Parental governance

Massachusetts has a school council handbook. A few things we're noting:

• site council members are to be elected by the parent organization of the school (not appointed, for example)
• site council is to review school improvement plan and review the school budget
• members of site council are to co-chair with principal
• PTO's, incidentally, are to be run BY PARENTS

Looking at what sort of support is being provided for parental organziations, what are the rights and responsibilities and how well they are being carried out by the Worcester organizations. Looking at national websites and handbooks.

Question about training for PTOs.

PTO is supposed to elect site council; synergy in the parent involvement. Two are to work together. How to better implement at school level. Law implies that more is going on than is actually covered in the law. Each aspect of the site council is to be represented by an elected member of that aspect (parents, teachers, students (at high school level)).

Some hope that the planned January meeting will feed into those concerns and plans.

Principals were trained on school site councils. Partnering principals with parents.