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Volunteer

Who We Are

Volunteers are one key to our success. They give time – they teach, they clean the school weekly, they staff events, they raise funds, they help plan the school operations, they deliver the students’ pizzas on Fridays, they help teachers in classrooms, they drive students on field trips… They are a numerous and much-appreciated group of people from inside and outside the LCA. Without them, we’d be a very different place.

A History of Help

Even before we opened for classes in the Blanchard Engineering building on the Downtown Mall, volunteers were with us, painting, building furniture, setting up classrooms. The first people who needed to volunteer, and still do, are the Board of Trustees. They all serve gratis. School founders Lou Ellen Kay and Vince Gutschick work full-time, teaching, keeping the books, doing publicity, making the business plan, creating the newsletters and the report cards, and more. Board member David Gutschick does a lot of business planning and a great deal of website work and publicity. Three of our LCA parents also teach classes as volunteers. The Parent Committee, formed by the parents of LCA students, meet monthly – and, at times, weekly or even at homes – to plan events, generate fundraising ideas, host home visits to recruit students, work on the publicity and recruiting, and many other tasks. Outside of these meetings you’ll often find them around the community, staffing events, soliciting donations, talking up the school to recruit students, even building huge bookcases for some of our 7,000 books.

Our full group of LCA parents volunteer to clean the school, sell tickets to our big events, watch students during faculty meetings and after school, and more. Friends of the LCA, both longstanding and new, come to the school to make presentations on a wide range of topics; when we moved from the Downtown Mall to the Preston building, they were there in force to pack up our holdings, move them to the new building, and set up classrooms and computers.

Our list of people to thank is extensive. With our website revision ongoing, we’re working on reformatting and updating it – please watch this space!

We can certainly use your help, and we’ll appreciate each minute you can work with us. You’ll want to know:

  • What do we need?
  • How do you find us?

Parent Committee

  • Promoting the parents’ participation in activities to support the school. This includes fundraisers, day-to-day volunteer tasks, and more.
  • Giving advice, for example, on marketing and advertising campaigns to increase enrollment.
  • Informing the school administration of the needs of the parents.
  • Promoting effective communication between the parents and faculty/administrator.
  • Acting as a resource to parents within the community when there is information to be disseminated or when there is a issue that needs resolution.
  • Offering advice, provide information and develop strategies and initiatives that help raise money to benefit the school.
  • Be informed on matters relating to the Parent Committee
  • Prepare for meetings.
  • Attend meetings regularly.
  • Inform the President or other member of their absence from a regular meeting.
  • Recruit other parents as full members or part-time members.
  • Represent the school community and present any recommendations or adopted resolutions.
  • Be open and candid in discussion, but be respectful.
Volunteering for the Parent Committee full time can be challenging for some parents. We understand that not all parents are able to commit on a continuous basis. Participation in the meetings helps establish continuity between the various events initiatives. However, there will be times the Parent Committee will call parents for assistance or expertise with these initiatives. Parents have many skills that can assist the committee. Some of these skills may include, but are not limited to:

  • Marketing and Advertising
  • Volunteering Fundraising ideas
  • Graphic Design
  • Your Skill

If you feel you have a skill that can benefit the Parent Committee and ultimately the school, please contact any member of the committee. We want to hear from you.

What We Need

You may have some very good ideas yourself to add to this list:

  • Serving on the Parent Committee
  • Cleaning the school on Saturdays.
  • Something everyone can do: Coming into the classroom and tell the students what you do
  • Helping with publicity – creating posters, brochures, Facebook posts
  • Checking into field trips – Biosphere II, museums in El Paso, Apache Point, the Very Large Array, the National Solar Observatory
  • Helping the Fifth Annual Fund to succeed – identifying potential donors, contacting them
  • Helping with after-school clubs – theatre, engineering, student newspaper…and perhaps a club you suggest
  • Working on grant proposals to foundations and businesses
  • Recruiting board members and advisors from the community.

How You Can Find Us, to Spend Valuable Time with Us

Lou Ellen Kay, Head of School, is our core contact. She’ll know the times that work, the places, the things you’ll need.

Vince Gutschick, Board Chair, is her husband. He works on the more financial and technical sides, but you can ask him about any volunteering ideas.

If you have to need to contact a different person for volunteering, you can find them on our contact page.

You may also know one or more of our LCA parents. They can pass along the ideas.

Thanks for considering working with us!