TO: Principals
MEMORANDUM
FROM: Prince Duah, Superintendent of Instruction
DATE: 17 February 2022
RE: 2022 PRO GRANT VIRTUAL PARENT INFORMATION SESSIONS
Principals are asked to share with School Council Chair(s)
On 11 February 2022, we shared information about the plans for the 2021-2022 School CouncilVirtualSpeakerNights. We wanted to provide some additional information to support School Councils in their planning.
As indicated in the memo, the PRO Grant program intends to help provide districts and school authorities with funding to lead projects focusing on identifying and removing barriers that prevent parents/caregivers from participating and engaging fully in their children’s learning.
Communications and Information Services is in the process of finalizing speakers and dates for the sessions. If you have suggestions for speakers or topics for the PRO Information sessions or the OCDSB Speaker Series in general, please submit suggestions here: 2021-2022 Virtual Speaker Series Suggestion Form by 25 February 2022.
Choosing to participate in the centrally organized sessions offers multiple advantages:
- ● A more expansive choice of speakers;
- ● Technical support and guidance with facilitating these virtual sessions;
- ● Support with the administrative work, including the reporting to the Ministry of
Education; and
- ● Provide schools who may not have the resources and/or personnel to deliver an
event the opportunity to actively participate.
Although we believe the OCDSB’s PRO Grant allocation model will be ideal for many school communities, we appreciate that some schools may prefer to organize and operate their own event. In these cases, the OCDSB will fund up to $650 of the cost of a speaker selected by the council. The School Council will be responsible for selecting, managing, promoting and running their own Parent Information session, and will be required to submit a short one-page summary of their event to facilitate reporting to the Ministry of Education. More specific details about these requirements will be provided shortly.
We understand that some School Councils are awaiting the list of speakers to make their choices. That list should be available by 25 March 2022. We plan to have the sessions run from late April into May, and we will share exact dates once the details have been finalized.
This information will be included in the School Council Newsletter, but principals should reach out to School Council chairs and parents to share this information and discuss suggestions for topics and/or speakers and future participation.
If you require further clarification, please contact Sharan Samagh at sharan.samagh@ocdsb.ca.
cc: Office Administrators Communications
Corporate Records Senior Staff
