Volunteer

Volunteer with the PTA!

Do you want to help make Barnard the best school it can be? Do you want to get involved with the PTA, but don’t know how? Do you want to contribute to a school-wide project that will impact hundreds of students at Barnard?

Here’s your chance! Volunteer to join or chair a PTA Committee! Each of the below committees needs enthusiastic volunteers to help with its implementation in the coming school year. However, these are not the only areas you can get involved in! There are many single day or short term volunteer opportunities too. Don’t know what to do or how to get started? Contact us! The Barnard PTA Board will help you identify a suitable opportunity and support you.

Contact us for more info.

Fundraisers

The Barnard PTA is the fundraising partner for our school. We have three major fundraisers every year from which we aim to raise the necessary funds to pay for our many supplemental educational programs and field trips.

  • Auction / Gala: The auction chairperson is responsible for planning our school’s annual Spring auction — one of our three main fundraisers of the year. Responsibilities include marketing and promotion, soliciting and organizing donations, coordinating online bidding, planning and managing the live auction and gala event, collecting payment, and distributing auction winnings.
  • Barnard Annual Giving (BAG): The BAG chairperson is responsible for the school’s annual giving program, which typically takes place at the start of every school year.  Activities include soliciting and recording donations, motivating Barnard parents to contribute, choosing and distributing donation incentives, and the creating and distributing related correspondence.
  • Jog-a-thon: The jog-a-thon chairperson manages all aspects of our school’s primary student-led fundraiser, including planning the jog-a-thon event with Coach MJ and the school administration, motivating students to fundraise among their own networks, obtaining and distributing fundraising and running incentives, and coordinating parent volunteers for the in-person event.

Committees and Events

  • After-school Programs: Recruits and manages program providers; coordinates scheduling with school administration; disseminates program information to Barnard community.
  • Book Fair: Manage the Scholastic book fair — a week-long event that requires publicity, set up, clean up, and volunteer coordination.
  • Booth Coordinator for Lunar New Year events :The House of China and other community organizers present multi-day community events in Downtown San Diego and in Balboa Park in recognition of various holidays. The chairpersons for these events are responsible for booking, planning, setting up, cleaning up, and soliciting student and parent volunteers to represent our school at the Barnard PTA booths.
  • Lunar New Year Festival (at Barnard): Responsible for the school’s signature event, including scheduling performers and vendors, managing activity booths, obtaining prizes, coordinating volunteers, decorating, marketing and advertising, and soliciting sponsors.
  • eBlast Newsletter: Writes, edits, and sends the PTA’s weekly eBlast newsletter, which is sent to 1500+ parents and community members throughout the school year.
  • Kindergarten/Vegetable Garden: Manages all aspects of the school’s vegetable garden, including planting, maintenance, harvest, classroom involvement, and delivery to school cafeteria (if allowed).
  • Marquee: Updates the outdoor marquee on Fogg Street with current school and PTA information, often on a daily basis.
  • Missoula Children’s Theater (MCT): Manages all aspects of the week-long activity in the spring for students in grades 1-5, including coordinating the show with our administration and MCT staff, arranging housing for MCT directors, publicizing try-outs, rehearsals, and performances, soliciting parent volunteers, managing after school rehearsals, and overseeing show setup and cleanup.
  • Peace Garden: Manages all aspects of maintaining the school’s peace garden.
  • Publicity: Responsible for writing articles about Barnard events and programs and submitting to local press.
  • Reflections Art Competition: Reflections is the largest and oldest arts education program of its kind. This program is run annually by the National PTA, always with a new, socially-conscious, student-selected theme each year. The competition begins at the school level with winners moving upward to the San Diego Unified Council of PTAs, Ninth District PTA, California PTA, and eventually the National PTA. Barnard’s Reflections coordinator will need to arrange the competition and judging at Barnard in the fall in accordance with the national guidelines.
  • School of Excellence: Responsible for preparing School of Excellence survey, collection of data, and submitting application for Barnard PTA.
  • Sponsorships: Responsible for soliciting various levels of PTA sponsorships within our parent community and throughout San Diego.
  • Student Ambassador: Responsible for managing Student Ambassador application and selection process, training and coordination of Student Ambassadors’ participation at on- and off-campus events.
  • Teacher Appreciation: Coordinates the activities for Teacher Appreciation week in the spring, including planning the teacher luncheon, daily student sentiments, and publicity among our community.
  • Teacher Conference Week Snacks: Coordinates donations among our parent community to contribute snacks for our staff and teachers during the fall and spring teacher conference weeks.
  • Website Maintenance: Continually updates the PTA website throughout the year.
  • Welcome Committee: Planning begins in the spring and summer prior to the new school year. This chairperson is responsible for creating, distributing, and collecting a welcome packet for new parents, assigning parent mentors, and assisting with new parent integration.
  • Yearbook: Responsible for the creation of the yearbook, including taking pictures at Barnard events, incorporating professional event and headshot photographs, creating pages, managing sales and distribution.

To submit an expense claim to the PTA, complete this expense form and send it to the PTA treasurer. All expenses must be pre-approved by the treasurer and/or the current PTA board.