Palomares Parent Teacher Club

Campus Beautification Committee

Coordinator: Cynthia Pisani

This committee helps keep Palomares beautiful. They will recruit volunteers for major cleanup efforts (like preparing for the Watershed Festival) and tend the gardens and grounds on a more regular basis. They manage all the green waste and keep the compost pile alive.

The time commitment can vary from a Saturday a year, to a couple of hours a week. No green thumb needed as experienced gardeners are available to guide.

The Coordinator Guide can be downloaded in MS Word format or viewed online below. All of the guides share a common Forward.

Campus Beautification Committee Description

The Campus Beautification Committee is responsible for maintaining the gardens on the Palomares Elementary School campus. This can include weekly watering of established gardens; planning parent work days; soliciting donations of plants or purchasing, as needed; planning new gardens that support classroom curriculum; and helping our school be a beautiful environment. Purchases will be reimbursed from the committee's budget.

The Campus Beautification Committee works in cooperation with other PPTC committees and the Teaching Staff. For example, the fourth grade teacher will be growing California native plants. By working with the teacher, you can plan how the garden will be prepared, thereby saving time.

Structure

This committee is relatively new, so the work and structure is still evolving. It needs a coordinator who can inspire parents to find their "inner gardener." Two or three members are needed to water the gardens two to three times a week in hot weather, but maybe pick weeds in wet weather. Three to four parent work days really can get the gardens in good shape. Do not try to do all the work yourself, you will only burn out.

Depending on the interests of its various members, this committee could organize itself into subgroups focused on watering, weeding, and so on. Allowing members to contribute in a form that suits their skills and their schedules is the best strategy. If you invite them to contribute any way they can, they may surprise themselves and enjoy gardening and playing with plants.

Time Commitment

This committee is great for parents who cannot devote much time volunteering. Someone who can only help out 1-2 hours over the year can come to a parent work day and really feel that they contributed. Parents who are more generous with their time can dive into the watering or planning new gardens, at which point their time commitment is driven by their enjoyment and their desire to contribute. When you do something you enjoy, time is not so much an issue.

Duties

The duties of the Campus Beautification Committe encompass everything related to the gardens on our campus:

Weekly watering of existing gardens.
Planning parent work days.
Inventory and store gardening supplies in the shed.
Solicit donations of plants and equipment or purchase (as a last resort).
Support Teaching Staff to develop gardens.
Monitor weeds and invasive plants; communicate problems to Principal so that CVSD maintenance crews can be called.
Participate in the budget process.

Operation

It is up to the discretion of the Coordinator as to how to run this committee, based on the number of members, their interests and skills, and their time commitment levels. Some suggestions to think about:

Set up a list of members and rotate the duties.
Organize members according to skills or interests and divide up the duties accordingly.
Some combination of the above.

Schedule

The specific schedule will vary slightly from year to year. It is up to the Coordinator to contact the other committees to learn when their events and activities will be held.

Resources

Landscape supplies ?
CVUSD contacts ?