SWS Committees
Many school functions, day-to-day tasks, seasonal events, and policy matters are developed and managed through school committees. Committee work takes commitment, as the word itself implies. Parents who wish to become directly involved in the life of the school are encouraged to try their hand at this challenging and satisfying work.
Committee members create a mission statement that describes the committee’s goals. The mission statement is submitted to the Board for annual review and is revised as needed. Each committee appoints a Chairperson. His or her responsibilities include:
Scheduling meetings, setting the committee agenda, and facilitating meetings.
Tracking the committee’s progress.
Ensuring that the committee mission statement, mandates, and guidelines are made available to members.
Recruiting and orienting new members as needed.
All Board-mandated committees provide a representative to the Board of Trustees. This representative is responsible for filing a monthly report on the committee’s work-in-progress to the Board and for relaying Board mandates and other relevant information to the committee members. Board mandated committees include: Development, Finance, TAP, Futures and Marketing.
All Faculty-mandated committees are held by members of our faculty and members of administration. Faculty mandated committees include: Pedagogical Committee, Care Group and the Community Relations Committee.
All Administration-mandated committees are held by members of administration as well as community members. These committees include: IT and Site Committees.
Every committee assigns a member to record and file the minutes of each meeting. The minutes are a record of the committee’s workings and are placed in the permanent record of the school. Minutes are typed and include the date, persons present, a brief description of discussion topics and assigned tasks and any attachments such as policy drafts or official correspondence. Care is taken to omit confidential information from the public record, although this may be kept in a secure file if necessary. In order to preserve continuity and cohesiveness committees are encouraged to hold regularly scheduled meetings and to schedule one or two meetings during summer break.
When possible, the committee’s annual calendar is formulated and coordinated with the all-school calendar at the beginning of the school year. This serves as a timeline for the committees’ short and long-term goals. The calendar includes:
Regularly scheduled meeting dates.
Perennial tasks.
Target dates for long and short-term mandates and steps for achieving them.
Committee sponsored events.
Committee Members are asked to:
Attend all committee meetings and complete tasks in a timely manner.
Respect other members’ time by being punctual, turning off cell phones, and keeping other interruptions to a minimum.
Inform the committee chair if you cannot attend a scheduled meeting and, if necessary, arrange other means for meeting your obligations.
Inform the committee chair if you can no longer fulfill your obligations and help preserve the integrity of the committee by helping to find a suitable replacement.
The Sandpoint Waldorf School is committed to open and impartial decision making and research free of personal bias. At times, working relationships may pose a conflict of interest regarding school related discussions and decisions. For this reason a SWS employee or committee member may be asked to step down from specific faculty, trustee or committee work when a decision making process is deemed to be a conflict of interest. Ideally, individuals recognize such circumstances and step down voluntarily. If needed, the faculty, trustees or other committee members will determine the areas of discussion and decision-making which are potential conflicts of interest and remove those persons accordingly. Below is a bit of information on each of our committees:
Finance Committee
Committee Mandate: To assist the Board of Trustees in fulfilling its oversight responsibilities with respect to reviewing and monitoring spending policy for the school consistent with the school’s long-term goals while collaborating with other school bodies to develop economic policies.
Main tasks:
Develop a preliminary budget
Recommend tuition adjustments as needed
Review historical revenue to feed the budget model
Review historical expenses to feed the budget model
Review financial implication of policies (tuition assistance, sibling reimbursement, remission) to make recommendations for the budget.
Solicit input from other school bodies as needed.
Review monthly budget updates – including tracking accounts to budgets
Review financial implication of proposals from Faculty and/or other school bodies to make recommendations to the board
Oversee SWS investments
Facilitate development of long-range financial plans such as salary scale and benefits.
Communication:
The finance committee reports to the Board of Trustees and communicates its activities through a written monthly report.
The finance committee communicates its activities to the faculty through the faculty representative. The faculty rep serves as a liaison between the finance committee and the faculty.
The finance committee communicates its activities to admin through the Director of Operations. The Director of Operations and Development serves as a liaison between the finance committee and the admin team.
Membership
Members of the Finance Committee are recruited by invitation and are expected to maintain strict confidentiality. Members attend monthly finance committee meetings and provide insight and recommendations based on the information given. Membership includes the following:
Board Treasurer
Director of Operations and Development
Faculty Representative
School parent(s)
IT Committee
Committee Mandate: The committee manages the IT infrastructure for administration, teachers, and students tech usage.
Membership: This committee is composed of the Administrative Director, Administrative Assistant, an outside IT consultant, and a class teacher.
Site Commitee
Committee Mandate: The Site Committee supervises the use of the school building and grounds. It serves as a clearinghouse for approval of any changes to the building and to the grounds and develops policy for uses of the building and grounds outside of their primary school function.
Membership is open to all parents, faculty, and friends who are interested in helping to maintain the structural, mechanical, and visual integrity of the school building and grounds. Tasks include:
Review and make recommendations on major building or ground change requests or needs
Conduct yearly survey of building, grounds and play structures for needed repairs, upgrade and safety
Prioritize, organize and follow-up on major renovation projects
Organizing school work days
Marketing Committee
Committee Mandate: The committee is responsible for outward directed communication about the school: the website, social media, newspaper articles, advertisement, promotional literature, etc. The committee will take monthly minutes and share with the board.
