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Conference
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Highlights
of previous SSBA conferences :-
2007 Developing a
Parent Council and Encouraging Parental Involvement
2006 The Way Forward
for Parental Involvement
2005 Parents in
Partnership
2003 Partnerships and
responsibilities
2002 SSBA is fit for
the future
2001 Roadshow
2000 International
and published book
available here online
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Conference 2000Canada
Advisory Councils for School Leadership:
Representing Parental Participation in
School Decision Making in Manitoba, Canada
1.1
Introduction
Since
1943 all Canadian children between the ages of seven
and 16 have been required to attend school. The
predominant mechanism for ensuring education for all
children has been a publicly funded, provincially
controlled school systems. Although each provincial
educational system differs somewhat from each of the
others, there is also much that they share in common
in terms of their structures, curricula and other
aspects of the delivery of public education. The form
and operation of public school systems is prescribed
in detail in the education or public school statues
enacted in each province by democratically elected
members of provincial legislatures.
Although
compulsory education has only been a feature of
Canadian education for a little more than fifty years
the first recognition of education as a
constitutional concern occurred with the British
North America Act (BNA) of 1867. While a number of
sections of this act have relevance for education it
is section 93 which is of particular importance since
it deals directly, if somewhat generally, with
education. For the purposes of this discussion it is
the preamble of section 93 which is important since
it clearly establishes education as a provincial
responsibility.
93. In
and for each Province the Legislature may exclusively
make laws in relation to Education…
One of
the similarities to be seen across the educational
systems of the various provinces is the manner in
which each has chosen to exercise its constitutional
authority. Each province has created several local
educational agencies usually known as school
divisions, each of which is administered by a locally
elected board of school trustees. These elected
school boards serve as agents of their provincial
government, and, although it happens rarely, boards
can be dismissed by the government. In addition
Boards provide the mechanism for local community and
parental input into the educational process. As Levin
and Young (1994) note "Working within the
constraints laid down by provincial legislation and
regulations, school boards are responsible for much
of the day-to-day administration of schools"
(p.40).
School
boards have been the formal, statutory avenue through
which parents have had input into decision-making
either through presentations to the board or election
of board trustees; however, there have been other
means by which parents could have an impact upon the
educational system. One such example found in many
public schools of Canada’s provinces has been
the equivalent of a home and school or parent/teacher
association. These organizations, while providing
some link between the parental community of the
school and the school administration, frequently
found their activities largely confined to raising
funds and providing support for extra-curricular
activities such as the music program and athletic
teams. Lacking any formal statutory legitimation
parents relied heavily upon the school administrators
and teachers to provide them with announcements of
their meetings and to make school facilities
available for meetings. The participation of parents
in any capacity at all in the affairs of the school
was very much dependent upon the existence of active
parents and willing administrators.
Nearly
thirty years ago, however, the Province of Quebec
recognized the role parents should play by the
formation of parent councils in all its schools.
British Columbia established parent advisory councils
in the province’s schools in 1992. Since then
legislation mandating structures to support parent
involvement have been enacted in other provinces as
well (Durkin and Kingdon, 1995,p.3). The Province of
Manitoba is one of those provinces.
2.1
Establishment of Advisory Councils for School Leadership
In the
early 1990s the Government of Manitoba embarked upon
a process of education renewal and on July 4, 1994
the government released Renewing Education: New
Directions, A Blueprint for Action. This
document, as its name suggests, presented a blueprint
for the reform of the province’s educational
system, from Kindergarten to the completion of high
school, Senior 4. It established the groundwork for
new directions and actions in six interrelated
priority areas, one of which was described as
"Parental and Community Involvement". This
area was identified in response "to the requests
of parents and the community for the opportunity to
play a more significant role in the education of
their children" (p.27). To provide this
opportunity, A Blueprint for Action outlined
new and more meaningful roles for parents and
community members which allowed for greater
involvement in educational programming and other
aspects of school life.
