Stakeholder Report at Board Meeting

CAPSC Stakeholder Report
Presented at the June 28, 2011 Public Meeting of the CBE Board of Trustees

Thank you Chair Cochrane, Trustees. My name is Eryn Kelly and I am the Co-President of the Calgary Association of Parents and School Councils. We are a city-wide parent and school council non-profit group that brings parents, community members and guests together on a monthly basis throughout the school year to network and engage around educational issues that impact our students. We also advocate on those educational issues that require the ‘voice’ of our constituency to speak out upon.
While our roots go back to the early years of public education in Calgary, CAPSC, in its current form, will celebrate its 10th anniversary this September. We have held a stakeholder seat at public meetings of the board of trustees since 1985.

In the 2010/2011 school year, we have facilitated public engagement opportunities for our members and the public in a variety of ways:

In the fall, we hosted former Trustees Gordon Dirks and Nancy Close who led a discussion around the roles and responsibilities of trustees and the importance of making an informed vote. This led into the trustee candidate forums that we organized and held across the city in each ward pairing during last years’ civic election. In partnership with ATA Local 38, we provided each Trustee candidate with a questionnaire in advance of each of the forums. Their responses to these important educational queries were collected and then posted online for access and commentary by our members and any other interested member of our community.
We utilized social media for the first time to advertise both of these initiatives and our reach was expanded exponentially.

The new Education Act was introduced in the spring legislative session. Prior to that, Alberta Education kindly sent a representative to discuss the framework for this legislation with our parents and bring their feedback back to Edmonton. This was very well received by our members. Several trustees were also there to listen and share their perspective.

Education Minister, Dave Hancock, Chief Superintendent, Naomi Johnson, and Chair, Pat Cochrane participated in our education panel discussion which brought out over 300 concerned citizens. The Chief Superintendent also attended one of our monthly meetings along with several members of the finance and communications departments to discuss the issue of the budget shortfall. Following that meeting, Finance and communications facilitated and attended a follow-up get-together to further explore and explain.

CAPSC could not do this job alone and we deeply value the collaborative relationship we have with the board, administration, ATA and other stakeholder organizations.

Over the year, our members and the public have also had many opportunities to engage with trustees at our meetings around a variety of issues both formally and informally. Our role as a critical friend to the board has a rich and varied history and is something we and our members place great value on. We will continue to ask provocative questions and offer informed perspectives and constructive criticism as a friend. As a critical friend we will always take the time to fully understand the context of any information presented and the possible threats and opportunities that will affect the Calgary Board of Education students and their families. We will continue to be advocates for the success and improvement of public education.

We hope that trustees will continue to place great value on this role as well and continue to maximize the public engagement opportunities that our meetings offer as they have proven to be a very effective way to engage parents. CAPSC will continue working in collaboration with our stakeholders and with an educative purpose to provide parents with meaningful information and resources.