Explorer families serve on one committee regardless of number of children enrolled in the program. Time spent on committee tasks averages roughly 4 hours per month per family. The committees for the 2012-13 school year are listed below.

1. Classroom Coordinators

Mission:  To keep the parents in your own child’s classroom organized and informed, thereby allowing the teacher to focus on more critical tasks.

Positions: 1 Parent per classroom

Description: Classroom Coordinators are a critical part of keeping a parent-participation classroom organized and running smoothly.  Classroom Coordinators handle logistics such as scheduling parents for their weekly classroom aiding shift, collecting parent TB test forms, keeping the classroom calendar up to date, and sending email reminders to parents.  Classroom Coordinators begin the year by coordinating parents’ classroom aiding shifts in concert with teacher.  Throughout the year they post upcoming events and reminders to the group calendar to keep families informed.  This position requires strong communication and organizational skills.

2. Field Trip Coordinators

Mission: To assist the teacher of your own child’s classroom in the organization and implementation of field trips.

Positions: 1 Parent per classroom

Description: A hands-on, experiential learning platform calls for emphasis on activities that extend beyond the classroom.  Field trips are essential in demonstrating to students how their classroom activities apply to the real world.  Field Trip Coordinators facilitate the implementation of field trips proposed by the teachers and Curriculum Enrichment Committee (see below).  Coordinators may identify field trip sites, gather information regarding cost, schedule the trip with the facility, collect parent permission slips and parent driver forms, and organize transportation.

3. Curriculum Enrichment Committees

Mission: TBD.

Positions: 

Description:  Although the Fairwood Explorer program follows the California State curriculum standards, supplementation of that curriculum is essential to accomplishing the program’s mission. The Curriculum Committee works closely with the teachers to identify materials, experts, and parental and other resources necessary to help realize the vision of the Explorer program.  The parent members of the committee meet regularly to  identify ways to enhance core subject learning with hands-on, project-based activities.

Committee Functions: TBD

4. Fundraising Committee (Parent/Community)

Mission: To raise money for special events, field trips, and curriculum enrichment

Positions: 12 Parents

Description: A unique feature of the Fairwood Explorer Program is that it strives to provide an embellished educational experience with hands-on learning activities, special events, field trips, and parent education classes.  Finding fun and efficient ways to raise money for such activities is crucial to our mission. 

Committee Functions

• Explorer Fundraising: Members coordinate two major fundraisers during the year: the Fall Dinner & Silent Auction, and the Spring Walk-A-Thon. In addition to these major fundraisers, they may put on smaller events and support other committees who may have a fundraising component to their event.  Fundraising tasks include logistical planning of event (location, supplies needed, flow of event), preparing written materials to distribute to students/parents, helping to manage the events, and organizing additional parent volunteers for the events.  Time commitment will fluctuate throughout the year but is concentrated during the Fall and Spring events.
• Corporate Fundraising: Members work to raise funds from beyond the Explorer community.  Activities may include investigation of corporate matching, seeking Spring Auction donations such as tickets and gift cards from local merchants, promoting advertising on Explorer’s web portal, UpToUs, working with teachers to post requests on DonorsChoose.org, and organization of a holiday gift wrapping event at Toys’R’Us or other location.

5. Marketing Committee

Mission: Publicize and communicate Fairwood Explorer activities to Fairwood families

Positions: 5-10 Parents

Description:  This committee will create a monthly newsletter to communicate program milestones, committee accomplishments, school-wide and classroom events, and other news of Explorer program.  The committee will also be responsible for posting all program-wide events and reminders to the UpToUs calendar.  In addition, members may work with other committees to publicize their specific events, such as Gardening Committee’s garden work days, Social Committee’s coffee chats, etc. using various avenues of communication (making posters, flyers, and emails to publicize fundraisers and special events.

6. IT Committee

Mission: To maintain Fairwood Explorer’s internal web portal, UpToUs.

Positions: 3 Parents

Description: Efficient communication among teachers, families, the principal, and the Explorer Committees is essential for smooth functioning of the Fairwood Explorer Program.  The IT Committee is responsible for maintenance of the Explorer web portal, UpToUs. The IT Committee will ensure that Explorer families have access to and are trained on the use of UpToUs.  Specific tasks will include training sessions for new families at the beginning of the school year, web administration throughout the year, and archiving at the end of the school year.

7. Gardening Committee

Mission: To design and maintain Fairwood Explorer’s garden; to collaborate with the curriculum committee for the implementation of gardening projects.

Positions: 10 Parents

Description: Gardening projects are not only fun for students, they also provide a perfect theme for lessons in biology, ecology, math, art, and more.  The Gardening Committee will be responsible for general maintenance of the Fairwood garden, including weeding, pruning, composting, building and placement of garden beds, and installation of drip irrigation systems.  The committee will also carry out the expansion of the garden to the rest of the Fairwood campus, and may coordinate with the Curriculum Enrichment Committee to implement educational activities related to the garden.

8. Project Cornerstone ABC Volunteer

Mission: To deliver the Project Cornerstone Asset Building Champions (ABC) program to all Fairwood students.

