The first month of school has gone quickly! I bet most of you are asking yourself where has the time gone?
October is an important month for your School Council. Your new School Council will be introducing themselves to the school community as well as having your first meeting together. I am sure you are all eager to address the needs, issues, wants and hopes for this upcoming school year.
Introduce the new School Council to the school community
Your school council Chair should write a letter or notice to the school community introducing the new members of the School Council. A great idea to add to this note is to include the following:
- how long has the school council member been on council
- what grades their child(ren) are in
- how they are involved on council (i.e. executive position, sub-committee, parent member, etc.)
This is an excellent way to have your school community relate to council members.
Don’t forget to include contact information of at least the executive School Council members (Chair, Co/Vice Chair, Treasurer, Secretary). Encourage your school community to feel free to bring to any of the School Council’s attention any matters that they wish to add to the council agenda. Be sure to remind them that only matters which affect the whole school or a large number of children can be brought to the council
and all personal matters must be handled privately between the teacher and/or principal.
Lastly and most importantly be sure to encourage all parents to attend all upcoming school council meetings.
The October meeting is really the first full meeting of a school council
Prior to this October school council meeting, the Chair and the Principal should meet and discuss the priorities each consider important. They should also set up a working process that they will follow to prepare for future meetings. But most importantly they should agree on how to implement or respond to advice from the school council.
It is helpful if the Chair and the Principal can put a few minutes aside 7-10 days before the council meeting and prepare the agenda. This allows the chair time to distribute it to members and ask if they wish to add any items to the old or new business sections of the agenda.
If you have followed the suggestions from our September – Parent Council Topics and Activities blog, executive members should already have had an opportunity to review their roles and responsibilities. At the October meeting, the Chair should ask the Principal to provide the board policies which apply to the operation and financial controls of the school council to all school council members.
Get to know your school
To better acquaint school council members with the school community and the structure of its operations, we have prepared a quick overview template. Download our get to know your school template and ask the Principal if he/she could complete it. This will give a snapshot of the whole school. This will allow members to be better informed as they provide advice and make decisions on how they can support the educational experience of every student in the school.
You might consider providing a binder to every member so they can build their own reference manual. This is a great place to store meeting agendas and minutes each month. This binder should also contain:
- the school council by-laws
- the formal long range planning document (if this has been created from previous year(s))
- the get to know your school document once it has been completed by the Principal
School Council by-laws
Although the by-laws may reference these items it is helpful to review them at the first meeting and secure everyone’s understanding:
- Who can vote and how voting will take place.
- When and how a member should declare a conflict of interest if there is an item on the agenda that warrants that declaration.
- Attendance requirements.
- If and what expenses incurred by members will be covered.
- What items or actions require approval of the council.
- What items or actions require approval of the principal.
October Agenda Items
The following actions can take place at the October meeting. This list may looks overwhelming. Remember your school council can still address the items that you won’t get to at your November meeting.
- Review of the previous year’s PRO grant. What was the plan committed to and how will this year’s council carry it out.
- Prepare the school council budget for the upcoming year. Consider any money (fundraising, grants, etc.) coming into school council as well as any upcoming expenses. Never approve expenses that you have not raised the income to support. A school council must never operate in a deficit. The income forecast can be very dependent on the type and how many fundraisers are conducted.
- Draft a three year plan for the school council. If the previous council had a plan which is in place, review the plan and update it with current items or add an additional year (this may be done over the next few months as this year’s work progresses).
- Introduce School Council resources to increase parent engagement. These resources could consist of the following:
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- Ministry of Education
- Parent Involvement Committee of the Board
- local parent associations/groups that the board works with to increase parent engagement
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Sub-committees
Establish sub-committees in order to help manage some of the work outside of regular monthly council meetings.
Sub-committees may include:
Financial
The financial sub-committee reviews finances every quarter with the Treasurer. This allows for a “second set of eyes” to look over the finances and compare them to budget.
Academic
The academic sub-committee should start with a copy of the School Learning Improvement Plan (SLIP). The SLIP is completed by the Principal for the current School year. The SLIP should be presented by both the Principal and the Chair of this committee. Included in this presentation should be what the expectations are grade by grade for the upcoming year. This sub-committe will also be presenting suggestions to the council on how they might play a role in supporting the objectives of the SLIP.
Additional tasks for the Academic sub-committee:
- Throughout the year, this committee can research or receive any information on new curriculum’s or information released by the Board or the Ministry that would be of interest to council members.
- Review the EQAO results paying particular attention to the Student survey regarding parent involvement in their learning. This will help shape some ideas for events that the council can offer to increase parent engagement with their child’s learning.
Technology
The technology sub-committee, through the Principal, can advise the Council on the status of technology in the classrooms and school.
If members have the applicable knowledge they may advise the Councils on ways that technology can improve their meetings, Work, reports , communications etc.
Communication
The communication sub-committee is commonly responsible for developing event notifications, newsletters, information for the parent bulletin board etc.
Event Planing
This is a busy subcommittee that concentrates on planning all events for the school community. This can be a small
committee. The reasoning behind the small numbers is because while it does the planning, it does not have to carry out every event themselves. Event planning sub-committees should be sure to use school volunteers to assist with events.
Fundraising
This committee is responsible for bringing ideas to the council on what and how many fundraisers the council should support for the upcoming year.
*It is important to remember that the role of the sub-committee is to do the work. Once that is completed it’s next job is to bring it to the whole council for a vote. The school council will vote on all actions or budget items to be carried out. The exception to this is when the council has given the committee a budget and set of parameters in which to operate, without requiring additional direction or voting by the council.
November Meeting
Be sure to check back for our November – Parent Council Topics and Activities.
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