R O L E   O F   T H E   S T E E R I N G   C O M M I T T E E

The name of the governing body of the Graham and Parks Alternative Public School is the Steering Committee. The Steering Committee, which represents both staff and parents, is the policy-making body of the school. The business of the Steering Committee is to manage the school. It deals with all matters affecting the school, except with issues which are decided exclusively by the School Committee, Cambridge Teachers' Association, and the Superintendent of Schools.

The purpose of the Steering Committee is to:

A     Provide for the continuing development of Graham and Parks as a K-8 alternative school, under the jurisdiction of the Cambridge School Committee, the School Department and the Superintendent of Schools, in accordance with the modern informal/open education theory and practice, and for the continuing purpose of advancing the theory and practice of informal/open education;

B     Assure that the composition of the student body and staff are as representative as possible of the Cambridge student population and that the classes in the school are heterogeneously grouped;

C     Involve the parents and the staff in the operation of the school. The Steering Committee seeks to balance the interest of both groups in the decision-making process of the school and to be the major forum where individual and group differences are worked out;

D     Assure that all individuals within the community are treated with respect and encourage an atmosphere in which diversity is seen as adding to the richness of the school.