Links (if you want more info) in red.
Square brackets contain my comments.
Home page with widgets and sticky post: motions and votes!
Pagination (at bottom of each page):

1. Question Period at Board Meetings progress / OPPS purpose / Next meetings
2. Meeting Agenda /  1. Approval of Agenda, Public Presentations on budget 3. Finance and Legal Affairs [the legal report used to be part of the public agenda and suddenly disappeared years ago]
3. 4. Notice of Motions [should be New Business as there are no “notices of motion” for future meetings, just motions to be dealt with at the meeting]: A. McNally Budget vote delay
4.   4. Motions B. Nohr Proposed reduction of funding in various departments C. Nohr: Proposed cap on exempt staff expenses  D.  Nohr: Funding for Need2 5. Adjournment
5. Disclaimer / Committee assignments / Photo therapy

Greater Victoria is the 6th largest employer in the Capital Regional District with an annual budget of $195.672, 515.00 of your tax dollars (at June 2013).  You pay nine Trustees approximately $1,200.00 a month, each.

The Report of the SD61 Committee on Public Engagement is posted on the SD61 website. It’s under the Board of Education category, in “subcommittees” in the drop-down menu. Have a look at the potential restrictions on asking a question at a Board meeting if you’re a member of the public. This proposed policy revision is being debated in detail at every OPPS meeting, generally the second Monday of each month, and the restrictions have changed somewhat. Operations Planning and Policy Standing Committee minutes have a record of the changes as does Lined Paper. The final draft will come to OPPs for debate, discussion and vote – OPPS as a Standing Committee has opportunities for questions from the public during the meeting – and then will go to the Board for a final debate and vote.

VCPAC requested in 2006 that the School Act be changed to ensure a question period at Board meetings in BC school districts. The letter is on the VCPAC website, along with a short (but incomplete) history of SD61 Board question period activity. Trustee Loring-Kuhanga brought a motion to the May 14, 2012  Operations Policy and Planning meeting asking for two public question periods at every Board meeting. This motion was defeated.  (For: Alpha, Loring-Kuhanga, McNally, Nohr. (Absent: McEvoy) Against: Ferris, Horsman, Leonard and Orcherton.)

It’s taken two years to get close to having a [highly controlled] question period on the Board agenda. Recently, Qualicum School District 69 managed to answer 39 questions, with questions and answers provided in the minutes, in one meeting. The current SD61 culture seems  fearful of questions and loss of control to all those wild radicals who typically attend School Board meetings.

Bylaw 9130.2  Operations Policy and Planning Standing Committee: 
3. Associated with the Committee, by way of auxiliary staff, shall be the
Superintendent or delegate, the Secretary-Treasurer or delegate, the Director of
Human Resources, the Director of Facilities Services, the Director of Financial Services, Director of Information Technology and Planning and any other administrative officers as may be required by the Committee.4. The Operations Policy and Planning Committee shall meet in accordance with the provisions of By-law 9360.2 for the purpose of developing for Board consideration major impact areas related to: a) all personnel matters; b) all financial and legal matters; c) all matters related to the facilities required to provide educational programs; d) information technology and planning matters.

Bylaw 9130: Standing Committees of the Board: “The purpose of each standing committee shall be firstly to clarify issues that need to be referred to the Board for review and decision making and, secondly, to present policy recommendations for Board consideration.” “3. The Chairperson of the Board shall be an ex officio member of both Committees, with voting rights.4.All members of the Education Policy Development Committee shall be ex officio members of the Operations Policy and Planning Committee with voting rights. 5. All members of the Operations Policy and Planning Committee shall be  ex officio members of the Education Policy Development Committee with voting rights. 6. A quorum is a majority of trustee members on the committee.”

Trustees are assigned by the Chair as members of the two standing committee, Ed Policy and Operations Policy.  Senior administration  set the agendas for Board meetings and Standing Committee meetings …. along with the Chairs.

Next meetings:
Tuesday April 22 7:30 pm  Tolmie Board Room: Board meeting
   [McNally: Motion to postpone final budget vote to May 20; McNally: Motion to rescind decision to close Sundance School / move to Lakehill; McNally: Close Learning Initiatives and apply the $600,000 saved to the budget shortfall; McNally: Halt WiFi installation K-5 due to $8.1 million structural deficit ]
Wednesday April 23 7:30 pm: Final Budget Meeting, Board Room [you can bet on my motion to postpone being defeated]
Monday April 28  all day: Interviews for new Associate Superintendent
Monday May 5 7 pm : Education Policy Standing Committee (Board Room if preceded by In Camera meeting; school TBA if not)
Monday May 12 7:30 pm: Operations Policy and Planning Standing Committee: Board Room
Tuesday May 20 7:30 pm: board meeting, Board Room, Tolmie building