Environmental Volunteers

Who Can Apply?

Any teachers for grades K – 8 may apply for Environmental Volunteers School Programs, for their individual class or on behalf of all the teachers at a single grade level at your school. If you are a parent, administrator or other educational professional, you should work with a teacher at your school to request programs.

Only one application per teacher will be considered each year. The only exceptions are those teachers that serve as science teachers for multiple classrooms or across grade levels. Please contact the Programs Coordinator for special circumstances.

What information is needed to complete an application?

You will need to read through all of the program descriptions to select your 1st and 2nd program choice. You will also need to decide on your 1st and 2nd choice of month to receive your EV program. Exact dates will be arranged at a later time. We accept applications for individual teachers as well as for entire grade levels. In either case, you will need the names, contact information and class sizes for all teachers who will receive the program.

Once you have completed your application you will be automatically brought to a confirmation page. Please print a copy of the confirmation page for your records.

How do I know if my application is accepted?

All applicants will be sent an email informing you whether you have been accepted for a program or placed on our waiting list by May 24, 2013. Please contact our School Programs Manager if you do not receive this confirmation.

My application was accepted, what happens next?

Your program will be granted for a specific month when it is accepted. 1-2 months before that time, a Lead EV will contact you to arrange a specific date and time, and to coordinate which learning stations will best support your work in your classroom. We will then assemble our team of volunteers who will deliver your program on the chosen date.

Please note that because our programs are done by volunteers, if we do not have enough volunteers one week before your program, we will need to reschedule.

What if teachers or class sizes change after I apply?

We understand that schools make changes over the summer. Please keep us informed of any changes of teachers or contact information. In particular we will need the most current teacher contact information. Please contact if you do not receive this confirmation.

Fees

For the 2012-2013 school year, our program fees are:

• 24 students or fewer $170 per class / $250 with field trip
• 25 - 32 students: $190 per class / $285 with field trip

These fees represent about half of our actual cost of providing our programs. The remainder of these costs are subsidized by Environmental Volunteers.


For the 2013-2014 school year, our program fees will be:

• 24 students or fewer $200 per class / $300 with field trip
• 25 - 32 students: $220 per class / $335 with field trip

Scholarships

Environmental Volunteers’ goal is to make our programs affordable to all schools. Every year we provide about 30% of our programs to financially challenged schools via scholarships.

If you wish to request a scholarship, you must do so at the time you submit your program request.

Schools with greater than 40% of their students qualifying for the Federal Free/Reduced Lunch Program may request a scholarship that can reduce their classroom program to $75 per classroom / $135 with field trip. 2013-14 Scholarship rate: $85 per classroom / $155 with field trip.

Class Size

The Environmental Volunteers teaching model is built on each child having his or her own “hands-on” adventure, so we strive to keep the volunteer-to-child ratio low. For classes of up to 24 students, Environmental Volunteers provides three learning stations and three volunteers. For class sizes over 24, four learning stations and four volunteers are required. Due to the related increased expenses, class sizes over 24 students are assessed a higher fee. Please see fee details above under Fees.

Multiple Classrooms

We often provide programs to more than one classroom in a school on the same day, as a matter of convenience for both teachers and volunteers. At the EV, this is called "a Double". We also allow multiple classes in a school to go on field trips simultaneously in order to take advantage of bus occupancy.

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