Process for censuring trustees
Fraser-Cascade School District 78 is looking for a procedure that will be applied uniformly throughout British Columbia when censuring trustees.
They passed a motion at the Jan. 10 school board meeting to submit a motion to the British Columbia School Trustees Association asking the BCSTA president pursue with the education minister to amend the Public BC School Act that echos the law currently in effect in Nova Scotia.
The agenda item narrowly passed in a 4-3 vote, with trustees Rose Tustian, Cindy Ferguson and Heather Stewin opposing.
According to details within the agenda, the Nova Scotia law requires trustees to take an oath to adhere to a code of ethics, and the board can censure members who violate that, and can suspend a member for one to three months or recommend to the Minister of Education to vacate the member's seat. A censured board member can appeal.
While the item was brought up by board chair Linda Kerr, the development of the motion came down to trustee Ron Johnstone.
Kerr said she brought this item to the board because of “a combination of the process we went through and how difficult it was to know what steps to follow.”
Trustee John Koopman said he and Kerr talked about this after seeing the Nova Scotia law and seeing what has happened locally.
“As vice-chair, I recommended that we look at Nova Scotia and see what we can incorporate locally because that's a distinct piece missing from the B.C. Schools Act ... and that's how the whole thing started,” said Koopman.
The initial rationale for the motion was given as “an increasing number of boards in B.C. have censured trustees for various infractions of their own Code of Ethics, or in our case, WorkSafe BC laws.”
Johnstone added another rationale that stated that school boards needed clear steps within a censure process. He also suggested to remove references to the current BCSTA president and minister of education.
Johnstone said his goal is not to grind an axe. He wants to move forward on this to avoid high costs and the complexity of censure processes by adopting a standardized approach.
Tustian raised her amendment, asking that they remove that the initial rationale, arguing that the statements within are not true.
“You got to remember this is going in front of an assembly of school trustees... they don't want you to bring your personal business before them. It makes us look dysfunctional,” said Tustian.
She argued that only Johnstone's rationale is necessary because the school board is trying to understand the censure process. Tustian's amendment was denied after everyone but herself opposed it.
Later, Kerr asked Tustian to justify herself.
“On what basis do you say that the censure process was not based on WorkSafe BC laws, on harassment?”
Tustian argued that the censure process has not been proven, and arbitration is going forward.
The last publicly-announced censure of a trustee in SD78 was against Tustian. The board said she made comments against SD78 transportation supervisor Dan Landrath that were contrary to the board's code of ethics and a respectful workplace policy.
Dark highways update
SD78 superintendent Karen Nelson reported that she received a call from the late Darryl Peters' mother.
“She asked that I extend her sincere appreciation to the board for the motion on obtaining reflective toques and anklets for students walking along highways, and she was so pleased that we're supporting the safety of students,” said Nelson. “She requested that when the reflective anklets and toques are given out to students that it be done in memory of her child.”
Nelson said she has passed the message on to the school board and principals.
SD78 buying bulletin board
SD78 will buy a bulletin board for the boardroom that will show the achievements of SD78 and its students.
Trustee Koopman raised this item to the board, stating that the bulletin board would highlight SD78's achievements over a longer period.
Trustee Stewin raised her concerns on cost and asked how many students spend time in the board room. Chair Kerr replied “very few.”
Trustee Tustian voted against the motion. She argued that a physical bulletin board would not be as effective as putting information up on the SD78 website.
BCTF interim deal update
In a post-board meeting email, superintendent Nelson said SD78 will receive $193,636 of the $50 million slated for school districts as a result of the agreement reached with BCTF for the remainder of the 2016-2017 school year.
Nelson added that funding will be allocated in a manner similar to the process used for distribution of Learning Improvement Funds, and that principals and vice principals will meet their staff and determine priorities for their school.
After that, the Fraser-Cascade Teachers' Association president and superintendent will meet to determine the final distribution of funds.
Funds must be spent on classroom teachers, specialty teachers and counsellors before it can be spent on capacity-building initiatives such as upgrading teacher qualifications, recruitment and mentoring programs.
“I think a major concern ... will be finding personnel to fill the roles, because $50 million translates to about 1,100 teachers and we've been having trouble in our district getting enough (teachers teaching on call) to fill our needs and I know we're not alone in that problem,” said secretary-treasurer Natalie Lowe at the board meeting. “I'm thinking we're going to see large uptake in the various positions that become available.”