Parent council minutes- help please?

[User1053051066]

Looking for some sound advice on minute taking for our parent council.
Usually within a few days they are distributed by secretary to all council members, who are asked to reply with any amendments etc within a few days. When none are received, minutes are then distributed to parents via school office/headteacher.

This time, there were no amendments from council members so they were sent to school for distribution. Head teacher has returned them to secretary, with a minor word change in one paragraph, and one very important paragraph with many changes, rather subtle, however they really change the way in which this discussion was reported and how the meeting felt in general.
Secretary returned minutes to HT with said paragraph changed in to her own words, being sympathetic to the changes HT wanted to make, while still keeping them as secretary's words (once all council members had opportunity to agree/disagree to said changes).
HT then returned them once more, with more word changes. Secretary now at a loss as to what to do.

Original minutes all agreed by council they reflected the meeting and the general feel (there was an announcement which was not well received)
Understood that if anyone was misquoted they should have opportunity to correct this but HT was not misquoted.
HT saying they do not want to cause alarm and so has requested some changes, PC say the meeting was alarming.
PC want to distribute minutes, but this can only be done by HT who will not do so until HT's words are in minutes.
Secretary does not want to put their name to someone else's words.
One suggestion is that original minutes sent to school, HT has opportunity to add notes but not change minutes.
One comment is that at each meeting, one member verifies the previous meetings' minutes and so until this is done, they are not authorised, therefore they really probably shouldn't be distributed until after the next meeting.

What do you do??

Don't distribute until agreed- next meeting if that's what it takes.

Surely the minutes are just that... other than abbreviation or clarification the meaning cannot be changed?

Minutes need to be just that, but parents of whole school don't need to learn of controvesial changes via minutes.
Obviously I don't know what it is, but sometimes there are ways of introducing change - it manages expectations and expected objections.
So don't release the minutes (not sure why they would go out to the whole school anyway) until after the HT has had chance to manage the change in the way (s)he feels is best. They should, of course, have discussed that at the meeting if it was clear this wasn't going to be a popular announcement.

Thank you all.
Backforgood- don't you get to see your minutes? I think the parent forum should get to see minutes of a PC or PTA. It is accountable to the parents.

HT did discuss things, but not in a positive way. We members were rather alarmed, HT now saying she wants her words in as she doesn't want to alarm anyone. We were alarmed! That is the point. She cannot change the words she used surely, to soften the blow?

So do they have to have HT's approval, as she was there and her words are quoted? There's nothing in the constitution about approval of minutes.

I can't quite understand the scenario you are talking about but i clerk School Governors meetings. Minutes are initially checked over by the Chair then distributed to the GB with draft on them. Any amendments need to be agreed by the full GB at the next meeting and are then signed off by the Chair before being available for anybody else wishing to see them.

Very few sets of minutes need to be verbatim and I am often quite circumspect how I word things in minutes so as to not cause undue conflict.

I’ve never seen any minuets of any meeting held at school

What damage could these mins cause totbhe school as a whole?

Agreed. I too had a clerking role and the minutes would be typed and presented to chair then presented for governing body approval at the next meeting. Chair cannot retract words but can ask to have an amendment to explain her statement added as part of minutes being approved.

Don't know if it's right or wrong but the clerk sends the minutes to me (Chair), I check for spelling and other mistakes, general vibe etc and then send them to all committee members and parents that want them before the next meeting. If anyone has any 'complaints' about the minutes, they come to the next meeting to express them and it's discussed and minuted.
As Chair, you're in charge of Parent Council meetings not the HT. If you're in Scotland feel free to PM me for more info

Backforgood- don't you get to see your minutes?

From a 'Parent Forum / Council'? No. Never been minutes. That's from 4 different schools I've been involved with parents forums (under a variety of names).
It isn't a formal meeting like the Governing body.

Anyway, as others have said, many (most?) meetings I attends - from all sorts of things I've been involved in over the years, not just school things) - don't record everything that is said, the minutes record the decisions taken. Sometimes with "It was unanimously agreed" or "after some discussion" to give some indication that it was, or wasn't and easy decision, but I can't ever think of ANY meeting I've sat on that records word for words what is being said.

Of course if a HT is having to implement a change that isn't going to be popular, they should be given the opportunity to manage that change in the way they think best.