School board members find virtue in virtual

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This article was published 09/11/2021 (1578 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

FROM living rooms to hockey rink parking lots, school board meetings can now be viewed from virtually anywhere with reliable internet — thanks to a shake-up in COVID-19 operations busy parents hope will outlive the pandemic.

“I would like to see them keep a virtual option, as it is more accessible for parents to attend,” said Meaghan Michaluk, a member of the parent advisory council at École Henri-Bergeron.

Michaluk said via email she has found virtual meetings in the Louis Riel School Division are more interactive than in-person ones she has attended in the past. Also, she said, the ability to ask questions live via chat has been a new bonus with the new pandemic-friendly format.

Pre-COVID-19, it was unusual for Winnipeg-area board offices to be bustling on weeknights unless a controversial agenda item drew a crowd or an eager delegation of community members showed up to give a presentation.

Virtual meetings, which became the norm after March 2020, have since provided community members with more flexibility. While online viewership remains modest, hybrid forums have made some school leaders rethink what it means to engage their constituents.

“Young parents are able to be home, they are able to be part of an important conversation without having to hire a babysitter, without having to have a grandparent come and watch the family. They have been able to participate whereas their situation might not have them allowed them to (in the past),” said Louise Johnston, chairwoman of the board of trustees in LRSD. “That, for me, is a huge win.”

Johnston said the division in southeast Winnipeg has seen attendance grow since it began to livestream meetings via Microsoft Teams and more recently, Zoom. Before March 2020, the board strictly held meetings at the division headquarters on St. Mary’s Road.

An average of 35 to 40 people now join the biweekly meetings, said the trustee, adding a hybrid model will be in place for the foreseeable future.

The province recently lifted an exemption to the Public Schools Act, which was in place throughout the state of emergency, that paused a requirement for trustees to attend a meeting in person at least once every three months.

With distancing in place, many trustees have returned to in-person participation, but boards continue to allow virtual participants via Microsoft Teams and Zoom to limit capacity.

No formal decision has been made about the future of meetings in River East Transcona, but board chairman Jerry Sodomlak said a virtual component is unlikely to disappear because it allows for trustees to attend no matter where they are or if they are feeling under the weather.

Greg McFarlane, chairman of Seven Oaks board, echoed those sentiments. But McFarlane, not unlike other trustees, has welcomed a return to the board room for face-to-face conversation after months of staring at screens.

“If there’s a blessing to come out of all of this, we’re learning how to better use the tools that have been available to us,” said Jamie Care, a father at École St. Germain who has been running virtual meetings as co-chairperson of a parent advisory council.

Care added, “Even if they’re not engaging and actively participating, people will sit and listen on a virtual Zoom call. They will sit and participate to whatever level they feel comfortable.”

maggie.macintosh@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @macintoshmaggie