School Site Council
School Site Council
What is School Site Council?
This council is comprised of school employees, parents, and community members. The belief is people involved with schools and students on a day-to-day basis–that is, the teachers, parents and other school employees–can make some of the best decisions regarding school improvement. Therefore this group meets on a regular basis to discuss and make decisions about school improvement.
What does the School Site Council do?
The School Site Council is an elected group of teachers, parents, classified employees, and students (at the high school level) who work with the principal to develop, review, evaluate and allocate funds for school improvement programs.
The councils are formed to make decisions about how state-allocated school improvement funds will be spent. Some councils, for instance, might use funds to develop a new math program, while others may want to hire a reading specialist. The idea behind the creation of the councils in the 1970s was that those most closely involved with the schools and students on a day-to-day basis could often make the best decisions about how schools needed to improve. How the councils actually operate varies greatly from school to school, but in general the School Site Council deals more with school policy and budgets than the school PTA or PTO does.