THE CALGARY ASSOCIATION OF PARENTS AND SCHOOL COUNCILS
High School Council Chair
Meeting
Second Annual
Organized and Reported by Karen Lloyd: Chair of Lord Beaverbrook High School Council and President
of The Calgary Association of Parents and School Councils (CAPSC)
1/27/2015
The report of the Second Annual High School Council Chair Meeting organized for the Council Chairs and
Co-Chairs of Calgary’s public schools. This event has been organized both by CAPSC and by the Chairs
themselves to respond to the unique needs of High School Councils.
Report of High School Council Chair Meeting
Second Annual Meeting
January 27, 2015
Queen Elizabeth High School library
Background (Karen Lloyd)
When I became Chair of Lord Beaverbrook High School in 2013, I decided that I would organize a
meeting for the High School Council Chairs in Calgary’s public schools. High School demographics and
the life stage of the parents of these students are very different from the younger grades. It is a
completely different School Council experience from Elementary and even Middle School years. I knew
from my own experience as a high school parent as well as from my work with city schools that we
would all benefit from meeting together to discuss the unique circumstances of High School Councils in
Calgary.
I organized the first High School Council Chair meeting in January of 2014. It was well attended by city
school councils and feedback from attendees was very positive. In November 2014 I was asked by other
high school council chairs if I would organize a meeting again for this school year.
It is interesting to note is that the feedback from these veteran school council parents/leaders is very
insightful. They have been in the system for 10 or more years and they have seen a variety of education
issues. Their observations last year were used to guide the work of The Calgary Association of Parents
and School Councils and made a big difference for all Calgary public schools as a result.
A strong majority of our CBE High School Council chairs and vice chairs were able to attend this year’s
meeting. Our numbers were about the same this year but the schools represented were not exactly the
same ones that came in 2014. We appreciated having a CBE Trustee representative again this year
(Trina Hurdman).
Report of High School Council Chair Meeting
Second Annual Meeting
January 27, 2015
Queen Elizabeth High School library
Report
Demographics
Attending Councils:
Centennial High School
Central Memorial High School
Crescent Heights High School
Dr. E. P. Scarlett High School
Ernest Manning High School
John G. Diefenbaker High School
Lord Beaverbrook High School
Queen Elizabeth High School
Sir Winston Churchill High School
Western Canada High School
William Aberhart High School
(CBE Trustee Trina Hurdman)
Regrets:
Central Memorial High School
Forest Lawn High School
Henry Wise Wood High School
Lester B. Pearson High School
Invited but did not receive a reply from:
Bowness High School
Jack James High School
James Fowler High School
Meeting organized by Karen Lloyd
Chair of Lord Beaverbrook High School Council
President of The Calgary Association of Parents and School Councils (CAPSC)
Report of High School Council Chair Meeting
Second Annual Meeting
January 27, 2015
Queen Elizabeth High School library
Overview
We spent 45 minutes reporting and sharing our specific experiences as High School Council Chairs with
each other, followed by a quick presentation from Karen Lloyd, and finished with a Board Report from
Trina Hurdman. During the first 45 minutes of individual council reports, some definite themes emerged.
Themes
Administrative Relationship Perception
The report of a positive relationship with school admin staff was improved since last year.
There was evidence of strong relationships between school administration and the council executives
with 7 of the school council’s specifically reporting very good relationships with their school Principals. If
any of the other school council did not feel that they had strong admin support, they did not mention it
at this meeting. There was almost a contest going as to who had the best Principal at their High School.
It was great to see such positive relationships between councils and Principals being reported.
Key Interests of Reps
There was a lot of focus on two particular items: 1. Raising funds, and 2. Bringing parents out to
meetings. The group would stop someone’s report to ask questions if they mentioned that they were
able to have large numbers of parents out to a particular meeting. The group also stopped to ask
questions when someone would tell of a particularly effective fundraising campaign. These two topics
were obviously very interesting to council representatives.
