Frequently Asked Questions
School council involvement
1. Do I need special experience to be on school council?
No! What you need is an interest in the school and the ability to work cooperatively with others to help shape its future.
2. Why is parent membership so important?
Parents on councils provide important viewpoints and have valuable skills that can help shape the direction of the school. Parents who become active on a school council find their involvement satisfying in itself and may also find that their children feel a greater sense of belonging.
3. How can I become involved?
The most obvious way to become involved is to vote in the elections that are held in February or March each year. Since ballots are only held if more people nominate as candidates than there are positions vacant, you might seriously consider standing for election as a member of the school council, or suggesting to another person that they stand for election
4. What do I need to do to stand for election?
The principal arranges and conducts the elections. Ask at the school for help if you would like to stand for election and are not sure what to do. The principal will issue a notice and call for nominations in the second half of February or early in March. For parents, this notice will probably be given to your child so you may need to check with them whether it has been sent home. Details of the election process are available from the school or see: School Council – Elections.
Membership
5. Do I have to have children at school if I want to be on school council?
Most positions on school council are for parents with children at the school. However, there are two other categories, DEECD employee members and community members, for which you do not have to have a child at the school.
6. Can I remain on school council if my children leave the school?
If you are a parent member of school council and your child is no longer at the school, you are no longer eligible to serve on council as a parent member. The exception is if your child finishes school at the end of the normal school year for your child's year level, in which case you may continue on council until the next council election, if you wish to.
If there is a community position available, the school council may co-opt you to that position.
7. Can we co-opt an ex-school councillor or a person who has children at another school onto our school council?
Yes, but only as a community member.
8. Can a co-opted member be the school council president?
Yes. A co-opted member (community member) can be a school council president.
9. Who can be a school council president?
Almost anyone. The only people who cannot be a school council president are DEECD employees in either the DEECD employee or parent category of membership.
10. What is co-opting?
Co-opting allows school councils to bring a person onto the school council who does not fall within the parent or DEECD employee categories but who may have additional skills and perspectives that the council needs.
The co-option of community members is a decision made by school council. For example, the council may decide that it wants to use the co-opted positions to co-opt a member from the local community, such as an accountant, a builder or someone with particular skills they feel they might need.
If a school council has provision for community members, the council should decide who it wants in those positions and how nominations will be dealt with, i.e. whether council will seek specific people or will accept a representative of an organisation or body.
DEECD employees cannot be co-opted community members.
Community positions are filled for two years, the same term of office as other members. They also have the same voting rights and responsibilities as other members of council.
11. Are parent club (Parents and Friends) positions co-opted?
There is no mandated parent club position on school council.
School council may choose to invite a parent club to nominate one of its members to fill one of the community positions on school council.
Whoever fills the co-opted positions should do so for two years, the same as other school council members. If, for example, a parent club representative leaves the school then he/she should resign and the position be filled by co-option of another person for the remainder of the term of office.
School council decides whether it will be up to the parent club (or other body) to nominate the co-opted members or whether school council will choose the representative.
12. How long do co-opted members serve for?
Two years. The terms and rights of co-opted members are the same as regular school council members.
13. Do staff members on leave (or working elsewhere) have to resign from school council?
Example: one of our staff members who is on school council comes up for re-election this year. However, she has gone to another school for term 1. Can s/he re-nominate even though she won’t be back until term 2?
Yes, she can stand for election and her colleagues will make the decision if there is a vote.
Staff on leave
A person on any form of leave (including secondment), whether with or without pay, from employment with DEECD shall for the purposes of the Order:
• be considered to have the DEECD employee status he/she had immediately prior to going on leave
• be considered, if leave is for a period of six months or less, to remain a member of the DEECD employee electorate of which the person was a member immediately prior to going on leave.
14. We have a school councillor who does not turn up to most meetings. Can we remove them from school council?
If an apology is recorded and accepted by the council that a person cannot attend, then the person has been granted permission to be absent. If no apology has been received, then the person may be considered as not being active and creating a casual vacancy. However, this would normally occur only after repeated failures to attend or send an apology.
Ministerial Order No 52 states that a casual vacancy is created when (among other things):
- a member is absent from three consecutive meetings of the school council without special leave previously granted by the school council and subject to a decision of the school council.
This means that the council would need to move a motion, recorded in the minutes to remove a member.
It is always a good idea to discuss with the member their reasons for non attendance and give them the option of either attending in the future or resigning rather than being removed. Removal can cause angst and misunderstanding in a community so should be handled sensitively.
15. Can our current school council president stay on as school council president when her/his children stop attending our school?
Only if they can be co-opted as a community member. If you have a community position available this person can be co-opted by the school council to that position. A community member may be elected as the school council president.
16. Can a parent who works at the school be on school council?
Example: We have a parent member of our school council who is often employed as a CRT at the school. Is s/he able to be a parent representative of the council? S/he would average 2-3 days employment at busy times during the year.
If this person averaged more than 8 hours per week over the year she would need to be identified as a DEECD parent.
DEECD parents are counted within the DEECD employee category when counting for a quorum.
17. Is the principal counted as a DEECD employee?
The principal is always included in the count of DEECD members.
18. What does ex-officio mean?
Ex-officio means that the principal has a position on school council as a right. The position has full voting rights.
19. Can a student be a member of school council?
Students can be co-opted as community members by school council.
They are co-opted for two years and have full voting rights.
Elections
20. Does each family get a vote or does each parent get a vote?
The voting is one vote per parent.
21. Do you get more votes if you have more than one child at the school?
No, it is one vote per parent at the school, regardless of the number of children at the school.
23. Can we increase the number of positions on school council?
Example: this year we have had more nominees than we have positions on school council, but we want to keep those people who have nominated. Can we increase the numbers on council?
Yes, you can increase the number of positions you have. There is a process which needs to be followed. School council decides the size and configuration it wants according to Schedule Two, which is available from the principal. This is sent to the DEECD and must be signed off by the Minister before being put in place at the school level. Changes can occur annually.
24. Can we accept late nominations i.e. nominations received after the closing time?
Example: Our school advertised that all nominations need to be in by 4.30 pm, but several nominations were received after 4.30 pm. One parent attempted to hand their nomination form in at 7.00 pm and was told that it had to be rejected, Was the principal correct in doing so?
If the time of closing was advertised as 4.30 pm then 4.30 pm it is. The principal as the returning officer has the right to decide whether a late nomination will be accepted. In this case the principal is correct in not accepting the nomination.