All Board of Education meetings include opportunities for members of the public to engage with trustees through formal comment and question periods, in the form of written communication, or as delegation presentations.

Comment and question periods

Each regular (public) board meeting includes two comment and question periods, one during the meeting and one at the end.

  • During these periods, the public may notify the board chair of which agenda item they wish to address and take no longer than five minutes to do so, excluding responses to questions from trustees. The board may extend this time period by resolution.
  • Questions on items that are not on the agenda, made without notifying the chair, may take no longer than two minutes, excluding responses to questions from trustees. The board may also extend this time period by resolution.
  • The board may respond at that meeting or at a future regular meeting.
  • The board will not consider motions or actions at the time of the presentation. Matters requiring action will be referred to a committee for consideration.
  • The board will generally reserve decisions made in response to a question until the next regular board meeting and will advise the petitioner on how the board deals with their matter.

The comment and question period at the end of a regular meeting will last up to 15 minutes (with speakers having more more than three minutes) and the public may ask questions on matters that arose during the meeting.

  • The public may direct questions to the board chair, who will respond on the board’s behalf.
  • The board chair may refer the question to staff for an immediate response or a response may be provided at the next regular board meeting.

Delegations

A person or group may form a delegation to make a formal presentation to the Board of Education on an item that is not on a meeting’s agenda. To do so, the delegate or delegation must:

  • Provide a written notification and written outline of the presentation to the Secretary-Treasurer by the close of the business day (4 p.m.) on the Monday one week before the regular board meeting.
  • The board chair may decline a presentation or terminate one in progress or refer it to an “in camera” (closed) board meeting, if deemed appropriate.
  • If approved, the presentation will be listed as a “Delegation” on the regular board meeting agenda.
  • Delegation presentations have up to 10 minutes to address the board.

Correspondence

The public may send correspondence to the Board of Education as a whole or to individual trustees. Content in letters addressed to trustees may be brought to the board where and when appropriate for consideration. This is to ensure the board acknowledges and attempts to respond to all correspondence in a timely fashion.

If a matter is referred to the collective board:

  • Non-routine correspondence that requires a formal board response will be placed on the agenda of the next regular board meeting together with any recommendations for board action deemed appropriate by the superintendent. This correspondence will be noted as “Correspondence for Action” on the agenda.
  • Non-routine correspondence that doesn’t require a formal board response will be circulated to the trustees along with any response(s) issued by the superintendent. The item will be noted as “Correspondence for Information” on the agenda.