People for Education's Report on School Councils

The public-education advocacy group People for Education has released it annual Report on School Councils. Download the full report here. The following summary is pasted from its web site:

Key findings from the report:

• Once again, enhancing communication is named as the most important role for the majority (75%) of councils, but fundraising is the activity on which they spend the most time.
• 37% of councils report having no connections/outreach to community organizations such as public health, municipal recreation programs, and settlement services.
• 47% of school councils report that they are always or often notified of education policy changes by their Parent Involvement Committee, up from 39% last year.
• 60% of councils report using email to communicate with parents, but only 10% report that the school provides parents’ email addresses.
• 80% of councils report that their initiatives are conveyed to the teaching staff, but only 9% report being invited to a staff meeting.
• 80% of school councils report that they engage in fundraising, down slightly from 84% last year.
• 36% organize activities to increase the diversity of their school council.

What do you think? What should our School Council be focusing on?