Community Meetings

Community Meetings

a student

 

We hold regularly scheduled monthly community meetings open to all members of the community including parent/guardians, mentors, mentees, and school administrators.  

 

In keeping with the philosophy of Alpha II, all decisions at these meetings are made by consensus, so everyone at these meetings has an equal voice in every decision. These are important meetings that strongly influence the overall direction of the school.

 

The model of consensus used at Alpha II is intended to permit each person to pursue what they value in their learning.  As such, all members of Alpha II provide their point of view at the community meetings.  To do so, a circle format has been used since the school began. 

 

Using the circle format, people wait their turn to speak and are asked to hold their views until it is their time to speak.  Once everyone has been heard, those at the meeting look to find a time and place to do what each person values.  Everyone is expected to take ownership and responsibility for their suggestions.  A decision that would not be part of the community meeting is to direct someone else to do something if that person being directed does not value what they are being asked to do.

 

As a TDSB school, the community meeting of Alpha II is the school’s School Council.  Yearly, at least one parent/guardian takes responsibility to be the School Council Chair.  As chair, this parent/guardian sends out notification about the meetings, asks for items for the agenda from the community, sends out the agenda, ensures minutes are taken at the meeting, follows up on action items and sends out the minutes of each monthly meeting.  Past agendas and minutes are available from the School Council Chair.

 

The purpose of the community meetings is to discuss broader policy issues that may arise time to time at Alpha II.  Examples of what has been discussed in the past are: reconsidering core values, advertising, and the school statement of needs.  Problems with interpersonal relationships or issues concerning the day-to-day running of the school are matters for either the weekly meeting held between mentees and mentors or are to be taken up directly with mentors one-on-one.