Even though it is summertime and time to kick back and relax a little bit, I wanted to bring your attention to an important set of consultations starting right now and happening over the summer and into the fall. As mentioned last time, the Minister of Education has now released a response to the recommendations from three initiatives he has held over the last several years: the Inspiring Education dialogue, the Setting the Direction for Special Education dialogue, and his Speak Out! Student initiative
The response, titled Inspiring Action, lays out a series of possible areas of change the Government is considering in its new Education Act. If you visit this page, you will also discover that the Minister is inviting further feedback through a series of topic-specific modules. For example, the first module is on Parental and Community Engagement. A new online module for discussion will be launched every two to three weeks until early October on the webpage mentioned above (and/or you can sign up for updates to alert you to the launch of the new module). (See dates below.)
The feedback received on these modules will directly influence the new Education Act that the Minister hopes to introduce in the Winter Session of the Legislature, so I encourage everyone to contribute your thoughts as the various modules are posted.
Parental and Community Engagement Module
I have gone through the first module and questions revolve around the role of school councils, ideal level of governance for school councils, what school boards and schools should be doing to support parental engagement, whether there should be a provincial parent advisory council, what school boards and schools should be doing to support community engagement in schools, what community engagement might look like, schools as community centres, etc.
Check it out! If you have more than half an hour (which is what it took me to go through the module), you may wish to read what about 40 people in SW Edmonton said about supporting students, teachers, schools back in March 2008 at my first broad community meeting as a preface to responding.
Also, consider: How does parental and community engagement contribute to Strengthening Families and Enhancing Innovative Citizenship Education – two of the key areas another group of community members have suggested as critical to achieve the schools and communities we want in 2030?
