Fundraising to Council and School

[LeslieP]

Hi, I noticed that the previous discussion on this topc was closed and therefore no further replies could be added.
Just wondering why the discussion was closed.

Just to let everyone know I am a male not female, no apologies required, I'm used to it.

In answer to Catherine's question "Leslie - does your school council provide an year end review of funds raised at the events?"
This is mandated by The Education Act - Ontario Regulation 612/00 - School Councils
Annual Report
24. (1) Every school council shall annually submit a written report on its activities to the principal of the school and to the board that established the council. O. Reg. 612/00, s. 24 (1).
(2) If the school council engages in fundraising activities, the annual report shall include a report on those activities. O. Reg. 612/00, s. 24 (2).
(3) The principal shall, on behalf of the school council, give a copy of the report to every parent of a pupil who, on the date the copy is given, is enrolled in the school. O. Reg. 612/00, s. 24 (3).
(4) Subsection (3) may be complied with by,
(a) giving the report to the parent’s child for delivery to his or her parent; and
(b) posting the report in the school in a location that is accessible to parents. O. Reg. 612/00, s. 24 (4).
So, if your parent council raises funds, they and the principal are responsible to follow the rules.
Don't be afraid to ask your principal for a copy of last years report.

In speaking with parents of other schools, note that it is only one side of the story, I have seen that a parent council that does not have the right reason or approach or gusto, are weak and ineffective. In talking more with those parents, I found that they really did not know what parent council's responsibilites are, and how important they are to their school.
So what is the right reason for being part of parent council? I'll let you think about and give you my answer elsewhere in this messasge.

Here is what we do every year for our 1st parent council meeting
I prepare a binder with various sections on parent council is and the rules, regulations, bylaws, etc.
Each member is given a copy and we review them so that we all understand what is expected of parent council, the principal, the board, etc.
Here are the links we use to gather the necessary files.

1. School Councils - A Guide for Members 2001, Revised 2002
http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/general/elemsec/council/guide.html

2. A Framework for Family Involvement
http://www.ncpie.org/DevelopingPartnerships/

National Coalition for Parent Involvement in Education
http://www.ncpie.org/

3. Education Improvement Commission - School Improvement Planning A Handbbok for Principals, Teachers, and School Councils
http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/document/reports/sihande.pdf

4. A report on the Role of School Councils
http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/document/reports/eic/road3/eic3.pdf

5. Education Act - Ontario Regulation 612/00 School Councils
http://www.e-laws.gov.on.ca/html/regs/english/elaws_regs_000612_e.htm

Many others are also available from the Ontario Ministry of Education website parents section
http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/parents/
http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/parents/publications.html


Ontario Schools Council Support Centre
http://www.schoolcouncils.net/

People for Education
http://www.peopleforeducation.com/

Don't forget the school boards and schools are funded based on the white's of their eyes, sad to hear.
The boards do plan for future enrollment growth, but I have yet to see a school in our area that does not end up with portables from the day the new school opens. Our school opened in 1993 and has had portables since openeing and still has them.

The answer to the question "So what is the right reason for being part of parent council?"
Answer: The Children
In all our parent council discussions, if we think we are getting off topic or not on the right track, we ask ourselves the question.
We have to do what is best for our children, period. It is not about being on parent council, power struggles, nitty gritty individual issues, It is what we do to enchance and better the education of our children. This may be by funding SmartBoards, gym equipment, field trips. Our school raises funds by hosting community/family oriented events, liek a pasta supper, winter carnival, Christmas family night. When I say community, I not only mean the children and parents/guardians, staff of school, but also the neighbors.

As a member of parent council we are ambassadors of our school, and in so we must conduct ourselves respectively.

Thanks for reading
Leslie

[Annie Kidder]

I really like your idea of school councils as the "ambassadors" of the school. I hope you don't mind, Leslie, if we steal that concept.
We're hoping to foster more conversation about the role of school councils - maybe leading toward some revisions to councils' role and mandate as described Ontario education policy. For me, being ambassadors shifts the focus to reaching out to the community, acting as a kind of communications centre, being the heart of the school.
Sounds great, thanks.

[LeslieP]

Hi Annie,
Please go ahead and feel free to use the concept "ambassadors of the school".
Another acronym that we use to build a strong, open, and effective parent council, which includes principal, teachers, staff, parents/guardian, guests, school board is TEAM
Together
Everyone
Accomplishes
More
Please feel free to use this as well.
We need to be strong to be able to effectively communicate our requirements to the school boards and ministry of education.

