The role of a School Council?

Fellow CBC listeners may have heard the discussion this afternoon on the appropriate role of school councils in today's schools.* This was prompted by a People for Education report on the subject. The summary below is taken from their website.

The survey results show that parents and school council members across the province are working tirelessly to support their local schools, not only for their own children, but for the good of the entire community.

But the results showed significant disconnects - between current provincial school council policy and what school councils actually now consider their most important roles.

Among the findings in the report:

• The majority of school councils list enhancing communication as their most important role, but they report they spend the most time on fundraising.
• New provincial policy mandates that every board has a Parent Involvement Committee (PIC). While two-thirds of schools reported they knew about their board's PIC, 41% didn't know how parents got to be on the committee.
• 84% of councils report that their principals always or often notify them about education policy changes; 59% say they hear about changes from their school boards, and 34% report the Ministry of Education notifies them always or often.
• 89% of schools fundraise. Of those, 53% raise money for library books, 61% for art and music, and 56% for computers, text books or classroom supplies.

The most important task now is to ensure that our parent engagement policy and practice provides support that is:

• useful
• prevents parent involvement from becoming an onerous task
• lays the groundwork for an inclusive, welcoming environment in our schools and in our education system

What do you think? What do you think school councils should focus on?

p.s. There's more detail in this Ottawa Citizen article on the report.