Parenting : Lending Schools a Needed Hand : * Moms and dads are volunteering for duties that range from cleaning to keeping libraries open. Districts and children benefit.

Alan McNary plays guitar for kindergartners, tutors students in reading and fixes broken bunny cages and tricycles at Apperson Street Elementary School in Sunland.

At Chatsworth Park Elementary, Michele DeGaetano takes temperatures and applies ice packs to feverish children, teaches jewelry-making classes and heads the school’s booster club.

At Canterbury Avenue Elementary in Pacoima, Connie Carbajal types lessons for teachers, buys materials for art projects and leads the girls’ drill team.

McNary, DeGaetano and Carbajal are not school employees. They are parents--just three of thousands of moms and dads throughout the Valley who form a prominent presence at their children’s schools.

Such participation represents a growing trend: National PTA surveys show that more than a third of all parents volunteer at schools in some capacity, and more than half belong to school-parent groups or booster clubs.

In the Los Angeles Unified School District, about 15,000 volunteers--more than a third of them Valley residents--do everything from cleaning up campuses to keeping libraries open.

“My daughter really enjoys having Dad around--and I could see the more involved I got, the more problems I could solve,” said McNary. “Schools don’t have a lot of resources, and the district is really strapped.”

Other parents, he said, staff the school’s computer lab, tutor children, work in the cafeteria or help coordinate events.

Now more than ever, parent volunteers are needed at cash-poor public schools. The L.A. school district’s budget has been slashed by $1.4 billion since 1989, according to district spokesman Pat Spencer. In the same period, the number of students increased by almost 50,000.

“Parents no longer take schools and education for granted,” said Joan Suter, director of the district’s volunteer program. According to Suter, parents have set up science labs, art studios, photography programs, dance classes and theater productions at schools.

After the Jan. 17 earthquake, parent volunteers made phone calls to notify each other of school closings and meetings, helped clean debris from campuses and soothed children’s jangled nerves.

A widespread disaster such as an earthquake usually boosts the number of parents on campus, said Rosa Soto of San Fernando, a community representative for the school district. “Many parents want to stay closer to their kids--and the schools have things for them to do.”

Parents who work 9 to 5 also play significant roles on campus. For example, Carbajal, a saleswoman for a vitamin manufacturer, types and photocopies lessons, donates needed supplies and regularly attends PTA and leadership council meetings.

“I do whatever I can because it is important for (my kids) to know I care about their education and their school,” she said. “And if I want my opinions heard, I have to get involved.”

Such parent-school alliances result not only in more effective schools, but also in higher grade and test scores, long-term academic achievement and positive student attitudes and behavior, according to the National Committee for Citizens in Education. The Washington, D.C.-based organization has documented about 50 studies citing the benefits of parental involvement.

McNary doesn’t need research to tell him parental involvement works. “The better students at our school are those whose parents volunteer,” he said. “Maybe they are there only once a month; maybe they show up only for meetings, but they are there, and they have the finger on the pulse of what is going on.”

Yet parents who are active on elementary campuses tend to disappear when their children reach junior high.

Fewer than 1,000 of the school system’s 15,000 volunteers can be found at middle or secondary schools. But adolescents desperately need adult guidance and role models, said middle school teacher Terry Wang of Reseda.

Carbajal says she intends to stay active when her 11-year-old daughter Valerie attends middle school next September. “I always stick by my children when they do homework. I always go to conferences and open houses. I always push them to do their best, to be all they can be. And I will continue that, no matter what schools my children go to.”

What You Can Do

A survey of local teachers and administrators yielded the following advice for parents eager to help at their children’s schools:

* Get to know the principal and teachers and ask how you can assist on campus. Simply say, “These are some things I do well and have an interest in; this is the amount of time I have available. What can I do to help?”

* Join your school’s PTA, leadership council or booster club. Get active on the group’s board or join a committee.

* Parents who work during the day can stuff envelopes, grade papers or type lessons at home, assist at weekend or evening events, chaperon field trips or provide refreshments for parties. If you can spare an occasional hour or two, offer to talk to a class during career day, or escort students on a tour of your place of business.

* Even parents with the most crowded schedules can show their interest and concern in their child’s education. Read and respond to memos from teachers, read to your child every day (or insist that children spend 15 minutes a day reading on their own), telephone teachers and principals to monitor your child’s progress and attend open houses and parent-teacher conferences.