P1: Disclaimer / Backgrounder
P2: Board Meeting Report
P3: SD61 Applicable Bylaws / Standing Committees / BC School Boards Letters Link
P4: District PAC (aka DPAC, VCPAC) Constitution excerpts / School Act re DPACs

Next Meetings
Mon Dec 7/15 7 pm Ed Policy/OPPS Standing Committees combined
Mon Dec 14 7:30 pm Board
Winter Break Dec 19-Jan 3
Mon Jan 4/16 7 pm Ed Policy Location  TBA

SD61 Greater Victoria School District serves students in Esquimalt, Oak Bay, Victoria, View Royal, part of Saanich and the Highlands, and the Traditional Territories of the Songhees and Esquimalt Nations.

• 20,000 students
• 27 Elementary Schools, 10 Middle Schools, 7 Secondary Schools 
• Approximately  650 adults SD61  Continuing Education / Distributed Learning Program
• 6th largest employer CRD
• 2015-16 budget  $206,361,204 
• 9 Trustees @ approximately $1,400/mo each.  Each has access to  $2000/yr pro-d,  rolls over if not used

Meeting agendas posted on SD61 website Friday before the meeting.

Sticky post: Motions and Trustee Voting Records  January 2012 – March 2015.

Links for more info /sources in blue.

The Record Off The Record is  my personal record of and  commentary on SD61 Board and  Standing Committee meetings.

Robert’s Rules of Order 11th Edition: Debate on the Question p 42 / p 43: “Speakers must address their remarks to the Chair. Debate must be confined to the merits of the pending question. ..and…should avoid injecting a personal tone into debate. …they must never attack or make any allusion to the motives of members.” // p 392: “The measure, not the member, is the subject of debate.”

Trustees  are assigned by the Chair as members of one of the two standing committees, Education  Policy and Operations Policy and Planning. Agenda setting is the prerogative of the Chair, with input from senior administration.

 OPPS
Chair Leonard; McNally, Paynter, Whiteaker (ex officio Loring-Kuhanga – vote but not counted for quorum)
Ed Policy
Chair Nohr; Ferris, Orcherton, Watters (ex officio Loring-Kuhanga – vote but not counted for quorum)

Trustees don’t “have to”  attend Standing Committee if not assigned. Standing  Committee structure operates on  less formal   Rules of Order than does the Board,  which simply means no need for a seconder for a motion, and a Trustee  can speak as many times as the Chair allows. It doesn’t mean “no rules”,  or “Board traditions”.

External Trustee Liaison assignments are made by  the Board Chair to groups which replied “yes” to last year’s  District query re their desire to have a Trustee liaison, so there are fewer than for the 2012-2015  Board term, and for many years before that.

Trustees and student representatives 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”. No audio or video recordings are made of Standing Committee meetings, only of Board meetings.

Motions may be shortened but retain essential wording. Seconders not noted (and not required in Standing Committees).

In Camera meetings / Section 72 Reports

Legally required reports posted beside relevant meeting. (Click “view all” on Bylaws, Policies and Regs menu. under “Board” on SD61 website). “Section 72” refers to Section 72 (3) BC School Act :  “ 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….

Any report beyond the very basic one required must be done by in camera motion / majority vote.

SD61 Bylaw 9360.1: “In-camera items that may be discussed confidentially include legal, property, personnel and privacy matters as defined by provincial legislation. Full board meetings must be held in public unless the board decides that it is in the public’s interest to hold a private session (closed or in-camera meeting). However, it is important not to abuse this power. Potential controversy or embarrassment to the board is not usually sufficient reasons for an in-camera meeting.” (Civic governments bound by Community Charter (except City of Vancouver); move into in camera meetings by public motion of Council. Public has to leave for  duration of secret meeting, then come back. School Boards are governed by  BC School Act which states that Chairs can set in camera meetings before public meetings.)

Trustee attendance:

Don’t “have to”  attend Standing Committee if not assigned.  Imo good idea  though for keeping up with motions and debate, and if Trustee  wants to speak more than once, committee structure is more relaxed.

SD61 now has an Attendance Manager to “encourage and support” return to work for employees (even though SD61 employees generally below provincial average in sick days, and generally under number of negotiated available days in Collective Agreements, and have union-contracted return to work provisions through their own providers). This will soon be mandated by the Ministry of Education for all school districts.

 Trustee disqualification from holding office: ( BC School Act:52 (2) ): Trustees can miss almost 3 months of meetings – just not show up – ie. miss 6 Standing Committees, and 2 Board meetings, with no reason given, no cut in pay, and no approval required from the Board.