Regards
Leslie

[Jacqui Strachan]

Hi Leslie,
I really like the TEAM approach, the concept of school councils as school ambassadors, and your approach to fundraising activities. On Tuesday, I was in Timmins talking to parents and Parent Involvement Committee members about fundraising, and I too spoke about the importance of community-building through fundraising events, rather than selling chocolate bars or magazine subscriptions. The advantage of these kind of events is that they not only help to build a stronger sense of community, but I also think they are inherently more equitable. For example, at my sons' old elementary school, our Fun Fair always included a range of activities that were free or super-cheap, so that everyone could participate, and our Movie Nights were 'pay what you can', so that again, there were no financial barriers to participation. This is really important in communities with a diverse range of family incomes.

[LeslieP]

Hi Jacqui,
Glad I can help.
We do a mix of fund-raising activities, some chocalate bar or simsialr sales, but most are community building events.
We have done Pasta Supper $5 per person, to a max of $20 per family for those families with more than 2 children, with live music; Christmas family night, pyjama reading night, and many more, especially our year end family BBQ which includes raffles, baked goods, cotton candy, bounicing castles, mascots, face paiting, karaoke, games and more. These are well attended by the families of school and neighbourhood, teachers and staff, and everyone has a great time even us undaunting volunteers.
For all of our events we make sure that they are well advertised in the local papers, leaflets to every student, the schools website, signs at the Kiss-n-Go, word of mouth. One important thing I started doing three years ago was to invite our local town's Mayor, Deputy Mayor and Councillors, our MP & MPP, local newspaper (I've lost count of the number of times our school's name appears in the local papers. They do attend and appreciate being invited. It is also a great way to meet and talk one on one with these dignitaries. We have had the Honourable Peter Van Loan, MPP Julia Monroe attend our events.
Regards
Leslie

[LeslieP]

Hi, Just wanted to add a quick antecidote
I sit on parent council and co-chair the Events committee.
Last summer I was thinking about retiring from Events Committee but still sit on parent council, 1st to get some other people invloved and 2nd because of my office owrkload and famlily workload. We have 3 girls, 9, 8 & 4. When I told my eldest that I would no longer be part of the Events committee, she looked at me and said, "no way Dad, you have to, you oraganize all those great events at school and I get to see you at school. Who would organize the year-end BBQ? And most of all you love doing it" She was right, I do love doing it, because the rewards are so great, the smiles and happiness that you see on all the people that come to the events and the people that volunteer to help out.

Remember my previous post "So what is the right reason for being part of parent council?"
The kids, my kids, the neigbourhood kids. It is all about the kids and what we do for the kids.
We all want our kids to have a better life than we had, including a better education.

Regards
Leslie

[Catherine]

Leslie - How do you know then that your school council is effective? As advisory bodies what advice has your council offered and how was is taken...or not?

In short, at some point councils are accountable to the parents of the community they represent. How does your council do that?

In order for true effective councils that accountability loop needs to be closed in order for a council to be truly supported by the community.

School councils, which also include other partners in the system were originated to be exactly the teams we are striving for today. It's not just a "parent" council it's a school councils and should also reflect the wishes and recommendations those who are not parents advise.

School councils are not to be confused with PTA or fundraising groups.

There are too many parents whose kids are falling through the cracks who are never represented on school councils. Why is that?

[Annie Kidder]

I think that what we can see by the many many posts there have been about a wide variety of school councils, is that there isn't necessarily one model for a school council. It seems as if different councils across the province focus on a variety of goals or activities. In some schools every parent is a member of the school council, in other its just a small group. Some focus on outreach and community building, others on school improvement and academics.

[Catherine]

Right Annie - they're all over the map, some schools without councils...and no one's followed up provincially in a long, LONG time.

I just don't believe that councils should be about the money.....period. Quality education can't always be bought. Parents taking and interest in their kid's education shouldn't have a price tag associated with it.

That's why I can't stand that the gov't is buying school councils with funding. Funding was available to councils all along. Some took advantage of it, others never have.

I think it's a crime to fund school councils to encourage involvement when that money could be used better elsewhere.

School councils have a huge role to play in the new accommodation guidelines process. The mistake the gov't made in pulling these guidelines together was that they assumed that a) all schools had councils, and b) that they were in compliance and running effectively. That's simply not the case.

Annie - if you really want to help councils turn a corner having them realize what the accommodation guidelines mean to them and the future of their schools, because if councils aren't communicating with their parents community then the decisions of the ARC will be met with plenty of wrath.

Something as simple as making sure your school council has full representation and a community member on board is vitally important.

Don't get me wrong though for the school councils that have parents who can't get enough fundraising and see that as a priority, AND the majority of councils agrees...by all means make money. I just think it sends the wrong message and perpetuates a taking for granted of parents willing and able to always give money.

