The majority of Catholic Voluntary Secondary Schools now have Boards of Management and these Boards operate in accordance with the Articles of Management for Catholic Secondary Schools. ASTI and the Catholic Managers negotiated these Articles.
Under the Education Act 1998 Boards of Management became a requirement for all schools where possible. The establishment of Boards of Management was intended to introduce democracy and participation in the management of second level schools. CSPA does not feel this accurately reflects the current position.
The management body has informed CSPA in writing that parental nominees to Boards of Management, elected by parents, are not there to represent parents but are there to manage the school. While they may bring a parental perspective to all meeting their primary function is the managing of the school. If everybody on a Board of Management is not representational then an educational partnership cannot be a feature of Boards of Management.
Composition of Boards of Management in the Voluntary Secondary Sector
The Board of Management consists of eight persons appointed by the Trustees. The Trustees nominate four members. Two parents / legal guardians of children currently in the school are elected by the parents / legal guardians. All permanent full-time teachers on the staff elect two teachers. The term of office for each member of the board is three years.
Functions of the Board
There are many functions of a Board of Management and these can be found in the Education Act 1998. The Board has a responsibility to see that school policies and the School Plan are developed. They also have the responsibility of seeing all proper and usual accounts and records of all monies received by it or expenditure of such monies incurred by it are kept and that these accounts are available for inspection by the parents.
Education Act 1998
14. —(1) It shall be the duty of a patron, for the purposes of ensuring that a recognised school is managed in a spirit of partnership, to appoint where practicable a board of management the composition of which is agreed between patrons of schools, national associations of parents, recognised school management organisations, recognised trade unions and staff associations representing teachers and the Minister.
15. —(1) It shall be the duty of a board to manage the school on behalf of the patron and for the benefit of the students and their parents and to provide or cause to be provided an appropriate education for each student at the school for which that board has responsibility.
20. —A board shall establish procedures for informing the parents of students in the school of matters relating to the operation and performance of the school and such procedures may include the publication and circulation to parents, teachers and other staff and a student council where one has been established of a report on the operation and performance of the school in any school year, with particular reference to the achievement of objectives as set out in the school plan provided for under section 21.
CSPA GUIDELINES FOR ELECTION TO THE BOARD OF MANAGEMENT.
a) The committee of the parent association shall in accordance with the articles of management organise an election to elect two parent representatives from the parent body to the board of management.
b) All parents and guardians of pupils in the school shall be eligible for election.
c) Notice of vacancies shall be sent to all parents’ two weeks before the election. Nominations and consent to be elected should be received seven days before the election. Nominations of a parent or guardian may be taken from the floor at the time of the election.
d) If there are more than two candidates a secret ballot shall be held. The candidates receiving the greatest number of votes shall be declared the winners.
e) Parents elected to the board of management shall be members of the executive committee of the association.
f) As the purpose of parents being on boards of management is to be included in the process of managing the school it is important that relevant information is available. Therefore two primary duties of parent representatives on the board of management are
1) To actively solicit parent views and to represent these views at board of management meetings.
2) To report back to the parent association and keep them informed of matters that are relevant to their participation in the partnership between school and parent.
