REVISED ADDENDUM
REGULAR MEETING OF THE
TORONTO CATHOLIC DISTRICT SCHOOL BOARD
PUBLIC SESSION
 
Joseph Martino, Chair                     Angela Kennedy, Vice Chair                            

-
CEC Catholic Teacher's Centre (3rd Floor)
80 Sheppard Ave East, Toronto, ON, M2N 6E8

Recommendations to Board:

(I) WHEREAS: Parent Reaching Out (PRO) Grants allocations were made available to Toronto Catholic District School Board (TCDSB) schools and wards in February 2020;

WHEREAS: Schools were not able to spend or schedule PRO Grant sessions due to the COVID-19 lock down;

WHEREAS: Schools have outstanding Parent Involvement Committee (PIC) grants that were not spent and will likely to continue receiving yearly PIC grants;

WHEREAS: School Communities need practical ideas and support to best utilize this grant; and

WHEREAS: Learning from the application process and forms need refinement to ensure that  schools have demonstrated the capacity and plans to effectively spend the grant with continued priority towards Equity Poverty Action Network (EPAN) schools.

BE IT RESOLVED THAT:

1.      The PRO Grant Ward and school allocations for 2019-2020 school year be rescinded;

2.      The funds be deferred to the 2020-2021 school year (subject to approval by the Ministry of Education); and

3.      A revised application process for 2020/21 to come back in June be recommended by Catholic Parent Involvement Committee (CPIC).

 

II) WHEREAS: CPIC has undertaken efforts to reform its Committee with updated bylaws;

WHEREAS: CPIC aims to be a full statutory Committee of the Board;

WHEREAS: Public agendas should be produced with sufficient material to aid Members in their meeting and being transparent to the community;

WHEREAS: Agenda preparation is taking an excessive amount of manual preparation time from parent volunteers;

WHEREAS: Agendas for all other TCDSB committees are supported centrally; and

WHEREAS: The TCDSB has invested in E-Scribe agenda software.

BE IT RESOLVED THAT:

1.      Agendas for CPIC be compiled and distributed through E-Scribe with the support of the TCDSB Recording Secretary;

2.      The Chair / Vice-Chair of CPIC to approve the final agenda before distribution consistent with in-force CPIC bylaws; and

3.      Recording Secretary support be provided for creation of minutes of CPIC starting September 2020.

 

III) WHEREAS:   The Ontario Education Act, Regulation 612/00 (School Councils) Consultation with Parents s23 states: A school council shall consult with parents of pupils enrolled in the school about matters under consideration by the council;

WHEREAS:   The Ontario Ministry of Education School Councils, A Guide for Members (2001) states that: Characteristics of Effective School Councils: Communicate with the community about their activities;

WHEREAS: School Council Chairs require means to timely communicate with their school community on important issues of concern to parents or activities of the council;

WHEREAS: The  Alberta School Council Guide: Alberta School Councils' Association (2007) states: “Communication is the most useful tool to get people interested in the work of school council. Letting parents and community members know about school council meetings and sharing information about school council decisions, directions and activities helps keep them interested. Collect and maintain a list of parents’ names, addresses, phone numbers and email addresses. Use email to send meeting notices, event announcements, requests for help and updates on school issues"; and

WHEREAS:  The Toronto District School Board of Trustees approved a similar recommendation on Parent Email Sharing with School Councils from Parent Involvement Advisory Committee (PIAC) in May 2019: 

That school registration forms include a checkbox to allow parents to consent to the sharing of their email with school’s school council to facilitate communication increased engagement by the school councils with the school community. PIAC requests that this be completed to be included in the 2019 Fall welcome packages to parents.

Collect and maintain a list of parents’ names, addresses, phone numbers and email addresses. Use email to send meeting notices, event announcements, requests for help and updates on school issues.”​

BE IT RESOLVED THAT:

The Board of Trustees by September 2020: 

 1. Add appropriate checkbox (s) to the annually collected parent consent/information forms and the online Student Online Application for Registration (SOAR) system to allow parents to consent to receiving communications via email directly from their Catholic School Parent Council (CSPC) and CPIC (using only the respective CSPC Chair/CPIC Chair @tcdsb.org accounts); and

 2. Setup a working group made up of Board Staff and parent representatives to: implement procedures and tools (both addressing short term and long term) using various systems for the purposes of allowing school councils to effectively and timely communicate with parents of their school community while respecting privacy and unsubscribe requests.  ​

 

IV) WHEREAS: The COVID-19 school lock down has required all School Board committee meetings to occur virtually;

WHEREAS: CPIC has basic access to tools and technology for facilitating virtual meetings between its Members;

WHEREAS: The Education Act requires Parent Involvement Committee meetings to be open to the public;

WHEREAS: The TCDSB has facilities and technology to broadcast to the public;

WHEREAS: The TCDSB recently broadcast the meeting for Special Education Advisory Committee (SEAC); and

WHEREAS: CPIC needs to keep the credentials and access to its meetings private to prevent unauthorized individuals from entering and/or disrupting the meeting.

BE IT RESOLVED THAT:

The Board facilitate broadcasting of virtual meetings of CPIC in a similar fashion to the Board of Trustee meetings or other mutually agreeable publicly accessible format.

 

V)  That the Board of Trustees engage parents in the recruitment and selection of the next Director of Education for the TCDSB by seeking input into the Director of Education profile.​