PCO Committees

Please consider volunteering for the PCO! There are opportunities to fit everyone’s interests and schedules. To sign up, fill out at the volunteer form or email volunteer@ecspco.org.

Events

  • Summer Events
  • Fall Festival
  • Winter Chill
  • Gingerbread House
  • Family Game Night
  • Ice Skating
  • Kennywood Day
  • Movie Day
  • Scavenger Hunt

Community Support

  • Mini-Grants
  • Staff Appreciation
  • Staff Appreciation Week
  • Lost & Found
  • Busy Bees

Fundraising

  • ECS Shirts/Merchandise
  • Bake Sales
  • Fair Trade Marketplace
  • Blooming Bash
  • Uniform Re-Use Market
  • Plant Sale
    • Mum Sale
    • Poinsettia Sale
    • Spring Plant Sale
  • Pie Sale
  • Book Fair
  • Box Tops for Education
  • Emily Press Labels
  • Giant Eagle Apples for the Students
  • Shoe Recycling
  • Amazon Affiliate
  • Yard Sale
  • Volunteering
  • Room Parents
  • Welcome Committee

Communications

  • Email Newsletter
  • Social Media
  • PCO Website
  • Publications
    • Wall Calendar
    • School Directory
    • Yearbook

Volunteer Responsibilities

Events
Family Game Night- Plan, publicize and run this event. Involves acquiring games (donated or purchased) for game raffle and borrowing board games for the evening. Requires 2 co-chairs and 4 volunteers.

Gingerbread House Event- December 3, 2021 Plan this popular family night of gingerbread house building fun! Chairs will need to manage volunteers, delegate tasks, coordinate reservations, advertise the event, and communicate with the staff regarding space, equipment and staff needs. Approximately 2-4 weeks to plan. Requires 2 co-chairs, 2 volunteers to plan, 4 volunteers for the event.

Fall Festival- Plan a family-centered event to celebrate the fall. Includes working within a budget; coordinating with the school for space, staff and equipment needs; advertising the event; managing volunteers. Requires 2 co-chairs, 2 volunteers to plan, and many volunteers for the event itself.

Autumn/Winter Chill- Plan a parents-only social and chili cook off [format can be changed; the social aspect is the important part]. Will be held sometime between mid-Sept. and early November. Chairs will coordinate budget. Volunteers needed to plan, advertise, manage RSVPs, shop, help night of the event. Time commitment is 2-4 meetings in late summer/early school year. Requires 2 chairs and 4 volunteers.

Scavenger Hunt- Sept. 24, 2021 Plan a scavenger hunt to send families on a fun adventure in Frick Park. Help is needed in advance of the event to devise routes and clues, create clue sheets and maps, and buy raffle prizes and snacks. Support is needed day-of to handle registration, staff the table during the event, manage the raffle, and clean up. Planning should start about 1 month in advance. Requires 1 chair and 2-3 volunteers to plan and staff the event.

Movie Day- Movie Days might continue with possible safe options like a drive in movie or renting out theater space at Waterworks Cinema for small groups. Volunteers are needed to plan and publicize the event. Volunteers are needed to greet families at the event. Requires 2 co-chairs and 2 volunteers.

Kennywood Day – Sell tickets to the annual ECS Kennywood Day. Involves contacting Kennywood to arrange for ticket sales, publicizing the sale, and selling tickets before and after school and at school events a few times in May and June. Involves at-home work. On Kennywood Day, 2 volunteers are needed to help greet families at our pavilion and make everyone feel welcome. Requires 2 co-chairs, 2 volunteers to sell tickets, 2 volunteers to host.

Community Support
Staff Appreciation Committee – Plan and execute staff appreciation gestures throughout the school year. Involves publicizing the events and managing volunteers. This is a year-long commitment to plan; can be short term to participate. 2-3 in person meetings/ year, rotating schedule for events. Requires 2 co-chairs, 8 volunteers.

Mini Grants – Manage the PCO’s fund for ECS faculty, administration, staff, parents and community members to cover the costs of special school projects. Send out reminders when the deadline is approaching, correspond with applicants, present the Mini Grant proposals at PCO meetings, and communicate with PCO treasurer to manage the financial details. Time commitment is 1-3 hours/quarter and a member must be able to attend the PCO meeting. Requires 2 co-chairs and 4 volunteers.

Lost and Found – Work with the school to manage the ever-growing Lost and Found collection. Involves regularly sorting the items and returning labeled items to their owners, as well as arranging items for display at occasional ECS events. Coordinate with the counselors, school nurses, and the PCO’s Uniform Sale Committee prior to donating unclaimed items to see if they need any items. Requires 2 co-chairs/ building and 4 volunteers/ building.

