Parents
Parents play a vital role in the MFS community: parents participate as classroom volunteers, translators, drivers on field trips, fundraisers, and maintenance and cleaning people on work days. When parents are integrally involved in the life of the school, everyone benefits. Regular conferences with teachers and reports help keep parents, students, and staff connected.
Parents and Teachers meet every six weeks to discuss concerns, keep each other updated, and to plan events. Meetings are on Thursdays, rotating between 3:30pm and 5:30pm. Childcare is provided.
Weekly Parent News
Each week we send out the Weekly News email for parents, in English, and in Spanish. The Weekly News contains reminders, updates, requests for volunteers, and information about upcoming events.
If you have an announcement or piece of news that you would like considered for our newsletter, please send it to mfsnoticias@gmail.com
Click here for weekly parent bulletins and minutes from Parents Association meetings.
Family Manual
When families sign their contracts for the school year, they are asked to read and review the Family Manual. Signing the contract shows that they have read and are in agreement with all the policies outlined in the Family Manual.
Parent Contributions
Tuition covers most of the school’s costs, but not all. This is why it is important to help in other ways. In addition to reducing costs, the volunteer assistance of families helps to promote – and model – the values of cooperation, service, and individual responsibility.
La matrícula cubre la mayoría de los costos de la escuela, pero no todos. Por eso es importante ayudar de otras maneras. Además de reducir los costos, la asistencia voluntaria de las familias ayuda a promover y modelar los valores de cooperación, servicio y responsabilidad individual.
Each family contributes to the school in the following ways:
- Participate in Cleaning Days in August and June
- Serve as a “Family of the Month” once during the school year (washing rags, doing maintenance, preparing snacks for Parent-Teacher Meetings, etc.)
- Attend parent-teacher conferences in October and March
- Participate in one organizing committee for one of the four parent fundraising activities
- Participate in each of the parent fundraising activities by preparing food and working on the day of the event
- Attend Parent-Teacher meetings, approximately six or seven each school year
We hope that you can also participate in some of the following ways:
- Serve on an administrative subcommittee, such as fundraising, finances, etc.
- Sponsor new teachers or new parents (inviting them to dinner, community events, etc.)
- Offer to serve as tutors, teaching assistants, or mini-course leaders
- Do maintenance and repair work (mechanical, carpentry, electrical or plumbing), office work, or translation
- Help on field trips, service days, and special days, such as Children’s Day, Independence Day, Culture Day, Abolition of the Army Day
For more ideas, please see our page for volunteers.
Parent Fundraisers
Each year the School Committee asks the Parent Association to raise funds to support school programs, which benefit all students. Currently, the majority of the money raised by the Parent Association is used for the arts, music, and physical education programs. A smaller amount of the funds raised grows the capital equipment replacement fund. If there are surplus funds, the Parent Association decides how to allocate them, based on suggestions presented by the School Committee.
All parents are asked to help organize and carry out fundraising activities, including:
Talent Night
“Coffee Houses” showcase music and acts of our students and the community. Last year, some acts included the 3rd and 4th graders playing their recorders, a group of colegio students playing violins with their science teacher, and older members of the community sharing songs and stories for young children. Parents from the school make pizzas to sell, which earns this event its other name: Pizza Night.
Christmas Fair
The Christmas Fair (December) is an opportunity to purchase holiday gifts from local artisans, listen to local music, eat delicious food, enjoy the school community, and support the school, all at the same time. Local artists donate a percentage of their sales to the school and in turn gain community-wide exposure and support through an opportunity to sell their goods.
Sports Day
Sports Day takes place in February. Activities for the community include soccer matches, zumba, yoga, water balloon games, horse rides, massage, tennis, volleyball, and Ultimate Frisbee. Parents are actively involved in preparing and selling food, helping with the activities, cleaning, grilling, washing dishes, and more.
Walkathon
The Caminata, or Walkathon, takes place in March or April and is the major parent fundraiser of the year. Together, up to two hundred students, parents and community members walk 13 very hilly kilometers (8 miles) from the school to either the world-famous Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve, or to the overlook at San Gerardo where, if the clouds cooperate, walkers are rewarded with a stunning view of the Arenal Volcano. Each walker is responsible for contacting sponsors locally and abroad to support him or her.
Important Dates for Parent Participation 2020-21
27 August • Parents Meeting & Open House with teachers • 5:30 pm
17 September • Parents Meeting • 3:30 pm
8-9 October • Parent Teacher Conferences
4 November • Grandparents day • 8:00-11:55 am
12 November • Parents Meeting • 5:30 pm
5 December • Christmas Fair • (Parent Fundraiser)
21 January • Parents Meeting • 3:30 pm
24 February • Parents day • 8:00-11:55 am
27 February • Sports Day • (Parent Fundraiser)
11-12 March • Parent Teacher Conferences
18 March • Parents Meeting • 5:30 pm
17 April • Walkathon • (Parent Fundraiser)
22 April • Parent Meeting • 5:30 pm
27 May • Cleaning Day • 8:00 am
