Parent Involvement Committee
June 5, 2008 - meeting highlights
Update from Volunteer Reception
At Sally Drew suggestion and the committee's agreement, Communications created a parent involvement survey card which was distributed to long-serving volunteers at the board's Volunteer Reception on May 14, 2008. The card was attached to a bag of chocolate coins that read: "Thanks a million". More than 100 bags and cards were distributed and Communications has collected 11 responses to date. The survey responses are attached to this e-mail.
Savi Khanna, who attended the Volunteer Reception, reported that the keynote speaker paid for by the Parent Involvement Committee (PIC) was excellent and very well-received by the group.
View parent involvement video created for Pamela Tomasevic's superintendency
Savi Khanna brought in a parent involvement video created for Pamela Tomasevic's superintendency. Upon viewing the video, the committee decided to order dubs for all elementary schools in Peel. Communications will contact VCR Active, the company responsible for shooting and editing the video, to order dubs. The videos will be sent to schools in mid-September accompanied by a covering memo.
Communications will prepare a memo that provides schools with tips on when to show the video to encourage parent involvement, e.g. during kindergarten registration.
Committee members also discussed:
- potentially creating a similar video for middle and secondary school parents
- recruiting volunteers from business associations, reaching out to retired professionals, e.g. scientists
- hearing from secondary schools about what types of volunteer opportunities exist at the secondary level
- hearing from parents who traditionally don't get involved due to a number of barriers
- holding focus groups with parents and administrators to find out what they believe would help get parents more involved at both the elementary and secondary levels
- pitching a story related to parent involvement to Talk Local (Rogers TV) and to local newspaper media
- whether or not parents feel welcome to get involved in middle and secondary schools. Savi Khanna reported that the message she hears is "Step back and let your kids be independent and take ownership."
- the need for secondary schools to more clearly communicate their need for volunteers
- that what appears to be the big need at the high school level is school council participation
- the importance of parents meeting with teachers and building a connection
- asking the group of secondary school council chairs how the PIC can support their needs
- targeting messages to key times when parents are making major decisions/transitions and concentrate our efforts then
- helping secondary schools understand "what's in it for them"
Inventory of what schools are doing to encourage parent involvement
Savi Khanna shared brochures with the committee created by Queen Street Public School. The brochure titled "Parents as partners—working together for student success" is being distributed in English and in seven other top languages spoken in the Queen Street community.
After our first meeting in March, Communications sent out an e-mail to all Peel school administrators requesting effective parent involvement practices. The information collected is attached as "Parent Involvement effective practices—suggestions from schools."
Sharing of effective parent involvement practices
In Sally Drew's absence, her survey report was distributed to the committee. The feedback she collected and collated is attached.
Committee members also discussed:
- required criminal record checks as deterrents to volunteering – Communications will look into posting forms on the Peel board website
- contacting Peel Regional Police to find out if process could be more volunteer-friendly
- creating a section of the Peel board website dedicated to parent involvement – Communications will draft pages for this new section and provide them to committee members over the summer for general input
- the idea of eating together brings people together
- rolling out effective parent involvement activities
- the effectiveness of parent information nights, especially on the topic of parenting and Internet safety
- how different parent workshops appeal to different communities
- having a parent involvement potluck at the School Council training evening in the fall—council members would bring with them key strategies that their schools have used to bring in and keep parents involved. Task would be given to members ahead of time so they could come prepared. A template form could be provided and collected at the end of the session. Forms could be pulled together to create a resource.
- the importance of reaching working parents
- Calderstone Middle School's Dad & Son Reading Club—every week or so dads and their sons (45 pairs) come to the school's library to participate in the reading club
- some schools hold morning school council meetings for dads
Decision re: opening PIC meetings to the public
The committee decided that PIC meetings would be open to the public. A standing agenda item will be added to the end of every meeting. Ten minutes will be dedicated to public comments/questions at that time. Guests will be permitted to provide input that is relevant to the committee's discussions throughout the meeting.
Communications will prepare a welcome script for co-chairs to use at the start of every meeting if members of the public are present. The script will outline the committee's mandate and provide the meeting structure related to guest input.
Update: Help your child learn multilingual workshop series
The attached report was shared with committee members. The committee approved to use the unused budget allocated to this project (approx. $5,000) to hold additional workshops in the fall.
Workshops may be held in faith and cultural centres, and may again be held at international language program sites. We want to reach parents at their points of access.
The Punjabi presenter will be approached by Communications to hold a training session for presenters in the summer. The training session will focus on recruitment and workshop topics, including how to encourage parent involvement at the school and board levels.
Other
For the 2007-08 school year, the ministry provided the board with $29,068 in Parent Involvement funding. From this, we've used $11,700 to support the Help your child learn workshop series and $3,000 to cover the cost of the Volunteer Reception keynote speaker. Remaining in this budget is $14,368.
The committee approved that the remaining $14,368 of Parent Involvement funding from the Ministry of Education be dedicated to obtaining dubs of the video created for Pamela Tomasevic's superintendency and to creating a dedicated Parent Involvement section of the Peel board website. This new section of the website will be created by Communications and encourage volunteerism and parent involvement, and will be translated into as many of the top languages spoken in Peel as possible. The translated sections will then be posted on each of the different multilingual websites, e.g. www.peelschools.org/punjabi. Communications will provide committee members with the opportunity to provide general input on the text over the summer. We expect the section to be ready for the start of the next school year.
Materials created for this section, in English and other languages, will also be made available to schools as pdf documents that they can print and hand off to interested parents and/or community members.
Next meeting
The next Parent Involvement Committee meeting will take place in the Trustees' Area at the HJA Brown Education Centre on Thursday, September 11, 2008 between 4 and 6 p.m. Please let Carla Pereira know if you are unable to attend. Refreshments will be provided.
