On behalf of FB Meekins Cooperative Preschool, I am requesting changes to the Proposed Standards for Licensed Child Day Centers, specifically in regard to the requirements for staff orientation and ongoing training. 

Since 1964, Meekins has been a place for parents to actively participate in their children’s education by working directly in our classrooms as teachers’ aides.  The new requirements for staff orientation (22VAC40-185-240) and ongoing training (22VAC40-185-245) would impose an undue burden on our parents by expecting them to complete 16 hours of orientation and 20 hours per year of ongoing training. 

As a parent who works and has three children, the additional hours of training required would be a challenge, making me rethink my decision to send my children to a co-op school.  I love being involved in my children’s preschool experience and enjoy watching them learn and interact in their classrooms with their teachers and friends.  I enjoy the continuing education classes I have participated in to meet the current requirements of four hours but am overwhelmed by the thought of more than quadrupling the training I would need to obtain in order to keep my children at Meekins.  This would be quite a challenge for me to juggle, along with working and having a baby at home.

Meekins is a part time preschool program which operates 3 hours a day for 9 months a year.  Holding parent volunteers in cooperative preschools to the same training standards as full-time day care providers is unrealistic and would drastically change the nature of our school. 

I request that the total number of training hours (both orientation and ongoing, collectively) for cooperative preschool parents remain 4 hours per the current standard. Please remove the language "who are not considered staff" from section 22VAC40-185-245C describing the required annual training for cooperative preschool parents. Please include an exception for cooperative preschool parents in the new orientation training section 22VAC40-185-240. 

Parents working in classrooms at Meekins Cooperative Preschool complete all of the background checks required by the Commonwealth.  They work under the direct supervision of well qualified classroom teachers.  Please help my family continue to enjoy the benefits of all that our coop preschool has to offer.

About Meekins: Meekins is a non-profit corporation started in 1964 and is run by the parent membership as a cooperative preschool. The school belongs to its members, and parents assume an active part in the management of the school’s affairs. The Board of Directors is made up of the Director (who also is a teacher) and parents elected annually by the membership. The Board hires the Director, formulates the budget, and generally supervises the business of the school. The Director hires the teaching staff and establishes the educational policy.  Every family is assigned a job to help run the school, making us a tight community that works together to ensure the success of the school.  As part of a cooperative school, parents have a unique opportunity to work closely with the teachers in the classroom, to help create the kind of learning environment they would like for their children, and to participate in an active parent-education program.