A new Orcas Island Public School Site Council is forming in early May. Waldron Island and the OASIS group already have their own site councils, so this one will be specifically for Orcas School.

Site councils typically generate and track school improvement plans and topics, but not items like staff performance issues, which are handled directly by the school board.

Parents, teachers, and administration form the council. Usually there are three or four parents as well as teachers.

The council will meet about once a month to track plan progress and be a public forum for people to discuss their ideas and get new programs added to the improvement plan. Ideas can come from anybody and there will be multiple ways to communicate them to the site council.

The first meeting will be on Tuesday, May 5 at 3:30 p.m. in the Orcas Public School Library. During the meeting, the site council bylaws will be finalized and then the process of specifying projects will begin.

The PTSA will be working to help coordinate the parent part of the council and will be generating an email to its members before the first session containing sample bylaws and school improvement forms so the group formation can be as quick and efficient as possible.

For more information, contact Bob Connell at bobbconnell@yahoo.com or 376-3930