Volunteer Opportunities
Animal Care Takers
Contacts: Steve Neel or Maribeth Kobza Betton
The Animal Care Committee finds care for the various animals around the school. The students take care of many of the animals. For example, second graders feed and care for the turtles, kindergartners feed the ducks, turkeys and other birds in the aviary, and third graders feed the chinchillas and clean their cages.
Would you like to be a member of this team? We have people who feed the fish, feed the guinea pig, and take the cat home at night. We also seek volunteers for animal care over spring break, holiday break and summer break. This committee also buys the animal food and reports its budget to the PTA.
Apple Core
Contacts: Susannah Hentrich or Lara Farwell-Griffith
Apple Core is a group of parents (and even grandparents!) who volunteer on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, or Thursdays to do work for the teachers in the workroom. This can be copying, laminating, stapling, putting up bulletin boards, cutting out shapes, and much more. Most volunteers work between the hours of 7:45-11am; the amount of time spent is very flexible. This is a great committee to meet the teachers, see the work our kids are doing, and visit with other volunteers, and it is a TREMENDOUS help to the teachers!
Art Committee
Contact: Misty Adair, Phone: 419-0660
This committee will help Ms. Kris, our new art teacher.
Austin Area Council of PTAs (ACPTA) Representative
Contact: PTA President Andrea Griswold
ACPTA is the Austin Area Council of PTAs. This person goes to monthly or bi-monthly city meetings and the PTA meetings and keeps each group up-to-date with relevant issues.Campus Advisory Council (CAC) Representative
Contact: PTA President Andrea Griswold
The PTA CAC Representative attends the CAC meetings and the PTA meetings and keeps each group up-to-date with relevant issues.
Care Committee
Contact: Meredith Thomas, Phone: 465-9466
The Gullett Geckos Care Committee provides confidential assistance to Gullett families and staff in times of need, emergency and celebration. Committee members may provide meals, cards, phone calls and visits. This is the perfect committee for those members of the Gullett community who would like to be of help to our community but who don't have the time to participate in a committee that depends on a more sustained effort.
Cultural Arts Committee
Contacts: Julie Carolan or Chelsea Krepart
The Cultural Arts Committee brings cultural events to Gullett to help give our students a well-rounded education. A 2007-2008 highlight was a hot air balloon demonstration. The students learned all about how it worked and got to see one up close.
Directory Committee
Contact: Donna
The directory committee inputs the data to create a directory for the school. They also edit to make sure everything is correct and do a little layout. Some directory volunteers solicit ads for the directory. The ad revenue, along with a portion of PTA membership, goes to pay for the printing of the directory. This committee works from August to October.Email Master
Contact: Yvonne
One person is responsible for sending out our weekly emails to our yahoo group.
Family Fun
Contact: Laura DiCarlo, Phone: 323-6929
This group organizes fun activities for our families, such as, movie nights, skate nights, and swim parties.
Going Green
Contact: Laura DiCarlo
The Going Green Club is encouraging folks to turn off their car engines when picking up children. Idling for over 10 seconds uses more fuel than restarting your engine. Idling for just 5 minutes every day adds up to 300 pounds of carbon dioxide in one year, and vehicles get zero miles per gallon while idling. During our Going Green Club meeting this week we calculated that if 100 cars idle for 10 minutes a day every day of the school year we could drive over 14,000 miles with the amount of gas wasted! So turn the key - be idle free!
Grant Writing
Contact: Martha Stockton, Phone: 323-5562
The Grant Writing Committee's goal is to bring money into the school from foundation grants. If you have an idea for a project for the school and would like help searching for grants or writing grant applications, please contact us.
The Green Team
Contact: Tami Brandenberger, Phone: 282-5698
This committee will consolidate and expand upon Gullett's already successful recycling programs. They will educate families and involve the school in efforts to reduce, reuse, and recycle.
Grounds Committee
Contacts: Laura DiCarlo or Sophie Loessin
Our Grounds Committee (and all the green thumbs of the members) works hard each year to maintain the various gardens around Gullett. At least twice a year the committee schedules an "All Hands" day of weeding, mulching, raking... whatever needs to be done. This committee buys the supplies needed for these events and coordinates the effort.
