At the next meeting we’re going to propose some changes to the parent council constitution and that the parent council adopt an operating manual. You can see the draft forms of the amended constitution here and the operating manual here.
In brief, the main proposed changes to the constitution are:
- it explicitly allows the chair role to be divided up in a number of different ways
- we’ve clarified some of the roles and duties of the chair and other office holders
- there’s a section on how to deal with conflicts of interest, real and perceived.
We hope that by introducing a bit of extra clarity and flexibility, we can help smooth the process of finding new members and make the chair’s role, which can seem daunting, more attractive to a wider range of people.
The operating manual contains sections on:
- What the parent council is (and isn’t) for.
- How the parent council carries out its role.
- The office holders and their roles.
- The communications channels (email, social media etc) and how to manage them.
- How the parent council should communicate with the school.
- Joint parent-council and school working groups: what they’re for and how they operate.
- Handling parent requests and questions.
- Conflicts of interest and how to deal with them.
- What to do about complaints.
As you can see, the operating manual expands on what’s in the constitution. It’s meant to give us some rules and guidelines, to help us to do our job well. But because it’s not the constitution, it’s easier to amend, if that’s necessary.
Both documents are intended as starting points for discussion. The plan is that we’ll debate them at the meeting on Wednesday 26 October. If the meeting wants any changes, we’ll make these. Hopefully we’ll then adopt both documents.
If you have questions or suggestions about either document, or both, please drop us a line at chair@breadalbaneparents.com. We’d very much like to hear your thoughts.