School Councils make a significant difference in the lives of students, staff, and families. They welcome families, encourage parent engagement, work to improve student achievement, and enhance the accountability of the education system to parents and caregivers. It is important that your school community know who the members are, what you do, and how they can get involved.
The following sections provide tips for engaging with the school community, with fellow School Council members, and with the broader community.
Parents may need support navigating the school system, and your School Council can help them to understand how they can become actively involved in their child’s education. Ensure that council members are accessible to parents and guardians – you are their voice in the school community.
The School Council chair and members should explain how a School Council meeting is conducted, how families can participate, and the processes involved in meetings, including how to add items to an agenda. Provide contact information so parents can reach out if they have a concern or suggestion.
Throughout the year, there will be many opportunities for a School Council to assume a visible, public profile in the school community, including:
- Setting up a School Council information table on parent-teacher interview nights
- Providing information for school newsletters that could include the council’s meeting minutes
- Posting the council’s meeting minutes on the school’s website
- Hosting special events that bring the school community into the school
- Making use of regular mailings to include a School Council update, a list of the council’s activities for the year, or the School Council’s meeting minutes
- Having the chair/co-chairs speak at various school functions
- Making personal contact with parents by phone or at special meetings
- Setting up a School Council display in the main foyer of the school
The following tip sheets, with content originally produced by Kawartha Pine Ridge School Board, provide ideas to help you grow your School Council:
The following tips can help your council work together more effectively:
- Develop a list of contact numbers, addresses, and e-mail addresses for all council members at the beginning of the year and distribute the list to all members.
- The chair/co-chairs and the principal may wish to establish a reliable way to communicate outside of regular meetings. They should establish a procedure to deal with urgent issues.
- Make School Council meetings informative, enjoyable and timely. This will help to sustain council members’ involvement and continuing support.
- Thank-you goes a long way – parents are giving up time with their families to help make the school experience for all children better – this is admirable and deserves to be recognized.
Don’t forget to connect with your neighbourhood School Council chairs and co-chairs – you can share ideas, promote each other's events and collaborate on community projects.
You can also take advantage of networking opportunities through the Parent Involvement Committee (PIC) and Ottawa-Carleton Association of School Councils (OCASC).
Community outreach is a whole-school activity. It should involve staff, students, families, and School Council members and should be ongoing and consistent. The purpose of community outreach is to ensure that your school becomes the hub of your neighbourhood. A welcoming environment breeds community support and community engagement.
The following are some of the ways your School Council can communicate with the diverse groups that make up your community:
- Distribute newsletters and flyers to the community
- Invite the neighbourhood to visit your school
- Consult with business and neighbourhood associations on community issues and needs
- Get out into your community – utilize recreation and cultural centres for School Council meetings
- Designate council members to work with specific organizations or networks
Here are a few suggestions to help make your council’s outreach successful:
- Create an outreach committee. The committee should be reflective of your school’s diverse population (for example, including parents who speak a second language).
- Hold sessions with parents and other community representatives to brainstorm ideas for reaching others.
- Treat every parent and community representative with respect, trust, and courtesy.
- Make sure that there is a formal mechanism in place that lets parents and community representatives communicate what they want, need, like, and dislike throughout the year. Be sure to follow up on any concerns they raise.
- Offer information, workshops, and support for parents to help them learn more about what goes on in the school and how they can contribute to what their children are learning at school, both academically and socially.
- Include parents in pertinent planning sessions.
- Invite community leaders to school events.
Ask teachers, parents, and council members to recruit other parents to become involved in the school.
Equity and Inclusion
As collaborators in education, schools and School Councils recognize that all families have an equitable place in our schools' community, free from racism, classism, colonialism, and other forms of discrimination, intentional or unintentional. All members of the school community are welcome to attend council meetings. Participation can take many forms and work to:
- Offer parents/caregivers a variety of ways to share their voices, knowledge, and expertise
- Build relationships between parents/caregivers and the school and break down walls and barriers
- Strive to identify and eliminate barriers to participation for parents/caregivers
- Disrupt practices that contribute to oppression based on race, class, nationality, abilities, gender, education, or language
School Council programming should reflect the goals of the OCDSB’s Indigenous, Equity & Human Rights Roadmap by ensuring that councils create welcoming and inclusive spaces for all members of their school community. Some ways to do this include:
- Welcome local translators to your meetings.
- Engage the school’s Multicultural Liasion Officer (MLO) for multi-lingual support. Talk to your principal for more information.
- Encourage leaders of diverse cultural and language groups to share information about the School Council with members of their communities.
- Avoid scheduling meetings on religious holidays. Refer to the OCDSB Religious and Creed-Based Holy Days Calendar when planning events and meetings.
- Leverage local multicultural media outlets to raise awareness about your school and School Council events.
- Serve Halal and Kosher food options at events. (Refer to the School Food and Beverage Policy for information about making healthy food choices).
Ottawa Community Immigrant Services Organization (OCISO), a partner of the school district, has been working for many years to increase the involvement of all parents in the school. They have compiled a list of 25 suggestions for effective ways for School Councils to use the $500 Parent Involvement grant to increase involvement throughout your whole school community:
Events
Events are a great way to engage families and fundraise. Events can take a wide range of formats, including speaker sessions, webinars, movie nights, pizza nights, BBQs, team games or sports, art or craft sessions, contests, and many others. The following tip sheets, with content originally produced by Kawartha Pine Ridge School Board, provide ideas to help you plan effective events:
Communication Strategies
The key to any successful partnership is communication. When parents are actively involved in their children’s education there is a sense of connectivity with their children’s teacher, principal, School Council, and the greater community. This connection helps to promote engagement, trust, and support for School Council initiatives.
One of a council’s first tasks might be to develop a communications plan. You can also create communication plans for specific projects or events. The following template may be used:
Here are some of the communication strategies and channels available to School Councils:
- Include information in your school’s newsletters
- Leverage the school or School Council’s social media accounts
- Post to the school website
- Organize a telephone tree
- Collect e-mail addresses from parents and set up distribution lists
- Host information sessions
- Seek out inexpensive advertising methods
- Make use of free public service announcements
Digital Platforms
Every school council has an OCDSB email address (sc-schoolname@ocdsb.ca). School Council chairs shall use these OCDSB accounts during their one-year term. Each year, incoming School Council chairs can access their account by speaking with their principal.
School Council email accounts offer a secure and consistent way to communicate with your school community. To ensure continuity when council membership changes, School Councils are asked to use these accounts for the following:
- Receiving OCDSB communications - All School Council email accounts are subscribed to our newsletter and may receive other communications from the OCDSB. In addition, the OCDSB Family and Community Engagement department may contact individuals in order to foster connections with school councils and support school outreach. Remember to check your account regularly!
- Hosting virtual meetings - Access to Google Meet is tied to an OCDSB email address. School council meetings could be set up on Google Meet using the Principal’s or the School Council's email address.
- School website updates - Access to edit the School Council pages on school websites is tied to an OCDSB email address.
- Communicating with families - Families in your school can email your School Council email address to share questions or suggestions with the Council executive team.
- Year-end reporting - Use your OCDSB School Council email address when completing the year-end and financial report forms.
- Social media - If your School Council creates a social media profile, please use the OCDSB email address to sign up for the account. This will ensure an easier transition when council membership changes.
All OCDSB school websites include a tab dedicated to the School Council. These websites are hosted on the SchoolMessenger platform, which offers all the tools needed to create, edit and maintain accessible content on their sites.
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