Page 1: Meeting times, general background info
Page 2: Bylaws/ Policies / Regulations / Robert’s Rules essentials
Page 3: Agenda and meeting

Mon Jan 5/15 7pm Education Policy Standing Committee Location TBA
(see District Calendar)
Mon Jan 12 /15  7:30pm Operations Policy and Planning Standing Committee:
Tolmie Board Room
Mon Jan 19 /15 7:30pm Board Meeting Tolmie Board Room

The Record Off The Record is my personal record of and commentary on Board and Standing Committee meetings in School District 61 Greater Victoria (Songhees and Esquimalt reserves (CRD), Esquimalt, Oak Bay, Victoria, View Royal,and parts of Saanich and Highlands). Official approved minutes of Board and Standing Committee meetings are posted on the SD61 website generally one month after the meeting. Agendas are posted the Friday before the meeting.

Minimal required reports from In Camera meetings with occasional additional items included  are posted on the Board meeting page as “Section 72 Reports”. [With the change to the new website, Section 72 Reports appear to be temporarily unavailable.] “Section 72” refers to Section 72 (3) of the BC School Act which states “ A board must prepare a record containing a general statement as to the nature of the matters discussed and the general nature of the decisions reached at a meeting from which persons other than trustees or officers of the board, or both, were excluded, and the record must be open for inspection at all reasonable times by any person, who may make copies and extracts on payment of a fee set by the board.” Key word: “general”. Any report beyond the basic one required must be done by an in camera motion and majority vote.  SD61 Bylaw 9360.1 states:  “In-camera items that may be discussed confidentially include legal, property, personnel and privacy matters as defined by provincial  legislation.” [Note, not “are limited to”.]

The BC School Act states in 69 (2): “If, in the opinion of the board, the public interest so requires, persons other than trustees may be excluded from a meeting.” That is very broad discretion given to a majority of the Board to determine via “opinion” what is kept secret from the public.

The public meeting schedule is posted on the SD61 website under “Calendars”.  Trustees  are referred to by last name only for brevity; “the Board of Education of SD No. 61 (Greater Victoria) is referred to as “the Board”. At this time, no audio recordings are made of Standing Committee meetings, only of Board meetings. [No record of how the audio recording decision was made, or any debate on proposed uses of and storage of the record appears to exist.]  Motions may be shortened but retain the essential wording. Seconders are not noted.

• Coloured links for more info /sources. No, you don’t have to click on them.
• Square brackets = my comments. Conventional brackets = common explanation.
• Home page: Widgets for email signup / Facebook / Twitter /sticky posts: Motions and Vote Records to June /14 (update to end of November 2014 asap).
• School District 61 Greater Victoria 6th largest employer in the Capital Regional District with a current budget of $195.330, 769.00 of your tax dollars . You pay nine Trustees approximately $1,200.00 a month, each, with a raise to come in the New Year.  [May 20 Board Meeting: Original motion Ferris at May OPPS: “That the Board Chair ask three members of the public to establish an ongoing mechanism for remuneration of trustees for the duration of their term and that it be initiated in December for each new Board.”  / Carried. For: Ferris, Horsman, Leonard, McEvoy, Orcherton    Against: Alpha, Loring-Kuhanga, McNally, Nohr So, two competing motions were in place at the same time, as Ferris did not move to rescind the previous way of determining Trustee raises.  I assumed this new way would supersede the old “automatic” way. Wrong.The “automatic” way took several of us by surprise when it surfaced on the agenda.]