After reviewing feedback, including that of newly elected trustee Steve Chapman, the Calgary Catholic School District (CCSD)’s January parent forum will be more conversation-driven than events past.
Dr. Bryan Szumlas, CCSD chief superintendent, said that after the first parent forum, which included things like a keynote speaker, this second forum of the school year will better allow trustees the opportunity to sit down with constituents and talk to them about issues and things that are on their minds.
For the 2025-26 school year, the CCSD will host three planned forums, with the Oct. 7 forum cancelled due to labour action.
Chapman said the plan for the Jan. 27 forum is exactly what he envisioned.
“I understand why we might invite speakers in to try to get people more involved, but I think there’s other ways that we can do that. The core thing is that parents need to be able to talk to us and share their advocacy and their policy ideas on moving forward,” he said.
The first in-person Parent and Trustee Forum for the 2025-2026 school year, held in November at Our Lady of the Rockies High School, opened with a land acknowledgment and prayer, and included things like board updates, district updates and a single-voice open mic Q&A, along with the guest speaker.
At the end of the meeting, a survey QR code was shared, asking participants for their input on the meeting. Of the approximate 60 event participants, the district received 11 submissions.
Results were primarily positive, with 91 per cent either agreeing or strongly agreeing that the content of the meeting was relevant and valuable, and 100 per cent either agreeing or strongly agreeing that there were sufficient opportunities to ask questions, among other answers.
The January meeting will include many of the same opening remarks, but will then break off into more intimate guided table talks with individual trustees and staff, according to the now board-approved agenda.
Szumlas said the table talk will have some preset questions, but also will allow parents and community members to ask questions when they arise.
“The intent behind guided table talk is to provide some questions in the event that constituents are just stuck and don’t have really anything to say, we hope that they (community members) would guide the conversation, would drive it with their concerns, but we could provide a few questions that you as trustees may want to ask people,” he told the CCSD Board of Trustees during the Dec. 10 board meeting.
“We don’t want to ever ask people questions where we can’t do anything with the advice; we have to be prepared to take action.”
