The West Sedona School is looking for dedicated classroom volunteers for all grade levels who are willing to donate at least one or two hours a week to work with students in small groups or one-on-one.

“It helps support children, it helps support literacy and mathematics in the community,” WSS Principal Elizabeth Tavasci said. “We’re a public school in this city and our children matter. It’s just one more way to support your community by supporting the children that live here.”

In particular, WSS is seeking residents who are willing to practice repetitive skills with a student to whom a teacher with a classroom of 20 pupils would not be able to devote 30 minutes of instructional time.

“But a volunteer can do precisely that. So that fills a huge need of being able to read with children or helping to let children practice reading with them, or to practice addition and subtraction,” Tavasci said. “Then they can also help the teachers to do special art projects or STEM projects, things that it’s always helpful to have a second adult when you’re doing something messy with children.”

The volunteer program also allows people to get messy helping out in the school’s garden,

and tidier environments such as working in the library or the front office are available too.

“The STEM projects [volunteers assist with] might be helping the students and they are making things like simple machines,” Tavasci said. “They’re making little pulley systems … Another [volunteer] might be looking at water filtration systems, and the kids making a water filter that takes yucky water, and then filters it through a variety of things, and you get clean water. Anytime you have those big creative projects with a lot of different materials in the [classroom].”

Volunteers must obtain a fingerprint clearance card from the Arizona Department of Public Safety at a nominal cost. If a volunteer does need financial assistance, Tavasci said that WSS is able to reimburse them for the fees associated with getting their fingerprint card.

“What has worked well for us is if we find somebody who’s interested in volunteering, I will ask them if they have a grade level that they’re most interested in,” Tavasci said. “We pair that volunteer with a teacher and then the two of them work out a schedule and are able to form that partnership. That volunteer is able to come in and devote a period of time each week, or whatever the schedule that they work out … If you think about a school year, we have about 39 to 40 weeks in a school year; well, if a volunteer is able to, you know, devote one hour per week, that can be up to 40 hours [of] extra reading help, extra math, which is a huge benefit to the community.”

Tavasci said the school experienced a drop in volunteers due to the COVID-19 pandemic response, like most other organizations, but that has started to rebound.

“Volunteers oftentimes, they’re people that have very flexible schedules [and] may be retired,” Tavasci said. “During COVID, that population of [people] had higher risk factors. So they dropped off a bit. But we’re starting over the course of last year and this year, we are seeing increases in our volunteers, and I’ve been getting more questions about volunteers as well.”

For more information about volunteering at West Sedona School, visit sedonak12.org/Volunteering1. Direct questions to Amanda Stanfield at (928) 204-6735.