The Campbell River School District Board of Education spent a portion of each of its last three meetings of the current school year discussing changes currently being made to various policies in place and procedures followed by district trustees and members of the administration.
These changes were proposed by Trustee Richard Franklin, on behalf of the district’s Board Governance Committee, and range from simple “housekeeping” type amendments made to policy manuals to clarify language in certain sections to more “substantive” ones, Franklin said.
“In the old days,” Frankin told the board, “we had the big red book, which was all the governance and operational policies all mixed together. Now, what we’re doing is going through the process of having board governance policies and operational policies separate.”
Through the long and painstaking process of separating operational policies from governanace policies, Franklin says, they have found some things that need adjusting “to bring us into the 21st century.”
For example, one change being made is the covering of additional insurance for use of a personal vehicle while performing board business, Franklin said.
“Right now, if you are using your car as a trustee and using it for more than four functions per month and were in a car accident, you would not be covered by ICBC,” Franklin told the board. “This change would allow for busy trustees like our chairperson to cover the additional cost of aquiring business insurance on their vehicle.”
The board was first introduced to the changes being proposed when Franklin let them know at the May 16 meeting that he would be bringing forward a motion at the June 6 meeting.
“There are other matters that directly have to do with trustees and governance, such as contract negotiations, delegations to the board, and in regard to school closure,” Franklin said. “That’s the work of the board, so it should appear in board governance policy, so we’re moving that into our area.”
The work of separating operational procedures from board policy will continue for some time, but it will be worth it in the end, according to superintendent of schools Tom Longridge, who also sits on the Board Governance Committee and is helping with the process.
“It’s detailed work, but it’s highly important, because it’s how we conduct our business as a district,” Longridge says, adding that the new wording of existing policies and procedures, along with any entirely new policies or procedures will be updated on the district website at sd72.bc.ca/board/policiesbylaws as soon as the board approves them, which will continue to happen periodically when the board resumes its public meetings in September.