Parent Opportunities

The importance of parent and community involvement at Horizons cannot be understated. Many opportunities exist to help support students and staff at Horizons. Parents are asked to log their volunteer hours in the Volunteer Log book in the office so that the school can measure parent participation for accountability purposes. A Parent Agreement is included in this handbook; please read, sign and return to the office. Timesheets for recording volunteer hours are in the office.

Participation Opportunities

The Horizons Council
All parents are asked to attend at least one meeting each year of the Horizons Council. These meetings are generally held on the second or third Thursday of each month from 6:15-8:30 PM. Middle School students provide childcare, when an RSVP is received in the office at least 2 days prior to the meeting. Agendas are published in Skylines prior to each meeting and on the Web site. These meetings offer opportunities for Horizons parents and faculty to discuss and make decisions related to school improvement goals, activities, and procedures. An open forum at the start of each meeting allows participants to share information for one minute that they feel would be of value to the entire community.

Council Task Forces
Task forces are created for specific purposes, such as fundraising, and assigned specific information gathering and planning activities for the Council.

Cleaning
Families are asked to clean their student’s homeroom twice during the school year. Schedules and time requirements for each classroom are on the Web site: www.horizonsk8school.org. Families unable to donate cleaning time may make financial contributions to Horizons that are used to offset the cost of our janitorial staff.

Family Donations
Each fall, the Fundraising Task Force appointed by the Horizons Council sends a fundraising donation letter to each family. Council requests that each family make a donation to help fund special programs at Horizons, such as Arts & Sciences, Artists in Residence, and Scholarships. These donations provide the bulk of our annual fundraised dollars.

Grocery Certificates
The sale of grocery certificates is another major piece of the Horizons fundraising efforts. Certificates are sold in the front hall on a daily basis, and may also be pre-ordered on a yearly basis. Checks or a credit card may be used to purchase certificates.

Homeroom Parent Liaisons
Two parents are needed to support each homeroom teacher. Parent Liaisons meet on the first Wednesday of the month from 8:00 - 9:30 AM at Horizons. Liaison responsibilities include assisting with classroom events, field trips, and processing Winter Sports documents and registrations.

Contributing Services and Materials
Parent time spent working with students in the classroom, on field trips, and on the playground makes a significant contribution to our program. It is especially helpful when families are willing to adopt a project or activity for the school year (e.g. gardening, grant writing, teaching an Arts & Science elective, grocery coupon sales, working on the spring auction). Additionally, materials are always welcome (e.g., office supplies, landscaping materials - plants, mulch).

Classroom Assistance
Teachers appreciate the assistance of volunteers in the classroom to tutor, coordinate special projects, tabulate book orders, and prepare materials. Opportunities in the various homerooms can be discussed with homeroom teachers.

School Service Day
This full day of activity offers teachers, students, and parents opportunities to work together to complete specific maintenance projects such as painting, cleaning windows, weeding, setting up equipment, etc. Families and teachers sign up to work for two-hour shifts during the day with the assistance of a group project leader.

Special Events
These events, which vary from year to year, have been popular social events, often complete with a DJ and dancing. Homeroom classes provide games, entertainment, or food to the Horizons school community in exchange for tickets that are purchased by parents and students. Some previous ideas have been a pancake breakfast, haunted house, a gold mine, ring toss, cake walk, face painting, etc. These social events are coordinated by parent liaisons and other volunteers.

Special Fundraising Events
Special Fundraising Events include an annual book fair held in a local bookstore, an auction and dance, and Kidzart sales. Many volunteers are needed to help these events be successful. These are also fun opportunities for creative cooperation.

Box Tops for Education
Horizons families collect specific box tops to raise funds. A volunteer is needed to provide a central location for a collection box and send in the box tops for credit.

Ink Jet Recycling
A volunteer is needed to maintain a collection box for recycling used ink cartridges. This person would also be responsible for sending them into the recycling center.

Hearing and Vision Screening
Parents help administer the vision/hearing screening with district RN supervision and coordinate the movement of students and homerooms to and from the screening areas. Twelve to fifteen volunteers are needed for a half-day each fall.

Outdoor Education Week
Parents are welcome to serve as chaperones during Outdoor Education Week, as well as assist teachers and students in planning and preparing for this exciting adventure. Teachers choose parents based on expertise and experience.

Field Trip Drivers
We encourage parents to participate in homeroom field trips by helping to transport and supervise students. If parents provide field trip transportation in private vehicles, they must have a copy of their insurance coverage and driver's license on file in the office and provide this information on a yearly basis. Please read the "Student Transportation in Private Vehicles" information and complete the required form in the Horizons office. Your forms are kept on file in the office for one school year. Please inform us of any insurance or vehicle changes.

Parent Surveys
Each year Horizons parents are asked to provide feedback to the Horizons Council in two ways. First, the Boulder Valley School District asks each family to complete a School Snapshot Survey in February. Secondly, Horizons distributes its own survey at spring conferences. Each survey provides important information and is a key piece of the school's annual profile and school-accountability report. The parent responses are reviewed by the Horizons TIES team and used to formulate school-improvement goals for the coming school years.

Student Placement
Class size limitations do not allow the school to accommodate specific requests. The faculty spends many hours working together to balance classrooms by age and gender, to maintain small class sizes, and to honor individual student characteristics. Every student is discussed individually and placed in a homeroom where the teachers believe he or she will be successful. Homeroom lists are published in Skylines and mailed to homes the second week in August.

Parents and/or students who believe a homeroom change might be appropriate are asked to wait until after the second week of school before requesting a meeting with the lead teacher and the grade-level team to discuss concerns. In this way, teachers and parents have information about how the student is performing in the currently assigned homeroom. Concerns and/or questions can also be addressed.

Visitor Login
All parents visiting or volunteering at the school must sign in at the office and wear a badge while on school premises.

Book Orders
Many classroom teachers send home book order forms from Scholastic, Troll, Trumpet, etc. Parents are asked to send separate checks for each book company (no cash) to cover their student's book orders. Parent classroom volunteers are sometimes asked to coordinate the book orders.