MISSION STATEMENT
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We are here to work cooperatively for school
improvement and to provide an educational environment which will
encourage and enable Cordova School students to read with comprehension,
to communicate effectively, to compute accurately, to think, to reason,
and to use these skills and other information to solve problems.
PROCEDURAL GUIDELINES
Purpose of Guidelines:
To provide the Council with an established set
of guidelines under which to function.
Membership:
There shall be 7 membership positions on the
Council. These positions shall be as follows:
- School Principal (1)
- Middle School (5-8) Parents (2)
- At-Large Parent (1)
- Full-time Middle School Faculty Member (2)
- At-Large full-time faculty member (1)
The Council may invite
up to three representatives from the community to serve on the Council
in a non-voting capacity on a year to year basis.
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Membership
Terms:
Starting with the 1996 spring elections,
Council members shall be elected for two years. A Council member may
serve no more than two terms. If a member retires before the end of his
or her term, the Council may, in its discretion, appoint a member to
serve until the next spring election. The person so appointed shall have
the right to run for that position. An individual can only be appointed
to serve on the Council one time. A member shall retire if,
- The term expires;
- The member no longer meets the criteria
established for his or her original candidacy; or
- The member ceases to actively participate in
the business and activities of the Council.
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Council Positions:
The Council shall elect by ballot a
facilitator, a recorder, and any other positions deemed necessary by the
Council during spring for the following school year. Positions shall be
filled for one year and holders of such positions shall not succeed
themselves.
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Elections and
Replacement of Members:
Elections of Council members shall be held in
the spring of each year for the following school year for the purpose of
filling vacant membership positions, if any. The Council shall appoint
one parent Council Member and one faculty Council Member to serve as
election commissioners of the parent elections and faculty elections,
respectively. The election commissioner shall have the responsibility of
ensuring that elections are conducted fairly and that eligible persons
fill positions. Elections to fill any vacant position shall be conducted
only among persons represented by such position. Each parent/teacher shall have one vote in
each category in which they are entitled to representation. In other
words, a parent having both an elementary school child and a middle
school child shall be allowed to vote in each of these two elections.
Parents with only an eighth grade child (at the time of the election)
shall not be allowed to participate in the elections.
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Election Procedures:
1. Notification of CLC Elections
a) Flyers will be sent home announcing the
dates and procedures for the CLC elections. This flyer will be on the
back of the CLC meeting minutes.
b) Notices will be placed around the school
announcing upcoming elections.
2. How to Qualify to Run for Office
a) Any parent who wishes to run, as an at-large
representative, must have a child enrolled in any grade at Cordova
School.
b) Any parent who wishes to run, as a middle
school representative, must have a child enrolled in Cordova Middle
School (Grades 5-8).
c) CLC requests a one-page (8½ X 11) typed
resume from each parent seeking election. This resume must state the
eligibility of the parent and include the position sought. Parents
should list their qualifications, such as community and school
involvement. A statement of why the parent wishes to run for the CLC
should be included in the resume.
d) Resumes must be received in the school
office on the designated date no later than 3:00 p.m. Each resume will
be verified and presented at the next CLC meeting. Parents will be
notified after the CLC meeting if their resumes have been accepted and
if they are an official candidate.
e) After the names/resumes
have been verified, they will be placed in a binder in the school office
for parents to look through at their convenience.
3. Campaigning
a) Candidates will be invited to speak for 3 to
5 minutes at a special CLC "Meet the Candidates" meeting. After each
candidate has had a chance to speak, he/she will be allowed to greet and
talk with the voters. This special meeting will take place from 6:30
p.m. to 7:00 p.m., prior to a PTA General Meeting when possible.
b) Any other campaigning on school property is
prohibited and will result in disqualification.
c) Candidates' resumes will be on file in the
school office.
4. Election Procedures
a) Elections will be held in the spring. When
possible, the week of election activities will coincide with a PTA
meeting or a school-wide family night activity. The elections will be
held from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. on a Thursday evening and from 7:00
a.m. to 3:00 p.m. on Friday. The "Meet the Candidates" meeting will be
held one week before election day..…
b) There will be one registration table and one
voting table manned by CLC members or designated representatives for the
entire election. Any voter in line at 8:00 p.m. on Thursday and/or 3:00
p.m. on Friday will be allowed to vote.
c) It will be the responsibility of the CLC
member on duty to verify parents' eligibility to vote. At the
registration table, parents will register to vote. After verification,
the parents will fill out the voting slips and place them in the
designated boxes.
d) It will be the responsibility of the CLC
representative on duty to have the parents initial the master list to
prove they have placed their vote.
e) Each parent will be allowed one vote per
position for which they are eligible for representation. Parents'
eligibility to vote will be determined by student placement in
the middle school. The Representative-at-Large
position will be determined by one vote from each parent.
f) Middle school faculty member
representatives shall be elected during a specified staff meeting which
the School Principal shall hold.
