HOMEROOM PARENTS

Homeroom parents support the teachers and students of Spicewood Elementary by helping with special classroom activities, including classroom parties and PTA special events. You are the representative of PTA to your class. Your help is truly needed and appreciated by your teacher and the children in your class.

You can be a homeroom parent for only one class per year, but you can assist in multiple classrooms. While classes may have multiple assistant parents, each class will have only one main contact person. This simplifies communication between the homeroom parent and teacher/parents.

Homeroom Parent Responsibilities:

Get contact information (names and email addresses) for the parents in your class. The teacher will help you with this sensitive information.

Work with the Lead Homeroom Parent (Lead Class is assigned by Spicewood Leadership) in your grade and with your teacher to coordinate parties and activities within your classroom.

Recruit volunteers among the other parents in the classroom. Using google or sign-up genius for volunteer sign-ups is recommended since multiple classes work together on parties.

Help collect donations for special PTA events as needed.

Recognize your teacher on special days, like birthdays and Teacher Appreciation Week.

New this year: Celebrate your Class Buddy!

Communication

Please keep ALL parent email addresses confidential!  When you need to send a classroom email, type your name in the “to” line and all the other parents’ names in the “bcc” line. You can create and send out a contact list via Google Doc, for example, that parents can volunteer to fill out and share amongst each other.

Classroom Parties

Many of these parties are grade specific. The Lead Teacher(s) will work with the Lead Homeroom Parent(s) to coordinate these events.

• Winter Party  (Thursday, Dec. 15, 2022)
• Valentine Party  (Tuesday, Feb. 14, 2023)
• End of School Party  (Thursday, May 25, 2023)

As a grade level of HR parents, please meet and review each party outline (Lead Teacher will provide that to Lead HR parent in your grade). All classes in the same grade level have the same party. Usually classes take turns planning and making purchases for each party so that the workload is divided. Budget a specific amount for each party ahead so that you have enough left for the end of year party; this breakdown will look different for each grade.

Food Rules

For the three parties throughout the year, the minimal nutritional value requirements are waived. However, please note that some children have very serious food allergies. Please check with the Grade Level Team Leader to determine which, if any, classrooms are nut free, or have other allergy sensitivities. It is encouraged that parties throughout the grade level remain the same from class to class; HOWEVER, for those students with allergies, we accommodate them as much as possible (for example, purchasing some gluten free cookies or cupcakes for those that need it).

Round Rock ISD requires that food be store bought only.  No homemade items please.

Delegating

Do not feel like you have to do everything for your child’s class. Please communicate needs and information to the other parents in the classroom. Parents tend to be more generous when they have a few moments to think about things versus last minute.

Photography

Please do not post or share photos of other students or class parties. Homeroom Parents do not have access to RRISD photography waivers and cannot approve use of any photography. Yearbook committee will take pictures throughout the year.

Teacher Gifts

It is customary to give teachers a gift prior to the winter break and at the end of the school year.  For teacher birthdays, just making them feel special (homemade cards from the students; a special lunch made/purchased by a parent; a favorite dessert brought in for the teacher; coffee or breakfast; etc.) is gift enough. 

Faculty Favorites: There is a “Faculty Favorites” on our PTA website outlining classroom needs and personal favorites by teacher. Please ask your teacher to add or update their list. Your teacher can resubmit this any time during the year; you may want to remind them to update it before important events like Teacher Appreciation Week. If an amazon wish list is preferred, we can put your amazon wish list link in the classroom wish section. Either way, our web admin will get the submission and then update the page on the website; it is not an automatic update.   

RRISD’s gift policy (below) sets limits on what employees may receive. Thus when purchasing a gift for your child’s teacher or a staff member, please do not exceed the value of $50, including a gift card.  Also, do NOT coordinate a class wide gift or collect money.

Employees of the District may accept the following:

• Gifts that are of nominal value given for the purpose of advertising, ceremonial occasions, or official events.
• Infrequent business meals of nominal value.
• Infrequent entertainment or social invitations, provided the entertainment or social invitation is not directed to the District or a select group of area school districts.
• As used in this policy, nominal value is defined as $50 or less from an entity (meaning an individual family). 

PTA Special Events 

Fall Carnival:  Coordinate classroom art project or raffle baskets, if applicable.

Spring Silent Auction: Coordinate grade-level themed baskets, if applicable.

Teacher Appreciation Lunches: Three times this year, the grade levels will partner up to host a lunch for the teachers and staff. 5th and 4th grade will host October, 2nd and 3rd grade will host February, and 1st and Kindergarten will host April.  The hospitality lead will contact the homeroom coordinators with details; your role will be to communicate with the class parents about donations to be collected by grade level for each of these luncheons.

Teacher Appreciation Week: May 1-5, 2023. Spicewood PTA will set the theme in advance, and it will run school-wide. We will be asking for donations to help support the efforts that will go into making the teachers and staff feel special all week long! You also may want to organize coffees/lunches or small tokens of appreciation for your teacher.

Class Buddies

In an effort to foster school community and relationships, this year we are pairing every classroom with one or two members of Spicewood who do not have their own classes! Your class buddy will visit your class for activities such as reading them a book and attending class parties. Please work with your teacher on including your buddy in events. Your class will also recognize your buddy on special days, such as birthdays and Teacher Appreciation Week.

Questions

If you have any questions, please first talk with your grade level Lead Homeroom Parent. If you still have questions, please feel free to contact the PTA Homeroom Parent Coordinator: Donna Hobbs (spicewoodptahomeroom@gmail.com)

EXPENSE REIMBURSEMENT for Grade Level Lead Homeroom PAReNTS:

Expense Reimbursement is available on our PTA website. You can also access the link by under the Volunteer tab of the PTA website. https://spicewoodpta.membershiptoolkit.com/expense-reimbursement

Reimbursements check will be in the front office. Please add an email or a number where you can be reached by text to let you know that the check is available for you to pick up.