FUNDRAISING
Blooming Bash – March 2021 Plan a fun adult-only event to raise money for the school and build a strong sense of community. The chairs will create and maintain a budget and delegate tasks. Planning starts at the beginning of the school year and the committee is needed until after the event in the spring. Time commitment is a 1-2 hour monthly meeting, email correspondence and hands-on help the week and day of the event. Many tasks can be completed at home. Requires 2 co-chairs and at least 8-12 volunteers.

ECS Merchandise – Plan and manage the sale of ECS t-shirts, polo shirts, sweatshirts, magnets or other customized products. Includes product design, working with products vendors, producing order forms, processing orders, and distribution. Requires 2 co-chairs + 4 volunteers.

ECS Bakers – Be on call to provide baked goods for bake sales and staff appreciation efforts as needed through the school year. For the safety of our school community, baked goods must be nut-free (no peanuts, tree nuts). Unlimited number of volunteers needed.

Fall Fundraising Drive- requires 2 co-chairs for this 3 week campaign. 1. Help reach out to teachers & staff to get short videos of how the PCO has helped them. 2. Make a timeline to release videos via social media to increase donations. 3. Other ideas on how to increase donations welcome. 4. Work with volunteer website for donations. 5. Use social media to highlight other things the PCO has done for the school- mini grants, Blooming Bash projects, playground, etc. 6. Maybe create raffle basket at the end of the give.

Book Fair – Plan the logistics, promote the sale and manage the finances of the event. Requires 2 co-chairs.

*Plant Sale – Chair responsibilities (2): Plan the 3 sales – fall mums, winter poinsettias and greenery, and the large spring sale (eg, annual flats, hanging baskets, vegetables, etc). Choose best dates, work with vendor, coordinate with PCO website chair to set up and process online orders, and plan and staff pick-up days.
Volunteer responsibilities (10): Assist with sorting plants on day of sales and/or staffing pick-up hours when customers pick up orders. Spring plant sale day needs the most assistance, only an hour or 2 (or more if you can spare them) can make a big difference to make this fundraiser a success. Requires 2 co-chairs and 10 volunteers.

Box Tops for Education – Manage the collection of Box Tops from the school community. Box Tops need to be submitted 2 times/year. Time commitment is minimal and involves mostly at home work. Requires 2 co-chairs.

Pie Sale, Hoagie Sale and more!- Plan, publicize, coordinate orders, manage distribution for various sales throughout the school year. If you have an idea and are willing to see it through to completion we welcome your ideas. PCO support will be provided and guidelines explained. Contact fundraising@ecspco.org to get set up. We have contacts with a pie vendor and a hoagie vendor so the initial groundwork has been laid to successfully run those. Requires 2 co-chairs and 4 volunteers.

Restaurant Nights- Lots of local and chain restaurants offer fundraising nights for schools. Just show up, say you’re with ECS PCO and the PCO gets a % of sales. Help sign up up for some and publicize them! Looking to do at least 4/year.

Volunteering
Room Parents- Room parents are a tremendous asset to ECS teachers. By handling volunteer coordination, planning parties and helping out “behind the scenes” room parents free up teachers’ time so they are able to focus their time and energy on what is most important–teaching our kids. Room parents operate behind the scenes to coordinate volunteers and supplies for the classroom (general needs, celebrations…) as directed by the teacher. Room parents are expected to promptly manage emails and communicate regularly with the teachers. Requires 1 volunteer/ class (more may be accepted at the teacher’s discretion).

Steering Committee- The PCO Steering Committee consists of up to fifteen seats, all of which are filled by parents of children currently enrolled as students at ECS. In accordance with the mission of the PCO, the Steering Committee shall: direct and plan the activities of the PCO in general; coordinate the specific efforts and activities of PCO committees and initiatives; facilitate communication within the school community (Board of Trustees, employees, and parents); and carry out all routine tasks necessary for the fulfillment of the PCO mission.

ECS Support- Sometimes ECS has a need for volunteers to help with general school level tasks and calls upon a roster of willing helpers. Some tasks include preparing mailings, sorting books in the library, lunch and recess support. Potential volunteers can get added to the roster and will be contacted when special requests arise.

PUBLICATIONS
School Directory – Design and produce the ECS school directory. Includes data collection, data management, and designing & distributing the final product. Requires 2 co-chairs and 1-2 volunteers.

Communications
Email Newsletter- Compile and distribute content for the weekly email newsletter (the PCO Pulse). Coordinate with ECS to ensure families get the most current and meaningful information.

Social Media- Manage the social media presence of the PCO. Answer questions, post up to date content, cross post necessary information from ECS, publicize events and needs in the ECS PCO community. Volunteers are needed to help moderate the Transportation Connections’ Facebook page.

PCO Website- Ensure that the PCO website is a current source of information for the community.

*Requires a chair or co-chair