Update on Advisory Councils

A brief update on all matters “advisory” from PEI Home and School Federation.

Family of Schools District Advisory Councils

I’m happy to report that our membership has risen to the challenge, and a large majority of schools have identified a representative for the Family of Schools District Advisory Councils in advance of the December 31, 2015 deadline.  

Thank you for rising to the challenge: in a perfect world there would have been more time for a more considered process for identifying the representatives, and I encourage you to work with your membership to fine-tune the process for the next time a representative needs to be selected. This would be a good process to include in your local association’s bylaws or guidelines so that future cohorts of home & school members have a ready reference for the process.

If you haven’t already, please make sure you’ve submitted the name of your schools’ representative to the Minister via Adele McLeod in the Department of Education by email to mamcleod@edu.pe.ca or by telephone to (902) 368-4610. Be sure to include the name of the representative and the school you're reporting for.

Representatives should expect to be contacted early in the new year when the first meetings of the new councils are organized.

PEI Learning Partners Advisory Council

The other new advisory council for education is the PEI Learning Partners Advisory Council. This is a province-wide body, co-chaired by Premier MacLauchlan and former home and school President Bill Whelan.  The PEI Home and School Federation is one of 6 founding members appointed to the Council, and I am acting as the PEIHSF representative.  

The first task of the “original six” – the English Language School Board, La Commission scolaire de langue française, UPEI Faculty of Education, Holland College and the PEI Teachers Federation in addition to PEIHSF – is to select 4 additional education organizations and 10 additional community members to join the Council. Nominations have been accepted through Engage PEI and the Council met yesterday to receive the nomination information.

PEI Home and School Federation Resolutions

Although there’s lots of new advising in the education system, our practice of developing policy resolutions at PEI Home and School Federation will continue and, it can be argued, is now more vital than ever, as it can be both a conduit for issues raised both locally and at the District Advisory Councils, and the target of the resolutions can now include the new advisory councils.

Remember that the deadline for 2016 resolutions to be considered is January 31, 2016. There is complete information about resolutions, including a guide to writing them and an archive of past resolutions, on the PEIHSF website at https://peihsf.ca/agm/resolutions.

Thank You

Thank you for your contributions to public education in the province; if the developments in education this fall have shown us anything, it’s that the model of regular communication and consultation pioneered by home and school more than 75 years ago is as relevant now as it ever was.  The time you take out of your days to contribute to home and school, locally and provincially, is important, meaningful time. It is appreciated.

I hope you will all have a well-deserved rest over the holidays and I look forward to working with you all in 2016.