Visitors to the School
Parents and visitors to the school are welcome! All visitors are asked to first report to the office. All volunteers are asked to sign in at the office.
Volunteers
The importance of the link between child, school, and parent cannot be over emphasized, especially at the primary school level. Therefore the staff at James S. McCormick School look forward to the contributions parents can make by volunteering to work with or share experiences with our school children. The school has both an active classroom volunteer program and school volunteer program. If you are interested in volunteering please come in and see us.
Volunteering Procedures
As you know, student safety is of the utmost importance, so all parents/guardians must complete designated steps and paperwork before being able to participate in school activities as volunteers. Recently, in alignment with Volunteer Alberta, Wolf Creek Public Schools (WCPS) revised Administrative Procedure (AP 490), which details practices and requirements for school volunteers.
In previous years, all volunteers at this school were required to sign a Criminal Record Declaration Form. This practice will continue. Volunteers independently supervising students (eg., during field trips) were further required to provide the school with a complete Criminal Record Check (CRC). As of now, WCPS requires school volunteers to provide a Vulnerable Sector Check (formerly, the CRC). The Vulnerable Sector Check will now be required for almost every volunteer position.
The staff members of École James S. McCormick School (ÉJSMS) are enormously grateful for the wide range of supports provided by parents, guardians, grandparents, and other extended family members. At ÉJSMS, volunteers are needed for everything from pumpkin carving and tying skates to supervising students in the garden or reading one on one. As a critical aspect of the school’s duty of care, it is very important we screen volunteers and manage any types of potential risks to students in these varied volunteer roles. This is particularly true any time a volunteer is with students but not under the supervision of school personnel (eg., during field trips). The steps involved in the volunteer application process are:
Step One - Complete the Criminal Record Declaration Form and return it to the classroom teacher or office. This form is the minimum requirement for school-based volunteers. (It must be completed for parents/guardians to participate at even the most basic volunteer level, such as helping in-class with pumpkin carving.) This form must be filled out yearly.
Step Two - Complete the Volunteer Application Form - paying careful attention to the expectations and conditions for volunteering - then return it to the classroom teacher or office for the principal’s approval. This form must be filled out yearly. Following the principal’s approval of the application form, the school will provide a personalized letter (Vulnerable Sector Check Application Form) that parents/guardians can take to their local police agency (eg., Lacombe Police Service or Blackfalds RCMP Detachment) for the completion of a Vulnerable Sector Check.
Step Three - Take the Vulnerable Sector Check Application Form and two pieces of ID (one of which includes a photo) to the local police agency for processing. This process may take up to two weeks. Only Vulnerable Sector Checks that have been issued within the past 6 months are considered valid for acceptance by WCPS. Any VSC's issued outside the 6 month window are not accepted.
Step Four - Provide the school with the approved Vulnerable Sector Check where it will be kept on file for three years. WCPS acknowledges that school volunteers, through their donation of time and talent, provide a valuable contribution to the successful operation of the school. For those wanting more details about the division’s policies regarding volunteers, AP 490 can be viewed in its entirety on the WCPS website.