School Council Tool Kit

Welcome to the Limestone District School Board School Council Tool Kit. Thank you for volunteering, and your willingness to contribute your time to your School Council.

The resources available in the Tool Kit, have been developed to:

• encourage parent engagement by making volunteering easier;
• help volunteers understand parent council roles and responsibilities;
• suggest council activities based on the school calendar year;
• share ideas;
• augment communication;
• help you have a successful year/term; and
• support a smooth transition to new leadership.

All documents are designed with a flexible framework to:

• allow each parent council to make them applicable to their established roles;
• modified each document to suit your school's needs; and
• customize each document to include your school logos and names.
• The use of these resource materials provided and establishing priorities for your School Council should be based on the current level of council activity, at your school. Pick and choose from the resources, to suit your school and adjust them as necessary to your council's needs. Slowly begin to build in new roles, activities and events. 

Parents Reaching Out

Ontario's Parents Reaching Out (PRO) Grants encourage parent engagement at the local, regional and provincial levels. Ontario's PRO Grants are designed to support parents in identifying barriers to engagement in their own community and to find local solutions to involve more parents in support of student achievement and well-being.

There are two types of grants:

• School councils of publicly funded schools in Ontario can apply for Parents Reaching Out Grants for School Councils.
• Parent organizations, Parent Involvement Committees (PICs), publicly funded district school boards, non-profit organizations and post-secondary institutions operating in Ontario can apply for Parents Reaching Out Grants for Regional/Provincial Projects.

Since 2006, the government has supported over 19,500 PRO Grants to school councils and 799 regional/provincial PRO Grants. This is a total investment of nearly $31 million to help increase parent engagement at the local, regional, and provincial levels.