Parent Involvement

Board of Directors

IPCP is a non-profit corporation comprised of parents/guardians of children enrolled in the school. Because IPCP is a cooperative organization, the full responsibility for running the school is shared among all families currently enrolled. To tend to the administration of the school, each spring the parent body elects its Board of Directors, which is made up of fellow parents. Voting eligibility is based on current school enrollment.

Parent Teachers

The parent teacher is one of the most important aspects of the cooperative nature of the entire IPCP school program.

IPCP’s main goals for parent teachers within the classroom are:

1. To provide support for the teachers
2. To be with your child; children love it when their guardians stay at school. It is definitely a gift to both guardian and child.
3. To provide snacks for the children’s class. This shared snack among the class creates a sense of family.

Parent Teacher Days

Each family is required to fulfill a certain amount of Parent Teacher Days per school year. These days are allocated to each family according to how many days the child attends IPCP.  Parent Teacher days provide parents with a great opportunity to be part of our child’s day, help them in their activities and meet their friends. This is one of the main factors that sets a cooperative school apart from other schools.  PT Day responsibilities range from six days per school year in Edgewood for a child attending two days per week, to 12 days per school year for a one-year-old (where the teacher-child ratio is lowest) attending three days per week.  Naturally, children atending five days require more PT days.

B&G Workdays

One of the privileges that families have at IPCP is that we all play a part in making the school a special place. Whether it comes in the form of making sure the Outdoor Classroom remains freshly mowed, or constructing lofts that allow our children’s imaginations to soar, the families all work toward this goal together.

The way these projects get accomplished is through our Buildings & Grounds (B&G) Days, also referred to as Saturday Workdays. These are half-days set aside once a month for the cooperative parents to maintain the school’s buildings and grounds. The philosophy behind the parents undertaking these tasks is to help the school reduce costs by not hiring outside contractors to do the jobs that the co-op can undertake. Parents are required to complete three B&G workdays per school year.

Events/Socials

IPCP offers many socials and school events throughout the year.

During these occasions, parents get a chance to meet with other parents/families and discuss the goings on of school.

Some of these events are required, such as our Back to School Night, Auction Night and our End of the Year Business Meeting; and others, like our Halloween Party, Theater Night and Grandparents/Special Friends Day, are just for fun.

Committees

Every family in the co-op is required to participate on a committee. Committee assignments are made after the enrollment period has ended. Families are invited in the spring to indicate the committee of their choice for the following year. All committee placement requests are taken into consideration. The Management Committee makes every effort to meet families’ requests for committee assignments; however, final committee placements are based on IPCP’s needs and individual families’ skill sets. In addition, families may be asked to work with the nominating, fundraising or other special committees from time to time.

IPCP’s Committees Include:

• The Management Committee (consisting of President, President-Elect, Treasurer and Personnel Committee Chair)
• Admissions Committee
• Buildings and Grounds Committee
• Communications and Publicity Committee
• Finance Committee
• Fundraising Committee
• Outdoor Classroom Committee
• Parent Involvement and Education Committee
• Personnel Committee
• Planning and Development Committee