what do you know about coop preschool? x-post

[boongirl]

I am cross posting this since no one in childhood is responding.


Does anyone have experience with coop preschool? My daughter has been in two now over her 3 years. The first one had a teacher who also had the title education director. The buck, so to speak, stopped with her. That was clear. But, in our new one, we don't have anyone in that role. There is the teacher, the parent educator, the board chair and the rest of us all have jobs. But who runs the preschool? I mean, who makes the ultimate decisions and who tells people when they are doing something wrong?

What do you think? Is the board chair of a coop preschool the boss? Or is the nature of cooperative preschool that everyone shares in the running of the school and therefore everyone is on equal footing, with no one in the role of boss or disciplinarian? If the board chair's job is partly defined as "Defining issues and problems and asking for assistance in resolving them" does this mean it is that person's responsibilty to discipline other parents?

[Lady Madonna]

My daughter attends a cooperative preschool/daycare.

We have a Steering Committee (on which I serve), made up of members of the coop. We have a Director, who fundamentally answers to the Steering Committee but handles the day-to-day management of the coop with the assistance of an office manager, bookkeeper (who is a parent doing the work for reduced tuition), and other full and part time employees. We also have a full teaching staff, with lead teachers and assistants. All families are required to complete a certain number of hours each week performing various tasks, including working in the classrooms. Our coop has been around for over 30 years, and provides full-day programming five days a week, so in many ways we're organizationally structured more like a for-profit program.

But ultimately, the Steering Committee is responsible for end-of-line decision making and enforcement. We write policy and procedure, manage the budget, work on personnel matters, advise the director as necessary, etc. As far as disciplining other parents, whatever you might mean by that, we have a written grievance procedure that applies to everyone involved in the organization. Does that help at all?

[annakiss]

Moved to Learning At School.

[happiestmomma]

I work at and have my child enrolled in a co-op. Our coop serves children 6 weeks through 12 years old, so it's a non-profit child care environment with several programs: Infant/Toddler, Preschool (which includes Full Day and Part Day), and School Age. Each program has a Program Director, and we have an Executive Director in charge of the rest of the daily operations. In addition, we have loads of support staff, like an accountsish person (I really forget her title), bus drivers, teachers, and administrative support. We have a parent board which maintains many different committees, including: personnel, fundraising, facilities, special events...etc From what I've experienced as a co-op member is that everyone is involved in the important decisions that go on, like payraises, tuition cost hikes, our recent construction project...etc, and our center is run with the cooperation of our board member parents and our executive director, who is an employee of the school. I think our executive director bears most of the brunt of "disciplining" parents when necessary.
Hope that helps!

[owensmom]

Hmmm, we have a teacher that has been with the school for 18 years. There is a board, with a prez, vp, secretary, treasurer, asst. treasurer, 2 classroom liasons, and the registrar. I think ultimately the prez is in charge, but works closely with the teacher. Things are brought up at the meetings and discussed and voted on - the teacher does not vote, and the president doesn't either unless it is a tie breaker. I believe that the teacher deals with parent or child issues. I kind of think of the teacher as the anchor to all of what is going on... I mean, we as parents are only involved for 2 years, so there is a constant turn over of people learning the tasks.