----CSSPO adopted new governance structure
Jordan Gowling
The Centre de services scolaire des Portages-de-l’Outaouais (CSSPO) adopted its new governance structure on October 15, in accordance with Bill 40, a piece of legislation passed by the Quebec government that replaces the province’s French school boards with service centres and an elected council of school commissioners with an appointed board of directors.
The board is comprised of 15 members including five parent members from each district, five members representing the community and five school staff. According to a statement released by the CSSPO on October 6, the five parent members are Suzanne Trachsel, Richard Bilodeau, Djama Ahmed, Arona Bathily and Julie Boisvert. The five members from the community are Raïmi Osseni, Dominique Kenney, Marie Trouis, Jean-Charles Gendron and Yanika Whiteman. The five school staff members are Christelle Element, Mylène Larocque, Simon Leclair, Isabelle Lemay and Édith Lacasse.
To become a parent representative, the parent must be elected to the governing board of the school their child attends, then appointed as representative to the parents' committee before being eligible for appointment to the board of directors, according to Caroline Sauvé, director of the general secretariat and communications at CSSPO. Sauvé says to become a staff representative on the board; the person must be elected or appointed by peers. The 10 parent and staff members then appoint the remaining five community member positions.
The Act to amend mainly the Education Act with regard to school organization and governance also gives the minister of education more powers. Under the new structure, the minister can impose the amalgamation of services, determine administrative objectives, more easily obtain a student’s results on examinations and allow him or her to communicate more directly with school service centre employees and parents in the school network.
The bill additionally eliminates the committee on religious affairs, withdraws particulars in the Education Act concerning spiritual development, requires that a school service centre obtain the minister’s authorization to acquire a right in favour of school service centres, gives school service centres the power to suspend the payment of taxes in the event of a disaster and streamlines the process for students enrolling in a school service centre outside their territory of residence.
Sauvé says training and adjusting to the new governance structure will be a challenge, given the pandemic context and the extra work associated with COVID-19. Members of the board met on October 19 to elect the chair and vice-chair. (Local Journalism Initiative)