A second
government document, Renewing Education: New
Directions, The Action Plan was sent to all
education stakeholders in January, 1995. The Minister
of Education and Training prefaced The Action Plan
with this overview: "...this document outlines
the key implementation details, time frames, policy
changes, and legislative amendments necessary to move
educational renewal forward." These
implementation details were elaborated upon in The
Action Plan for each of the six priority areas
established in the earlier "blueprint"
document, including Parental and Community
Involvement. In order to allow parents and community
members greater involvement one significant
initiative proposed was the establishment of Advisory
Councils for School Leadership. Toward the
achievement of that end the following two mandates
were set out in The Action Plan (p.23):
Action 7
- Require schools to establish Advisory Councils for
School Leadership, as requested by parents,
comprising parents and community members.
Action 8
- Require schools to include Advisory Councils for
School Leadership in developing school plans and
budgets.
These
mandates were developed in a description of eight
functions to be assigned to the Advisory Councils
(p.24). These eight functions became the basis of the
Advisory Council’s mandate published in a
subsequent document released in November 1994, Guidelines:
Advisory Councils for School Leadership which
reiterated the mandate of the advisory council. This
document clearly stated that the intent of the
initiative to establish advisory councils was to
"involve parents in shared decision making in
areas such as the development of school plans and
budgets, school reviews, curriculum, and processes
involved in staff hiring and assignment"(p.1).
The
Advisory Council mandate was depicted in the
following way in the Guidelines (p.2):
The
Advisory Council for School Leadership will work in
cooperation with school staff, trustees, parents and
members of the community in the following ways:
As
an advisory structure to principal and staff,
presenting parental and community concerns
and perspectives on issues related to
programs, school planning, budgeting, and the
management of the school.
As
a means of disseminating information about
the school and about parental priorities and
of promoting community understanding and
involvement in the school.
As
a liaison between the school, parents,
community and other school support
organizations for the purpose of
information-sharing and co-operation.
As
an advisory structure to the school board in
matters relating to the school division.
The Guidelines
set out the roles and responsibilities of the
Advisory Council for School Leadership as the
following (p.2-3):
To
advise the principal on school matters as
they pertain to school improvement, policies,
organization and activities, including the
following:
curriculum and programs
cultural and
extra-curricular activities
student discipline and
behaviour management policies
community access to school
facilities
transportation
fund-raising
school closures
To
provide recommendations to the school board
with respect to the process of hiring and
assigning principals.
To
participate in the development of the annual
school plan.
To
participate in the development of the school
budget proposal, prior to submission to the
school board.
To
participate in school reviews and to receive
feedback on actions taken.
To
promote community interest, understanding and
involvement in the school and in the
governance of the school.
To
establish ongoing communication with all
parents of the children enrolled in the
school and with community members. The
Advisory Council is representative of their
priorities and concerns.
To
establish a means of regular accountability
to the school and community for involvement,
activities, expenditures and recommendations.
In
addition to setting out the mandate, roles and
responsibilities of an Advisory Council for School
Leadership, Guidelines sets out the roles and
responsibilities of a number of individuals and
groups: school boards; principals; teachers; and the
Minister (pp. 5-6). School Boards are required to:
ensure that principals facilitate the establishment
of and provide administrative support for the
Advisory Councils; provide pertinent and meaningful
information about the school division as is required
by the Council and appropriate to its mandate; and,
receive recommendations put forward by the Councils
relating to divisional concerns. Principals are
required: to assist in the formation and continuance
of the Council; to keep parents and community members
informed of annual meetings; to make budget available
to the Council for costs related to typing, mailing
and printing meeting minutes and other
communications; to attend meetings, provide
information and facilitate the advisory process when
requested; and to insure that annual school plans
include parental and community involvement
initiatives. For their part teachers must support
Advisory Councils as integral parts of the school;
keep informed about and communicate with the Council
and, when requested, provide information or attend
meetings on an ad hoc basis. Finally, the Minister is
required to ensure that Advisory Councils for School
Leadership are established as requested by parents;
inform the public schools about these councils
provide guidelines for their establishment and,
dissolve councils which are not functioning according
to their established mandate as defined by the
province.
