Leadership #3: School Site Council
School Site Council
Overview: Meet with elected student and parent representatives to discuss and implement the mission of the school, school policies and address parent concerns. This was my first year on the Site Council and after enrolling in the Principal Leadership Institute program at UCLA, my Principal recommended that I become a part of it. This year we rewrote and reviewed the school site plan, reviewing and discussing changes that needed to implemented and/or modified. We also worked on our application to be recognized as a Model California Continuation High School, which we announced at our last Open House night on May 6th.
Reflection: In my first year on Site Council I felt as though I was learning a great deal about aspects of our school that I had previously not known. Glaringly apparent was the extremely low turnout of parent members. So few parents show up to the meetings that its hard to adhere to the bylaws and voting protocols. The parents that do show up end up having to do double duty, so-to-speak, and this leads to the potential for some being asked to do too many different jobs. With a group this small, we need to avoid creating Site Council fatigue.
Also, it made me realize that as a future leader my school doesn’t have a Parent Teacher Association. Going forward, the creation and maintenance of such a group would be enormously helpful to the school as a whole.
CPSEL Connection
Standard 1: Facilitating the development, articulation, implementation and stewardship of a vision of learning that is shared and supported by the school community
1.1: Develop a shared vision
1.2: Plan and implement activities around the vision
1.3: Allocate resources to support the vision
Standard 2: Advocating, nurturing, and sustaining a school culture and instructional program conducive to student learning and staff professional growth
2.1: Develop school culture and ensure equity
2.3: Guide professional growth of staff
2.4: Create and utilize accountability systems
Standard 3: Ensuring management of the organization, operations, and resources for a safe, efficient and effective learning environment.
3.1: Ensure a safe school environment
3.2: Create an infrastructure to support an effective learning environment
3.3: Manage the school learning support system
3.4: Monitor and evaluate the program and staff
Standard 4: Collaborating with families and community members, responding to diverse community interests and needs, and mobilizing community resources
4.1: Collaborate to incorporate the perspective of families and community members
4.2: Establish and manage linkage between the site and the larger community context
4.3: Engage and coordinate support from agencies outside the school
Standard 6: Understanding, responding to, and influencing the larger political, social, economic, legal and cultural context
6.1: Engage with the policy environment to support school success
6.2: Interact with stakeholders
6.3: Incorporate input from the public
