5. How much are parents involved? How frequent is communication with teachers?

We encourage as much parent participation as possible. A small number mandatory participation hours are asked of each family during the academic year to ensure that parents are actively involved with the schools. These hours may be devoted to whatever activity in which the parents feel they can most effectively contribute -- for example, classroom presentations, cooking activities, field trips, preparation of classroom materials, gardening, special skills, etc. Many parents take a very active role in assisting in the enrichment of their child's classroom and spend many hours doing so. There are opportunities to communicate briefly with teachers on a daily basis before 9 a.m. and after 3:30 p.m. and requests for longer discussions may be made at any time during the academic year. Formal parent/teacher conferences are held in the Spring and Fall.