Board committees

Each school board establishes how it will govern.

For some, this means everyone is involved in everything.

Others prefer to set up teams to focus on projects, issues, and areas of governance. open_in_new

Regulation 9 of the Education (School Boards) Regulations 2020open_in_new allows boards to appoint committees. 

Regulation 8open_in_new allows for the delegation of board powers and functions to these committees.

What are board committees?

Board committees are teams that a board has appointed by resolution to either:

• advise the board, or

• perform board functions or exercise board powers.

What a committee can and can't do is set out in delegations and terms of reference.

All board committees must have at least two members, with at least one of them being a board member.

Board committee members that aren't board members don't have to meet the board's eligibility requirements.

They must, however, disclose any potential financial interest or conflict of interest before they join a committee.

What can you use committees for?

You could use committees to:

• Advise – your board will ask the committee to investigate a matter and bring information and/or recommendations back to your board.

• Perform board functions - such as holding a student suspension meeting.

Committees can deal with an issue when there are not enough unconflicted board members to form a quorum.

Some boards appoint a committee to deal with contentious issues that may come to them as a complaint.

This way, board members who were not part of the committee should be able to deal with the complaint without compromising principles of natural justice around prior knowledge, prejudice, and predetermination.

It is important to remember that appointing a committee to "deal with" things like finances or property does not absolve the rest of your board from its obligations and responsibilities.

For example, you might have a finance committee, but all board members are still accountable for the school's financial position.

How do you set up committees?

A committee is appointed by passing a resolution and recording it in the minutes.

Each committee member should be given their delegation in writing.

What the committee can and can't do is set out in terms of reference.

No one with an actual (or even potential) conflict of interest should be appointed to a committee.

It's good to establish a requirement around the minimum number of committee members who should deal with any matter.

Committee membership should be recorded in your board's delegations register.

Your board may already have some of the following in place, or you can download our sample:

• Delegation and committee principlesopen_in_new

• Review committee terms of referenceopen_in_new

• Student behaviour management committee terms of referenceopen_in_new

• Finance committee terms of reference and annual calendaropen_in_new

How often should you review your committee principles and terms of reference?

The review cycle depends on the type of committee (standing or ad hoc) and its purpose.

Your board should have an overarching delegation and committee principles document and separate terms of reference for each committee.

The delegations and committee principles document should be on a 2–3-year review cycle. However, there is nothing to prevent earlier review if necessary.

Terms of reference for standing (on-going) committees should be reviewed annually, but sooner if committee purpose or membership changes significantly.

Terms of reference for ad hoc (as and when needed) committees should be established when the committee is appointed and expire when the committee's term ends.

Your board's delegations register should be reviewed and updated at the start of each year and whenever committee membership changes.

Questions your board could ask

• Do we prefer to work on all issues as a whole team, or do we want to appoint committees to deal with some matters?

• What processes do we have around potential committee members who are not already on our school board?

• How will we identify them and deal with disclosures around financial interest and conflicts of interest?

• What skills/experience/expertise will we need on this committee?

• How long do we want the committee to be in place?

• What are the expectations? What do we want the committee to do?

• What are the limitations? Do we want the committee to see the task through to completion or start the process/investigate and come back to our board with recommendations/next steps?

• What sort of progress reporting do we require of the committee?

• Have we recorded committee membership and terms of reference in our delegations register?

Templates, resources, and references     

Click on the link(s) below to access the templates, resources, and references related to this topic.

These may download or open in a separate browser depending on your device.

Links from us

• Sample delegation and committee principlesopen_in_new

• Sample review committee terms of referenceopen_in_new

• Sample student behaviour management committee terms of referenceopen_in_new

• Sample finance committee terms of reference and annual calendaropen_in_new

Education (School Boards) Regulations 2020

• Regulation 8 – Delegationopen_in_new

• Regulation 9 – Board may appoint committeesopen_in_new