Membership: Members include the Director of Operations and Development, Enrollment Coordinator and a board member.
Tuition Assistance Program Committee
Committee Mandate: The Tuition Assistance Program distributes available funds to families whose children would not otherwise be able to attend SWS. Committee members:
Administer the TAP program according to established policy.
Determine qualification criteria for applicants.
Distribute TAP application packets and other TAP materials.
Review applications and conduct interviews with applicants.
Determine the dollar amount of assistance for qualified applicants, the adjusted tuition, and the payment schedule.
Make recommendations to the board of trustees for policy changes.
Foreseeable shortfalls or surpluses in the TAP budget are reported to the Finance Committee. The TAP Committee communicates with the Finance Committee, TAP parents, faculty, and trustees as needed. Surveys are sent to parents from time to time.
Membership: Members of the TAP Committee are recruited by invitation from our greater community and are expected to maintain strict confidentiality.
Care Group
Committee Mandate: This committee works closely with the Educational Support Teacher to promote the healthy developmental, academic, and spiritual growth of individual students by providing the students and the constellation of adults surrounding them with support and guidance. The membership includes the Pedagogical Director, Educational Support Teacher, and at least one class teacher. Ideally there is a member from each section (EC, lower grades, upper grades).
Membership is open to any current faculty or staff with the enthusiasm for the work in the Care Group’s realm.
Community Relations Committee
Committee Mandate: The Community Relations Committee (CRC) supports the healthy social life of the Sandpoint Waldorf School community.
Goals
Lead in creating a healthy social fabric within the school community
Conduct educational opportunities that bring a social curriculum
Lend support to the Parent Circle in community gatherings
Support healthy leave taking for community members
Membership
At least two faculty members
The Pedagogical Director
One board member and one Parent Circle member who attend periodically
Objectives
Conduct exit interviews for faculty, staff, and families
Mediate conflict resolution meetings community-wide
Student and student
Teacher and student
Teacher and family
Parent and parent
Employee and employee
Conduct Parent Circle, Board, and Faculty education/training sessions
The effectiveness of the Community Relations Committee is derived from a strong partnership with the community. This is realized through an expression of care, compassion, understanding, communication, and the ability to work positively for the community’s well-being.
Development Committee
Committee Mandate: The Development Committee supports fund development efforts that increase non-tuition revenue.
Membership: The Development Committee is comprised of 5-12 members with representation ideally including:
SWS Director of Development
At least two Board Members
At least one Faculty Member
At least two Parents or SWS community members
Appointments to the Development Committee will be for two-year terms and eligible for up to two additional consecutive appointments. Any member who is ‘termed out’ may re-apply after a hiatus of at least one year.
The Development Committee acquires new members at the beginning of the school year through self-selection for Board and Faculty positions, and recruitment and application for other members. The Committee seeks consistent participation of Committee members thru the school year.
Non-members may attend any Development Committee meeting, but only permanent members may vote.
Tasks of the Development Committee:
Stewarding annual and long-term fund development of the school.
Reviewing and advising on one-year and multi-year fund development plans.
Assisting the Director of Operations & Development with publicizing Development Plans each year by, for example, describing development needs and the Plan in K-12 class meetings.
Working with the Director of O&D to establish fund development structures including annual giving, grants, donor-centric events, capital campaigns, endowment campaigns, and planned giving.
Collaborating with the Director of O&D to identify and solicit funds from external sources including, but not limited to, individuals, foundations, corporations, community organizations.
Seeking to ensure that each member of the Board of Trustees participates in annual fundraising initiatives.
Identifying ways in which Trustees and Development Committee members can be involved in raising funds.
Assisting in identifying and cultivating major donors.
Through the Trustee member(s) of the Committee, assisting the Director of O&D in keeping the Board informed of fund development work.
Supporting the Director of O&D in the planning, implementation, and development of roles and accountabilities for capital campaigns.
Supporting community events and outreach that acknowledge donors.
Maintaining strict confidentiality regarding all information shared with the Committee, individual members, and in regard to the school’s Development activities.
The Pedagogical Committee
The Pedagogical Committee is entrusted with holding the broad vision of Pedagogical issues for the Sandpoint Waldorf School. The Pedagogical Committee supports the Being of the School through pedagogical study and a living commitment to the Waldorf Pedagogy. It exists to:
Help the greater Faculty become more efficient
Make sure Pedagogical issues are held and followed through with in a timely fashion
Support the Faculty in upholding its commitments
Make judgment calls where mandated and necessary.
The Pedagogical Committee is committed to:
Listening objectively to each Faculty member
Communicating in a timely fashion between the governing bodies of the school
Working to represent the whole faculty in its decisions and actions.
While holding the Waldorf pedagogy, the needs of Sandpoint Waldorf School, and the input of the faculty, the Pedagogical Committee will courageously make decisions where mandated.
The work of the Pedagogical Committee is based on trust – the trust of the greater Faculty that the committee will adhere to the above commitments to work for the good of the whole.
The committee also monitors problems in teacher/parent relationships and serves as mediator between members of the staff and parents when needed. With an appointment any member of the school is welcome to meet with the Personnel Committee.