Governance Structures for Community Involvement

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    Overview

    All districts have certain governance structures to ensure that families and communities have a voice. These structures are designed to increase accountability and transparency, help promote community involvement, and strengthens our schools. They are also required by federal, state, and local policy. 

    How to use this site

    This website is designed to provide school administrators with recommendations and resources to ensure they not only easily meet compliance requirements, but also use these structures to build powerful ties with families and the community. We hope you find it to be a useful resource, proving clarity to each stakeholder's role and overall function as a group. Use the links in the right column to navigate to other pages and resources.

    If you have any questions, coments or concerns, please email: schoolgovernance@dpsk12.org 

    District Level Governance

    At the the district level, is the District Accountability Committee (DAC), a community-led group of parents, educators and other community leaders who are appointed by the DPS school board and provide recommendations to DPS. To learn more about the DAC, visit their webpage on The Commons. 

    In addition to the DAC, there are other district level advisory committees that help elevate community voice to district leadership. To learn more, visit:

    School Level Governance

    Collaborative School Committees (CSCs)

    These advisory committees meets at least quarterly during the school year and works with school leaders to provide feedback and recommendations on important school decisions. These recommendations may include ways to improve academic performance, budget priorities, and the school’s program. CSCs function as the primary school-based organization coordinating all parent engagement. CSCs collaborate with the DAC to uplift recommendations and feedback to the district level.

    Multilingual Education Parent Advisory Committee (MLE-PAC)

    All ELA schools—that is, schools with high populations of English Language Learners—are required to have an organization that increases communication with parents about ELA programming at the school.

    Title I Family Engagement

    All Title I schools (defined as having 57% or more students receiving free/reduced lunch) must have an annual parent meeting to learn about state assessments and decide on how Title I funds are spent.

    Other School Committees

    • There are two other required committees that are not related to family engagement and thus will not be covered on this website: the Personnel Committee and the School Leadership Team.
    • The Personnel Committee stands apart from the CSC and provides oversight for UIP staffing decisions. There may be up to two parents on the Personnel Committee, appointed by the CSC. More information can be found in Article 13.8 of the DCTA Agreement (.pdf).
    • The School Leadership Team reviews data and collaborates on the development of the Unified Improvement Plan and professional development among its responsibilities. More information can be found in Articles 5.4 and 8 of the DCTA Agreement (.pdf). 

    See School Committee Matrix for scope of work of each of these committees. 

    Organizational stucture

    The diagram below present our recommendation for how to organize the three required committees.

    School Governance

     

    Five Questions for School Leaders

    1. Can I explain the functions of community involvement governance structures (CSCs, MLE-PACs, and Title I Family Engagement), and how they relate to each other?
      If not, read the Action Plan page for an overview and a diagram showing how the structures interrelate. The Calendar page explains how the the structures fit together throughout the year. Here is a presentation on the Integrated School Governance.

    2. Does my school have a Collaborative School Committee (CSC) that complies with legal requirements?
      If you are not sure, read more about CSCs.

    3. If my school is an MLE Program School, do I have a functioning MLE Parent Advisory Committee (MLE-PAC) that meets regularly? 
      If not, read more about MLE-PACs.

    4. If my school is a Title I school, am I actively engaging families to discuss Title 1 funding?
      If not, read more about Title I Family Engagement.

    5. Do the involved parents at my school represent the diversity of my school's student body?
      If not, read the Outreach section of the Action Plan page, and consider increasing your school's emphasis on Parent-Teacher Home Visits (mini-grants are available to your school for this purpose). 

    Your next steps 

    1. Read through the Governance pages here. The CSC Resources page has a number of useful documents, organized by month, that we suggest reviewing.

    2. Each month, read through each of the toolkits on the CSC Resources page and use the materials provided to implement those steps. There is also a downloadable Training Toolkit with links to help resources to share with you CSC.

    3. Make sure you are subscribed to the CSC communication list to receive updates on training dates and resources. Encourage your committee members to subscribe as well. 

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