Volunteering

[RatherBHiking, BSN, RN]

Are you ever asked to and expected to volunteer at your school after hours? I'm asked to volunteer ALL THE TIME! I work in an elementary school and they want staff volunteers to help work game concessions every week, donating food for various events, volunteering for monthly PTO fundraisers (working at fast food restaurants, bingo, fall fests, shirt sales, candy sales...), donating food for several volunteer parties a year, etc. It never ends. I donate various food items or money occasionally to help but I don't want to stay after work or come back for 2-3 hours of donating my time for events. I have a 35 min commute so once I'm home I don't want to go back and then I sure don't want to hang out for an hour or two waiting for something to start. I do volunteer my time once in a while but am made to feel it's not enough.

When my own kids were in grade school I volunteered at their school and helped out with fundraisers several times a year for 15 years so frankly I'm over it. Not to mention in the evenings I have my own family to take care of. My husband and I still have a child at home that enjoys supper and to have someone there to talk about their day and a grandchild I help watch a lot. After spending 8 hours with the students and taking care of so many, the last thing I want to do is hang out with them some more after work. When I was part of my own kid's PTO the last thing I expected were for the teachers to help volunteer their time for anything. If they wanted to then that was fine but our parent organization never asked them to because we knew they had already spend all day with our kids. We were trying to make their lives easier not harder so this is why I'm shocked at how much they ask for help. They want all this money to bring in fun things for the kids which I totally get but the county already pays for a few field trips a year and the PTO does a fun program or two a year but now they are wanting to do even MORE stuff and it seems excessive.

Is this normal in your schools?

[Eleven011]

At first, I was thinking - Yes, I get asked all the time. But then I realized you were talking about being asked because you were STAFF. We have a very active PTSA (and other organizations too) and they put out calls for help a lot for fundraisers, meals, carnivals, book fairs, you name it. But they are asking me as a parent and community member, not specifically as staff. I'm in a small community and I'd say over half of our staff have students in school. So sometimes the lines are blurred. But I would say for a staff member that doesn't have kids in the school and doesn't live in our town - there aren't many occasions they are expected to donate time/money.

[AdobeRN]

We are only asked to volunteer for one of our big fundraisers in the spring - we have a spring dance/carnival - We sign up for a 30 minute slot to man a carnival booth/food booth. The principal spins it as that the PTA does so much for us - snack carts, monthly luncheons, random gifts thru the year etc that it would be nice if we gave back to them.

After hour PTA events - my principal does not make it mandatory to attend but always states it would be nice for us staff to make an appearance if we are able to. I usually don't go to the events that happen on campus since I no longer have elementary age kids but I will go and grab dinner for the family if it is a fund raiser type of thing at local restaurants/fast food places. I am also lucky enough to live in the same neighborhood as my campus so it is really not out of my way to participate every now and then.

[Glitternurse, LVN]

I get asked, but it's because mt children attend here and I'm asked as a parent, not usually as staff.

[ihavealltheice]

We are asked in general emails to volunteer as we typically don't have a lot of parent volunteers. Half of our PTA board is made up of staff, unfortunately. I never volunteer because I am extremely busy with my home life outside of work, plus I don't work in my kids' district and I already do the PTO thing there.

I was also involved in a few committees during the previous few years. I was able to be involved because we got extra time during the school day to meet on early release days. This year, they took away that extra time and told us that we had to meet during our summer break instead. Nope.

[tining, BSN, RN]

First school - Yes

Second School - only the health fair

Third school - volunteer emails are sent out for events, I volunteer on 2 committees

Suggest a list that rotates as I bet a lot of staff are not happy. Kinder does one event, then second, then third and so on. You might have to attend 2-3/year possibly.

How well attended are these events? Popular event = more staff.

[SandIsMyGlitterRN, BSN, RN]

We are expected to attend some after school events such as Open House and Title I Nights. On some of those days we are offered comp time for a work day. No other times are we asked to work more than our expected hours.