The school district hoped to wrap up the February meeting by 9 p.m., but shown here there were still many people lined up at the mic at 9:10 p.m. The meeting didn’t end until nearly 10:30 p.m. as more and more people kept stepping up when the line-up got shorter. The school district wants a more structured format this time, but school supporters fear this gives the school district too much control over what gets said. (Richard McGuire file photo)
The next consultation meeting on Osoyoos school closures will have a more structured format for questions, but a citizens’ group thinks the rules go too far.
The consultation meeting organized by School District 53 is scheduled for 7 to 9 p.m. on Tuesday, March 8 at the Sonora Community Centre.
“The emails and phone calls I’m getting, everyone is very, very angry,” said Brenda Dorosz, chair of Save Our Schools (SOS). “It’s not a true consultation when they’re going to want to close at 9 p.m. and potentially there’s other people that may want to speak and won’t be allowed to.”
Under the new rules, School District 53 is requiring those who wish to speak or ask questions to submit a written request in advance so they can be added to a speakers’ list.
Forms for the request are available on the school district website and must be submitted by noon the day before. The form asks for a brief summary of points to be raised.
Speakers will be limited to three minutes or less and the time limit will be moderated, the school district announced last week. If time remains, the microphone will be open for further comments and questions.
At the previous meeting on Feb. 9 at Osoyoos Secondary School (OSS), questioners lined up at two microphones and were asked to keep their questions and comments to less than two minutes. Nonetheless, there was no enforcement of this limit and some people made long and repetitive presentations, resulting in the meeting lasting nearly three and half hours.
School board Chair Marieze Tarr said the decision to have a more structured question period was made as a result of feedback the district received on the last meeting.
“We overwhelmingly heard from the public that we need more structure to our meeting,” said Tarr. “We’ve talked to other boards who have gone into consultations with communities. That is what the boards who have good consultations do.”
Tarr said she talked with other trustees after the last meeting and they agreed the meeting wasn’t purposeful.
“We started looking for solutions as to how we could solve it, to make the next one better, so that we could actually have a conversation instead of what we had.”
She said she would like to hear more from parents where they come with questions and possible solutions. She didn’t find the first meeting constructive.
“I think it was extremely disrespectful,” she said. “It was disrespectful to staff. I haven’t received one piece of feedback from anyone who thought it was a good meeting. So public, trustees, staff – nobody thought that we accomplished anything with that meeting.”
Tarr said she thought the pre-submitted speakers’ list requests would help to allow staff to prepare to answer some of the questions.
But Dorosz said she didn’t like the idea that administration would be able to craft scripted answers in advance.
She also said it appeared the school district might be trying to use the speakers’ list to set the tone of the meeting.
“For example, somebody like (former mayor) Stu Wells might not be allowed to speak at the beginning because he gets people riled up,” Dorosz said.
She noted that NDP Education Critic Rob Fleming plans to attend.
“They may not want a big rambunctious crowd like they had last time, but it’s going to be worse this time, I believe,” she said.
RICHARD McGUIRE
Osoyoos Times