Effective Topics for Parent Engagement
Parent information sessions topics that council’s had hosted which were mentioned as being effective
were: Mental Health/Stress, Scholarships, Post Secondary Application Processes (for parents), Computer
Gaming, Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD), presentations by staff learning leaders about school
subjects, and MLA and Trustee discussion sessions. One school council is also planning to host a
presentation by a mother who lost her teenage child due to drug addiction.
Council Meeting Formats
There was some discussion about the format of council meetings. These councils are holding between 6
and 8 meetings a year with 6 meetings a year being the most common number reported. It was regularly
mentioned that additional parents who come for presentations do not like to stay for the business
portion of the council meeting. Councils had tried various ways of dealing with this. The end result was
that some shortened their business portion and held it before the Presentation, and others held the
council business meeting at a completely different time from their presentations.
Number of Parents who attend high school council meetings
Attendance in number of Parents that come regularly to council meetings varied from about 5 to 30
with an average number of about 15 parent attendees reported. Special topic presentations put on by
school council do draw in many more parents than regular meetings. More than 200 parents attended
one council’s presentation on Scholarships.
Report of High School Council Chair Meeting
Second Annual Meeting
January 27, 2015
Queen Elizabeth High School library
What makes a strong school council meeting?
Looking at the common factors in those council meetings that reported large numbers of parents
attending, there were some common features were seen:
1. Strong support comes from the school with the school using their own communication systems
to advertise and publicize the meeting to parents: ie. posting a direct notice on the website
home page, synervoice messages advertising the meeting, or email messages from the Principal
to the parents encouraging them to attend.
2. The topic needs to be very interesting to the High School parents such as teen mental health, or
scholarships applications.
3. Personal invitations to attend a meeting make a very big difference to people.
Important things to consider for regular meetings
1. Councils that were successful in keeping regular attending parents coming back were ones that
reported feeling personal and warm. Words like “cozy” and “comfortable” were used in
describing these meetings.
Fundraising
Several councils said that they did not have a Fundraising Association (FRA). They reported that their
schools already have Music Parent Associations and often Athletic Associations as well. Several of the
councils actually ran a small fundraising campaign that asked parents for a voluntary donation to school
council at the beginning of the year when the school registrations went out. Councils reported this as
being fairly successful in raising some money for councils to use to benefit the school. One council had
used this money to purchase a sign in front of the school and to provide lunches for certain students.
Of the schools that had FRA’s, casinos were the fundraising method that was being used. One FRA also
did a cheque writing campaign. Several of the schools divide the casino revenue between the Music
Parent’s Association, the Athletics Association, and the school council FRA. This was usually reported as
a 30/30/30 split.
Several councils said that they had successfully applied for grants for funds and suggested that calling on
your local officials to help you to secure the grant was an effective strategy.
Goals
Only one council reported having a formal school council “goal” for this school year. Their goal was to
build school spirit. One other council spoke about the school’s goal to increase academics and shared
ways that their council was working to support this school goal.
Concerns expressed during group reporting
One council expressed concern that they currently have only one school gym and they need another.
Their council has created a facebook page to build support for a second gym. Another council had a
concern that their school did not have the electronic equipment necessary to meet the new
requirements for Provincial diploma exams. They need an additional $50,000.00 to achieve this.
Council attendees also wanted to have some work done to address the problem that is created by
allowing only one casino for each school location. Many students attend high schools and with music
Report of High School Council Chair Meeting
Second Annual Meeting
January 27, 2015
Queen Elizabeth High School library
programs and athletic programs to support, there are issues with having only one casino to share among
all of the students and their programs.
Yearly thought from Karen Lloyd
(Chair of Lord Beaverbrook High School and President of CAPSC)
Last year Karen encouraged councils to focus on finding 3 things that they could appreciate about their
school administration and really communicate that appreciation back to the school admin staff.
This year Karen’s thought was to find out ways to use all of the diverse abilities of the parents that
actually come out to council meetings. Using a fruit salad analogy, Karen compared different people to
various fruits: some are sweet, some exotic, some are tart, some are everybody’s favorite (like the
grapes), and others like the melons are just sort of “there” but they fill us out and make the group
larger. She also said that lettuce can be added to a fruit salad to really stretch it out to serve many more
people. The lettuce is like the volunteers that councils can get to help for ½ hour at a specific event or
who will bring in a plate of cookies when asked. They augment our efforts and make it possible to do
much more. We appreciate them even though they are not the “fruit” of the salad. At the end, Karen
pulled out a lemon and said “Now what about these folks?” Everyone chuckled. We’ve all been on a
council when there was one individual who was a difficult person to deal with and seemed almost like a
bitter lemon. Karen said that all we need is to add enough sugar (expressed and extended kindness) to
these people and they can become a lovely “dressing” that gives a little much needed flavor to the
group and keep us all from becoming to sickeningly sweet and “turning brown”. They usually have a
good skill to offer council as well. The moral is that you can make a good council of whoever is willing to
be there: whether it is two people, or 20. Whatever skills they bring to the group can be used to build
the council as long as we find out what those skills are and are willing to work with what we have.
Trina Hurdman School Board Trustee for Wards 6 & 7
Trina spoke about the flexibility being developed in our High Schools to allow students to go to other
locations to benefit from additional programs (ie. CTS centre) Charter buses and in some cases taxi cabs
are being used for transportation of these students.
The board is working to determine what high school success look like.
Alberta Education is working to give flexibility to students writing diploma exams so that it can be done
at a variety of times.
We are moving towards a more flexible model for high school.
Report of High School Council Chair Meeting
Second Annual Meeting
January 27, 2015
Queen Elizabeth High School library
Comments at the end of the meeting
Concern was expressed that Alberta high school students are disadvantaged here in Alberta as they
apply to post secondary institutions and are required to wait to have their diploma results before they
can be accepted. Their diploma exam weightings make it harder to compete with students coming in
from outside of Alberta as they often have different grade determining criteria. Oddly enough these
same Alberta students are at an advantage if they apply outside of Alberta, because those institutions
often give higher weighting to their Alberta marks.
One parent mentioned that Nursing at Mount Royal University this year was taking a 92% average for
entrance into its program. Many were surprised at that piece of information.
One rep said that class size is still a concern at their school. They have a chem. Lab with 60 kids in it.
Comment was made that high school students are saying that they are concerned about their future.
Stress is a real problem for them.
A rep who is also employed at the UofC said that the University redacted some things this year. Some
courses that were accepted for entrance requirements are no longer being accepted. This is making a
real problem for current High School students who have already taken courses that were previously
accepted and now have to scramble to make application requirements.
Question was raised: When will high school and the new assessment methods and focus coincide and
work together?
Concerns expressed commonly at the end of the meeting were funding for schools in Calgary and the
need for Universities to adopt the newer methods of assessment so that High School students are
admitted based on something besides just their grades.
Observation about High School Councils
As we were finishing up, someone commented that more parents would come to a High School council if
they realized that this is the easiest school council level to be on. It’s all about information sharing and
the usual projects and problems of the elementary years (ie. fun lunches and cranky behaviors) are
gone. Karen noted that in her observations through Calgary and Alberta school parents there does seem
to be an unfavorable perception from parents about school council by the time that their kids get to the
high school level. One of our city high school councils even changed the title of their regular meetings to
“parent information evenings” in order to help parents know that the meeting is nothing like the
“business meeting” of the elementary years of school council. Attendees agreed that High School council
truly is the easiest school council to be a part of.
Report of High School Council Chair Meeting
Second Annual Meeting
January 27, 2015
Queen Elizabeth High School library
Summary
This was a very effective meeting and once again it was full of very helpful insights and ideas. There
appears to be a stronger relationship between school councils and their school administrators than was
reported last year. Funding, parent engagement, and post secondary preparation were the three biggest
areas of discussion among the participants. The councils varied in size, but all report to be functioning
well and are working to support and enhance education in their schools. As was the case last year, this
meeting appeared to fill a very real need with our High School Council Executives.