What is the Lincoln Options Community Council?
The Options Community Council (OCC) is a reflection of the ongoing, intentional partnership between the Lincoln Options Elementary School staff and families. It is a volunteer-run, consensus-based non-profit, made up of Lincoln community members (parents, guardians, teachers, and more) that supports the Lincoln Options program through organizing, planning, and fundraising. The Council has primary responsibility for overseeing the budget for the non-profit branch of the Options Program and helping to ensure that there is sufficient family participation and programmatic support for the Lincoln Options Program. Through this partnership, the teachers and families strive to provide for the education of the children in keeping with the Options philosophy, goals, and curriculum as described in the Options Program Handbook and the Options Design for Learning.
OCC Position Descriptions
The positions are described in more detail in the Lincoln Options Handbook.
Chairperson
This position facilitates council twice monthly OCC meetings on the 2nd and 4th Tuesdays from 6:15 pm-8:30 pm of each month, plans and executing the Back to School Night and OCC Retreat in the fall, recruits for empty leadership positions and expresses gratitude to departing OCC members at a variety of Lincoln events in the spring. The OCC chair coordinates with and regularly communicates with all of the OCC committee chairs and with the school principal.
Vice Chairperson
This position attends twice monthly OCC meetings on the 2nd and 4th Tuesdays of each month from 6:15 pm-8:30 pm and acts a being backup for the chairperson if s/he has a scheduling conflict. This position also plans the Ice Cream Social and acts as the point person for OCC coordination with the leaders of the various other whole school events throughout the year, such as the Winter Market, Winter Dance, and more.
Secretary/Recorder
This position creates and sends out OCC meeting agendas and invites, attends twice monthly meetings on the 2nd and 4th Tuesdays of each month from 6:15 pm-8:30 pm, and takes and distributes minutes from each meeting. The OCC secretary also helps with space reservation and coordination with the Lincoln office staff and maintaining and updating the Options Program Handbook
Treasurer
This role attends twice monthly meetings on the 2nd and 4th Tuesdays of each month from 6:15 pm-8:30 pm and provides budget insights for proposals, monthly budget updates and separate monthly updates to the teachers, as well as proposes a budget for discussion and consensus each Spring. It also requires bookkeeping, tax filing, and maintenance of our OCC 501C3 status. This role also handles banking tasks such as reimbursement, deposits, and withdrawals. Banking tasks are sometimes completed by a co-treasurer.
Lincoln Teacher and Staff Appreciation Chair
This role coordinates and executes monthly small gestures of appreciation for Lincoln teachers and staff plus pizza lunch one day of each conference week, and the large lift that is coordinating the staff appreciation week potlucks that all families contribute to. The appreciation chair also shows gratitude to departing staff members especially those who have been with Lincoln a long time and/or are retiring.
Communications Chair
This position coordinates communications across Lincoln’s website, social media platforms, in-house bulletin boards, and produces the all school quarterly magazine, the OPUS. The communications chair also coordinates the development of an all-school directory and assists with public relations materials developed by the other Council committees when needed.
Fundraising Chair
This position leads the fundraising committee and works the Treasurer to determine fundraising needs and coordinates fundraising activities primarily the annual fund drive and spring auction. This position may work with OCC members to identify grant opportunities and facilitate grant writing.
Volunteer/Resource Coordinator
This position synthesizes information from the volunteer interest survey and distributes that to various committee leaders and class reps. This position also recruits volunteers for specific one-time jobs and other positions as needed and makes information about resources and volunteers readily available to class reps, event organizers and committee chairs. The volunteer coordinator distributes any volunteer training materials as needed in cooperation with the principal.
Enrollment and Outreach Chair
This position advertises for and runs the Lincoln lottery, attends Countdown to Kindergarten, hosts information nights, and answers phone calls, emails, and fields questions in a variety of other ways to support interested new families. The enrollment chair maintains the Options program waiting list and notifies families as lottery positions become available.
External Issues Chair
This position attends OSD school board meetings and other OSD events to represent Lincoln’s interests and values in any space into which we are invited. This can also include taking the pulse on legislative issues and keeping the Lincoln community apprised of any issues that would benefit from activism and support.
