Cariboo-Chilcotin School Board approves some controversial changes to public meetings

Photo by MyCaribooNow staff

The Cariboo-Chilcotin School District (SD27)’s Board of Trustees approved a first amendment to its controversial procedural bylaws for public meetings.

During January 26’s Board of Education Meeting, the Board of Trustees addressed its proposed changes to its Board Meetings procedures and public access and questions.

The Board split the proposed procedural changes into two amendments. The first made changes to Public Information Meetings, and the public’s ability to ask questions and make comments.

According to SD27’s Board of Education Policy’s Procedural Bylaw 2702-2, Article 2.6.4 was introduced, which reads “Public Information Meetings may be held by teleconferencing or videoconferencing, as determined by the Board.”

Article 2.8.2, reading “If a member of the general public is unable to attend through teleconferencing or videoconferencing, then the Secretary-Treasurer’s office shall work with the member of the general public to facilitate access through the use of district technology” was also added to the Bylaws.

A change in Article 3.3, which details the order Regular Meetings will generally follow, introduced a Question Period that will happen before a meeting is adjourned.

Heavy changes were made to Article 3.5 in the bylaws as well. The public’s ability to make any comments has been removed, and “only questions related to agenda items may be asked.”

The Board will now allow a 10-minute maximum Question Period. Questions must now be written and submitted to the Secretary-Treasurer’s office by 2:00 p.m. on the day of a meeting to be considered.

The Chair may also “defer answering questions duly received to a subsequent meeting.”

Smaller changes to Bylaw 2702-2 included having a Regular Meeting agenda package, with supporting documents uploaded to the School District’s website “at least 24 hours prior to the regular public meeting” [typical start time being 6:30 p.m. on Mondays].

The final change was in Article 9.2, which removed “representations” and now only has “delegations” to be received by the Board on relevant subjects, so long as the subjects and items have been placed on the meetings’ agendas.

The First Amendment was given all three readings and approved by the Board.

The Second Amendment, Procedural Bylaw 2702-3, was given its first two readings out of three.

This amendment “may” restrict public and any delegations’ access to Board Meetings, and only allow them to attend via teleconferencing and videoconferencing, provided the meetings are live-streamed.

It also allows the Board to schedule meetings only on teleconferencing and videoconferencing.

These changes have not been put into effect yet. The amendment has been referred back to the Committee of the Whole meeting for further discussion.

The Chair indicated that the Board wanted to consider the feedback received on the changes and also to discuss them with stakeholders.

The third reading will be done at a later date.

SD27’s next Committee of the Whole meeting is on Monday, February 9, at 4:30 p.m.

The next Board of Education meeting will be on Monday, February 23, starting at 6:30 p.m.