The District Parent Advisory Council (DPAC) now has a fully functioning board, and they're ready to get to work.
Erin Brooks Wilson is the new chair, Mara Mattison the vice chair, Eric Stephen the treasurer and Sharon MacKenzie has stayed on as secretary.
The committee has been meeting with only MacKenzie as a council member for many months, making it difficult for the group to function properly.
Brooks Wilson said she got involved after hearing about the need and seeing the importance of DPAC.
"DPAC is an opportunity to collectively gather valuable information and input from parents that can then be passed on to the school board and the superintendant for them to take into advisement in their decision making processes," said Brooks Wilson.
This year the council will be consulted about the new School District No. 46 (SD46) budget, new SD46 strategic plan and how to best spend a portion of the $90,000 SD46 has earmarked for emergency preparedness.
Emergency preparedness in schools was a top concern for DPAC last year.
"DPAC's already had a powerful impact on our board with budget decisions to fund an emergency preparedness plan. So that's a great example of the effectiveness of DPAC," said trustee liaison Lori Pratt.
Brooks Wilson said getting information from parents to the school board is one of DPAC's biggest assets.
"This is an exciting and important opportunity for parents to let the district know how they are being successful in meeting the needs of their child and where they feel improvements could be made," she said.
She sees DPAC as a way for parents to be more involved in their child's education.
"I do believe parents are solely responsible for their children's education, and therefore parents should be taking an active role in ensuring that the education resource [public education] that the government has given parents as a choice, is the best resource it can possibly be and that it is being administered in a way that is able to meet its full potential," Brooks Wilson said.
She hopes many more parents will start attending DPAC meetings to ensure their voices are being heard.
The next meeting is on Feb. 28 at 7 p.m. in the Chatelech Secondary School library, and any parent of a child in the district is welcome to attend.
"As more and more parents attend these meetings, we will get a broader range of representation of all parents in the district, ensuring that we are successful in hearing the successes and needs of all parents and students in the district, ultimately making us more effective and expanding our abilities to accomplish the goals of parents and their children," she said.
