By Staff Writer, Ontario School Advocate

If necessity is the mother of invention, then the School Council Support Centre was born out of necessity.

The year was 1997. Like so many other people involved in the school council system since it’s inception in 1995, Gord Kerr was asking some fundamental questions:

What is the real role of school councils? How can school councils really make a difference for Ontario’s students?

Kerr said, "I felt that the system held a great deal of potential, but that our council and many others were stumbling over these basic questions. We were involved in busy-work, but not the kinds of work that would make a meaningful difference"

To try to find some answers, Gord enrolled in the Master of Education program at Nipissing University. He said, "I felt that if I could understand a little more about how parents can make a difference in education, then perhaps I could understand how councils could make a difference."

Gord also participated in the province-wide discussion on school councils led by the Education Improvement Commission in 1998. When the report was issued (The Road Ahead III – A Report on the Role of School Councils), he found some of the key answers he was looking for.

The report recommended a stated purpose for school councils – to focus on improving student learning, and provided three key methods for school councils to working towards that purpose:

1. Foster parental involvement within the school community

2. Be involved in the school improvement plan

3. Provide balanced and informed advice to the Principal, Board and Ministry

"To me, fostering effective parental involvement was the key. If we knew what kinds of involvement made a difference, then we could create new initiatives to stimulate effective involvement, the kinds that would have an positive impact on students" said Kerr.

The York Region District School Board introduced Gord to the work of Dr. Joyce Epstein. Epstein had developed a framework in 1995 to describe 6 different types of parental involvement. Gord then spend several years testing the framework within the schools he was involved in, and within the York Region DSB, where he assumed the role of co-chair for a Community Building Team.

"What I discovered was that the framework needed to be expanded to be effective in guiding the work of school councils in Ontario" Kerr stated.

Gord’s expanded framework contains the following eight types of involvement:

Parenting – helping parents to meet the challenge of being a parent through parenting seminars, motivational guest speakers, workshops on good nutrition for students, etc.

Communicating – maintaining an open and healthy two way communication between home and the school

Volunteering – providing a range of different ways for parents to volunteer within the school, from in-class assistance, to safe arrival assistance, to one-on-one tutoring or small group reading, to library help, etc.

Participating in School Events – organizing or stimulating attendance at school events such as meet-the-teacher night, interview nights, curriculum nights, school plays, concerts or variety shows, etc.

Fundraising – fundraising for a clear purpose that is connected to student learning or to the school improvement plan

Learning at Home – helping parents to understand how they can help their child with homework, make good course selections, or reinforce classroom studies

Developing an Effective School Council – learning how to be more effective, becoming involved in the school improvement plan, providing informed and balanced advice to the Principal, running effective meetings, etc.

Collaborating with the Community – drawing on community resources to assist students. For example, bringing a Junior Achievement program into the school to assist with math skills or partnering with other community groups

Kerr says, "They all make a difference, but some make more of a difference than others."

Bursting with a need to share this information with councils across the province, Gord created the School Council Support Centre, an on-line resource centre for school councils to use to learn about these different types of involvement, and about some of Gord’s other research.

Kerr summarized by saying, "Councils across the province are dealing with a number of common issues. I would like this to be a resource centre where councils can get some answers on some of the repeatedly-asked questions like ‘how can we make a difference?’ Hopefully, using some this material, more councils will be able to get on with the task of having a positive impact on student learning within their schools."

Gord also conducts planning sessions for individual schools around York Region to create plans using these eight types of involvement, and conducts training sessions for groups of schools.

You can reach the School Council Support Centre at www.schoolcouncils.net.