Salt Lake City Open Classroom

The families of all children enrolled at the OC are asked to join a committee. Committees are an essential piece to keeping the school running and the students learning.

Committees are formed based on the needs of the school and the interests of the parents. Parents can choose among many committees to find the work that suits them best.

Art Committee

The Art Committee plans and implements art curriculum within each classroom and organizes the annual Art Stroll fundraiser. It also organizes and designs the annual Open Classroom t-shirts.

Committee Projects:

• T-shirt designs and co-ordination with Fundraising Committee
• Canvasses
• Art Curriculum
• Art Stroll

Buildings, Grounds, and Garden Committee

The Buildings, Grounds and Garden Committee creates a space that reflects our OC values. The committee maintains the spaces around the grounds and takes ownership of the landscaped areas and their upkeep.

Committee Projects:

• Playground paint/projects
• Lobby projects
• Building beautification
• Clean out pond and drain in “wilderness” area
• Create a small ampitheatre below the library for outdoor classes
• Prune and maintain trees on the grounds
• Each group will “adopt” a planter bed/area to plant and maintain, i.e. weed
• Transplant/plant
• Coordinate with the school district to get new signage for outdoor spaces
• Whatever other projects the parents and staff feel represent the OC and are needed for the students to thrive in their environment – we can work with the Fundraising Committee as well to seek out grants.

Cafeteria Committee

The Cafeteria Committee provides fresh, healthy lunches for the OC students and community. It is a good committee for people who will have time to work in the kitchen during school hours (schedules can be flexible). Morning volunteers help with food prep. You will need a food handler’s permit (really easy one hour online class) to help in the morning. After-lunch volunteers do dishes. You don’t need a food handler’s permit to help in the afternoon.

Committee Projects:

• Food prep: Morning
• Dishwashing: After lunch

Community Connections Committee

The Community Connections Committee helps our growing school seem smaller by creating opportunities to get to know each other better by learning together (guitar classes? knitting classes?), playing together (pick-up soccer games? movie night?) and working together (park clean-up? gardening?)

Committee Projects:

• School-wide picnics
• Formation of special interest community groups, such as skiing group, book club, single parents.
• Other projects TBD

Community Support Committee

Community Support Reps are appointed by teachers. If you’d like to be a Community Support Rep, please let your child’s teacher know before the start of the school year.

The Community Support Committee nurtures each classroom community by supporting teachers, acting as a liaison between parents, teachers, and administration, and supporting families in times of need.

Co-oping Committee

Co-oping Committee reps are appointed by teachers. If you’d like to be a Co-oping Committee Rep, please let your child’s teacher know before the start of the school year.

The Co-oping Committee is part of the solid foundation that makes the Open Classroom what it is. If you are your classroom’s co-oping rep, you are on the co-oping committee. Each co-oping rep is responsible for:

• Creating the co-oping schedule at the beginning of the year.
• Talking with the teacher to make sure the schedule is working.
• Checking in with the teacher weekly to make sure all co-opers were present, or if they found a sub.
• Taking attendance at parent meetings.
• Co-oping workshops

Curriculum Committee

The Curriculum Committee organizes and implements curriculum-based events and educational opportunities that enrich our school’s core curriculum.

Committee Projects:

• Antelope Island
• Culture Fair
• Earth Day
• Music
• Pi Day
• Science and Science Fair
• Technology

Fundraising Committee

The Fundraising Committee raises funds to support the general, everyday needs of the Open Classroom: from the sports program to classroom supplies. We organize a number of different fundraising events and use varying methods in order to reach a broad audience of donors both in the OC community and the general community.  Our goals are 3-fold: 1) to sustain the level of current activity (sports, supplies, etc), 2) to increase donations in order to plan for future program expansion (languages, music, playground improvement, etc), and 3) to build community and a feeling of ownership by inviting parents, students and the broader community to participate in the improvement of the Open Classroom.

Committee Projects:

• Rummage Sale
• Scarecrow Festival
• Gala
• Walk-a-Thon
• Grant writing
• T-Shirt promotions and sales, and coordination with Art Committee
• Passive Fundraising– Box tops, grocery store rewards, Campbells soup, milk lids, etc.
• Business/Foundation/Private donations
• Silent auction
• Mad Hatter Party/Start-of-year Carnival
• Student sale of fair trade coffee and chocolate or other sales program
• Student-run store

Library Committee

The Library Committee is responsible for the oversight and daily operation of the Open Classroom library, including checking in and shelving books, cataloging and covering books, organizing two annual book fairs, and managing the library collection.

