At-A-Glance
WHY ARE SCHOOLS REQUIRED TO HAVE COMMUNITY COUNCILS?
The Utah State Legislature passed a law in 2000 requiring every public school in the state to establish a school community council at the school-site level (Utah Code. Section 53A-1a-108). Each School Community Council consists of the principal, school employees, and parents or guardians of students attending the school. The School Community Council determines their school's greatest academic need and prepares a plan to address that need with the school's portion of the money distributed from the School LAND Trust program.
For more information on School Community Councils, please visit www.schools.utah.gov/schoollandtrust to find invaluable resources. It includes information about elections and the responsibilities of council members along with timelines, checklists and other training materials.
A bill passed in the 2015 legislative session giving School Community Councils the responsibility to partner with school administration in creating a safe and constructive internet environment for students. If your council is looking for training options to meet the new Safe Technology and Digital Citizenship requirements, here are some digital wellness resources.
J
oin the "Utah School Community Councils" group on Facebook in order to receive information, ask questions and share ideas with other SCC members.
WHAT ARE THE DUTIES OF THE COUNCIL?
Each council shall:
Review testing data and other reliable data to determine the needs of the students
Create a School Improvement Plan
Create a School LAND Trust Plan
Advise and make recommendations to school and district administrators and to the school board when appropriate
Create subcommittees and task forces as needed
Communicate with parents at the school
WHO SERVES ON THE SCHOOL COMMUNITY COUNCIL?
Each school community council consists of a minimum of: the principal, a school employee, and four parents or guardians of students attending the school. Councils may be larger than the minimum, so long as there are two more parents or guardians than school employees.
HOW ARE COUNCIL MEMBERS SELECTED?
According to the law, all council members, except the principal, are elected. Employees vote for employees (majority vote), and parents/guardians vote for parents/guardians (majority vote of those voting in a an election held at the school). In the event of vacancies, each group appoints replacement members from within its ranks.
Schools should select a beginning date for terms of council members in consultation with the local school board. Elections are held as decided by each school, either in the Fall or the Spring. Elections must be held consistently at the same time for a period of at least four years.
Please be aware that many of the council responsibilities happen early in the traditional school year, so schools should make sure councils work quickly to meet those requirements.
Elections must meet the following provisions of the law:
If the number of people who filed is not more than the available positions, the school is not required to hold an election.
Notice of elections must be provided at least 10 days in advance of the vote.
The notice must include the positions that are available, dates and times of elections, and instructions for becoming a candidate.
The principal or principals designee shall oversee the elections.
Elections must be completed before the last week of the school year OR may be held near the beginning of the school year.
Elections shall be by secret ballot and ballots must be deposited in a secure ballot box.
Schools need not hold an election if there are enough open positions for all who filed.
School community councils may establish procedures that allow for ballots to be clearly marked and mailed to the school in the case of geography or school distances that would otherwise discourage parent participation. Hand-delivered or mailed ballots shall meet the same time lines for voters voting in person. Entire school districts or schools may allow parents to vote by electronic ballot. If school districts/schools allow voting by electronic means, the opportunity shall be clearly explained on the school district/school website including:
Directions for electronic voting
Security provisions for electronic voting
Statement to parents and community members that violations of a school district’s/school’s voting procedures may disqualify a parent’s vote or invalidate a specific school election, or both
Paper ballots will be made available for parents who prefer voting in person
THE DEFINITION OF PARENT/GUARDIAN MEMBER
A parent/guardian member must have a child attending that school during part of their term. Parents who are licensed educators and employed by the school district where their children attend school may now run for a parent member position at their child’s school if they do not teach at the same school. If, after the election, there are more parents who are licensed educators in the district than parents who are not, the parent/guardian members must appoint additional parents who are not educators to fill parent positions until there are more parents than parent/educators. Additionally, the membership of every council must include two or more parents or guardian members than the number of school employee members.
HOW LONG DO MEMBERS SERVE?
All terms are two years in length, with the exception of the principal, who is an ex-officio member with full voting rights. The terms shall be staggered so that no more than half the members stand for election in any given year. Once council is in place, members elect officers. Councils have a chair and vice chair. A parent must serve as chair.
MINUTES AND OTHER REPORTING REQUIREMENTS
One week prior to each council meeting, the following information must be posted on the school website:
Notice of the upcoming meeting, including the date, time, and place
The agenda for the meeting
A summary (minutes) of the previous meeting
Required reports are as follows:
The council’s proposed meeting schedule must be provided to parents by November 15 with a list of the members of the council with either a direct email address or telephone number.
A summary of the implementation of the previous year’s School LAND Trust Program plan must be made available by October 20 of the current school year.
The required reports are to be posted on the school website, and each household with a student attending the school should be notified of the information, or how to locate it on the website. This notification can be made by mail, voice mail, email, registration packets, and/or with report cards. A variety of ways may be used to insure that all parents are notified.
WHAT KIND OF AUTHORITY DOES THE COUNCIL HAVE?
The council has full authority to carry out its responsibilities as outlined and defined in the law, as well as any additional responsibilities as determined by the local school board and district administration. The council does not have authority to make decisions that conflict with or run counter to federal law, state law, or school board policy.
SCHOOL PLANS REQUIRING SCHOOL COMMUNITY COUNCIL INVOLVEMENT/APPROVAL
Most dates for school plan submission are determined by each district
Information to consider at the first meeting:
Elect officers
Review test scores as well as other assessments
Review current school plans
Review budgets to accomplish current plans
Review the role of the school community council in implementation of plans they have oversight of or involvement with
Review district due dates of each plan and what the council must do for plans to be completed, voted upon, and submitted in a timely manner
Calendar tasks and meetings to complete the work
Determine the role of subcommittees
Discuss appointment of subcommittees, appoint as needed
Assign tasks to committee and subcommittees as needed
IMPORTANT REMINDERS
Following elections, please remember to submit your school community council membership report at https://schoollandtrust.schools.utah.gov
Make sure that your council takes time to view the training online https://schools.utah.gov/schoollandtrust/training. These short presentations will provide more information about school trust lands in Utah and the School LAND Trust program.
PTA and School Community Councils Working Together
- Take the opportunity to learn more about trust lands at the PTA Leadership Convention, PTA Day at the Capitol, and Utah PTA Advocacy Conference.
- Be sure your PTA has representation on your school community council. If a member of your PTA board is not currently an elected member of the community council, your board can still have someone attend the meetings to provide input and participate on any sub-committees.
- Have your safety commissioner work with your school community council to ensure students and parents are provided with education on safe technology utilization and digital citizenship. PTA has great resources which can help the school with internet safety and digital citizenship.
- Have your Legislative VP and other board members join the Utah PTA Take Action Network by emailing the Utah PTA Advocacy Vice President. They will then receive important updates about trust lands and other legislative issues.
- Work with your principal and community council chair to prepare an article for the PTA newsletter discussing the School LAND Trust program and how your school is using their School LAND Trust funds.
- Write letters to your state legislators and other elected officials informing them of how the trust lands funds are being used in your school. Let them know of your support for the program.