Berkeley High School Governance

By state law, every public school must have a Single Plan for Student Achievement(sometimes referred to as the School Site Plan) and a School Site Council (SSC). As indicated by the name, the Single Plan sets forth the specific plans and goals the school has established each year for increasing student achievement. The SSC participates in the development of the Single Plan, must approve it before it is submitted to the Board of Education, and is charged with monitoring the implementation of the plan and its success. The SSC also approves the state-required School Safety Plan and allocation of designated State Categorical Funds for 10th grade counseling and English Language Learners (ELL) programs.

The SSC is composed of sixteen members. The Principal, an administrator designated by the Principal, five teachers and another staff member hold eight of the seats. Students elected by the Associated Student Body hold four seats and parents elected at a PTSA meeting hold the remaining four seats. The SSC meets regularly, at least once a month, from September through May. SSC meetings are open to the public and anyone can serve on SSC subcommittees, which have included subcommittees on the Single Plan for Student Achievement, Safety, 10th grade counseling (an intervention program for students at risk of not graduating with their class), Small Schools Transition, and others.

Click here for the current SGC (School Governance Council) agenda and archived minutes.

BHS Attendance Policy (word doc)

Advisory Proposal (word doc)

Block Scheduling Proposal (word doc)

Updated Bylaws Proposal (word doc)

The Berkeley Schools Excellence Project (BSEP) is the parcel tax measure that generates $10 million dollars annually for the Berkeley School District. Under the BSEP measure the money raised is allocated to different funds for specific purposes — the largest fund being for class size reduction. One of these funds is for enrichment -- it is allocated evenly to all schools on a per pupil basis. BHS, being the largest school, received $581,000 in enrichment funds last year. Enrichment money is spent by vote of the BSEP site committee composed of administrators, teachers, students and parents. The parent representatives are elected annually at the first PTSA meeting.

Parent representatives to the other powerful, school-wide committee, the Shared Governance Committee, are appointed from the SSC and BSEP committees -- two from SSC and one from BSEP. The Shared Governance Committee deals with curriculum and operations issues, is primarily composed of staff plus three parents and students and, unlike SSC and BSEP, does not hold public meetings. In simple terms SSC deals with policy, SGC deals with curriculum/operations and BSEP deals with the money.

School Governance Council

2009-2010 Roster