District Parents Advisory Council (DPAC)

About DPAC

Each school in our district is required to have a Parent Advisory Council (PAC). Having a PAC with an elected Executive (and annual AGM) enables the school to receive an annual BC Gaming Grant for the school. This funding is usually around $20 a student based on the previous year’s enrolment and comes with spending restrictions put in place by the government. PACs are also traditionally associated with fundraising for schools.

What does PAC do?

The role of the PAC council is to advise the principal about the parent community’s thoughts on school matters. PAC general meetings are open to any parent/guardian of a child attending that school, and they are welcome to attend. Specific issues or concerns regarding individual students are not handled at PAC meetings for privacy. Contacting the principal to schedule a meeting is more appropriate for those issues.

Who is DPAC?

District Parents Advisory Council (DPAC) has a scheduled monthly meeting when all of the PAC’s elected District Parents Advisory Representatives/Delegates meet together. In School District 71 (SD71), that includes 15 elementary schools (4 of which are Community Schools), 1 middle school, 5 secondary schools, and 1 online learning school. If you are not sure who your school’s DPAC representative is, please contact your PAC or principal. If your DPAC representative position is vacant, you can attend and contribute to the discussion, but you cannot vote in place of the elected representative/delegate as the voice of your school community.

What does DPAC do?

At the district level, the DPAC (District Parent Advisory Council) meeting is an opportunity for parents, principals, senior administration, and school board trustees to learn together about how we can support our schools across the district to be as effective as possible. We have presentations on curriculum issues, operational issues (budget, staffing, facilities) and conversations about parent and guardian perspectives informing where we should be focusing our efforts in our district. Each PAC is encouraged to send a delegate or two to DPAC meetings.

What does DPAC Reps do?

The role of DPAC representative is important for understanding and communicating, both to and from the district-level and back to the school-level. An example of this would be policy development and/or initiative rollouts. In the best-case scenario, an upcoming policy or initiative would be discussed at DPAC. The DPAC representative would listen and take that information back to their PAC meeting to discuss how a district policy/initiative would look at their school with their PAC and Principal. Concerns and opportunities for the policy/initiative would then be brought by the DPAC representative back to the DPAC meeting to be discussed at the DPAC meeting with the decision-makers and policy writers. The perspectives brought forward by individual school communities helps strengthen the policies, initiatives & decisions to better reflect all schools and school communities within the district. The questions asked at a DPAC meeting help all parents/guardians understand a complex system that directly affects the daily lives of their school-aged children.

Why is DPAC important?

Advocacy at the district level is important to understand. The privacy of students and families is always paramount. Individual students are not discussed in meetings. It can be intimidating for parents to understand these dynamics. If you as a parent/guardian have a concern, you can reach out at any time to your volunteer DPAC executive for support understanding and navigating the system.

All SD71 parents/guardians are welcome to attend any of the meetings – our meetings are held at Isfeld in the Library on the first business-day of the month (not Stat holiday Mondays.) All DPAC roles are volunteer and often in addition to volunteering at the school-level. Please allow consideration around response time that is reflective of the volunteer role. Your DPAC executive currently collectively volunteers between 10 to 20 hours monthly in the DPAC role alone.

More Info and Important Links:

DPAC Documents & Presentations: