P1: Disclaimer / Backgrounder
P2: Board Meeting Report
P3: District PAC (aka DPAC, VCPAC) Constitution excerpts / School Act re DPACs
The Record Off The Record is my personal record of and commentary on SD61 Board and Standing Committee meetings.
Next Meetings
Mon Dec 14 7:30 pm Board
Winter Break Dec 19-Jan 3
Mon Jan 4/16 7 pm Ed Policy Location TBA
Meeting agendas posted on SD61 website Friday before the meeting.
SD61 Greater Victoria School District serves students in Esquimalt, Oak Bay, Victoria, View Royal, parts of Saanich and the Highlands, and the Traditional Territories of the Songhees and Esquimalt Nations.
- 20,000 students approximately
- 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
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. 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. The question can’t be called in a standing committee.
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)
For OPPS and Ed Policy, “quorum is a majority of trustee members on the committee”. Since there are 5 members of each committee, as above, quorum woudl be 3. However, the Bylaw also says “All members of the Operations Policy and Planning Committee shall be ex officio members of the Education Policy Development Committee with voting rights”. Let’s assume the assigned Trustees are the ones who count for quorum = 3.
External Trustee Liaison assignments are made by the Board Chair
Motion carried November 16th, 2015:
Watters: That the Board of Education of School District No. 61 (Greater Victoria) conduct a review of external committee appointments by instructing: a) Trustees currently appointed to external committees to provide the Chair with recommendations and rationale regarding SD61’s continued involvement on the committee to which they are appointed. b) The Chair to send correspondence to all external committees for which the board makes appointments and inquire if a SD61 representative continues to be valuable.
c) The Chair to send correspondence to all district Municipalities and First Nations partners expressing the Board’s interest in building relationships and being involved in areas of mutual interest.
d) The Chair to make recommendations to the Board, based on the above correspondence, for any changes to the list of external committees that receive appointments.
Motions carried at June /15 Board meeting:
McNally: That the Board approve that all Trustees appointed by the Chair to an external body be required to submit a written report to the Board via the Chair [“in December and June of each year ” was amended to “once a year”; disappointing] once each school year as part of the Trustee Report agenda item, reports to be included as part of the Board agenda packup, beginning December 2015.
McNally: That the Board approve that all Trustees appointed to internal committees – the Needs Budget Advisory Committee, District Culture and Community Committee, District Gay Straight Alliance, Aboriginal Nations Education Committee and the French Immersion Advisory Committee – be required to submit a written report to the Board via the Chair in December and June of each school year as part of the Trustee Report agenda item, reports to be included as part of the Board agenda packup, beginning December 2015.
