March 01, 2012

You need bylaws for your school council

The Ministry of Education requires every school council has bylaws that cover the following topics:
  • Election procedures
  • Filling of vacancies
  • Conflict of interest
  • Conflict resolution
You may also decide to create other bylaws to guide your council operations. Here are some ideas:
  • Code of ethics or code of conduct
  • Expectations for meetings
  • Membership of council
  • Executive duties
  • Council committees
You are not required to have a constitution for your council. In place of a constitution, you follow Ontario Regulation 612, which governs school councils. If you do have a constitution, you need to make sure it aligns with the regulation.

Use templates
Councils shouldn’t spend a lot of time creating bylaws. Start with the templates and revise them to suit the needs of your council, and then file them away. The council can review them once a year just to make sure they’re still relevant. Both the Peel board and the Ministry provide templates.

Peel board templates are in our resource guide (section 4): http://www.peelschools.org/councils/SCGuide.htm
  
Ministry templates are in the bylaw section of their school council guide: http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/general/elemsec/council/council02.pdf

You can also look at the Parent Involvement Committee bylaws:

If you have questions about bylaws, or anything else to do with councils, please call me (Alison) at 905-890-1010 ext. 2626.

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