when they can.”

Kim Rose, a mother of two Good Shepherd students, is president of the school’s Parent Partner Organization, which she characterized as “involved in fund-raising all year, all the time.”

“Last year we sold cookie dough, holiday gifts, wrapping paper and an entertainment book,” she said. “We also sold Tervis Tumblers with the Good Shepherd seal, and we had red Good Shepherd t-shirts made up that we sold to the kids, teachers and parents. Each Friday the school community wore the red shirts as a sign of their support for the nation’s military members.”

Rose said the PPO also helps run the annual Good Shepherd Golf Tournament at Kingsway Country Club and sponsors the annual and wildly successful Breakfast with Santa. The parents also run the popular 100th Day of School celebration for the students.

“Without all this fund-raising and parent involvement, there’s a lot the school just wouldn’t have. Tuition only covers so much,” she said.

As to the number of hours Rose herself devotes to fund-raising and volunteering at Good Shepherd, “I couldn’t even begin to add it all up,” she said. “Hundreds easy. I’m there all the time.”

Charlotte Academy

Parents were literally the cornerstones of Charlotte Academy right from its inception.

Four mothers, unhappy with the choices available for their preschoolers, got together and formulated the plans for the original Charlotte Country Day School in Punta Gorda, said Head of School Christine Gerofsky.

Parents selected the school’s first site, the old Salvation Army thrift store in Punta Gorda, where they cleaned the cobwebs, stripped the walls, laid the carpet, hired a teacher and helped set up the classroom. The first year saw 30 children enrolled.

Fourteen years later, the Montessori-based Charlotte Academy sits on a 10-acre campus and educates preschoolers through eighth graders; enrollment is around 150. Parents are still considered the backbone of the institution.

“Parents have been integral to the functioning of the school right from the beginning,” said Kim Amontree, academy parent and former member of the school’s board of trustees. “In the early years, parents were always helping out in the classroom, sometimes acting as substitute teachers or stepping in as office assistants.”

Amontree explained that the school has two levels of fundraising: major annual events that seek the support of the community-at-large, and smaller, more parent-oriented events. The school’s premiere fund-raiser is the Charlotte Academy Annual Dinner, where parents raise money from sponsors, sell table seating and secure items — often very big-ticket ones — for a silent auction. Much of the money raised from the dinner, she said, goes to scholarship support for deserving students.

The school’s parents also sponsor a Texas Hold ‘Em Poker Tournament, which boosts the school’s budget for parent-run school activities, including the annual Fall Festival and Teacher Appreciation Day.

Fund-raising, she said, accounts for slightly more than 10 percent of the school’s financial needs. “We can’t survive without fund-raising,” she said. “If Christine Gerofsky or the teachers ask for something, we’ll find a way to get it.”

It was only last year that Charlotte Academy instituted a parents’ organization, named the Charlotte Academy Parents Association. Anna Hess, CAPA president, said the association has greatly improved fund-raising efforts. “We have a large parent involvement, about 95 percent,” she said. “And even though most of the parents both work, and they’re very busy people, they do whatever is asked.”

CAPA members coordinate parent socials, like last year’s Comedy Night for Parents, and Mom’s Night Out, an event at Kingsway Country Club where local vendors and home party coordinators set up booths for the mothers to test their wares.

“You know, we do a lot of fund-raising, but we’re not building a new wing to the school, or anything. We’re trying to fund activities that enrich the academics,” Hess said. “And we’re always googling for new ideas.”

But volunteerism is more than participation in fund-raising events, Hess said. “Our parents give of themselves, their talents and creativity. Parents created and filled a reading room, built a butterfly garden for science classes, often act as classroom ‘reading dads and moms’ and sign up for all kinds of enrichment activities.

“It’s an absolute community,” she said. “Everyone is rooting everyone else on.”

Hess said she’s in the school 12–16 hours a week, volunteering at the library in addition to working on CAPA projects. Last year she spent every Friday selling popsicles to students and faculty after school, raising enough money to purchase three new classroom computers and an entire set of chairs for the science lab.

“I feel very blessed to do this work. I love to volunteer. And I want the best for my kids.”