When the School and Library Improvement Block Grant (SLIBG) and the School Based Coordinated Program (SBCP) were established, they were envisioned as ways to increase school wide effectiveness, improve student achievement, and over time, better prepare students to be productive workers and responsible citizens. One of the principal tenets of these programs was that those individuals closest to the students should be more involved in making significant decisions affecting the instructional program of the school. The School Site Council (SSC) was selected to be the vehicle by which the school community would come together to chart the school’s path to improvement. CUSD both encourages and values the role our community members play while serving on our SSCs across the district. If you would like additional information, please call your child’s school or Robyn PellousoSnyder in the Department of Supplemental Services at 327.0640 or email at [email protected]. You may request the CUSD Categorical Programs Handbook for School Site council (SSC) and English Leaner Advisory Committee (ELAC) Procedures for specific information. For SSC Meeting dates at your child’s school, please call the school office. All meetings are open to the public. The California Department of Education offers information at the CDE Web Site at https://www.cde.ca.gov/fg/aa/co/ssc.asp 

OVERVIEW OF THE SSC

The primary task of the SSC is to ensure that the school is continually engaged in identifying and implementing curriculum and instructional practices that result in both strengthening the core academic program and ensuring that students have access and success in that program. This core program should embody the district’s curriculum, which itself should reflect the state frameworks and curriculum standards. As the SSC goes about allocating the available supplemental resources, it should strive to keep its focus on establishing and maintaining a comprehensive and ongoing strategy to improve curriculum and instruction. The SSC should not limit its vision to using the supplemental resources to meet the demand of the moment or to purchase a single fixed solution to be used in perpetuity. Instead, it should establish and maintain a vision of the skills and knowledge students will need to be successful at each stage of their school career and determine what supports can be provided to enable such success to occur. Additionally, the SSC should maintain flexibility in its allocation of resources in order to enable the school to continually address the changing needs of the school.

The SSC is charged with the task of developing and approaching a school plan for using the supplemental resources to increase the student’s understanding of and success in learning the core curriculum. The school’s improvement effort should also be coordinated with the district’s effort to upgrade its curriculum offerings and quality of instruction in order that both the school, though the SSC, and the local governing board, through the district office, become part of a single improvement effort. The unified effort requires that the staff of the district office and the SSC establish and maintain formal lines of communication to ensure that they engage in efforts that support and reinforce a common goal.

The SSC is uniquely suited to carry out this function since it is representative of all segments of the school community. Being composed of the principal, teachers, other school personnel, parents, and the secondary level students; it provides a forum for all the major players in the school to come together to identify common goals and establish a plan to achieve these goals. The SSC’s success depends upon both the ability and willingness of all those involved in the process to work together in a cooperative manner to develop an effective curricular and instructional program in which all students may attain higher levels of academic competence.

SCHOOL SITE COUNCILS: THEIR COMPOSITE, ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

Authorization for School Site Councils

• School Based Coordinated Program Education Code Sections 52800-52887
• Clovis Unified School District Policy, Administrative Regulation, And Exhibit #0420
• School Site Council Bylaws

Specific California Education Code Requirements for School Site Councils

School site Council: Composition. A School Site Council shall be established at each school which participates in school-based program coordination. The council shall be composed of the principal and representative of: teachers at the school; parents of pupils attending the school selected by such parents; and, in secondary schools, pupils selected by pupils attending the school.

At the elementary level council shall be constituted to ensure parity (a) the principal, classroom teachers and other school personnel; and (b) parents or other community members selected by parents. At the secondary level the council shall be constituted to ensure parity between (a) the principal, classroom teachers and other school personnel; and (b) equal numbers of parents, or other community members selected by parents, and pupils. At both the elementary and secondary levels, classroom teachers shall compromise the majority of persons represented under category (a). Existing school wide advisory groups or school support groups may be utilized as the School Site Council if those groups conform of this selection.

An employee of a school who is also a parent or guardian of a pupil who attends a school other than the school of the parent’s or guardian’s employment, is not disqualified by virtue of this employment from serving as a parent representative on the School Site Council established for the school that his or her child attends.

Duties of the Governing Board. The governing board of each school district shall:

• Ensure that the principal of every school receives information covering the provisions of this article, and provides such information to teachers, other school personnel, parents, and, in secondary schools, pupils.
• Adopt policies to ensure that, prior to a school beginning to develop a plan pursuant to Selection 52853, a School Site Council as described in Section 52852 is established at the school site to consider whether or not it wishes the local school to participate in the school-based coordination program. The board shall ensure that all interested persons, including, but not limited to, the principal, teachers, other school personnel, parents, and in secondary schools, pupils have an opportunity to meet in public to establish the council.
• Ensure that funds coordinated pursuant to this article are used to supplement, not supplant, existing state and local fiscal efforts and that schools which receive the funds shall have base expenditures comparable to non-participating schools.

Development and Content of School Plan

• The School Site Council shall develop a school plan which shall include all of the following:
  • Curricula, instructions strategies, and materials responsive to the individual needs and learning styles of each pupil.
  • Instructional and auxiliary services to meet the special needs of non- English-speaking or limited- English-speaking pupils, including instruction in a language these pupils understand; educationally disadvantaged pupils; gifted and talented pupils; and pupils with exceptional needs.
  • A staff developed program for teachers, other school personnel, paraprofessionals, and volunteers, including those participating in special programs.
  • Ongoing evaluation of the educational program of the school.
  • Other activities and objectives as established by the council.
  • The proposed expenditures of funds available to the school through he programs described in Section 52851. For purposes of this subdivision, proposed expenditures pf funds available to the school through the programs described in Section 52851 shall include, but not limited to, salaries and staff benefits for persons providing services for those programs.
  • The proposed expenditures of funds available to the school through the federal improving America’s School Act of 1994 (IASA) (20 United States Code 6301 et sec.), and its amendments. If the school operates a state- approved school wide program pursuant to 6314 of Title 20 of the USC in a manner consistent with the expenditures of funds available to the school pursuant to 52851, employees of the school wide program may be deemed funded by a single cost objective.
• The School Site Council shall annually review the school plan, establish a new budget, and if necessary, make other modifications in the plan to reflect changing needs and priorities.

School Plan on Student Achievement (SPSA) Approval