[LeslieP]

Hi Catherine,
-Effective
Our parent council develops and submits input to our principal and board.
We are a very open and productive parent council. How do we know.
We canvas and survey the parents at large at least once a year.
We hold at least 9 parent council meetings a year, even though a minimum of 4 are required.
For our parent council 4 meeting are just not enough with all the goals and objectives we have set.
-Accountablity
We publish and distribute several parent council newsletters a year, ~600 copies each printing. A copy goes home with each student.
This is where we used the grants from the Ministry for PARENTS REACHING OUT GRANT FOR YOUR SCHOOL COUNCIL.
The newsletter is also posted on our school and parent council website.
We publish the dates of each of the parent council meetings at the beginning of the year and update everyone via the school newsletter, parent council newsletter, website, school bulletin board.
All parent council meeting minutes are available to the parents via a visit to the school to see them in the parent council resource centre, at our parent council website.
-Supported by the community
We have a community rep as part of our parent council
Not only do we interface with that person, but every parent council member also interacts with other members of our community and we feel that we have effectively closed the loop.
We all listen to the parents we meet on a daily basis, while they are waiting to dropoff or pickup thier children. depending on what they have said, we would invite those parents to bring their concerns to the teacher, or principal if it is of a personal/private nature. If it is of a broader concern, we would invite those parents to attend the next parent council meeting and we would table that on the agenda.

I agree that their are parents/children that are not not represented on school councils and we actively try to find them and address their concerns, but some of them are not confortable in having their concerns addressed or voicing their concerns at a parent council meeting. We can not force them to do something they do not want to do.

I hope that I have adequately answered your questions.
Every school community is different and requires different approaches.
Regards
Leslie

[LeslieP]

Hi,
WOW, it is great to see the diverse and interesting comments made by everyone in this thread.
Each of our communities has different needs and we need to adjust to them as needed.
It is important to remember that we need to actively listen, paraphrase what was said to us, try to understand their point of view, and respect the opinions/comments/criticism from others regardless if we agree or disagree with them, and leave the personal issues out of the equation, as a member of parent council.
This is basically called diplomacy and much common sense, respective for others, tolerance. It is also a great way to earn respect from others and build a team environment, where everyone knows that no matter what they say, it will be listened to and addressed.

In our situation, we do not take for granted that parents are willing or capable of giving money to fund various activities at school. We would never turn away anyone if they were unable to pay for any activity. Every student has a right to partiicpate in any school activity regardless of any situation they may be in. We do not question them on this issue, we just do what is right. We are all suppose to be good samaritans and help each other out. "Pay It Forward".
I totally agree that it is very important to communicate with the parents, the key is Effective Communication. How do you make sure that every parent gets and reads the school's newsletters, the parent council's newsletters, participates in parent council (just attending a few meeting would be great, so that they can see what parent council is all about, they do not have to be members if they do not want to be)?
We can only do so much to make sure that the information is distributed to all concerned, but we have no control if they read the information or act on it.
How many parents have the time to particiapate in parent council?
Typically how many parents partiicpate in their schools parent council?
How many parents really know what parent council is all about and are informed?

Regards
Leslie

[LeslieP]

Hi Catherine,
-Accommodation Guidelines Process-
May I be so bold as to ask if you would start a separate discussion on the PAR process (Pupil Accommodation Review).
It is an important topic to discuss and may be better addressed in a separate discussion.
Over the past several months I have read about a few PAR's where the boards performed the PAR's as mandated, yet decided to close the school even though the majority of parents stated that they wanted the school to stay open. If I were one of those parents I would feel that our input was not important and a waste of time. In some cases it look like the board already made up their minds prior to the PAR process and just performed the PAR process to cover their rears. MOO.
Regards
Leslie

[Catherine]

Thanks Leslie . you asked "How many parent really know what parent councils are about?"

That can be answered by an effective council. After, what is it, 11 years of school councils if there are parents who still don't know then it's up to the school council to keep them informed.

Re: Accommodation Reviews and councils - I agree it needs its own discussion. It's come up in other threads where school councils have been discussed. All I can say is that one of the best pieces of advice our director gave our parents at a regional meeting before the accommodation review was enacted was to make sure that the school council was elected(not chosen or appointed), and that the parents of the school trust that the parents they voted to be on council are the best to represent them on the ARC. Councils need to have their communications up and working two-ways, AND have community reps. on board ahead of the process. None of our councils had community reps. so it was a scramble to find them AND it was really embarrassing for those people to be invited to be on the ARC when they never were invited to be on the council in the first place. Also, one school councils was not in agreement with their community rep. I'm pretty sure that none of those community reps. were invited to sit on the council AFTER the process either.

If you and the majority of parents are satisfied with what your council is doing and you do get an opportunity outside of the fundraising to delve into actual education issues then great. Consider yourself one of the lucky ones.

It also helps to have a willing and enabling board and principal able to allow councils to evolve to accept more responsibility.