How important is it to have students and families at SD40 education committee meetings, and how can the New Westminster school board best make that happen?
That question sparked debate among New Westminster school trustees at a meeting earlier this month.
Secretary-treasurer Bettina Ketcham presented a report at the April 12 operations committee meeting outlining three possible options for meetings in the 2022/23 school year.
The main driver of the debate was a proposal to hold monthly education committee meetings in person at 3:30 p.m. on Tuesdays, rotating amongst the district’s schools. Committee meetings would focus on presentations from students and other topics related to school learning plans – such as literacy and numeracy, inclusive education, Indigenous education, mental health and SOGI (sexual orientation and gender identity).
Trustee Dee Beattie, who currently chairs the education committee, championed the idea.
“When we’re in the schools and we have the chance to meet face to face with the students, it’s such a different type of committee meeting,” she said.
Beattie said holding meetings online – as the board has been doing since April 2020 – doesn’t give trustees the same feeling as being in the schools and interacting in person with students and staff.
Education committee meetings currently start at 5 p.m. Beattie said the 3:30 p.m. start time was proposed to make it easier for students and staff to attend, since evening meetings can be too late for kids and dinner-hour meetings can be difficult for families.
Beattie acknowledged a 3:30 p.m. start could be problematic for trustees with other full-time jobs. But said that, with only eight meetings a year and plenty of advance notice, trustees should hopefully be able to make their schedules work.
If not, she noted, it wouldn’t be compulsory for trustees to attend. With the proposed change, education committee meetings would no longer be held as “committee of the whole,” meaning a quorum of trustees wouldn’t be necessary.
Trustee Mary Lalji, however, raised the concern that a move to 3:30 p.m. would diminish accessibility for parents and other community members.
“5 p.m. is a real struggle for parents to attend our board committee meetings, so 3:30 will definitely be unattainable,” she said.
Trustee Danielle Connelly added her fear that education committee meetings might not see good attendance by trustees – and that would be unfair to students and staff who present information to the board about their schools.
“All that work that often goes into these presentations would perhaps be seen by one trustee? That doesn’t really sit well with me,” she said.
School board chair Gurveen Dhaliwal conceded 3:30 p.m. could be difficult for some trustees’ schedules, including her own. But she said the option provided a good “middle ground” because operations committee meetings and full board meetings would still happen in evening hours.
Trustee Anita Ansari agreed. She said the “meat and potatoes” work of the district happens at operations committee meetings, and continuing to hold those virtually could help maximize participation.
New Westminster Teachers’ Union president Sarah Wethered told trustees a 3:30 p.m. start would conflict with the union’s executive committee meeting and mean that a “major stakeholder” would be unable to attend.
In the end, trustees agreed to a suggestion from trustee Maya Russell to table the discussion until the April 26 board meeting. Lalji voted against the motion to table.
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