Class Representative Coordinator and Class Rep Team
The class rep Coordinator recruits 2 class reps per classroom teacher and then supports them in their roles, answering questions, sending monthly emails, and helping them to support their teachers and the families in their classes. This position attends OCC meetings on the second and fourth Tuesdays of each month from 6:15-8:30pm
The class rep teams are made up of at least two people/class, one of which attends OCC meetings and represents families there and other which meets with the teacher regularly and attends in-classroom needs.
Teacher Representatives
Two Lincoln teachers serve as representatives for instructional staff, providing teacher views and concerns and curriculum development and program issues. They report back to teachers and collaborate with the OCC on program planning and policy.
Principal
The Lincoln principal provinces program information and suggestion, serves as a liaison with the Olympia School District, provides policy information and collaborates with the OCC on program planning and policy.
Support Staff Representative
This position serves as OCC representative for support staff, presents support staff views and concerts and curriculum development and program issues. The support staff representative reports back to support staff and collaborates with the OCC on program planning and policy.
Community Liaison
This position is held by someone who does not currently have children at Lincoln but who has an investment in our community. For example, an alumnae or parent of an alumnae, a member of the South Capitol Neighborhood Association, or former Options staff member. This position involves attending OCC meetings on the second and fourth Tuesdays of each month from 615-8:30pm and is usually (but not necessarily) directly recruited by the principal
Camp Elderberry Chair
This position coordinates team of volunteers to plan and execute all aspects of Camp Elderberry, Lincoln’s end of year, all-school day in nature. The process starts in March or earlier with increasing responsibility as the event gets closer. The Camp Elderberry chair meets and communicates regularly with Lincoln staff to ensure smooth running of the camp, and collaborates with the OCC treasurer to manage the Elderberry budget.
Garden Chair
Working closely with the Lincoln Science Teacher, this position leads and coordinates the garden committee including all garden reps and teachers in their efforts to plant, cultivate, and harvest crops as well as maintain the garden, host work parties, and delegate and co-create sub-committee efforts such as summer saviors and the annual plant sale, Plantapalooza.
Spanish Chair
This position works to integrate Spanish language and culture into our community through coordination with the principal and our Spanish teacher. The Spanish chair facilitates communication between the OCC and the Spanish committee, which organizes whole school events such as Dia De Los Muertos and Dia De Los Ninos.
Assessment Initiative Coordinator or Options Design for Learning sub-committee
The Options Design for Learning is a living document that expresses the leading edge of the Options philosophy. It is revisited every few years to direct the growth of our program and as an application of our values and philosophy. Historical efforts have included things like the origination of the Spanish Committee and program and ongoing education and discussion with Lincoln families about standardized assessment.
Winter Market Coordinator
The Lincoln Winter Market is a vendor-style craft market which serves as both a fundraiser and neighborhood engagement event. It takes place the Friday after Thanksgiving and is great for community building. This position plans, delegates, and is the point person for this event.
5th Grade Experience Coordinator
This position leads the programming for departing Lincoln 5th graders: T-shirts, yearbooks, class gift and graduation.
Winter Dance Coordinator
This position leads students in planning and executing an evening dance in the winter (usually the start of Feb). This involves some hours during the school day as well as coordinating volunteers for set-up, chaperones, DJ, photo booth, and clean up.
Harvest Festival Coordinator
This position coordinates with the science teacher, classroom teachers, the kitchen, and the garden to plan, delegate, and execute the all-school Harvest Festival in September.
Procession of the Species Coordinator
This position coordinates with the music teacher, families, and procession officials to make sure our families, kids, and Lincoln samba band are registered for the procession and have costumes and whatever else they need in order to participate in the procession which is always in late April.
Clothing Sale Coordinator
This position coordinates and executes the annual clothing sale which takes place during fall conference week in the afternoons. They recruit and oversee a team who collects, sorts, and folds clothing donations prior to the event, runs the clothing sale and coordinates donating leftover clothing.
Movie Night Coordinator
This position organizes two movie night fundraisers throughout the year, typically at the Skyline drive-in theater (fall) or Capital Theater (spring).
BINGO Night Coordinator
This position coordinates and executes the all school Bingo Night in January.
