ROCKY VIEW— Rocky View Schools is continuing its review of its policies and procedures.
The Policy Committee has been hard at work, said chair Fiona Gilbert, and had two proposed policy changes come before the Board of Trustees on Thursday (Dec. 10).
Ward 3 trustee Todd Brand put forward two motions on behalf of the policy committee— Policy 13 which addresses appeals and hearings regarding student matters and Policy 19 a welcoming, caring, respectful and safe learning and working environment.
The board voted 4-3 to have Policy 13 appear before the planning committee for further discussion, and all changes to Policy 19 were carried and approved.
Rocky View Schools is continuing its policy review including changes to the Education Act that require updates to policies and are working on recommendations for revisions and creations of new policies for the Board of Trustees.
Gilbert added most of the changes were made to align some of the wording between what is said at the appeal committee, hearings, expulsion hearings with language in the Education Act.
Policy 13 was last reviewed in January 2016 and describes the processes for appeals of administrative decisions that severely affect the education of a student and/or expulsions.
A major proposed change to the policy was the consideration of appeals from students outside of Rocky View Schools.
Ward 4 Trustee Norma Lang questioned and why the policy committee felt it was important to distinguish the education of the students in the Rocky View Schools and the removal of the right of a parent or student from outside of the school division to participate in the appeal process.
She asked if other neighbouring school boards had similar appeals, citing concerns the proposed changes would be “putting up fences around our own students here, a fence that wasn’t there before.”
“If we are setting ourselves up and differentiating ourselves from what other school boards are doing in terms of throwing up fences around kids, I worry that we’re setting a precedent here that I’m not comfortable with," she said.
Lang said she could not support the motion on the basis that it takes away rights from students, parents and families. As a board they made a commitment to “put students first,” Lang said, and they have a duty to put the best interests of all students first.
She added she also could not support the policy given it would reduce the scope of work done by the board.
“This is one more example of Rocky View Schools board pushing responsibility and authority out of our own sandbox and into admin’s sand box,” Lang said. “For me personally, I feel like there have been ample examples of Rocky View Schools board already doing that in this term."
In the last five years Rocky View Schools’ has had one out of division appeal, said Superintendent Greg Luterbach. He noted he is not sure what other boards have done regarding out of division appeals.
“This is not a widely used situation where we’re suddenly limiting or restricting 10’s of people,” Luterbach said. “There’s been one appeal that’s come to the board on this matter.”
Ward 5 Trustee Judi Hunter said the current process of having out-of-district appeals seems to be working, especially given how rare out-of-district appeals have been.
“I understand that we want to look after our own dollars and our own kids,” Hunter said. “However, I believe that we owe children in the broadest sense of the word an opportunity to best meet their needs.”
Ward 3 trustee and Policy Committee member Melissa Bowen said parents will still have the opportunity to go to administration if they live outside the district.
Given the current budget and the lowered expectations in the coming years, Bowen said, they could potentially see more students seeking appeals in Rocky View.
“I wasn’t sure if we wanted to manage them that way, considering they were not students of Rocky View at that time,” Bowen said.
Gilbert noted the board obligations lie first and foremost to voters in Rocky View Schools and the students living in the division.
“I’ve heard people say we owe children opportunity. Absolutely we do— We owe Rocky View Schools students opportunity first,” Gilbert said. “We are elected by the constituents of Rocky View Schools and we need to make decisions in the best interest of Rocky View Schools students.”
She noted while the board has an overarching understanding of what happens in the district, they do not have a good sense of everything that happens in schools.
Administration is in the best position to understand if a student should be allowed into a school and the impact it will have, she said, allowing them to make choices in the best interest of the school division.
“I don’t believe we are relinquishing our power and control to administration— We are recognizing that we are not in a position to make the best decision and administration is,” Gilbert said. “We have a trust with our administration.”
