Re-election of school governors

[BestOnlineCommentSite]

If a school governor has come to the end of their term am I correct in thinking that they can be re-elected by parents but can't just be "kept on" with the agreement of existing governors?

Thank you

Also, is there a website/document where I can find all of this?

[TeenAndTween]

I think they can be co-opted to become community governors, but would need re-election as a parent governor.

[neolara]

Teen is right. If person changes category of governor to become co-opted then there would be a parent governor vacancy and an election would need to be held.

[neolara]

Website called "clerk to governors" would probably have details..

[admission]

Each governing body has an instrument of government that specifies the total number of governors and the different kinds of governors that there are.
At the end of a parent governors term of office, then there has to be an open election. They can be re-elected. However as others have said it may be that there is a vacancy as a co-opted governor, in which case the rest of the governing body can appoint them.
There is one other alternate and that is that there is what is called an associate. That is an appointment that means they are not a school governor and therefore have no voting rights at the full governing body meetings but may be in possession of some specialist knowledge that means that they GB would like to continue to have advice from them.

[catslife]

Former Clerk to Governors here.
Yes if their term of office has come to an end and they wish to continue as parent governor, they would need to be re-elected. There is also the option of moving to another category of governor e.g. community governor (co-opted by governors) or LEA governor (appointed through LEA and political parties for Community schools) or Foundation governor (appointed through diocese for church schools). Parents don't have a say in the other appointments.
For the parent governor elections, nomination forms are sent out to all parents with children on roll at the school. However if there are the same (or fewer) number of nominations as parent governor vacancies, there is no need to hold an election as all nominees are elected.
Hope that answers your question.

[sunnydayinmay]

Recent restructuring of governing body constitutions, means that they have changed the types of governors.

Parent governors remain the same, but the GB needs a range of skill sets, so have to co-opt governors with these skills.

For example, if you have a parent governor who is an accountant, and is chairing the finance committee, the GB would be crazy not to co-opt him/her if they weren't reappointed as a parent governor.

[TaIkinPeace]

Co option is ONLY available for parent governors if there are no applicants
if there is a cracking parent gov who might not get elected then the GB need to find a gap for them as a community governor

remember that in Academy schools, all such niceties go out the window
in favour of protecting money flows to the centre

[Foxyloxy1plus1]

I'm a co-opted governor. That, so far as I am aware, is the current term for community governors. I applied for the role, was interviewed and subsequently offered the role. There were seven applications and three places.

On the governing body, there is a range of skill sets. Accountants, former teachers across phase, lawyers, IT and people with management experience.

There were three applicants for parent governor roles and two places.

[BestOnlineCommentSite]

Ok - another question. How should the ballot take place? Would you expect each child to receive a letter with a ballot? Or an e mail which many won't receive because of problems with the system and many can't print off?

[kimlo]

I got elected by default, nobody else was intrested. I cant become a foundation governor because Im not catholic, so when I come to the end of my term I suppose it will depend if anyones intrested at the time.

[BestOnlineCommentSite]

There has to be a ballot as there are more nominations than roles.

[kimlo]

At my school it would go out in book bags, they dont use email to contact parents.

[lougle]

There should be a ballot system that allows votes to be anonymous. Each parent should individually get a ballot paper (because parents in the same family can disagree). They should also get an envelope to return the ballot paper in, so that all returned ballot papers look the same.

So in most schools that would be in the form of an envelope addressed to the parent, containing a letter explaining the election, election statements for each candidate, a ballot paper and an envelope for return.

[lougle]

I think there's a bit of confusion here. In the new constitution (2012) there are only 5 categories of governor. Each school must have:

• the headteacher (if s/he chooses to be on the GB)
  
• one elected staff governor
  
• at least two elected parent governors
  
• one local authority governor
  
• as many co-opted governors as is necessary to make up the minimum of seven governors or whatever number of governors the school chooses.
  

There is some flexibility - schools could choose to have more parent governors and have no co-opted governors.

They could choose to co-opt a staff member in addition to their staff governor, but the total number of people eligible to be appointed as staff governors, including the HT, must not exceed 1/3 of the membership of the GB. So a GB of 9 could afford to have one of their Co-opted governors as staff, but not two.

Parents can be appointed as Co-opted governors without election if there is a co-opted vacancy on the GB and the GB believes the parent has the skills to benefit the GB. For example, I was going to become Chair of Governors, but my term of office was due to expire. My position was put up for election, and I applied. If I hadn't won the election, the GB would have moved me to co-opted governor instead of parent governor, because they needed me to be chair of governors.

Is that helpful in any way?

[cluelessclaudia]

There are also foundation governors and partnership governors in some types of school.

[BestOnlineCommentSite]

But what I want is how - when there IS a ballot for parent governors - the ballot should take place. Surely, for example, parents should not be printing off their own ballot papers?

[lougle]

If parents are printing off their own papers, the school would need to have a system to record the submission of votes from each parent as they are submitted, so that no parent could vote twice.

I don't think it would be wrong as long as the system is robust enough that all parents have the opportunity to vote and no parent can vote twice.

[TeenAndTween]

I would query printing off own ballot papers, unless there was long established practice of print-your-own for other things such as permissions for trips.

We have always had to double-envelope ballot slips.

So they come home in an envelope.
You fill out the form, put it into a blank envelope.
Then put blank envelope into another envelope and mark it parent governor election with your name on it.

School then checks you are eligible to vote from the top envelope, and puts the internal blank envelope into the ballot. That way no one knows who you have voted for but they still check you are OK to vote iyswim.

[PatriciaHolm]

We have the same double-envelope system for elections as T&T above. Printing out your own slip would work IF you then had to supply your own 2 blank envelopes to do that, but I suspect that would even further reduce the number of people who actually voted!