Parent Council
What is Parent Council?
In Waldorf education, there are three pillars that make up the governing structure of the school. Those pillars are the faculty, administration and Board of Trustees, and Parent Council. Parent Council is a group of parents representing each class at the school. They help facilitate events, festivals, volunteer groups, staff/ faculty appreciation, DEIJ work, school beautification, they share concerns and suggestions for school improvement, and help to shape the overall community of the school. Each year the Parent Council looks for new members to join and anyone interested is welcome to attend a meeting at any time. Many members of the Board of Trustee’s first started volunteering with Parent Council.
Parent Council Responsibilities
Parent Council Leadership Responsibilities (Two Co-Chairs)
The Parent Council co-chairs are responsible for mentoring and supporting the (sub)committees chairs (festivals, faculty lunch, parent socials) and the class representatives.
They set Parent Council meeting dates (once a month) and agendas while working collaboratively with the school’s Community Engagement Coordinator, Pedagogical Director, Head of School, as well as with the parent body, faculty, administration, and Board of Trustees. They receive feedback, suggestions, criticism, and decide which topics/issues are appropriate for discussion at the meetings.
Lastly, they are responsible for building the next school year’s Parent Council leadership.
PC Class Representatives’ Responsibilities
Each class should ideally have 2 to 3 representatives whose job it is to communicate and collaborate to ensure that at least one is able to attend the meetings and fulfill responsibilities at any given time.
These representatives forward the Parent Council meeting notes to classes (provided by our notetaker) and occasionally tailor or highlight information appropriate for their class. They also will share Parent Council updates or news at the class parent meetings.
They encourage participation in volunteerism and assist with volunteering needs (organizing and sending sign-ups to classes) depending on the festival or community event happening at the time. They may assist the Festival Chair or Community Engagement Coordinator.
They assist the faculty and lunch co-chairs to host the lunches (one per class), sending sign-ups, and encouraging participation.
Parent Council Class Representatives should generally be available to communicate with their class parents should they have feedback, issues, or questions that can be brought to and addressed at the PC meetings. They should work towards connecting with each parent in the class once per year for a short conversation either in person, by phone, or (if necessary) email/text.
Lastly, they will help find new reps for the following year should they decide not to continue.
Important note: both PC leadership and the class representatives should be aware and able to make the distinction between speaking as a parent (from a personal perspective) and speaking as a co-chair or class representative (from the perspective of their class) and mention it accordingly for clear communication.
Parent Council Co-Chairs
Jill Chan and Kylee Deterding
2024-2025 Parent Council Meetings - 6:00PM - 7:30PM
All meetings are in the Cedarwood Performance Space
Monday, September 9th
Monday, October 21
Monday, November 4th
Monday, December 9th
Monday, January 13th
Monday, February 10th
Monday, March 10th
Monday, April 14th
Monday, May 12th
Monday, June 9th
Adults only; childcare provided for grades 1-5
To participate in parent council, please attend one of the meetings or reach out to Jill Chan and Kylee Deterding at pcc@cedarwoodschool.org.
For additional volunteer opportunities, check out our Volunteer Guide.