Enrollment at St. John’s carries with it a responsibility to volunteer. There are many opportunities for parents and family members to share their time, skills, and resources to support the St. John’s School community. If you have questions, the school office has volunteer forms and can provide further information.

Volunteers are required to respect the rights of students and their families to privacy. A professional and caring manner in dealing with students, along with a commitment to maintaining confidentiality, is required of anyone who volunteers to work with children.

General Volunteer Information

Why does St. John's have a Volunteer Program?
Studies have shown time and again that students are more successful when parents are actively involved in the school. When parents are involved, students receive a clear message that education is valued. Volunteers also help by keeping costs from spiraling out of control. Whether it's helping a child read or painting a door, a volunteer is doing important work that would otherwise cost the school money.

Who can volunteer?
A St. John’s School volunteer is any person who gives freely of his or her time, skills, talents, and resources to contribute to the lives and education of St. John’s School students. Volunteers include parents, retirees, grandparents, or parishioners, as well as those who have a special talent or who can be a resource in a given area.

For more information, please see the school and HSA volunteer forms contained in your back-to-school packet.

Fundraising comes from a variety of sources. The Home and School Association sponsors several activities that may change from year to year. The majority are listed in the Back-to-School packet. All families are expected to contribute to the success of a minimum of one fund raising drive and volunteer to work bingo.

Volunteer Requirement:
Minimum of 15 hours per family plus 4 mandatory Sunday Bingos per year.

There is a financial penalty of $750.00 for failing to fulfill volunteer obligations.

Volunteer Guidelines & Requirements:
Sign in at the front office when you come to the school to volunteer. Volunteers are responsible for logging in their hours. You have two options for reporting your volunteer hours. There is a Volunteer Log book maintained in the school office. Enter your volunteer service hours in the log book on your designated family page OR send in your hours via e-mail at the following address: volunteer@sjshollywood.org . Please ensure you indicate "SJS Volunteer Info." in the subject line of the e-mail.

NOTE! Please ensure you record your COMPLETED bingo volunteer hours in the Volunteer Log book or by e-mail.

Check in/sign in with your Activity Coordinator when volunteering for a special event activity. If there is a concern regarding volunteer efforts, the Activity Coordinator will be contacted for verification of hours. Coordinators are not responsible for logging in parent volunteer hours.

Working With Children
 For our children’s protection, the Archdiocese of Washington requires that all volunteers (as well as school employees) be fingerprinted and pass a criminal background investigation before having any contact with children in the school. This includes parents who wish to accompany children on field trips as well as those who serve as volunteer teachers, coaches or club leaders. Volunteers must also attend a “Protecting God’s Children for Adults” educational workshop. To attend the educational workshop, you must first register through the Archdiocese of Washington website at www.virtusonline.org.

Fingerprinting appointments must be made through the Archdiocese of Washington. Fingerprinting forms can be picked up at the school office. (You will need this form to take to your appt.) The cost of the fingerprinting is $36 (non-profit processing fee). NOTE: Cash is not accepted. Please bring a check. Call 301-853-4513, 301-853-5363, 301-853-5381, or 301-853-5382 to make an appointment. The last appointment is scheduled 30 minutes prior to closing.

The Archdiocese of Washington provides FBI/state criminal background investigation and live scan fingerprinting services for employees and volunteers of Archdiocesan locations. Fingerprinting is by appointment only.

Fingerprinting locations are:

St. Mary's Bryantown
13735 Notre Dame Pl.
Bryantown, MD 20617
Fourth week of each month only:
Tuesday - Friday: 10:30 AM - 7:30 PM
Saturday: 9:00 AM - 4:30 PM

Archdiocese of Washington Pastoral Center
5001 Eastern Avenue
Hyattsville, MD 20782
Tuesday - Friday: 9:00 AM - 9:00 PM
Saturday: 8:00 AM - 6:00 PM

Once a volunteer has been fingerprinted, the following must be submitted to the school office:
* Fingerprinting receipt (provided at time of fingerprinting)
* Criminal background investigation results (these will be mailed to you)
* Signed acknowledgement form (provided when you attend the Child Protection Workshop).

All of these requirements must be met in order for active involvement in your child’s school. NO EXCEPTIONS. For more information on currently scheduled workshop sessions, click here: http://www.adw.org/news/default.asp?eventtype=14 .

Bingo
Bingo generates a significant source of revenue to fund the school’s operating costs. Pat Hayden is the Bingo Coordinator and is responsible for managing the bingo volunteer schedule. For information about scheduling or working a bingo, contact Pat Hayden by email sjcsec@verizon.net or at 301-373-2281. Bingo is a mandatory service requiement for parents. You will be assigned dates to work Bingo. The weekly list of bingo workers in published in the weekly school bulletin. You will also recieve a copy of the bingo schedule. All parents are expected to honor their commitments to work a bingo. If you cannot attend on your assigned date, you are responsible for finding a substitute. Any family member 18 years of age or older can work bingo. Any family that fails to honor their commitment to work bingo will be fined $150 per bingo missed. Though this may seem like a severe penalty, this is consistent with other Catholic schools that work bingo and will help guarantee that we will have the necessary volunteers.

Parents - please click here for information regarding working Bingo.

The "Fix-It" Corner
In partnership with the Home School Association, St. John's faculty is graciously asking for help in assisting or completing various tasks in and around the school and classroom. Many parents look for additional ways to help out around the school but are unaware of any task that each teacher may have.

Many of these tasks are too small to assign as a major job; therefore, many go incomplete for many months and even years. Therefore, if you are self motivated and would like to see happy teachers working with happy kids, this is the “Fix-It” corner. This is an avenue to accumulate volunteer hours for any one choosing to do so.

The list will be continually updated as new requests are added and some tasks are completed. This list is primarily for tasks requiring time, talent, and maybe a little bit of money. All of the big jobs (most are already documented) will remain on the organized forums already in place and will not be included in this list In an effort to keep list current, please email Craig Oliver at deerecraig@gmail.com for an update on any completed task.

Staff or parents wishing to add to the list can email requests as well.