5. Announcements of Winners
a) The CLC facilitator will call each candidate
the day after the elections to inform them of the results.
b) The winners will be announced during the
morning announcements and in the next issue of the CLC minutes.
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Absenteeism:
A member missing three monthly meetings in an
academic year will lose his or her seat on the Council. The member may
request that the Council consider extraordinary circumstances such as
death, personal illness, and accidents as exceptions to this rule.
A member is considered absent if he or she
arrives more than forty-five minutes after the start of the meeting.
Council members requesting an excused absence must request the absence
no later than the next meeting.
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Leave of Absence:
Leave of absence shall not be granted.
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Member Recall:
Upon presentation of a petition signed by ¼ of
those individuals eligible to vote under the guidelines, a special
election will be held to determine the member's continued term of
service. At least 51% of eligible voters must be in favor of the recall
of a member to terminate that member's service.
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Meetings:
All meetings shall be open to students,
parents, faculty, staff, and members of the public. However, the Council
reserves the right to hold executive sessions. Town Hall meetings and
Monthly Council meetings shall be held on a regular basis. The dates and
times of such meetings will be communicated in the minutes, which shall
be distributed in draft form to all parents and Council members within
one week of the Council's prior monthly meeting. Town Hall meetings
shall be held on a bimonthly basis, at a minimum, in the school on the
second Thursday of the month and/or as otherwise scheduled, depending
upon need. Monthly Council meetings shall be held in the school on a
monthly basis on the second Tuesday of each month and/or as otherwise
scheduled.
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Town Hall
Meetings:
Guests shall be permitted to voice opinions,
make suggestions, and express concerns. However, notwithstanding the
above, the facilitator shall have the absolute discretion to restrict
such participation by limiting the number of speakers addressing any
particular issue and by limiting the time allowed and order of the
presentation of any particular position, idea, suggestion or concern.
Since Council member attendance is not mandatory, but highly encouraged,
decisions by the Council will not be made in this forum. When
appropriate, issues raised in the Town Hall meetings will be discussed
at monthly Council meetings and guests may be encouraged to fill out a
Cordova School Suggestions or Concerns form in order to address the
council formally at a scheduled monthly Council meeting.
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Monthly Council Meetings:
The Council Agenda shall be prepared to ensure
that the lengths of the meetings do not substantially exceed 1½ hours,
unless a longer meeting is planned in advance. Guests shall not be
permitted to voice opinions, make suggestions, and/or express concerns
unless they have made a formal request, via the Cordova School
Suggestions or Concerns form, kept in the School's Office and available
on-line at the link above, to address the Council regarding a specific
issue and have been placed on the agenda. However, the facilitator, at
his/her discretion, may solicit pertinent information from specific
members of the audience. To be placed on the next meeting's agenda, the
form must be returned to the school office, or filled out and submitted
from this internet site, no later than the last Friday of the month. The
principal or his/her designee shall post a notice of each meeting at the
school and shall mail a notice to each member at their preferred address
prior to such meeting. The Council shall convene for an extended meeting
each year, prior to the beginning of classes in the fall, for the
purpose of evaluating its prior year's performance and to engage in
long-term planning. The facilitator or a majority of the Council may
convene a special called meeting as needed with proper notice, if
possible.
A quorum for a regularly scheduled monthly
meeting of the Council shall be one-half of the current membership of
the Council. A quorum for any specially called meeting shall be
two-thirds of the current membership of the Council. If a quorum is not
present, a meeting may nevertheless be held, but no policy decisions
shall be adopted at a meeting attended by less than the required quorum.
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Monthly Meeting Protocol:
The objective of this protocol is the promotion
of an exchange of information between all Council members as the Council
seeks consensus on a given issue and a concomitant reduction in
confrontational one-on-one interchanges. The focus must be the necessary
exchange of information since consensus is the objective. The sequencing
methodology presented below and the single response in a round
limitation require that members listen to each presenter's comments in
toto in order to make a reasoned comprehensive response. This
methodology should allow the facilitator to determine a reasonable
amount of time to allot to each agenda item.
1. The facilitator introduces a presenter who
is permitted to make an uninterrupted presentation of his/her proposal.
There should be some nominal limitation imposed by the facilitator on
the time allotted to the presenter for his/her presentation. The time
limit might vary from proposal to proposal depending on the complexity
of the issue(s) involved.
2. At the conclusion of the presentation of a
proposal, the facilitator acts as the moderator for a round of
comments/questions from the members of the Council. These presentations
would also be uninterrupted. There should be no immediate response from
any member to the individual comments made or questions raised. Each
member should speak only once in this round.
3. At the end of the initial round, the
presenter would be permitted a short period of time to restate his/her
proposal and to address the comments and questions of the other members.
4. There could be a second shorter round of
comments/questions than the original sequence and another response from
the presenter. This second round is intended to elicit additional
commentary/explanations not a reiteration of the views of the initial
round. The second response from the presenter should be limited to new
questions or issues raised in the second round.
5. At this point the facilitator should begin
too closeout the discussion by eliciting responses from the presenter to
those questions which have already been asked but not answered.
6. The facilitator should then move the group
towards consensus if one is emerging. Three methods are appropriate: (1)
the facilitator makes a summary, (2) the facilitator selects a member to
make a summary: or, (3) the facilitator elicits responses from
individual members to directed inquiries in an effort to achieve a
consensus in areas where unresolved issues exist.
The facilitator, in conjunction with the
Council, shall determine whether this methodology/ protocol, or another,
is followed.
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Agenda:
The facilitator, in consultation with the
members present, shall prepare the tentative agenda for the next
scheduled monthly meeting at the close of every monthly Council meeting.
Prior to the meeting, the facilitator shall finalize the agenda with the
Principal. The Council's recorder shall summarize the monthly Council
meeting and any decisions and distribute the minutes in draft form to
all parents and Council members within one week of the Council's prior
monthly meeting. These minutes shall be amended and/or approved at the
next scheduled monthly Council meeting. The tentative agenda of
discussion items and proposals to be considered at the next monthly
meeting shall be included in these minutes.
Guests may fill out the
Cordova School Suggestions or Concerns form,
kept in the School's Office and available on-line at the link above, to
make a suggestion or to request that they be placed on the agenda in
order to formally address the Council regarding a specific issue. To be
placed on the next meeting's agenda, the form must be returned to the
school office no later than the last Friday of the month. The
facilitator shall make reasonable efforts to ensure that all requests
are granted in a timely manner, except in instances regarding issues
where the Council has no authority, (i.e., personnel issues).
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Record keeping:
The Council recorder shall compile a record of
decisions made at each monthly Council meeting in a notebook for each
school year. These minutes shall be distributed in draft form to all
parents and Council members within one week of the Council's prior
monthly meeting.
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Subcommittees:
The use of subcommittees to accomplish tasks of
the Council is encouraged. The Council facilitator shall allocate a
period of time at each meeting for reports of subcommittee activities.
Subcommittees may include people who are not serving on the Council.
Each Council member should not chair more than
2 subcommittees per year. When subcommittees are formed,
parents/faculty/staff will be notified via the meeting minutes. This
shall afford them an opportunity to submit their names, within a week of
notification, to the Council to be considered for appointment to that
subcommittee. There may be occasions, at the Council's discretion and as
appropriate, when additional individuals are appointed to a
subcommittee.
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Decision Making:
Decisions shall be by consensus. If, in the
opinion of the facilitator, a consensus is not possible, the facilitator
will call for a vote by a show of hands and the votes shall be recorded.
By majority vote of the Council, a decision on
an issue can be delayed for one or more meetings. The Council can then
provide the motion or a summary of the motion for distribution to all
parents and teachers via the meeting's minutes so that the parents and
teachers can either voice their concerns to Council members and/or
attend the meeting where the decision will be made.
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Communications:
There shall be open communication among Council
members and the community, students, parents, and school staff members.
Suggestions or concerns may be voiced to Council members, in Town Hall
meetings, or guests may fill out the
Cordova School Suggestions or Concerns form, kept in the School's
Office or on-line at the link above, to make a suggestion or request
time to formally address the Council regarding a specific issue. To be
placed on the next meeting's agenda, the form must be returned to the
school office, or filled out and submitted from this Internet site, no
later than the last Friday of the month. The facilitator shall make
reasonable efforts to ensure that all suggestions are considered and/or
requests to address the Council are granted in a timely manner, except
in instances regarding issues where the Council has no authority, (i.e.,
personnel issues). No anonymous suggestions or concerns shall be
addressed.
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