What Is A Site Council?

The School Site Council (SSC), as set forth in the California statue, is the focus of the school-based management model. To ensure that the council operates within a schoolwide improvement perspective, the legislation requires that the membership of the council be drawn from the total school community. Once established, the SSC is charged with the responsibility of developing a program that is responsive to the needs of every student in the school. In order to accomplish this goal, the SSC is required to develop a school plan, allocate the supplemental resources within the school to support this plan, and annually review and update the plan and budget to reflect the changing needs and priorities within the school. The SSC is not to be viewed as an advisory body whose advice may be accepted or rejected. Instead, the actions of the SSC constitute the first step in a formal process for developing improvement strategies and for allocating resources to support these efforts. The process is complete only when the local governing board formally agrees to the SSC's proposal for utilizing the supplemental resources.

This process of school improvement should be seen as a path that enables both the school, through the SSC, and the governing board, usually through the district office, to strengthen the educational system by allocating appropriate decision-making authority to bodies that are nearest to those tasks that are to be completed. It is successful only when the SSC and the local governing board focus this decision-making authority on ongoing improvement in the curriculum and instructional program of the school.

If schools are to improve, all members of the school community must join together to accomplish this task. The SSC represents a major mechanism in California public education for bringing the school community together in a manner that supports a commitment to improving public schools.

-Adapted from School Site Council Handbook
California Dept. of Education