A policy makeover for St. Paul Education

As a member of the St. Paul Education Policy Committee, it was an exciting day for me on Friday, June 12, 2009, as the Board of Trustees began a revision of our entire policies manual. I know...you're probably thinking, "What? Policies are exciting?". It's just not about revising policy, it is about reviewing and improving upon our roles as legislators within the school division. It still may not be that exciting for some of you, but it is exciting for me to see this type of change within the division.

We are using the services of Alberta School Boards Association, and more specifically, Leroy Sloan and Terry Gunderson. We are taking the hundreds of policies that exist in our current manual, extracting the ones pertaining to board governance and placing them in a new Board Governance Policy Handbook. All other "policies" that do not pertain to board governance, will become administrative procedures -- the Superintendent's "handbook." 

This shift also includes a Board Annual Work Plan, which outlines the reports and items we should be reviewing on a month-by-month basis. It just makes for more organization and streamlining our governance roles as trustees. 

The next step is for administration to review all of the remaining policies to be converted into administrative procedures. Then we will finalize our Board Handbook in the fall. These two new documents, the Board Governance Policy Handbook and the Administrative Procedures, will be posted on our new website which is also undergoing a makeover, later in the fall. 

I feel our Board has accomplished a lot since I was elected almost two years ago. Looking forward to the next school year and more progression.