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Board amending policies by waiving policies


hollasa

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My local school board voted to add two new policies the other night. They have a policy on how to add policy, that states that there must be a 60-day public consultation period. They have the option to approve a policy in principle before the 60 day period, but there must be 60 days. 

However, the motion they handed out at the meeting stated "That Policy X Policy and Policy Development and its attendant Regulations be waived and that Policy Y Role of the Board and its related Appendices be approved". I will note the policies were distributed the Friday before, as usual, and the public was expecting to make comment on them during the review process. They also typically distribute the motions with the agenda package, rather than after any comments can be made.  

I've never seen them do anything like that before - certainly, they've always been very adamant in the past that policy is policy, and they can't go against policy. One of the board's main jobs is policy, and they have quite a number of policies around (and five bylaws).

Their bylaws do state that in all meetings, procedures shall be guided by RONR, except where provisions of the bylaws or the School Act may conflict. 

All trustees were present, their first policy passed by a 4/3 vote, and the second passed unanimously. 

I am unfamiliar with a process for waiving policy in RONR. Presumably, they meant something like Suspend the Rules - but would that even apply to policy?

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The policy they waived is their own policy - it's required in law that they have policies, but those are set locally.

Can they waive their policy on how to add or change policies, in order to add another policy? Or another way, if they have a policy to do X, what methods under RONR exist to do Y, that conflicts with X? Does announcing in the motion that they're waiving X suffice?

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The board is free to suspend its own rules and adopt policies prior to their own pre-determined waiting period.

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The act of creating a 60 day "consultation" (?) period is not a rule regarding "previous notice".

So any argument about protecting absentees won't hold, because (a.) the general public has no rights to attend the board meeting, being non-members, and (b.) the general public (i.e., non-members) has no right of previous notice as parliamentary law applies.

The board may grant it, and the board may take it away. The board need not respect any consultation period of its own creating.

***

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1 hour ago, Kim Goldsworthy said:

The board is free to suspend its own rules and adopt policies prior to their own pre-determined waiting period.

***

The act of creating a 60 day "consultation" (?) period is not a rule regarding "previous notice".

So any argument about protecting absentees won't hold, because (a.) the general public has no rights to attend the board meeting, being non-members, and (b.) the general public (i.e., non-members) has no right of previous notice as parliamentary law applies.

The board may grant it, and the board may take it away. The board need not respect any consultation period of its own creating.

***

That might apply unless this school board is a public body subject to the state's open meetings laws . Those laws generally protect the public and limit what can be done without prior notice to the public. 

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