Site Council Training reference materials
Site Councils are school-based committees whose goal is to improve academic achievement at the school. Members include the principal, teachers, parents, and classified staff (such as secretaries and educational aides). CPPS worked with site council trainer Margot Helphand and the Portland Schools Foundation to develop training materials for site councils, which Margot has generously agreed to share. You can reach Margot at margot@helphand.net.
Logistics/legalities:
Site councils were created by the state legislature and are governed by state laws. They are subject to the Open Meetings Law, which is included below, along with an explanation. Note that site councils must publicize their meetings and the agenda ahead of time! The law creating site councils is also included below. It lists some of the things a site council should do, but places no limit on what site councils can address.
If you’re just starting out, Site Council Fundamentals is a helpful overview:
What does it take to jumpstart a process for raising achievement at your school? Here’s an overview:
This one-page checklist of site council basics is a great tool for assessing what your site council needs to work on:
There are seven “building blocks” for successful site councils. You can download an overview, or download individual sections on each one, with helpful examples and exercises:
Special topics:
Good meetings help build stronger site councils. Find out how to improve your meetings:
It’s essential that your site council uses a good decision-making process. There are a number of ways to help this along:
Feel free to download these documents and share them with your site council. The price: let us know what’s useful, and what isn’t. Just send us feedback using the form below. Thanks!