April 2021 SAC Tip of the Month: The Basics of SAC Elections

Posted on March 30, 2021
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Categories: Family News & Resources

In these final few months of the school year, School Advisory Councils (SACs) across different schools are doing the work of wrapping up existing projects as well as beginning to prepare for the next school year. One of the ways to get a good start on next year’s SAC for your school is by setting up a SAC election. Elections are not required and will only be necessary if a school receives more SAC applications than the number of seats available on the SAC. If the number of applications is equal to or fewer than the number of seats, an election is not necessary. If your school needs to have a SAC election, here are a few steps you can take to get the process started.

1. The school principal or SAC designee should contact the FACE Office so that a FACE Staff representative can assist in the Election Process to make sure that the process is fair for all.

2. The school principal should decide the final date to submit applications. This date should be advertised to the school community so that anyone who is interested can apply for the SAC before that date.

3. After the SAC application submission date, a FACE staff member will send over all of the school’s SAC applications that have been submitted to the principal, Family Engagement Liaison, and/or SAC designee at the school.

4. The school’s SAC applications should be used to create SAC Election Ballots.

5. SAC Election voting will look different during the era of COVID-19 and hybrid/digital learning. The school principal should work closely with the FACE Office and the school community to make the election as accessible to as many families as possible. We recommend that you give families at least 5 full school days to return their ballots. Be sure to make the Election Close Date clear for all families.

6. Once the voting period has ended, a FACE Staff member can attend the vote-counting process to ensure that votes are counted fairly and to provide any other help that may be needed.

Getting the process started for your school’s potential SAC election can be a good way to wrap up the end of this school year and get prepared for next school year. If you have any questions or thoughts about your school’s SAC election, you can email us at sac@philasd.org, or you can find more information about SACs at www.philasd.org/face/sac.