The Guidelines
also addressed three additional, crucial aspects of
the functioning of the Advisory Councils for School
Leadership. These include communication,
representation and operation. Recognizing the
importance for communication between the council and
the school’s personnel as well as among parents
and the following responsibilities were outlined.
The
principal will take responsibility to
facilitate the process to see that all
parents, guardians and community members are
fully aware of their responsibilities and
rights regarding the Advisory Council.
The
principal will take responsibility to
facilitate support for the Council in its
communication with the parents and community
members in its catchment area.
The
Advisory Council will take responsibility to
obtain representative feedback from the
parents and community on the various matters
it is reviewing and to inform them fully on
the actions of the Council.
The
School Board will take responsibility to
develop procedures for receiving
recommendations from Advisory Councils and
for reporting on actions.
The
Guidelines established that the Advisory Councils
were to be an elected group of parents and community
members who "together with staff, students and
other interested parties advise the principal and
school officials". Representation on the
councils was to be determined in the following
manner.
At
least two thirds of the positions on the
Advisory Council must be filled with parents
whose children attend the school and who are
not employed by the school division. This
will ensure that parents’ views are
clearly represented and that employees
observe conflict of interest guidelines.
In
order to provide the view of the community at
large up to one third (7 ) of the Advisory
Council seats may be filled by community
members who live within the school catchment
area, but do not have children in the school.
Not more than one representative may be a
teacher. Where there is a Student Council in
the school the President will automatically
become part of the community representation.
Councils
should be a minimum of seven members in size
with exceptions made for small schools.
The
principal and one representative teacher will
attend Council meetings as ex officio members
without voting privileges.
The
Guidelines also set out the operation of the
council in the following statements
The
process for the establishment of an Advisory
Council for School Leadership must be
initiated if ten or more parents so request.
The
Advisory Council for School Leadership will
be elected at an annual meeting of community
members to be held no later than the third
Friday of October.
The
Annual meeting shall be organized and
advertised by the principal and/or Advisory
Council Chair.
Council
members must be elected at the Annual General
Meeting by those in attendance who are
parents of children attending the school or
community members in the school catchment
area. In large geographical areas, nomination
and election by mail may be considered.
At
the first meeting of the Advisory council
members will choose an executive from among
themselves.
Subcommittees
can be established at the discretion of the
Advisory Council and can include parents,
teachers, students, community representatives
and individuals with special expertise to
help them in developing an informed decision.
The
Council will hold regular meetings which will
be open to parents and members of the
community. Only Council members may vote at
the meetings.
The
Council shall decide on and publish
procedures for conducting meetings, making
decisions, bringing recommendations forward
and reviewing information. It may establish a
constitution to be reviewed periodically.
Terms
of office for Council Executives shall be
determined by the Council. It is suggested
that one and two year terms might overlap to
insure both continuity and new
representation.
In March
1996 Regulation 54/96 of The Education Administration
Act established the regulations governing Advisory
Councils for School Leadership in the Province of
Manitoba. They essentially matched what was set out
in The Guidelines document with some
modifications and additions. For example, the
regulations described the role of officers on the
councils, set the frequency of meetings and
established that the councils may make by-laws. In
some schools there were already existing Parent
Councils when the legislation was enacted. The
legislation also provided for these Parent Councils
to continue provided that their structure, operation
and activities conformed to any policies that the
School Board may have had regarding such councils.
The legislation was quite clear, however, that a
school may only have either an Advisory Council or a
Parent Council, not both.
There
were at least two changes in the regulations from
what had appeared earlier in The Guidelines
which might be construed as significant. The earlier
document stated that not more than one representative
could be a teacher. At the time of the publication of
The Guidelines this limitation was a
contentious issue. Subsequently, the regulations
allowed for an increase in the number of teachers and
staff of the school division who were also parents or
community members. The number was set at not more
than 1/3 of the total number. This number could be
increased to 1/2 if the persons entitled to elect
members decided to increase the positions available
to teachers and other staff. Given that the
school’s principal and one of its teachers have
non-voting membership status on the Council this
change raises some interesting questions about the
nature of the "voices" to be heard at
meetings and, potentially, the advice emanating from
the Council.
The
Guidelines also described the mandate of the
Council with respect to the budget as one of
participation in the development of the school budget
proposal before its submission to the school board.
The regulations state that one aspect of the
Council’s role is to "advise the principal
and the school board about an annual budget for the
school". This could allow for a much more
influential role for the Council in the preparation
of the school budget than had been originally
conceived.
3.1
Issues Related to Advisory Councils for School Leadership
Advisory
Councils for School Leadership have been in operation
in the Province of Manitoba for a little more than
four years but there are a number of potential issues
related to them which can be identified which either
have or may begin to appear in the near future.
Central to many of the issues is the question of
power. While it is probably true, as one local
principal indicated, that the primary interest of
parents in serving on a council is "to enrich
the educational experience of the children in the
school" it is also probably fair to say that
these newly established Advisory Councils have
provided parents with a greater voice in the
decision-making of their local school than was
previously associated with parent councils or home
and school organizations. Parents’ opportunity
to enrich their children’s experience has
considerably expanded. While they are only advisory,
the breadth of decision-making concerns into which
they have input covers virtually the full gamut of
school activities from financial to extra-curricular.
Further, their advisory role extends beyond the local
school to the school board whom they can advise with
respect to the process of hiring and assigning
principals.
Historically,
the role of parent councils has been largely confined
to fund-raising and chaperoning school events. This
role continues. In one Winnipeg school the Council
raises money through activities such as community
BINGO, chocolate sales, and gift wrap sales, all
activities typical of many urban schools. Access to
the monies generated by the council is available to
the school to fund educational enrichment activities,
such as field trips, for which there would not
otherwise be supports. Since council meetings are
open to the public, parents and community members
have the right to attend meetings and offer input
into the financial dealings of the council. However,
issues of how to spend the money can be the source of
conflict and friction within the council itself.
As the
legislation notes the functions of the Councils go
far beyond fund-raising and financial allocation. In
the aforementioned school, the council is represented
on the interview-panel hiring administrators for the
school and has advised the principal on hiring of
school staff. Members of the council also participate
on the School Planning Team which develops policies
on student behaviour in the school. The Council also
oversees the operation of a lunch program for
children of working parents and after-school programs
in conjunction with the city Parks and Recreation
branch. They advise the principal on ways the school
facilities my best be utilized for the community and
have input into how the school will participate and
represent itself in larger community events. The
advice of the council is also solicited in the
scheduling of professional development days for
teachers and members of the Council may advise the
School Planning Team on topic-selection for teacher
professional development. Additionally, the Council
has input into budget development.
It is
clear that this Council is exercising a mandate
similar to that set out in the legislation. What is
interesting, however, is that this particular Council
has been in existence for ten years, predating the
legislation establishing Advisory Councils by several
years. The movement toward giving parents and
community members greater voice in the
decision-making process of their local schools in
this school division had begun well before the
enabling legislation was introduced. The legislation
establishing Advisory Councils can be understood as
moving in a direction already established in some
schools in the province and elsewhere in the country,
that is the provision of greater input into
decision-making for parents at the local school
level.
Advisory
Councils are subject to the same internal conflicts
and external supports or demands are all systems. For
example, there may be disagreements within councils
about which school projects warrant funding, which
individuals the council might urge the board to
appoint to a principalship, or which curricular
options the council may wish to support. In some
instances disagreement between council members has
escalated to a point where dissatisfied members have
resigned their positions. In one setting, one faction
of a council launched a community campaign to support
the election of like-minded parents who would oust
from the council members in opposition.
Due to
external pressures, even the matter of fund-raising
by council members has been rendered more complicated
by a decision from the Minister of Finance to enforce
the 7% Provincial Sales Tax (PST) on monies made
through many of the more common fund-raising
enterprises. As a result Councils currently stand to
lose taxed income and also must establish a mechanism
for calculating and paying sales tax. An additional
concern in the area of finance is that, because
provincial contributions to public education have
dropped nearly 20% in the last ten years, some
schools are relying upon councils to generate funding
to wire schools for computers, install public address
systems, purchase music and drama materials and buy
physical education equipment. Two concerns arising
from this situation are that: 1) schools in more
affluent areas are likely to generate more money for
better educational experiences than schools in lower
income areas and, 2) that Advisory Councils may be
used as fund-raising committees to compensate for
reduced provincial contributions.
In
addition to the many issues which relate to the
internal operations of the councils there are also
issues related to external relationships. The
Advisory Council’s relationship to the school
board and its administrators is often an interesting
situation. Prior to this legislation parental
involvement at the local school level in budget and
curricular matters was minimal. Certainly parental
views and input related to curriculum, programs and
discipline were rarely, if ever, solicited by the
principal and school staff. With one legislative
leap, parents can now establish a council and thereby
have input into these areas of decision-making. A
very significant shift in the relationship between
school administration and staff has occurred. Parents
have gone from a situation where the health and
vitality of their parent group was very much linked
to whether the principal chose to actively support
and facilitate their efforts to one where the
principal is now required to provide that support and
facilitation should the requisite parental interest
emerge.
Thus,
the Advisory Council concept presents a challenging
role for the principal who is accountable for the
operation of the school through the school
division’s senior administration to the school
board, which in its turn is accountable to the
Minister of Education. Advisory Councils, in their
turn, have an advisory relationship with the school
but are themselves accountable to the Minister. The
principalship is a lynch pin position, responsible
for heeding advice from the Council and also
fulfilling the demands of the school board and the
Ministry. It remains to be seen, through continued
interactions with the councils whether principals
become caught in the conflict between advice of the
parents on the Advisory Council and the views of the
school board.
The
legislation specifically indicates that the council
has the right to advise the principal and the school
board with regard to the annual school budget. One
can only raise the question at this point as to the
extent to which this new relationship will either
erode the role of the school board and/or lead to
increased conflict. Certainly it seems that there is
the potential for Advisory Councils to encroach on
matters which are the domain of the school board. For
instance, in one of Manitoba’s largest
divisions, school trustees publicly voiced their
concern that Councils were exceeding their advisory
powers and placing demands upon school boards in
decision-making on pay increases to administrators,
student suspensions, transfers of personnel and
budget changes.
The
potential for these councils to exceed their advisory
capacities may also be source of conflict for
teachers who may perceive them as representing the
views of a vocal minority trying to dictate not only
the way in which professional educators teach but
also what they should or should not teach.
Thus
far, issues related to conflict and power have been
raised regarding the new Advisory Councils for School
Leadership but the councils also have the potential
for achieving many positive outcomes. Greater access
to the decision-making process can be a salutory
educational experience. Schools stand to gain
significantly from the development of even a small
cadre of parents who are informed about issues of
hiring, curriculum development and budget generation.
Greater transparency with regard to the school
decision-making process can serve to reduce criticism
of school administration and staff, particularly at a
time of budget and staff cuts.
Similarly,
participation in the decision-making process can lead
to greater commitment to the goals of the school from
all concerned and an understanding of all the factors
involved in very complicated decisions.
Advisory
Councils for School Leadership are still in the early
stages of their development in the Province of
Manitoba. Only time will tell whether they will
achieve the goals set out for them as part of the
larger reform of the province’s educational
system.
Michael
Bergsgaard
Annabelle M Mays
References
Durkin, M.
& Kingdon, H. (Eds.) (1995). Effective beginnings:
A guide to new partnerships in schools. Ottawa: The
Canadian Home and School and Parent-Teacher Federation.
Levin, B.
& Young, J. (1994). Understanding Canadian
schools: An introduction to educational administration. Toronto:
Harcourt Brace Canada.
Manitoba
Education and Training. (1994). Renewing education:
New directions, a blueprint for action. Manitoba:
Manitoba Education and Training.
Manitoba
Education and Training. (1995). Renewing education:
New directions, the action plan. Manitoba: Manitoba
Education and Training.
Manitoba
Education and Training. (1995). Renewing education:
New directions, guidelines: Advisory councils for school
leadership. .
Manitoba.
(1996). The education administration act. Manitoba:
Government of Manitoba
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