IX Questions and answers about School planning councils
What is the purpose of the School Planning Council?
The School Planning Council is intended to formalize the involvement of parents in interpreting student achievement data and setting and supporting goals for improving student achievement. The SPC is an advisory body. Its major responsibility is to involve the school community in developing, monitoring and reviewing school plans for improving student achievement.
In addition, the Board must consult with the SPC regarding allocation of staff and resources at the school, matters contained in the Board’s Accountability Contract and educational services and programs in the school.
What does “consult” mean?
Consultation is an ongoing process by which the School Board seeks advice from the School Planning Councils, considers that advice and accepts, modifies or rejects it given the best information available. This definition can also be applied to the process used by the SPC when consulting with the school community regarding the school performance plan.
While SPCs are an important new feature of district operations, the Board will probably view any advice provided by SPCs as complementary to, rather than superior to, what it regularly receives from other sources, including PACs, its employee groups, and members of the community who choose to write to the Board or make presentations to public Board meetings.
What is meant by the school community?
The school community consists of all parents, students, administrators, teachers and support staff associated with a particular school.
Who is a member of the School Planning Council?
SPC membership consists of the school principal, one teacher representative elected by secret ballot and three parent representatives form the Parent Advisory Council, also elected by secret ballot. One of these parent representatives must be an elected officer of the PAC. In addition, the principal of secondary school SPCs will appoint one student from either grade 10, 11, or 12 after consulting with the students enrolled in those grades at the school.
Can more than one parent on the SPC be a member of the PAC Executive?
It is possible for more than one member of the executive to be elected as an SPC member.
Can parents who are employed by a school board serve on the SPC as an elected member?
No, employees of any school board are ineligible for election , even if they work for a school board in another community. The Board is governed by the School Act in this regard, which specifies that its employees are not eligible. Employees of private schools, however, are eligible to serve on the SPC, as they are governed by the Independent School Act, rather than the School Act.
Is it necessary to have a vote by secret ballot if the parent members are serving by acclamation?
According to the school act, the vote must be conducted by secret ballot regardless of the particular circumstances at the site. Refer to section III What about Parent Advisory Councils (PACs) and District Parent Advisory Councils (DPACs)? for more information on this.
How long do members serve on the SPC?
According to the legislation, representatives are elected for a term which does not exceed one year. However the legislation does not preclude the option of additional one-year terms.
Can additional members of the school community, such as support staff, additional teachers or parents serve on the SPC?
While additional SPC members are not recognized in the legislation, the Richmond School Board believes that it is desirable that other members of the school community attend the meetings to participate in the conversations, offer input, and share their perspectives. Like PAC meetings, SPC meetings should be public and open to all interested parties, regardless of whether they are formal members of the SPC. This can serve as one aspect of the consultation the SPC initiates with the school community, but more importantly it provides a variety of perspectives which enrich the discussions at the SPC meeting. In addition, this open and inclusive practice reflects the Richmond School District tradition of broad involvement of partner groups in school and district activities.
What happens if a parent or teacher representative on SPC is unable to serve out the year?
The election of alternates serves the purpose of providing for this eventuality and is also helpful if a SPC member is unable to attend a particular meeting.
What if three parents are not willing or able to serve on the SPC?
If an insufficient number of parent representatives are elected by the Parents’ Advisory Council by December 1, the principal shall notify parents and consider options, which could include whether he or she is prepared to make any recommendations to the School Board for appointments. This would naturally occur as a result of discussion and problem solving with the school community which addresses the situation in a collaborative manner.
Who should chair the School Planning Council?
The SPC should determine the chair once the membership is complete.
What role does the SPC play in development of the Annual School Performance Plan?
The SPC is responsible for co-ordinating the plan, ensuring that all partner groups have been involved and consulted, ensuring that the goals are connected to clear actions and indicators which allow the school to measure progress towards these goals on an annual basis. The School Planning Council also finalizes and approves the Annual Performance Plan before it is submitted.
What opportunities does the SPC provide for schools?
The SPC has the potential to involve the school community, including students, staff, parents and other members of the community in ongoing discussion, review and reflection on informative assessment of student learning, what we collectively value and how we can best achieve it.
What will the School Performance Plan look like?
It will be very similar to the Annual Report that was required under the accreditation process. The District has developed a form for submission via RichNet that specifies the contents required under the legislation and encourages brevity (see section VII The Form of the School Performance Plan). Individual school plans will then be consolidated into a district data base. The information in school plans will be a primary driver for district pro-d priorities as well as for the District's own Annual Performance Plan.
According to the Ministry guidelines for school plans, the required elements of a school plan are: clearly stated goals for improving student achievement, analysis/rationale for the selection of these goals, the data sources used in the analysis, an indication of the specific performance targets for improving student achievement, equity groups identified for focused attention, and a description of the data that the school will use to monitor its progress.
The District suggests that schools limit themselves to two goals, and three at a maximum. Goals should not expand through the use of extensive sub-objectives. Clear, important, attainable goals are desired. These goals are developmental and are not intended to cover all the important areas of ongoing work in the school, but rather to provide a focus for the school’s developmental activities.
This year every school will be expected to include at least one “well-structured” goal in its report. This means that at least one of the goals must be based on analysis of student achievement data, focused on student achievement, and use data-based Performance Indicators to monitor progress.
What data is the school required to keep and consider in its development of school goals?
Schools are encouraged to use a range of data including classroom level data (e.g., classroom assessments and report cards), school level data (e.g., attendance data collected in the school office or behavioural records maintained in the school office), district level data and provincial level data.
We do not presently have any district level data collection programs. Consideration of the benefits, costs and dangers of such district data collection will be considered within the Performance Assessment aspect of Directions, but there are no plans at present.
Provincial level data is provided to schools in a variety of forms, including the annual school profile, provincial exam scores, grade to grade transition rates, FSA and satisfaction survey results.
It is felt that schools have access to considerable useful data and the most important task for now is to streamline its collection in order to make it more easily available for use rather than to generate more. The biggest exception to this generality is in the area of human and social development, where there is a lack of assessment data at all levels. This is also an issue that will be considered within the Performance Assessment aspect of Directions.
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