Library Committee
Contacts: Kay Gooch, the librarian, Natalie Holmes or Meg Wilson
The Library Committee helps the librarian with various tasks throughout the year. This includes include shelving books, inventorying new books, helping during author visits, and decorating the library before the book fair.Music Committee
Contact: Lisa Alverson, Phone: 467-7009
This committee will help Ms. Jeffrey with her many events.
Newsletter Committee
Contact: Jeff Evelyn
This committee usually consists of one editor and one layout person who produces monthly PTA newsletters for the parents at Gullett. We could also use people to write articles about various events or happenings at the school.
Parent Education Committee
Contacts: Yvonne Steckel, Caren Benouis or Liz Darwin
The Parent Education Committee creates educational and community events to help create a strong parent community at Gullett. These events usually consist of a speaker, and pizza and babysitting are often offered during the event.
We need people to:
- Find speakers
- Coordinate events
- Find babysitters
- Order pizza
School Supply Sale Committee
Contact: Robin
School Supply packs are purchased in May for students to use the following year. This committee begins to work in February getting the lists from teachers of what supplies they need. They then get with a school supply committee to create fliers to send home to the parents in May.
This committee needs:
- Two organizers to create lists, orders supplies and receive supplies
- Person to collect money, send receipts and give orders to organizers
- People to receive delivery of supplies and organize for Meet-the-Teacher
- People to help handout supplies at Meet-the-Teacher in August
Spanish Committee
Contact: Sarah Eller, Phone: 453-4228
The Spanish Committee works with Spanish Inspiration to make sure the Spanish program at Gullett runs smoothly. The Spanish Committee decorated the school with Spanish words, answered questions about homework, copied and stapled, conducted surveys, signed contracts...and completed many other tasks to make the program successful.
Staff Appreciation
Contacts: Caren Benouis or Marjie Bennett
Staff Appreciation is the committee that puts on monthly events to thank the teachers for their hard work. It can be a luncheon, notes in their boxes, snacks in the break room. We need people the coordinate the events, set up, clean up, collect money, buy gifts.
Examples of what events we run each month:
- August - breakfast for the teachers on their first day back.
- September - snacks in the lounge and lunch for the custodians.
- October - luncheon provided by the Kinder and 5th grade failies.
- November- snacks in the lounge
- December- catered holiday luncheon
- January - snacks in the lounge
- February- a luncheon provided by the 1st and 4th grade families.
- March - snacks in the lounge
- April - luncheon provided by the 2nd and 3rd grade families.
- May - office staff appreciation and last catered luncheon
Volunteer Coordinator
Contacts: Debbie Fountain or Luanne Mitchell
The volunteer coordinator works with the PTA to gather volunteers for its various activities. At Meet-the-Teacher they put out sheets for people to sign up for Room Parent. At Back-to-School night they send out sheets for people to say what talents they have and what committees they want to work on. The committee then creates a list that all the various committees use to pool volunteers. For Teacher Appreciation Week, the volunteer coordinator coordinates a school-wide effort to celebrate our teachers.Website Committee
Contact: Stephanie Schultz
The Website committee keeps the website up to date, and, when need be, works to upgrade the site. We're always looking for people who want to help. You can help a teacher create a web page for class, keep the home page up to date, take pictures and post them, or general administration. No web design experience is necessary, just a willingness to help out.
Wellness Committee
Contacts: MJ Owen, or Emily Wethington
The Wellness Committee is a group of parents concerned about keeping good health on the forefront of the school day at Gullett. The committee has put on a successful "Walk to School Day" and a "Eat 1 fruit or vegetable/day Event" at the school for the past few years.
Yearbook Committee
Contacts: Gail Bayeta or Mary LaWare
Help us help students remember the year. The yearbook committee is always on the search for people to help with this massive project. We need writers, people who know layout, ad seller, or we need you to simply submit your favorite photos.
