PARENT INVOLVEMENT COMMITTEE (PUBLIC) 10 February 2016 Report No

Transcription

1 PARENT INVOLVEMENT COMMITTEE (PUBLIC) 10 February 2016 Report No Supporting School Councils with PRO Grants Key Contact: Michèle Giroux, Executive Officer, Corporate Services, ext PURPOSE: 1. To discuss opportunities for the Parent Involvement Committee to support school councils with their Parents Reaching Out grants. CONTEXT: 2. Ontario's Parents Reaching Out (PRO) grants encourage parent engagement at the local, regional and provincial levels. They are designed to support parents in identifying barriers to parent engagement in their own community and to find local solutions to involve more parents in support of student achievement and well-being. Last year, the Committee discussed opportunities for assisting school councils in developing their PRO grant application. Since 2008, there are twenty elementary school councils and seven secondary school councils who have never applied for a PRO grant, and three elementary school councils who have only applied for one PRO grant. Due to time limitations, the Committee was unable to provide the support to councils that was originally planned. Members decided to continue the discussion for the school year and supporting school councils with their PRO grant applications was embedded into the Committee s work plan. KEY CONSIDERATIONS: 3. The Committee should consider which school councils to support and how best to support them with their PRO grant. There are some school councils that have not applied for a PRO grant as they have the capacity for raising a significant amount of funding to support their school council initiatives. Report Supporting School Councils with PRO Grants Page 1

2 The councils who do not have the capacity for fundraising may face a variety of barriers that have prevented them from applying for a PRO grant, including: Inexperience with completing the online grant application; Lack of parent volunteers to support the implementation of the grant; and Inexperience with organizing initiatives to support parent engagement, among others. Dependent on the barriers faced by the school council, there is a range of support that PIC could offer to the council. Last year, the Committee discussed developing sample applications (example attached as Appendix A) to provide to councils with two options of projects that have been successful for other councils, a speaker and resources for parents. This would assist councils who have inexperience completing online grant applications. The Committee could also develop guidelines to outline the steps to organizing a successful event, including budgeting, securing an event space, and coordinating volunteers. This would assist councils who have inexperience organizing initiatives to support parent engagement. For school councils that lack the parent volunteers to support the implementation of the grant, Committee members could volunteer to assist in the development of the initiative and volunteer to attend and support the council through the entire process of the PRO grant. RESOURCE IMPLICATIONS: 4. The PRO grant is an initiative of the Ministry of Education and has no resource implications for the OCDSB. COMMUNICATION/CONSULTATION ISSUES: 5. There are a variety of ways that PIC can reach out to school councils, including a general invitation in the school council newsletter, or reaching out to specific superintendents of instruction, principals, or school council chairs. STRATEGIC LINKS: 6. Supporting parent engagement in student learning and well-being is an objective of the Strategic Plan. GUIDING QUESTIONS: 7. The following questions are provided to support the discussion of this item by the Committee: How should the Committee decide which councils to support; How many councils should the Committee support; Report Supporting School Councils with PRO Grants Page 2

3 What is the most effective way for the Committee to support councils with their PRO grant; Does the Committee have the capacity to support the range of needs of councils; and What is the most effective way to reach out the councils. Michèle Giroux Executive Officer, Corporate Services (ext. 8310) Jennifer Adams Director of Education and Secretary of the Board APPENDICES Appendix A: Sample PRO Grant Application Report Supporting School Councils with PRO Grants Page 3

4 Appendix A Report APPLICATION FORM School Number: Regional Office: Ottawa Regional Office PARENTS REACHING OUT (PRO) GRANTS FOR SCHOOL COUNCILS Title: Parent Workshop Application Number: Application Due By: Report Due By: Name of School Board: Ottawa-Carleton DSB School Information Name: Adrienne Clarkson Elementary School Type: Elementary Address: 170 Stoneway Dr, Ottawa, K2G6R2 Phone no.: (613) Fax no.: (613) address: paula.marinigh@ocdsb.ca Principal: Paula Marinigh School Council Chair: Carrie Eaton Do you have a partner?: No

5 PROJECT INFORMATION School Number: Regional Office: Ottawa Regional Office 1. Indicate the challenge(s) to parent engagement being addressed by your project: Communication (lack of language specific materials for parents or parent information related to curriculum and other school-based activities) If other (please specify): 2. Select up to three statements that describe the goal of your project: Enhances parent involvement with their children's learning to support student achievement and well-being; Highlights the school as an important resource for parents in the community; Provide parents with the knowledge, skills and tools they need to support student learning at home and at school 3. Outline the steps to be followed in the process in order to meet your goal. Indicate what, how, who and when it will be done. i) What will be done? We will have an expert in social media come in to teach our parents about what kinds of social media websites kids and teenagers are frequenting, the risks associated with them, and how to teach kids to stay safe while online. ii) How does this enhance parent engagement in support of improved student achievement and well-being? A social media awareness presentation would enhance parent engagement by discussing issues facing young people today and providing parents with resources and tools they need to help guide their children's online experiences. iii) Who will do it? We would like to bring in Paul Davis, a social media expert who has been offering presentations on Internet Safety to many schools across OCDSB. Council would organize an event for parents to come to our school to hear the speaker and have their questions about social media answered. We hope that through this event, parents will also leave with the knowledge that school council is a place to go for information and resources. iv) How will it be done? We will begin announcing the upcoming presentation at the start of the school year and in our newsletters (both council and school) to ensure that the school community is aware. We will ensure that babysitters are on hand if needed. v) When will it be done? We are hoping to have it done in the month of November at the latest-ideally to coincide with Bully Awareness Week. vi) Why do you want to organize this project? We want to organize this event because we feel that familiarity with social media and knowledge of internet safety is critical for parents who are raising children in an increasingly connected world. We think this is a very timely topic considering that many children are more technologically savvy than their parents, and the internet (and social media in particular) is a public and permanent record of online activity that may affect a young person long after they have grown. With the increased use of the internet, there has also been an increase in cyber-bullying. Raising awareness about safe online activity and what to do if there is a problem are issues that many families will struggle with. We think that this presentation would be very useful to all families in our school. 4. Does the project support a ministry initiative? Please select all that apply? Character Development; Safe Schools; Inclusive Schools 5. Indicate the steps you will follow when evaluating the success of your project. We will look at the amount of people we have attend the workshop. We will have forms available for them to share their opinions/feedback as well as topics that they would be interested in seeing. 6. In one sentence summarize your project proposal. The purpose of our project is to teach parents about social media and provide them with the resources and tools they need to help their children develop the skills to be safe and smart online in an increasingly connected world.

6 PROPOSED BUDGET INFORMATION School Number: Regional Office: Ottawa Regional Office Please check the list of eligible and ineligible expenses in the 'Guidelines' and list all items and the estimated cost of each. Item Description Cost Speaker --- Conférencier(s) Social Media information night for parents 600 Refreshments --- Rafraîchissements Drinks and a small assortment of food to be offered 150 Promotion/Advertising --- Promotion/Publicité Signage during Meet the Teacher and first week of school 50 Childcare during events for parents --- Garde d'enfants lors d'événements pour les parents YMCA/YWCA childcare workers 150 Parent lending library materials --- Bibliothèque de documentation pour les parents books to add to our parent resource library to keep interest 50 Total Funds Requested: $1,000.00