Positions: 1 Parent per classroom

Description: Project Cornerstone (www.projectcornerstone.org) is a YMCA sponsored anti-bullying program whose mission is to help children develop values and qualities essential to becoming caring, responsible adults.  Project Cornerstone offers training to volunteers throughout Silicon Valley who work to provide students with positive adult role models, positive peer influence, caring school climates, and a sense that their community values its youth. 

At Fairwood School, Project Cornerstone Asset Building Champion (ABC) volunteers read stories and lead discussions in the classroom that focus on issues such as student-to-student respect, how to avoid bullies, and what to do if a bully is victimizing others. Students also learn about values such as honesty, caring, responsibility, and friendship. By sharing these concepts in class, volunteers help create a common language and vocabulary about student respect for the entire school. Each month, ABC volunteers meet as a group to review the book and lesson plan for the upcoming month. Then, the volunteers read the book and lead the planned activity and discussions in their child’s classroom. All ABC volunteers must complete a short training course provided at the beginning of the school year. 

9. Destination ImagiNation Team Leader

Mission: To provide Fairwood students the opportunity to participate in Destination ImagiNation.

Positions: 6-8 Parents

Description:  Destination ImagiNation (www.caldi.org) is an after-school activity in which students work in teams to solve mind-bending Challenges.  The teams present their solutions at a regional tournament in late February or March.Teams are challenged to think on their feet, work collaboratively, and devise original solutions that satisfy the requirements of the Challenges. Participants gain more than just basic knowledge and skills—they learn to unleash their imaginations and take unique approaches to problem solving. 

DI Team Leaders meet with groups of up to 7 students once per week for 8-12 weeks on a day of their choice (M-Th 2:15-3:15 or F 12:30-1:30).  For DI Team Leaders only, this weekly hour may be counted toward classroom participation hours.  Team Leaders must attend a Team Manager training workshop in the beginning of the year, and attend the final Silicon Valley Regional Tournament in late February or March with their team.

10.After-School Activities Coordinator

Mission: To provide Fairwood students engaging after-school activities on campus

Positions: Coordinators: 3 Parents; Volunteers: 5 Parents

Committee Function: Fairwood School may wish to contract with professional organizations for activities such as after-school science, music, chess, and sports. The After-School Activities Coordinators will research activities of interest, and coordinate

their implementation. 

11.Lunch-Time Activities Leader

Mission: To make structured activities available to Fairwood students during the lunch recess period.

Positions: 12-16 Parents

Description: This committee’s goal is to provide structured play for our children during the lunchtime recess. Organized activities offer a meeting point for many of our Kindergartners and first graders, and a good group of older children. The children love working on the projects and greatly benefit from the group interactions and the kindness of our activity leaders. Structured play offers several benefits including:

• Introducing your child to new ideas and opportunities
• Supporting healthy brain development
• Increasing physical and social skills 
• Providing experience in cooperation, self-discipline and perseverance 
• Developing a positive self-image

Lunch Time Activities leaders plan, prepare, and execute daily lunch recess activities. Ideas may include: crafts, scavenger hunts, physical activities, games. Activities provided are for the whole school not just the Explorer program. They will lead a group of children once a week from 11:30 to 12:20 (lower grades) or from 12:00 to 12:45 (upper grades) at the school’s playground. Parents ideally work in pairs on their selected day. We need one prep parent for this committee. The prep parent works from home and prepares materials needed for the activities.

12.Social Committee

Mission: To facilitate community-building through organization of family activities.

Positions: 10 Parents

Description: Building and maintaining a strong sense of community is a highly-valued goal for the Fairwood Explorer program.  The Social committee will organize events such as a beginning-of-the-year welcome event 3-4 weeks after school starts, monthly parent “Coffee Chats” in the Fairwood library, park play dates throughout the school year and Summer vacation, and an “Incoming Families Welcome Event” at the end of the school year.  In addition to these events, the Social committee may organize other events of their choice such as weekend group outings, Mom’s or Dad’s night out, sports events, Valentine’s brunch, Spring egg hunt, and a summer camping trip.  Social Committee members plan, organize and run these Explorer social events, and may also help other committees with organizing bigger events as needed.  Each social committee member is expected to run and physically be present at a designated number of events.  Most events take place on weekends.  Some events such as coffee chats and park play dates take place on weekdays at different times of the day.

13.Participation Management Committee

Mission: To track classroom and committee participation of Fairwood Explorer families.

Positions: 3 Parents

Description:Relieving the principal, teachers and committee leads of the responsibility of tracking parent participation allows them to focus their attention on their goals, while ensuring they have adequate parent resources to meet those goals.  The Participation Management Committee will keep track of classroom, committee, field trip, and curriculum enrichment project participation hours to ensure distribution of the workload among Explorer families.  The committee will be responsible for encouraging participation and following up with families who are not meeting participation expectations via a board-approved letter, email, phone call, etc. 

14.PTG Liaison

Mission: To facilitate communication between the Fairwood PTG and the Fairwood Explorer board.

Positions: 2 Parents

Description:members will attend the Fairwood PTG meetings. They will be the communication channel between the PTG and Explorer board and help streamline the organization of PTG and Explorer events.