Getting Involved

Host & Welcome Committee Programs

Each year at Post Oak brings change. New and transitioning students alike prepare themselves for a classroom of new faces, yet-to-be discovered materials, and opportunities for continued growth and development. This is a time mixed with excitement and anticipation, too, as both students and parents step into an unfamiliar next cycle.

Post Oak’s Host & Welcome Committee Program is one way that we connect new and transitioning families with families who are already well acquainted with the school. The role of our current families is to provide a warm welcome, to share their experiences and knowledge, and to show kindness and compassion to fellow Bearkats. 

There are two ways to get involved:

Host Families

Host families sign up to be matched with an incoming family that is new to Post Oak. The match is typically made in May of each year. Hosts reach out to this family, make themselves available at least twice over the summer months as students prepare for the first day of school, and offer to answer questions throughout the school year. Hosts are encouraged, but not required, to further engage with their matched family. See our suggestions and ideas below.

• Two summer check-ins: Connect two times over the summer months—in June and August—for a video or phone call. The topic of conversation can be driven by the families, and could include questions and follow up from the most recent issue(s) of Post Oak’s summer newsletter.
• Year-long communication: Availability to remain in touch should the new family have questions throughout the school year.

Here are a few additional ideas:

• Student pen pals: Consider having the students exchange letters over the summer break.
• Care package: Consider sending the adopted family a care package over the summer. This could include homemade treats and a note, for example.
• Parent volunteering together: Host and adopted family parents might participate in a POPA work day or other volunteer opportunity together.
• Community service project: Both families might consider a community service project where each party collects canned food and makes a joint donation to Houston Food Bank, or they clean up trash at the local park on a nice day.

Welcome Committee

Welcome Committee members are always ready to greet and welcome families whose student begins or transitions after the fall school year starts in August. As families relocate to Houston and enter our community, or as students transition between levels, they, too, benefit from connection with current classroom families. The welcome committee works together to provide a personalized greeting for the incoming family, offers time to connect via a phone or video call, meets in-person (when safe to do so), and invites the incoming family to join or participate in school-related activities that match their interests (Dads Club, POPA, etc.). The welcome committee will also confirm that each incoming family gets matched with a host family.

Both roles are a one-year commitment to help incoming families feel at home. Use the form on this page to sign up as a host family or join the welcome committee.

Staff Liaison

The staff liaison for all POPA activities is the development director, Christina Kopanidis-Cantu. She maintains close contact with the POPA chairs. If you have a question about POPA or related activities, speak with either a POPA chair or the development director. More complex issues can be resolved through consultation with the head of school and/or CFO, if necessary.

For questions regarding the admissions host family and welcome committees, please contact our Admissions team.

The directors of the Early Childhood, Elementary, Middle School, and High School divisions offer guidance as needed to the organizing committee of each event or activity in order to ensure that all school events reflect the mission of and principles practiced at The Post Oak School.

Guidelines

Please adhere to the following important guidelines as we work to maximize the effectiveness of communication within our community and to track expenses and income associated with a particular event or activity.

The head of school has charged the development director with reviewing all POPA- or parent-generated text (letters, invitations, event notices, order forms, circulars, etc.) associated with school-wide events before circulation or publication.

If you are creating a school-related document for circulation, please submit the text to the development director, Christina Kopanidis-Cantu, at least two days before you plan to go into production. She will review your drafts promptly and let you know if any changes are recommended.

In the ongoing effort to ensure the school’s fiscal strength, we ask POPA volunteers whose event responsibilities involve purchasing or the collection of money to follow the guidelines outlined below.

Budgets: Event budgets for the current school year are set in the prior year and are based primarily on the actual results of the last occurrence of the particular event. Advice to volunteers on reimbursable expenses will come from the development director. 

Gifts in Kind: Records of all gifts in kind (e.g. non-cash items or services gifted to the school) should be recorded using the school’s Gift-in-Kind Donation Form. All completed forms should be directed to the Development Office.

Photocopying: Whenever volunteers for a school event require standard photocopying, they should use the school’s facilities. Simply enter the parent user code to activate the photocopier; the code is available from the POPA chairs or the Development Office. Commercial copying charges for services available at school will not be reimbursed.

Room Parents and Gifts

We have heard repeated appreciation from you for the work the teachers do with your children and your desire to honor and thank them for that work.

In the past, the head of school held a meeting with parents to discuss the topic of gift-giving, including the option of giving a combined financial gift versus individual ones. According to a New York Times article, parents may feel they are in competition with each other when it comes to giving teachers holiday or end-of-year gifts. A collective gift answers this concern since the amount given by each parent is not identified. Additionally, the values, customs, and feelings of the individual teacher might affect the issue of gift-giving. Some teachers’ religious beliefs exclude giving and receiving holiday gifts. Other teachers might prefer a gift to a favorite cause or charity. In thinking about these factors, they identified the importance of respecting the wishes and beliefs of the teacher and assistant; they emphasized the need to learn what the teacher values.

We admire the gratitude and generosity of Post Oak parents. And while we welcome the practice of giving collective gifts, we would like to make it clear this is not a room-parent responsibility; the school does not expect room parents to organize such an effort. Some room parents may choose to do so; others may decline. In those cases, if parents in the class wish to arrange a collective gift, someone else will need to step forward to make it happen. Additionally, due to past confusion, please avoid routing donations through the front offices at the school; please handle those donations privately instead.

Post Oak Parent Ambassador Network (POPAN)

The objectives of the Post Oak Parent Ambassador Network are to work alongside the Admissions Department to establish personal and accurate communication links to the community and help identify potential new students who are aligned with The Post Oak School’s mission and values.

A Parent Ambassador selects the area or areas that they would like to contribute toward. The areas include:

• Host admissions events in your home/neighborhood—Explore locations and/or host in-home and/or neighborhood coffees for prospective families.
• Event recruitment/assistance—Help build attendance for The Post Oak School admissions events and/or attend and assist with admissions events and activities.
• Phone calls—Call prospective families and offer to answer questions about the school and share your own positive experience.
• Social Media/Digital Recommendations—Share positive experiences about The Post Oak School on school review sites, social media, and various publications.
• Contribute ideas and feedback—The Post Oak Admissions & Marketing team is always looking for a parent perspective and new ideas. Please share with us!

This program requires a strong commitment to The Post Oak School. However, it does not require a lot of your time. We will meet as a Parent Ambassador group just once—at the beginning of the school year. After that, communication and updates from the admissions/marketing team will be handled via phone and email. Of course, if time allows, we encourage our ambassadors to attend our admission events like neighborhood coffees and open houses.