Parent Council
The Parent Council (PC) serves as the leadership core for the parent body, primarily focused on school community and culture as well as fundraising efforts to help support the financial needs of the school.
Parent Council meetings are a forum for discussion, concerning matters of interest & concern for the overall health of the school community. Meetings are held on the first Tuesday of each month at 6:00PM but are subject to change.
The PC supports/sponsors any activities that contribute to a healthy community at Blue Oak School (i.e. teams, clubs, festivals, volunteer workdays, improvement projects, parent education events, committees, etc).
Parent Council Code of Conduct: We, the members of Blue Oak Parent Council, agree to treat each other with kindness and respect in order to create a community of collaboration and trust.
Functions
- Serves as the leadership core for the parent body, primarily focused on the health of the school community and fundraising efforts to help support the financial needs of the school.
- Manages the PC Fund by the PC voting members. The PC voting members actively participate in fundraising activities to raise monies for the PC Fund and oversee all BOPC mini-grants issued to the Blue Oak Community.
- Supports/sponsors any activities that contribute to Blue Oak School as a whole (i.e. teams, clubs, festivals, volunteer workdays, improvement projects, parent education events, Charter Council committees, etc.).
- Supports/sponsors these all-school activities by providing leadership and/or funding, to help ensure all such activities are consistent with established processes and principles of Blue Oak.
- Oversees the election of members to the Blue Oak Charter Council (BOCC) Parameters for BOCC election are outlined in the Charter Council by-laws.
Attend a Meeting
All PC meetings are open to the public. If you are interested in attending, please click on the button below to visit the School Community Calendar where you will find the dates, times, and Zoom links for all upcoming PC meetings:
If you would like to add an item to the agenda, submit a fundraising request, or simply have a question, please use the form below.
Contact the Parent Council
Members
Parent Representatives
Teacher Cheryl = Lauren Cesca
Teacher Sheila = Michelle Greene
Brittany Jones = Alicia Davis
Nick Meier = Ashley Anaya
Jennifer Bryan = Julie Phillips
Kate McDonald = Ryan Sharp
Katie Machek = Paige O’Connel
Sarah Lee = Brandy Jellison
Kari Madera = Michelle Greene
Kendra Cooley – Angie Ernest
Parent Concerns
The PC does not handle parent concerns. If you have a question, concern or complaint that you would like to be addressed, please see the Parent Resources page.
Events & Fundraising
The Blue Oak Parent Council has the pleasure of putting on the May Faire and Harvest Festival every year. We fund, plan, run (along with volunteers) and enjoy these time honored traditions. There are other community events we have put on such as Art From the Heart, Friendsgiving, and A Walk Into Winter. These events are community building events where we raise funds, with the exception of the Harvest Festival that focuses on strengthening our Blue Oak Community. Click on each event below to learn more:
The Harvest Festival is generally a time for the Blue Oak community to come together and celebrate the bounty of Summer’s end, and to build and strengthen as a community. It is also an opportunity to mark the times of longer nights and shorter days, a time when we begin to go inward and strengthen our inner life. This contemplative time allows us to recognize the internal and societal struggles between opposing forces. It is a time for us to find our ‘golden light’ of courage and truth within. The image of George taming the dragon (as traditionally has been performed by the Second and Third graders each year) is symbolic of us overcoming our lower selves.
Ways we can bring forth our and our children’s wisdom, strength and courage at home may include: bringing rhythm and repetition, providing opportunities for developing imagination, being worthy of imitation and allowing children to model our ‘good work’, providing love and warmth.
The May Faire is an annual outdoor festival that ritually welcomes the Spring, which is traditionally celebrated by Waldorf schools throughout the world. This event engages the students with the larger community and celebrates the spirit in which Waldorf schools nourish and support the child’s connection to nature and the seasonal cycles. May Faire activities range from face-painting to child-made crafts, music & singing performances, storytelling and more. The most iconic element of May Faire is the children’s maypole dance that evokes community pride and joy and continues a tradition that was started by celebrants performing in May festivals centuries ago.
Thank you for your interest in raising funds to support Blue Oak! Fundraising activities are defined as any activity which involves collecting funds to benefit Blue Oak School. The PC does not fund raise for individual classrooms. However, the PC will pursue all-school fundraising events, single or recurring, in-person or online.
Some examples of PC fundraisers:
– Inviting vendors to the May Faire event
– Hosting a bake sale during the May Faire event
– Holiday or special event box dinners (e.g. Valentine’s Day, etc.)
– Inviting vendors to the Walk Into Winter event
To submit your fundraising ideas to the PC, please complete the form above so your fundraiser idea may be added to a future PC agenda for discussion. Applicants will be contacted once their application has been processed. Finally, if you are interested in acquiring a donation from a local business, please check with the PC first to go over rules and procedures for this process.
Where will the money go? The PC will decide during planning which giving baskets they will donate the money: directly to their PC fund or directly to the school.
1. Whole School > Annual Giving > Materials
3. Parent Council Fund > Waldorf specialties & special projects
If you are interested in making a donation yourself or would like to inform others how and where to make a donation, please visit our Donations page by visiting: https://blueoakcharterschool.org/donate/.
Garden Club
We help create and maintain all the gardens on campus for children to learn from. We are a liaison between the gardens and teachers so they can bring their classes into the garden to teach. We hold meet-ups where we harvest, plant, and plan. Traditionally third graders at Blue Oak learn practical skills as part of their weekly rhythm. The children are becoming more independent and self aware at this age and thrive at these skills including cooking and gardening. This means they are the lucky ones that get their hands dirty, plant seeds, water, tend, harvest, and enjoy the fruits of their garden labor. Our hope for the future is to have every grade involved in the garden in a way that correlates to the subjects they are studying.
In addition we raise garden funds through grants, plant sales, collecting box tops and even sell garden grown goods. The funds we raise are used for irrigation supplies, tools, seeds, soil and other gardening supplies. We also organize and host all school clean-ups with volunteer help that beautify our school before events like the May Faire and first day of school.
We always love any help, input, resources, sponsorship, donations, and volunteers. Please contact The Garden Club at gardenclub@blueoakcharterschool.org.
Current Leaders: Buck Ernest (Facilities Manager and Safety Coordinator) and Leo Atehortua (Parent Volunteer)