Volunteers

Thank you for being interested in volunteering with West Branch-Rose City Area Schools. Whether in your child's classroom, on a field trip, or with a parent organization...your help means so much!
 

Important Notes:
 

• Volunteer applications received immediately prior to an event may not be processed in time for a volunteer to be cleared for that particular event. It may take up to two weeks to process an IChat.
• By submission of the Volunteer Application, you expressly give West Branch-Rose City Area Schools permission to run a criminal background check using the Michigan State Police IChat system.
   

To become a volunteer with West Branch-Rose City Area Schools:

Use only one (1) volunteer name per application; each person needs their own form.
Volunteer applications must be resubmitted every school year, normally at the beginning of the year.

Application can be completed, digitally signed and emailed to volunteer@wbrc.k12.mi.us or you may print and submit once the buildings reopen in August.  Take completed applications to the building secretary in your student's school for processing, or mail to:

Data Processing Specialist, Central Office
West Branch-Rose City Area Schools
PO Box 308
West Branch, MI  48661-0308

To digitally sign application download and save document BEFORE you fill in fields. Then open with Adobe, fill in fields and create and sign with your digital signature.

Volunteer Application - revised 4-3-23
 

Clarification of Volunteer vs. Visitor

The new NEOLA Board of Education policy #3120.09 reads:

VOLUNTEERS

The Board of Education recognizes that certain programs and activities can be enhanced through the use of volunteers who have particular knowledge or skills that will be helpful to members of the professional staff responsible for the conduct of those programs and activities.

The Superintendent shall be responsible for recruiting community volunteers, reviewing their capabilities and making appropriate placements. S/He shall not be obligated to make use of volunteers whose abilities are not in accord with District needs.

Any individual who volunteers to work in the schools or on any school sponsored activity shall submit to a criminal history records check, prior to being allowed to participate in any activity or program.

The intent of the board policy is that a distinction be made between a volunteer and a visitor.

A visitor can come to the school and obtain a ‘visitor pass’ to do any number of things with their child and under the supervision of current staff, for example:

1.  Attend a family event sponsored by the school for their child, such as:
   Carnivals, festivals, field days, Terrific Kid presentations,
   Sporting events,
   Theater presentations, choir or band presentations
2.  Attend a party in their child’s classroom (birthday, holiday or other)
3. Join their child for lunch
4. Attend a parent-invited dance like square dancing or the rain dance (but not be a dance chaperone)

A volunteer must have an approved IChat and, if they have unsupervised time with students or volunteer for overnight trips, potentially agree to an FBI fingerprinting. School principals and event sponsors are in the best position to determine if a volunteer is ‘unsupervised’ and if they wish to request fingerprinting, with the cost assumed by the volunteer and not by the school district.

An approved volunteer is cleared to come into the school and work in the classroom under the supervision of teaching or paraprofessional staff, to work in stations at an on-campus field day or to accompany students on field trips that happen off campus, and sometimes to actually drive students to events in private vehicles, if permitted. A volunteer may work with a student one-on-one with reading, playing or mentoring and under the supervision of current staff. A volunteer may chaperone at a dance.

The examples of volunteer vs. visitor are not all inclusive. The final decision rests with the building principal.