It is that time again for school board meetings to begin. Many of the districts offer online access. You can email them to be added to their link mail out and be at your home in your PJs watching or listening. Some board meetings aren’t anything extraordinary, and some are absolutely fascinating! I highly recommend getting to know your Trustees and senior administration staff.
They have a question period at the end, which is mostly timed, and you may need to submit your questions beforehand.
I have learned a lot by watching board meetings. It’s interesting to see how they all interact with each other. Some districts are more lively than others. Some districts make the news due to their inner fighting.
During the Chilliwack School District, “School Trustee was seen smoking and drinking at Zoom meeting” – Global News
The Vancouver School District has made the news a few times. This article was written by The Tyee – “Closed Door Meetings, a Police Call, a Stalled Motion”
If you file a Section 11 appeal, it is the Board of Education that you will be making your case to.
They will post the documents related to the meeting so you can look through them. Even if you want to look at previous agenda items, you can go back and look at them all. They post their financials on the district website too, and the all-important Statement of Financial Information (SOFI) that needs to be posted by the end of each year. You can see how much money each district is spending on legal fees. If it’s over $25,000 they must list it. (I have been tracking the largest districts over the last few years).
It’s really important that we understand what is going on inside our kids’ districts. We need to be informed.
Who we vote in as Trustees can have a huge impact on our kids’ education!
For another blog related to school board meetings, I recommend the blog Group Think