Site Councils and School Committees

When our daughter was in elementary school, I served on the Harrington Elementary School Site Council for two years (2006-2008).  I was elected through a representative process.  Serving on the School Council was an engaging, pragmatic way to be involved in all students' academic and social-emotional life. 

Our Council was comprised of four parents whose children attended the school; each parent served overlapping terms of two years each with two parents elected each year.  Three school staff members were elected by the staff.  One parent was nominated as Co-Chair and the principal served as the other Co-Chair and also appointed one member from the community at large.

Most often we met monthly in a conference room at the school, before the start of the school day, and for about an hour.  The issues we took up  impacted the annual school improvement plan:  the impact of class size on student performance; school safety and discipline; the school handbook; enhancing family engagement; enhancing the school and grounds and more.

The law requires Councils to:

• hold meetings in a public place and allow anyone in attendance to audio and/or video record the proceedings as long as it is not disruptive to the meeting;
• post a notice of each meeting with the city or town clerk and in a public place at least 48 hours prior to the meeting.
• keep minutes indicating the date, time, place, members present and absent, and actions taken;
• adhere to a quorum, which is to be defined as a majority of the Council members.

In recent years, our School Committee has sought to inform local Councils of the above requirements.  The relationship between school committees and school councils provides for a unique opportunity to improve and strengthen community engagement within public education governance.  The law provides an oversight role for School Committees.  School Committees are responsible for:

• setting district wide performance standards and educational policies that building-level School Improvement Plans (SIP) must take into account;
• reviewing and approving building-level SIP;
• approving a representative process for the election of parent and teacher members of the Council.

The School Committee is a policy-setting body.  Since education is a State function, the five elected members of our School Committee serve as officers of the State.  At the local level, the School Committee is a legislative body responsible for establishing local policy for seeing that the schools are properly run in accordance with State law and regulations.  Copies of the Policy Manual are available in the Office of the Superintendent, 146 Maple Street, Lexington MA 02420, or online at http://lps.lexingtonma.org.