Its hard to realize it from the outside but some of the most important political decisions pass through the halls of decision making with little or no fanfare. But these modest proposals can lay the groundwork for some of the most radical implications for public policy.
Tonight we passed a bylaw which I believe will accomplish exactly that: starting tonight our board and every future Vancouver School Board will be required to report out both that weve had an in camera meeting and, at least in broad terms, on the content of those in camera meetings.
This may not seem like much but it is a major step towards public access to the business the school board conducts on their behalf. Frequent readers to this blog may recall my endless frustration with the five hour meeting nights when only one hour of it is on the public record so I cant report in even the most basic way on the breadth of items under consideration.
It makes it hard to report on what the boards up to when most of it didnt happen, in the official sense. Now the public will know meetings are happening and if they decide its warranted, get information about those meetings.
Some say there is a need for public bodies to have the flexibility to discuss issues that may not fall into the usual land, labour, legal categories in private and I agree. But knowing the public knows those meetings are happening and through that knowledge can access the minutes of those meetings, ensures that abuse of that latitude doesnt occur.
Personally Ive found it quite incredible that we didnt already have a process for something that seems a basic exercise for publicly accountable bodies in the modern era. And for exactly that reason its been a little challenging for me to keep it on the boards agenda. Tonight that perseverance paid off and thank goodness because it was another night where most of the material was in camera.
The hitch here is that I cant report on the private session we had tonight because we have to decide in private session what we will report out from previous sessions board minutes (welcome to the baffling lexicon of governments).
But I can report on the four other in camera meetings we have had since our last public session in mid-May! That may seem like an extravagance but now it can be told its that time of year when were getting staffing worked out for the following school year and it takes a whole lot of meeting time to deal with the principal shuffles and related matters. So the in camera meetings look like this:
May 16: we ratified a memorandum of agreement with the VSB Trades Unions amd agreed in principle to provide support services for the Educational Resource Acquisition Consortium
May 24: we seconded Lynn Green to the position of Administrator, Learning and Development and approved all the principal and vice-principal re-assignments for the coming school year.
May 30: we dealt with a personnel issue
June 1: we dealt with a personnel and program placement issue
Whew! What a relief that is after two and a three quarter years of not being able to say those meetings were even happening.
In the public session we only had one committee reporting, the Management and Coordinating committee (Committee I). In addition to passing the in camera meeting reporting out bylaw we also:
Motions Passed
- new appeal process for parents who would like decisions that substantially affect their childrens education reviewed (section 11). Unanimous
- a Course of Action to Address the School Fees Report which has two phases. The first is to make it information about fees for parents clearer and the second is to decide whether we should have fees at all and if we should, whether there should be a per family rate. unanimous
- Asked the Government of Canada to exempt school board photocopying of educational materials from proposed amendments to the Copyright Act. Unanimous.
- Formally ratified a PAC at the transition program which has existed for many years but that had never formally been breathed into existence, also unanimous.
Finally, there was one new motion brought to the floor which was Jane Boueys proposal that the board formally participate in the annual Pride Parade. In the past, weve been part of the Gay and Lesbian Educators entry. While its been great to walk with them, it means the school board isnt formally be acknowledged for its support. The motion was passed with one opposed, Trustee John Cheng. He had nothing to say so its unclear why he voted against it but in my time on the school board, he has voted against every single motion that addresses homophobia so I assume it was more of the same.
Wow....homophobia....that IS some strong word.
Luckily this motion was not raised in school board districts such as Surrey or Richmond because anywhere 50 km away from the pride parade will oppose the board participation in a pride that exemplifies the behaviors of special interest groups politicizing themselves through ultra liberal civil servants like you who would stop at nothing to cater the school board to whatever they want.
But of course, in a school board occupied by left-wing lunatics, why should this come as a surprise to any of us. People have already lost confidence in both the city council and the school board in Vancouver as both groups of public servants move further and further away from mainstream.
I must applaud the board's decision to publish comprehensive reports of board meetings as it will only expose the non-sense acts taken by all of these elected officials. If you think that Vancouverites are going to dance around all your decisions and shout hurray, then you people will be sadly, sadly, mistaken.
As for Andrea, the only thing I can say is that try to enjoy your last few months in the board. As Vancouverites learn about the ultra-liberal views you have while supporting your own political special interest agenda in any way you can, they will know how much of a mistake they have made electing some green no-namer into the local government. You got lucky last time barely getting elected, dont expect the same this time.
Posted by: Fan-Hsin Kung | Saturday, June 11, 2005 at 01:13 AM