AP 411: Staff Meetings
Personnel & Employment
Background
Meeting and collaborating with the entire school staff on a regular basis are crucial to keeping all personnel up-to-date and moving forward together as a team. Regularly scheduled staff meetings provide opportunities for whole staff discussion, sharing, and feedback.
Staff meetings are most productive when all members of the staff have an opportunity to contribute.
Although staff meetings are excellent tools for communication, regular, written communication from the Principal, in the form of weekly updates or other communications is also important and encouraged.
Procedures
With respect to scheduling and notification:
1. As required, the principal shall endeavour to host staff meetings during Divisional non-instructional days;
1.1. In instances where the principal incorporates professional learning and business items in the staff meeting on non-instructional days, the principal shall endeavour to keep the business portion of the staff meeting to less than ninety (90) minutes.
2. Meetings may be scheduled by the principal as needed in instances where Divisional non-instructional days are scheduled too far apart for staff meeting needs;
2.1. Where feasible to do so, meetings that intend to bridge the gap between non-instructional days shall be added to the school calendar at the start of the year.
3. Infrequent meetings may be scheduled by the principal as deemed necessary for emergent items;
3.1. Meetings for emergent items shall be provided as much notification as possible; and
3.2. Notwithstanding significantly emergent items, meeting notification shall be provided at least one day in advance of the scheduled meeting.
4. Meetings, as established as described in section 2 and/or section 3, shall not exceed an hour in length unless agreed upon by the majority of certificated staff.
With respect to meeting attendance and time for certificated staff:
5. In all cases, when a certificated staff member is absent from a meeting, it is the responsibility of the absent member to review meeting minutes and be informed about the content discussed.
6. Attendance expectations shall be based on the certificated staff member’s regular work schedule, applicable provisions in the Collective Agreement, the operational needs of the school, and as determined by the principal, mainly:
6.1. Notwithstanding “Leaves” as defined in the Collective Agreement, certificated staff shall be expected to attend all staff meetings as scheduled during their regular work hours;
6.2. Part-time certificated staff shall not be required to attend meetings that are scheduled outside their regular work hours unless specifically directed to do so by the principal; however
6.2.1. Respectful provision shall be made in instances where a certificated part-time staff member is unable to attend;
6.3. Attendance by substitute teachers or teachers on short-term, temporary contracts shall be at the principal’s discretion and only when there is an emergent need.
With respect to meeting attendance and time for non-certificated staff:
7. Non-certificated full-time staff may be expected to attend a staff meeting at the discretion of the principal and shall be compensated accordingly;
8. Non-certificated part-time staff may attend meetings outside their regular schedule, subject to a voluntary agreement to do so, and in accordance with the Principal’s approval.
With respect to meeting agenda and meeting composition:
9. The principal shall consider the practice of distributed decision making to ensure that agendas are co-created with staff as reasonable to do so.
10. One person shall agree to take minutes for the meeting to be shared in a reasonable amount of time.
10.1. Meeting minutes shall be retained according to AP: 580 – Division Record Management.
11. The principal or chair of the meeting shall ensure that all staff members have an opportunity to respectfully share their perspective and have voice at the meeting.
Approved:
