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HERRIMAN — The Jordan School District has developed a fun way to increase parent involvement in the classroom. The volunteers are being rewarded a pizza party with the students.
The Jordan District held a contest with all 26 of its elementary schools to motivate parents during the month of December to give their children the gift of time. Parents gave a total of 10,000 volunteer hours. And 1,000 of thsoe volunteers came from Herriman.
A giant pizza party and the Herriman High School marching band helped the volunteers and students to celebrate.
"The volunteers make all the difference in the world for our kids," said Herriman Elementary School principal, Becky Gerber.
The students agreed and said that they love having their parents in class.
"Cuase she's the best Mom I've ever had," said fifth-grade student, Broc Blackburn.
Other students agreed how much their parents help them with their school work.
"Without them you would be missing a lot of homework and missing a lot of class work," said third-grader, Logan Richards.
Parent Teacher Association (PTA) organizers rallied behind the contest because they want to see more parents working as teams with teachers.
"When I started as PTA President this year, we had minimal help and we had low morale with teachers and we have just been trying to increase it the entire year," said PTA president, Katie McEwen.
They and educators believe that parents can develop a relationship with the school that lasts even beyond the donated Papa Murphy's pizza.
That message is so important that the school district and Herriman city leaders attended the party, along with many of the parent volunteers.
If your school is working to get parents involved go to our Read Today program.