Committee Projects:

• Collection development
• Classroom art displays
• Before/after school checkout
• Organization of shelves and space
• Teacher and committee training
• Special events/visiting authors
• Book fairs

New Families Committee

The New Families Committee helps parents navigate their first year at the Open Classroom. We show new families how learning happens in our unique environment and where to go with questions. We also show them how to get the most of their co-oping experience.

Committee Projects:

• Monthly New Families meetings
• New Families education
• New Families picnics
• New Families orientation

Office Support Committee

The Office Support Committee keeps the OC running smoothly all year long. The committee works closely with school office manager Barb Zimmer to organize and implement special administrative tasks that come up during the school year and to assist with everyday office tasks as needed.

Committee Projects:

• 1^st Day Packets
• Registrar tasks
• DIBELS
• Eye/Hearing Screening
• School Photos
• Sick Room
• Spring Registration
• Summer Mailing
• General Office Support

Philosophy Committee

The Philosophy Committee works to nurture the OC philosophy throughout our community. Many events and activities are coordinated with New Families, Co-oping and Steering committees.

Committee Projects:

• Yearly survey
• Philosophy articles for OCCN
• Parent Education Night/guest speaker planning and organization
• New Families coordination
• Parent education during parent meetings
• Assisting the Co-oping Committee with co-oping workshops

Publicity Committee

The Publicity Committee keeps the Open Classroom in community eye by promoting open houses and events through variety of media, including print, radio, and flyers.

Committee Projects:

• School Tours
• Avenues Street Fair
• St Patrick’s Day Parade
• Press Releases
• Open Houses

Sports, PE, and Healthy Living Committee

Our committee plans and implements weekly sports activities, physical education, and healthy living projects for all students, and is organized under three subcommittees:

Sports Subcommittee

If you are an avid outdoors person, familiar with various recreational and community activity venues, or simply appreciate the physical development of the whole child, the Sports Committee wants you. Our committee plans and implements weekly sports activities, finds and schedules venues, makes contacts with professionals in the community, as well as leads a variety of activities.

Physical Activities Subcommittee

The Physical Activities Committee will brainstorm ways to incorporate physical activity into the daily lives of the OC student body focusing on motor skill development, recess activities, small group games, as well as movement ideas that can be brought into the classroom. You will work closely with the Physical Education staff to develop school-wide programs that focus on bringing more daily movement to the student body and develop school spirit through movement programs.

Healthy Living Subcommittee

The core objective will be to help students learn about and participate in a healthy, sustainable lifestyle.  It will include components of nutrition, food sources, healthy and sustainable habits and more.   There will also be service learning projects that will increase our participation in the local community.  The goal of HL is not only to increase student knowledge of how to care for their bodies, but also to increase awareness of their individual impact/potential in their community.  This committee will also plan and implement weekly activities, find and schedule venues, make contacts with professionals in the community, and lead classroom activities.

Steering Committee

Classroom Reps are elected at the first parent meeting. If you’d like to be a rep, please express your interest at your class meeting.

The Steering Committee is responsible for planning and approving the direction of Open Classroom activities, policies, and procedures throughout the school year. It also oversees committee activities and ensures that the OC philosophy is nurtured throughout the community.

Committee Projects:

• Planning and approval of school activities and policies
• Management and approval of school budgets
• Committee oversight and accountability
• OC philosophy oversight

Web Committee

The Web Committee keeps the school website and the calendar up-to-date and creates/executes engaging new content strategies. Our website is run through a program called WordPress, which is very easy for a reasonably computer literate person to use, so you don’t need HTML editing skills to join this committee.

2011/12 Projects

• Update site design
• Refresh/update site content
• Take over mailing lists & migrate to Google Groups

Ongoing Projects:

• Maintain school events calendar
• Website maintenance and updating
• Content strategy

Tasks

Need 1 person for each task

Tasks are school projects that do not fall under the jurisdiction of a committee. You can choose a task to take the place of committee work for the school year. Tasks are typically self-directed, but progress reports must be submitted to Steering twice a year.

• OC Community News Editor
• Teacher’s PTK dinners: Organize dinners for teachers during Fall and Spring PTKs.
• Budget: Work with the OC principal to review and manage the district budget.
• Lost & Found: Gather and display lost items, donate unclaimed items to charitable organizations
• Recycling: Manage school recycling and recycling education