School councils to meet

District school councils for both the public and Catholic boards are being asked to meet together next Tuesday at Donald Young School in Emo in hopes of establishing a communication network between them.
Dona Pollard, a member of the Ontario Parent Council who sits on its parent involvement committee, is spearheading the 7 p.m. meeting to first see if there’s any interest in forming a school council network.
Pollard stressed she’s not going into the meeting with any pre-conceived notions of what should be in place. But she strongly believes such a network between district school councils is desperately needed.
“I think school councils, because of the loose direction under which they’ve been functioning for the past two years, feels they are operating in isolation and each one is inventing the wheel,” she noted.
“We could all be served better by spending less time and energy if we share it,” she added.
Pollard said other boards, like the Keewatin-Patricia one to the north, have benefited greatly from having good communication links between councils. They’ve even set up teleconferences to go over the Education Improvement Commission’s discussion paper.
While school councils here currently have no budget to afford such things as teleconferences, Pollard noted they would stand a better chance at obtaining funds from the board if a network was in place.
“Until the need is there, you can’t really approach the board to do that,” she explained.
Pollard said she would like to see a province-wide network formed eventually but acknowledged such a move would have to be initiated by the province because of the cost.
“Even if we could network among ourselves within our board, and soon establish a connection with the Patricia board and the Catholic board in Kenora, I think that would be good,” she noted.
But all this is speculation right now, she admitted. Whether a communication network is set up or not rests entirely with the members of area school councils.
“Maybe they’ll decide there isn’t a need,” she said. “Personally, I think there is otherwise I wouldn’t be broaching the subject if I didn’t.”
The meeting also is open to the public.