Co-oping at Project Learn

Families choose Project Learn School for a variety of reasons. For many, that we are cooperative becomes a deciding factor. As a cooperative, Project Learn School is not only your child's school but also your family's school. Each adult has the opportunity and has made a commitment to bring their talents and energy to the operations of the school.

Project Learn co-opers accomplish many of the essential tasks, which sustain and enrich our educational environment. Co-opers must work at least 40 hours for the year. PLS depends on co-opers to take responsibility to get jobs done properly, completely and on time, and to keep open communication with committee chairs and staff as needed to insure the smooth operation of our school.

In choosing to participate in a cooperative, what is the return? First of all, access to your child, their teachers, their friends and their experiences in a way that is almost impossible in a traditional school setting. We form a community nurtured by the common bond of parents taking responsibility for more than their own children. We relax with a sense of trust that as teachers and parents, we work side by side. We model the value for our children of what can be accomplished when we work together.

What keeps this cooperative fresh and exciting are its members; the families that bring as much of themselves as is necessary to create an ever-improving experience for each child and to insure the success of the school.

On a more practical level, Project Learn School values cultural and economic diversity. Co-oping allows us to keep tuition rates lower than most private, independent schools and therefore, makes our school available to more families. Your co-oping choices reduce tuition depending on the amount of participation that is comfortable for you and your family.

Here's how it works:
There are three areas of co-oping -

Town Meeting Attendance
(usually 8 meetings per year)
Cleaning (four hours, four times per year)
Co-op job (about 40 hours per year)

Each family may choose to take a co-op job, attend Town Meetings and clean the school four times per year, or they may choose to buy out of any or all of these co-ops. The co-ops or the buy outs are all per family, so that whether you have one child or three enrolled, your co-op commitment or your buy out price is the same. If you choose to buy out of co-oping entirely, you are still expected, as you would be in any school, to help out at school events and fundraisers.

Co-op Jobs
(Examples)

Tech Committee - Tech committee co-opers keep all of the computers at school running properly, install new software, and input data onto our website and database. If you are tech savvy, this could be the job for you. Tech co-opers can do their work on weekends, vacations, and evenings—whatever fits their schedule.

Classroom Assistant - If you are interested in playing, reading, writing, doing math, creating art, chatting, eating lunch, and helping keep the classroom environment clean along with the younger groups, this is the job for you. Some helpers may also work with individual children or small groups in reading, writing or math.

Trash And Recycling - We need someone to take trash and recycling out to the curb for collection every Wednesday morning. This cooper also keeps the garbage cans and the foyer area clean. This is a half coop and needs to be combined with another half coop.

Fundraising - Members of this committee provide a dedicated labor pool to plan, organize, and staff events. Past Annual Fundraising Events have included a silent auction, dance parties, bulb sales etc. Your energy and suggestions for new events are welcome!

Office Work - From answering phones to bookkeeping, office work co-opers support a variety of administrative duties required to keep things running smoothly.

Co-oping at Project Learn

Cooping at PLS