A recommendation to remove the superintendent and secretary treasurer from the trustee-email group was defeated at the Vernon School District board meeting Wednesday.
Trustee Robert Lee proposed the motion in order to ensure transparency between the board and public.
“I find it bothersome… that we have a group email that the general public could send to trustees and yet there are invisible recipients to it,” said Lee.
“So, in the interest of transparency we could simply fix that by either including the superintendent and secretary treasurer and make them visible or we make a separate group address.”
Trustee Lisa de Boer agreed with Lee’s statement.
“I have to mirror that... as a trustee I wasn’t aware this was happening,”
However, chairperson Kelly Smith found a discrepancy between what Lee said and the motion proposed.
“I don’t think the motion and your reasoning go together,” Smith said.
“The motion completes an action but I heard your opener as something a bit different than that,” she said.
The motion said “that the Board of Education immediately remove the superintendent and secretary treasurer from the trustee email group.”
Addressing Lee, Smith said “I wouldn’t be able to vote for this the way it is… because I don’t think this motion does the job that I heard you open with.”
Lisa LaBoucane, president of the Vernon Teachers’ Association, asked “is the board aware of the exact wording on the SD 22 board of education page? Does the board feel that this is transparent communication, because it says ‘email trustees as a whole’?”
Smith replied, “my issue (is) that I (don’t) believe that the motion this evening achieved what the person wanted to achieve.”
Bus Passes Available
Special needs single-trip student bus passes will be available for students for the 2016/2017 school year.
Two thousand student tickets and 1,000 adult tickets have been ordered at a 50 per cent discount as the cost was split with the City of Vernon.
“Single-trip tickets are more cost efficient and we can always order more,” superintendent Joe Rogers said.
The total cost for the district was $2,200.